Howard Chen

Senior Software Engineer with 9 years of experience delivering scalable backend systems, AI-powered applications, and LLM-driven products. Proven track record of building high-performance systems, improving data accessibility, and collaborating cross-functionally to deliver impactful features in fast-paced environments.

Senior Software Engineer at Glean Technologies, Inc. (2023-12 – Present)

Engineered LLM-powered enterprise search systems and developed high-performance backend services for real-time query processing.

• Engineered LLM-powered enterprise search systems, enabling natural language querying across large-scale internal data (Slack, Docs, SaaS tools).
• Developed high-performance backend services using Node.js and Java for real-time query processing and ranking.
• Built semantic search infrastructure using Elasticsearch and vector databases, improving relevance and personalization.
• Optimized system reliability, reducing retrieval time by 20% and improving knowledge accessibility using monitoring, logging, and alerting systems.

Senior Full Stack Engineer at Settle (2021-04 – 2023-12)

Built and scaled B2B payments systems for invoicing, reconciliation, and vendor payments supporting high transaction volumes.

• Built and scaled B2B payments systems for invoicing, reconciliation, and vendor payments, supporting high transaction volumes.
• Designed backend services for the purchase-to-pay lifecycle, improving efficiency in invoice processing and payment tracking.
• Implemented event-driven architecture (Kafka/SQS), enhancing reliability and fault tolerance for transaction processing.
• Integrated banking systems and third-party payment providers (ACH, APIs) to streamline and secure transactions.
• Developed financing workflows and APIs, providing real-time visibility into loan tracking and cash flow for businesses.

Full Stack Engineer at Dropbox (2020-01 – 2021-04)

Built and improved distributed file storage and synchronization systems supporting millions of users across devices.

• Built and improved distributed file storage and synchronization systems, supporting millions of users across devices.
• Developed backend services for file metadata management, sharing, and collaboration features.
• Implemented performance optimizations for file sync, reducing latency and improving system consistency.
• Enhanced system reliability and observability, ensuring smooth file sharing and versioning features in large-scale systems.

Software Engineer at Affirm, Inc (2017-08 – 2020-01)

Developed and scaled point-of-sale financing systems enabling instant loan approvals at checkout.

• Developed and scaled point-of-sale financing systems, enabling instant loan approvals at checkout.
• Built low-latency APIs to support real-time credit decisions and fast transaction processing.
• Created data pipelines for real-time risk evaluation, leveraging large-scale financial and behavioral data.
• Optimized credit decision accuracy while maintaining high approval rates, improving risk and underwriting processes.

Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computer Science – Carnegie Mellon University (2013-04 – 2017-04)