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Previous Roles

The positions and engagements that shaped my career — most delivered as a consultant through Integrity Test Solutions, the company I founded in 2003. Recovered and revised from my original professional site.

Gannett / USA Today Network​

Developer → Build Master → Solutions Architect → Platform Architect | 2013 – 2016

My years on Gannett's Content Solutions Platform, working with some genuinely great people to move one of America's largest media companies onto a modern technology stack — rising from developer to platform architect along the way.

Key Achievements​

  • Full-stack modernization: guided the application suite from Windows to Linux, .NET to Node.js, VMware to Chef, and on-premises to the cloud
  • Hybrid cloud architecture: pioneered public and multiregion private hybrid cloud with abstraction layers enabling workload portability
  • Continuous delivery at scale: transformed an error-prone, bureaucratic release process into a streamlined continuous delivery system spanning 1,200+ build configurations — kept manageable through a versioned, template-driven design
  • Platform engineering: built internal developer platform practices from the ground up

In the Media​

Impact​

This role provided hands-on experience with the realities of enterprise cloud and Kubernetes adoption — the challenges that directly inspired the creation of Kubefirst.

Remine​

Consulting Engagement via Integrity Test Solutions | approx. 2016 – 2021

A consulting client I served through Integrity Test Solutions during the Gannett years — real-estate data and analytics work for a fast-moving product company, running in parallel with my platform role at USA Today Network. One more thread in a decade where the consultancy, the day-to-day platform work, and my own company all overlapped.

Engagement dates and scope are approximate — happy to sharpen them with the specifics.

Canda Solutions​

Consulting Engagement via Integrity Test Solutions | approx. 2014 – 2019

A long-running consulting engagement I carried through Integrity Test Solutions across most of the USA Today Network years and beyond, overlapping the Remine work as well. One more concurrent thread in a decade where the consultancy and the day-to-day platform role ran side by side.

Dates, role, and scope are approximate — tell me the specifics and I'll sharpen this entry.

American Systems — DoD SPOT Program​

Performance Specialist (Contractor) | McLean, VA | May 2011 – February 2013

Single-handedly provided performance testing, analysis, and tuning for the Synchronized Predeployment Operational Tracker (SPOT) — the web-based system of record for tracking deployed contractor personnel supporting DoD military operations worldwide.

Key Achievements​

  • 65% reduction in average page time with increased system stability across my tenure
  • Sole owner of performance evaluation for a system serving deployed personnel accountability globally
  • Delivered a measurably better application to end users operating in the field

EIS — United States Citizenship and Immigration Services​

Technical Lead, Performance Testing (Contractor) | 2012 – 2013

When Enterprise Information Services won the Independent Verification and Validation contract for all USCIS systems, I was recruited to establish the performance testing practice from scratch.

Key Achievements​

  • Established performance testing implementation and processes spanning 112 distinct software systems across vastly disparate technologies and platforms
  • Mentored performance testing staff on tooling, scripting techniques, and data analysis
  • Served as EIS's lead technical interface to the USCIS client, assisting with performance tuning and diagnosis

Northrop Grumman — NG-CCAS (NextGen)​

Performance Specialist (Contractor) | McLean, VA | August 2010 – April 2011

Evaluated and benchmarked the performance characteristics of NG-CCAS, a proof-of-concept web 2.0 system for next-generation contractor correlation and accountability.

Key Achievements​

  • Solely designed and implemented a low-cost, high-volume load testing solution
  • Owned identification of performance and concurrency issues across all load profiles
  • Applied .NET load-testing technology successfully inside a Java environment — the right tool over the obvious tool

Hewlett Packard — Edge​

Software Architect / Lead Developer (Contractor) | Herndon, VA | May 2007 – September 2011

Designed, developed, and led implementation of Edge, an SOA middleware product integrating seven worldwide online systems as a replacement for a retiring middleware technology.

Key Achievements​

  • Owned software architecture, design, and development on a small agile team
  • Served as the project's SQL Server DBA from inception
  • Implemented Team Foundation Server for version control, workflow management, and deployment operations — configuration management across numerous environments

Northrop Grumman — Defense Travel System​

Performance Analyst / Production Engineer (Contractor) | Fairfax, VA | approx. 2003 – 2007

The contract that started it all: Integrity Test Solutions was founded in 2003 to serve this engagement, picking up right where my ADP-IMS work left off. Over several years I was lead performance analyst and production engineer for multiple mission-critical releases of the Defense Travel System — the DoD's system for authorizing and processing military travel.

Key Achievements​

  • Anchored the founding of my own company around a multi-year federal engagement
  • Developed scripts and custom C# utilities to monitor and manage the production and testing environments in a secure setting
  • Conducted pre-production performance evaluation for every release across the life of the contract

ADP-IMS​

Software Developer / Test Automation Developer

Early career role that established my foundation in quality engineering: automated testing implementation, QA engineering, and test framework development — the conviction that software should prove it works.

Integrity Test Solutions​

Founder & CEO | Germantown, MD | 2003 – 2021

The company I bootstrapped at age 22 and led for 19 years — the vehicle for most of the engagements above, run in parallel with hands-on engineering work throughout. I founded it in 2003 to take on the Northrop Grumman Defense Travel System contract, and it carried every consulting engagement that followed.

What I Learned​

  • Entrepreneurship: building a business from nothing to sustainable operation
  • Customer focus: understanding and solving real customer problems
  • Leadership: building and managing teams over the long term
  • Business operations: finance, sales, delivery, and everything in between
  • Resilience: navigating economic cycles and market changes over nearly two decades

This experience fundamentally shaped how I built Kubefirst and Konstruct — always with a focus on sustainability, customer value, and practical solutions.