Jason Chestnut

Staff-level software engineer with 20+ years of experience building distributed backend systems, cloud-native services, and production infrastructure. Experienced translating ambiguous business and operational requirements into scalable, maintainable systems with strong focus on reliability, observability, and long-term evolution. Experienced diagnosing distributed system behavior and production performance issues using observability and telemetry tooling.

My work spans backend platforms, event-driven architectures, telemetry-aware system design, and reusable engineering abstractions that improve operational insight and developer velocity. I thrive in high-ownership environments where engineers are responsible for shaping both technical direction and implementation.

Senior Backend Engineer at Apex Technologies (Contractor - Disney Cruise Line) (2025-01 – Present)

• Lead end-to-end development of backend services supporting thousands of concurrent users, translating operational and user needs into reliable, low-latency systems
• Design and implement services that balance synchronous APIs with asynchronous workflows, enabling flexible and resilient system behavior under varying load conditions
• Identify and address reliability risks through idempotent processing, retry strategies, and timeout propagation across distributed systems
• Optimize performance through query tuning, connection management, and efficient data access patterns based on real-world usage
• Own deployment and operational readiness, enabling zero-downtime releases through containerized services and CI/CD pipelines
• Establish observability and testing standards that provide clear insight into system behavior and support rapid debugging
• Mentor engineers through design discussions and code reviews, improving system consistency and engineering quality across the team
• Leverage AI-assisted development tools (Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot) throughout the development lifecycle — from design exploration and prototyping to implementation and debugging — improving iteration speed and development efficiency
• Evaluate and adopt AI-assisted workflows within the team, identifying effective usage patterns and limitations to maintain code quality in production systems

Consultant at Daugherty Business Solutions (2022-01 – 2024-12)

• Investigated distributed system performance and reliability issues using observability platforms including Dynatrace and Splunk, analyzing service interactions, latency patterns, and production behavior
• Worked across service boundaries to diagnose bottlenecks, trace request flows, and improve operational visibility in distributed application environments
• Led the decomposition of monolithic applications into modular services, defining service boundaries and communication patterns to support independent feature development
• Translated ambiguous business requirements into scalable backend designs, balancing system flexibility with maintainability
• Improved production visibility, operational reliability, and service maintainability across distributed architectures
• Designed and implemented APIs and data models that supported evolving product needs without frequent redesign
• Evaluated consistency models and architectural tradeoffs when transitioning to distributed systems
• Influenced technical direction by prioritizing reliability, scalability, and long-term system evolution
• Helped teams adopt stronger engineering practices around service design, deployment, and production readiness

Programmer VII at American Electronic Warfare Associates (2021-01 – 2022-12)

• Designed high-throughput data ingestion pipelines for real-time event processing, enabling responsive and scalable system behavior
• Built event-driven processing systems to support distributed simulation workloads with strict performance requirements
• Developed asynchronous processing solutions optimized for low latency and high reliability
• Created analytical tooling to support validation and post-processing, improving system transparency and correctness

Senior Software Engineer at Dignitas Technologies (2018-01 – 2021-12)

• Led backend development for systems supporting rule-based analytics and real-time evaluation workflows
• Designed APIs and processing pipelines that translated complex domain logic into scalable system behavior
• Worked closely with stakeholders to refine requirements and ensure delivered systems aligned with actual user needs
• Mentored engineers and guided backend design decisions to improve system quality and consistency

Senior Software Engineer at Manifold Technology (2016-01 – 2018-12)

• Designed and implemented backend services for a blockchain-based platform, supporting financial transaction workflows
• Developed APIs and integration layers enabling external systems to interact reliably with distributed ledger infrastructure
• Served as a technical lead, guiding architectural decisions and supporting engineers in delivering complex features

Senior Software Engineer at Lockheed Martin (1999-01 – 2016-12)

• Worked closely with domain experts and end users to translate complex operational needs into distributed system designs
• Frequently identified gaps between requested features and underlying requirements, shaping more effective system solutions
• Designed and implemented distributed communication systems supporting real-time and mission-critical workloads
• Defined architectural patterns and backend service approaches used across large-scale systems

B.S. in Computer Science – Tulane University