Michael Campbell

LinkedIn Alpharetta, GA

Summary of Qualifications

Staff Software Engineer · 30+ years in production systems (finance, network security, insurance)
Full-stack: Ruby/Rails, React/TypeScript, Python, Java/JVM · AWS, GCP · LLM tooling

Brings 30+ years of production experience to complex systems work, with a Staff-engineer habit of exploring before committing and collaborating across team boundaries. Staff-level leverage comes from cross-team clarity: architecture docs that align teams, mentoring through pairing and presentations, and practical AI tools such as Career Companion, a conversational job-fit engine grounded in real project work.

Professional Experience

Simply Business
Oct 2022 - Present
Staff Software Engineer
Atlanta Assurers team
Nov 2023 - Present
  • Explore before building: trained Bayesian classifiers for cross-sell recommendations, prototyped chatbot architectures, researched carrier APIs, and build LLM-assisted workflows into daily work. Use LLM self-review on design docs to catch real implementation bugs before any code is written.
  • Work across team boundaries: write architecture docs spanning multiple teams, managed the V3-to-V4 API migration lifecycle end-to-end, decompose multi-team initiatives into parallel-friendly workstreams with explicit dependency graphs, and present architecture decisions in the Architecture Decision Forum.
  • Teach what I learn: gave presentations (functional programming monads to practical LLM techniques), run the engineering book club, pair regularly on testing and debugging, and built reusable AI prompting tools shared with other teams.
  • Still ship code: review 220 PRs in Q1 2026 (275% of goal) across 5+ teams, build features end-to-end from refinement through cleanup, and handle the usual landing page fixes, validation logic, and frontend bugs.
  • Keep an eye on risk: found and removed insecure code patterns before they become problems, take regular turns on production support rotation, and help other teams debug their Airbrake alerts when things get busy.
Ruby 3.x, Rails 7.x, React.js, Typescript, Javascript, MongoDB, Postresql (AWS RDS)
Keep Calm and Carrier On team
Oct 2022 - Nov 2023
  • Designed and shipped multiple quotes per carrier functionality, enabling underwriters to compare pricing strategies and improve conversion rates.
  • Mentored developers on testing approaches and development practices, establishing patterns that raised code quality standards across the team.
  • Owned carrier onboarding projects end-to-end, translating business requirements into production systems while coordinating with operations and product teams.
Ruby 3.x, Rails 7.x, MongoDB, Github, New Relic
brightwheel
Dec 2021 - Oct 2022
Senior Software Engineer II
Backend engineer on the FinOps team, responsible for all things financial at brightwheel.
Ruby, Rails, PostgreSQL, AWS, CircleCI, Github, New Relic
  • Designed and implemented the "Bundled Payments" facility.
  • Owned onboarding work related to billing and reporting.
  • Added alerting for Payment Operations staff on account updates to help prevent fraud.
  • Built automatic "gating" of customer payments to reduce the fraud window and ease Payment Operations workload.
NielsenIQ (formerly Byzzer)
Nov 2020 - Dec 2021
Senior Full Stack Engineer
Byzzer (now folded into NielsenIQ) helped small CPG manufacturers win market share with actionable retail data insights.
Resident testing evangelist, and RDBMS Third Normal Form enthusiast.
React.js, Javascript, Typescript, Google Cloud Platform/Cloud SQL (PostgreSQL)/Functions, Python, Cypress.io
  • Lead CSR/Integrations team in design/development of CSR application.
  • Designed and developed integrations to third parties; eg: Suzy.com.
  • Participated in architectural review and design meetings for the platform.
Cisco Systems
Jan 2013 - Jan 2016 - Oct 2020
Security Business Group
Five progressively senior roles spanning product development, architecture, and research across Cisco's network security platform. Cross-team responsibilities throughout:
  • Info-share product feature and architecture between Cloud and Enterprise teams
  • Present periodic "new hire orientation" Engineering department overview
  • Resident Groovy, Spock, complexity, and metrics evangelist
Software Engineer
Mid 2018 - Oct 2020
Stealthwatch Cloud team developing network and cloud security software
Python, Django, AWS (SQS, S3, EC2, Redshift)
  • Help design and implement new security features and detections
  • Implementing cloud based front end for existing Cisco on-premises system(s)
  • Shepherd code through CI/CD systems / DevOps
Research Product Owner
Mid 2017 - Mid 2018
Agile Product Owner for Research Team
  • Directed work for "Host Classifier" research effort
  • Worked with Research Team to plan areas of study
  • Liaison with UI/UX team to visualize research outputs
  • Organized and managed customer feedback sessions
Research Engineer
2016 - Mid 2017
Researcher for future Cisco Stealthwatch product features
Java, SQL, Groovy, Ruby; Gremlin, Apache Spark, Kafka, Spring
  • Investigated different ways to intuit host types from network data
  • Prototyped graph based network host visualizations
  • Prototyped streaming based data-flow architectures
Software Architect
2014 - 2016
Define direction, standards, frameworks, and patterns for StealthWatch development
Java, SQL, Go, Groovy; Spring, Akka
  • Prototyped CQRS/Event Sourcing data analysis
  • Embedded with development team on "Host Group" microservice development
  • Assisted with development of in-house "common development stack" using Docker
  • Designed and developed "Saved Search"/reporting functionality
  • Introduced MongoDb
Software Developer
Jan 2013 - 2014
Product feature development for Lancope StealthWatch
Java, SQL, Groovy; Spring
  • Transitioned development team from ant to maven
  • Managed training and transitioning of development teams from CVS to git
  • Design, develop, and debug new product features

Prior Professional Experience

Earlier roles spanning fintech, payment processing, finance, and internet applications. Full details available on request.

  • Clear2Pay: Developer/Architect. Built payment processing and bill presentment systems, including a global payment hub for BNY Mellon and international payment integrations for the United States Federal Reserve.
  • CheckFree Corporation: Software & System Architect. Architected ebill caching service reducing mainframe calls by 1.5M/day; introduced WebWork framework.
  • S1 Corporation: Senior Application Developer/Architect. Built persistence layer for Enterprise Platform; designed test harness cutting debug time 80%.
  • Solutions by Design / Turner Broadcasting: Consultant. UNIX server-side messaging architecture using C++, Oracle, BEA Tuxedo.
  • Salomon Brothers Inc.: Senior Application Developer. Clearance and settlement systems for internationally traded securities; launched and ran Tampa office WWW services.

Training

  • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (lapsed)
  • Scrum.org Certified Product Owner (lapsed)

Education

Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA
On Hold
Online Master of Science in Cybersecurity
University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
  • Tutored students at Student Academic Resource Center at all levels of experience in Computer Science, Computing Theory, Logic and Proof, and Mathematics classes.

Recognition & Awards

Best Attitude
For willingness to help at any time.
EPower
For open communication and XP evangelizing.
Outstanding Teacher Award
For teaching practical seminars on programming, networking, and internet application development.

Personal Projects

Career Companion

AI-powered job-fit recommendation engine that lets users ask me about my experience and get personalized career alignment insights through conversational interaction.

React, TypeScript, Node.js, Claude API
Data Analytics

Write and maintain a variety of data analytics for online games and TV shows.

Python, Sqlite3, Mysql, Highcharts.js, HTML, and CSS