Rushanthan Nelson

Engineering leader experienced in building and developing software teams, modernizing SaaS platforms, improving operational reliability, and delivering customer-focused products. Combines practical technical judgment with people leadership, clear stakeholder communication, and disciplined delivery. Experienced in hiring, performance management, coaching, capacity planning, cross-functional delivery, and responsible use of AI-assisted engineering tools.

Team Lead, Software Development - Absorb Software - Calgary, Alberta

(2020-02 - 2026-07)

Led people, delivery, and day-to-day engineering execution across multiple SaaS products, including hiring, performance management, coaching, capacity planning, and cross-functional coordination.

• Led cross-functional software teams, initially 7 direct-report engineers and 3 indirect contributors, later a streamlined team of 4 engineers, 1 QA professional, and 1 contractor.
• Hired and developed engineers and QA professionals, conducted performance reviews and coaching conversations, supported promotions, mentored emerging leaders, and helped teams adapt through organizational change.
• Managed delivery across three software products and a data-migration initiative; later supported product consolidation, resource realignment, backlog prioritization, and sprint and PI planning.
• Balanced roadmap commitments, production stability, urgent customer needs, team capacity, and delivery risks while communicating priorities and trade-offs across Product, SRE, Operations, and business stakeholders.
• Clarified ownership for a legacy platform by aligning engineering and SRE stakeholders, transitioning infrastructure responsibilities, and preserving continuity through a coordinated developer transfer.
• Improved platform reliability to 99% uptime by leading investigation of memory-depletion failures and implementing automated recovery, health monitoring, and service indicators.
• Helped enable daily deployment by identifying coupling risks, introducing reusable NuGet wrapper packages, coordinating with SRE and Operations, and using feature flags for safer rollout.
• Used AI-assisted engineering for defect investigation, evidence synthesis, solution exploration, and change verification while maintaining human review and technical accountability.
• Led teams recognized with two Best Team quarterly awards; received Strategic Direction and Pathfinder recognition for technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance.

Senior Software Engineer III - Honeywell - Edmonton, Alberta

(2014-01 - 2020-12)

• Guided technical delivery and Scrum practices across enterprise software initiatives using C++, C#, .NET, ASP.NET, Web API, and industrial SDK products.
• Designed a unified deployment and configuration application that simplified rollout and reduced installation complexity across product environments.
• Delivered rapid prototypes that validated product direction and reduced redevelopment effort by approximately 50%.
• Built cross-platform mobile and edge-computing solutions while contributing to design reviews, pull-request reviews, technical risk analysis, mentoring, and delivery coordination.

Team Lead, Software Development and Technology - CannAmm Occupational Testing Services - Edmonton, Alberta

(2012-01 - 2014-12)

• Led software development and QA across distributed teams, coordinating product support, backlog priorities, delivery capacity, technical standards, and Agile practices.
• Improved performance, security, and hosting architecture for an ASP.NET MVC and SQL Server enterprise platform.
• Modernized legacy data-access patterns using Entity Framework and reviewed product architecture and migration approaches.
• Presented delivery status, operational concerns, and technical risks to executives while coaching team members and resolving cross-functional priorities.

Manager, Software Development & Support - PPM 2000 Inc. - Edmonton, Alberta

(2005-01 - 2012-12)

• Managed software development, QA, and support teams, including 8 developers and 7 QA professionals.
• Led product delivery, mentoring, technical priorities, customer support, and SaaS initiatives while balancing operational needs with longer-term improvements.
• Partnered with company leadership on product direction, technical strategy, and product integration decisions.
• Built and guided teams focused on reliable, high-quality software and responsive customer outcomes.

Product & Engineering Lead - Independent - Alberta

• Define product requirements and solution architecture for an AI-enabled local marketplace covering listing, reservation, payment, and pickup workflows.
• Use agentic development across solution design, implementation, testing, deployment, and operational improvement, with hands-on review and validation.
• Build with .NET, React, Python, PostgreSQL, AWS, Stripe Connect, and cloud-hosted services.
• Explore practical AI capabilities for listing assistance, condition analysis, seller workflows, and marketplace operations.

Diploma - Computer Engineering Technology - NAIT

Certification - Information Technology Project Management - NAIT