Mathew D.

Experience

• Firefly Events Inc

  Founder & CEO/CTO

  Sep 2023 - Present

  Multi-platform event tech ecosystem bootstrapped from zero to production. Three products: Shindig (native iOS/Android event discovery via Kotlin Multiplatform), Reserved (Next.js venue SaaS with rules engine), and Tabletop Archive (P2P rental marketplace on Convex DB with Stripe escrow).

  • Built and shipped 3 products from zero — native mobile (KMP), venue SaaS (Next.js/MongoDB), and P2P marketplace (Convex DB) — all in production
  • Deployed agent swarms for cross-repo automation: deep linking, Stripe/Shippo/Maps integrations, sales tracking — replacing 2+ engineers of coordination overhead
  • Own full technology function: architecture, hiring, roadmap, business operations, and sales strategy while still writing production code daily
• 

  Frontiers Market

  Head of Engineering & Principal Architect

  Jan 2025 - Apr 2026

  AgTech startup deploying computer vision on edge hardware for livestock management. Local-first NVR on Raspberry Pi clusters, native iOS app with Core ML weight estimation, and escrow payment rail for livestock auctions via Stripe Connect.

  • Engineered local-first NVR using Raspberry Pi clusters and RTSP streams — processing at the edge, syncing when connectivity returns
  • Led development of native Swift app (Frontiers Market AI) with on-device cattle weight estimation via Core ML, designed for offline-first operation
  • Built escrow payment rail for livestock auctions using Stripe Connect — digitizing workflows that historically ran on paper and handshakes
• 

  Wayfair

  Senior Software Engineer

  May 2022 - Jan 2025

  Supply chain tooling for one of the largest e-commerce operations in the US. Internal tools at Wayfair scale means thousands of operators, drivers, and business users depending on them daily.

  • Designed and shipped event-driven fixes for data flow inefficiencies in returns and inventory — ops reporting put savings at over $5M annually
  • Built fraud prevention and image pipeline tooling for supplier workflow — both have direct revenue impact when they break
  • Worked across Python, C#, React, .NET, Kafka, Datadog — collaborated with product, ops, and data science to translate operational realities into systems
• 

  EY

  Manager, Technology Consulting / Sr. Solution Architect

  Nov 2020 - Apr 2022

  Post-acquisition from Zilker Technology. Led enterprise client engagements including a $20M Chick-fil-A digital transformation and DaVita healthcare performance consulting. Managed SOWs, PCRs, staffing, and cross-functional delivery for Fortune 50 clients.

  • Sr. Solution Architect on $20M Chick-fil-A digital transformation — offline-first POS ecosystem using Ditto for 2,600+ locations
  • Performance consulting for DaVita — SLA benchmarks across 100+ microservices supporting dialysis operations where system reliability is life-or-death
  • Led multi-million dollar engagements end-to-end: SOWs, PCRs, staffing, hiring, mentoring engineers, and cross-functional delivery
• 

  DaVita Kidney Care

  Performance Czar

  Jun 2020 - Jul 2021

  Performance engineering for DaVita's nationwide dialysis operations. 100+ microservices supporting machines keeping patients alive — where 99.9% uptime is not a negotiating position.

  • Established SLA benchmarks and performance testing culture across 100+ microservices supporting dialysis operations nationwide
  • Drove concrete scaling and optimization recommendations working directly with dev and testing teams across the org
  • Made performance a standing engineering conversation rather than a reactive fire drill — in a domain where downtime is life-or-death
• 

  Hertz

  Team Lead

  Sep 2019 - Mar 2020

  Second engagement on Hertz's global rates engine. Led the optimization team that achieved a 6,000%+ throughput improvement on the pricing system powering 10,000+ rental locations worldwide.

  • Optimized global rates engine from ~50 RPS to >3,000 reads/sec and >2,500 writes/sec with p95 latency under 30ms
  • Architected eventual consistency at 2,000+ writes/sec globally using Redis, Cloudant, and Kafka event streaming
  • System handled peak holiday loads without degradation — 6,000%+ throughput improvement is a conservative, directly measured number
• 

  J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc.

  Architect

  Mar 2018 - Oct 2018
• 

  Hertz

  Sr. Developer

  Oct 2017 - Mar 2018

  First engagement on Hertz's global rates engine. Built the distributed pricing system from scratch to replace a brittle legacy system that was collapsing under load at ~50 requests per second.

  • Built the global rates engine from scratch — distributed architecture for real-time localized pricing across 10,000+ locations worldwide
  • Designed multi-tier caching with Redis and Cloudant, Kafka event streaming for sub-second pricing propagation across regions
  • Replaced legacy system that degraded severely during peak periods — laid the architectural foundation for the 6,000%+ throughput gain achieved in the follow-up engagement
• 

  Zilker Technology LLC

  Sr. Architect

  Oct 2017 - Nov 2020

  Austin-based technology consultancy (acquired by EY in 2020). Joined at 13 people, was a principal technical voice through growth to 500+. Led architecture engagements for Hertz, Kohl's, J.J. Keller, and others.

  • Hertz: Built and optimized the global rates engine — 6,000%+ throughput improvement across two engagements
  • Kohl's: Mobile DevOps Architect — CI/CD automation, deployment pipelines, and version control across onshore and offshore teams
  • Best Ring POS: Chief Software Engineer on festival POS startup — offline-first payment sync with real-time fraud signal propagation
• 

  Best Ring POS

  Chief Software Engineer

  May 2017 - Sep 2017
• 

  American National

  Zilker Technology Consultant - Mobile Architect

  Sep 2016 - Oct 2016
• 

  NV Energy

  Zilker Technology Consultant - Mobile Architect and Team Lead

  Sep 2016 - Aug 2017
• 

  Michaels Stores

  Mobile Architect

  Aug 2016 - Sep 2016
• 

  NV Energy

  Zilker Technology Consultant - Mobile Dev Ops Architect

  Jul 2016 - Jul 2016

• Austin Water Utility

  Zilker Technology Consultant - Mobile Architect

  Jul 2016 - Nov 2016
• 

  Encore Capital Group

  Zilker Technology - Dev Ops Architect and Auditor

  Mar 2016 - Jun 2016
• 

  May Trucking

  Zilker Technology Consultant - Mobile Application Architect

  Jan 2016 - May 2017
• 

  J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc.

  Zilker Technology - Commerce Architect

  Dec 2015 - Apr 2016
• 

  Kohl's

  Mobile Dev Ops Architect

  Feb 2015 - Dec 2015

  Multi-datacenter retail operation. Led mobile DevOps architecture across onshore and offshore teams, building CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation for Kohl's mobile and production environments.

  • Built out CI/CD automation, deployment pipelines, and version control standards across mobile and production environments
  • Led onshore and offshore teams through mobile architecture standardization across a multi-datacenter retail infrastructure
• 

  DanCenter A/S

  Zilker Technology - Architect

  Feb 2015 - Mar 2015
• 

  KEY.co

  Zilker Technology LLC - Architect

  Feb 2015 - Mar 2015
• 

  Zilker Technology LLC

  Architect

  Feb 2015 - May 2017

• Two Car Garage LLC

  CEO

  Nov 2014 - Oct 2020

• mobi.

  Software Engineer

  Sep 2014 - Jan 2015
• 

  Costco Wholesale

  Avnet Services - Senior Consultant

  Mar 2014 - Aug 2014

• Biomet

  Avnet Services - Consultant - Team Lead

  Apr 2013 - Dec 2013

• Caterpillar Inc.

  Ascendant Technology - Consultant

  Aug 2012 - Mar 2013
• 

  Wolters Kluwer

  Ascendant Technology - Consultant

  Dec 2011 - Aug 2012

  • Assisted in creating an IBM Commerce solution with CV-Web.
  • Took HTML designs and integrated the look and feel into the WC CV-Web JSP framework in
  • order to implement and mold the store to the client's desired UI mockups.
  • Used SOLR for search functionality.
  • Modified the css files so that changes were universal and could easily be updated if UI were
  • to change.
  • Added and modified javascript and jQuery for UI.
  • Added customized spots that the business users would be able to modify at their desire.
  • Integrated Ingram web services for downloadable products.
  • Modified logic for ebooks and other downloadable products.
  • Added integration for social media.
  • Added integration for statistic tracking.
  • Fixed UI: HTML, CSS, JSP, jQuery, and javascript issues.

• Savtira

  Ascendant Technology - Consultant

  Jun 2011 - Oct 2011

  • Created UI, for the client, based on mockups. Customized an IBM Commerce deployment and loaded up many different products from many providers. Customized the commerce implementation to use multiple payment providers and to send off for multiple order management systems so that each provider could have a separate process for their products. Created an overall system to work similar to Amazon, with many products from many providers with an advanced, customized UI.
  • Assisted in creating an IBM Commerce solution.
  • Created payment plug-in framework and sample to allow for building a Cybersource payment
  • API.
  • Created framework for vendor processing to allow for clients to do fulfillment with multiple
  • vendors after the client approved and gathered payment for sales.
  • Extended WC command structure to allow for new payment process.
  • Added logging, error handling, and reflection with vendor framework to make it robust,
  • extensible, and production ready.
  • Took HTML designs and integrated the look and feel into the WC JSP framework in order to
  • implement and mold the store to the client's desired UI mockups.
  • Modified the CSS files so that changes were universal and could easily be updated if UI were
  • to change.
  • Added placeholders for future social reviews implementation.
  • Created database scripts and files to automate data load processes so that each individual
  • vendor could be done through a single process.
  • Automated the data load and enhanced efficiency to help deal with millions of records.
  • Mapped Data from vendor to commerce.
  • Set up source control environments and did a comparison with them based on RAD needs.
• 

  Avnet

  Consultant

  Mar 2011 - Jun 2011

  • Assisted in creating an IBM Commerce solution.
  • Made front end changes to allow for a more customized solution.
  • Modified JSPs to remove default commerce features that were not wanted and to add desired
  • features that were not included.
  • Made changes to policies to ensure correct functionality of guest shopping.
  • Modified property files to ensure correct functionality of desired features.
  • Enabled features on commerce.
  • Created database scripts and data load to help ensure data concurrency.

• Avnet Technology Solutions

  Senior Consultant

  Mar 2011 - Aug 2014
• 

  Molding Box

  Contract Software Developer

  Feb 2010 - Apr 2010
• 

  REI Systems

  Software Engineer

  Feb 2010 - Mar 2011
• 

  Molding Box

  Intern Developer

  Nov 2009 - Feb 2010
• 

  Proace Technology Services

  Intern

  Jul 2009 - Dec 2009
• 

  Neumont University

  Anima Companion

  May 2009 - Jun 2009
• 

  Neumont University

  DRAGON

  Jan 2009 - Mar 2009
• 

  Neumont University

  Nexus

  Oct 2008 - Dec 2008
• 

  Neumont University

  Stay A Night

  Jul 2008 - Sep 2008
• 

  Neumont University

  UPX

  Oct 2007 - Dec 2007