Jake Brandt

Software and Systems Architect / Engineer // Machine Learning and MLOps // University Adjunct

Contact

  • Phone
  • 315-256-1897

Location

  • City
  • Rochester
  • Region
  • NY

About Me

Full-stack software architect for traditional and cloud/serverless platforms, serving as team lead, mentor, manager, and technical point-of-contact to shareholders and B2B partners. Experienced leading teams in both startup and mature environments in distributed event-based systems, consumer-facing online ordering platforms, data/ETL pipelines, and adtech/martech partner integrations. Hands-on with Python and Keras/TensorFlow for daily stock data mining, GAN/CNN-based terrain generation, and Azure Cognitive Services Personalizer-powered game AI. Comfortable jumping into in-progress or in-transfer projects to drive process adoption, documentation, and business continuity while mentoring others.

Work Experience

2025-07 to Present

Principal Engineer at Butler/Till

Lead scalable software design and delivery aligned with customer and partner needs; serve as a technical SME, mentor, and advocate for sound enterprise architecture practices.

Designed and delivered integrations with marketing/ad platforms (Google Search Ads 360, Meta Ads, Billups) to support campaign operations, reporting, and reconciliation.

Established integration patterns for rate limiting, retries, and idempotent processing to improve data freshness and reduce incidents.

2020-12 to 2025-07

Principal Engineer and Presales at Mindex

Led a stable transfer of multiple AWS customers after an acquisition, ensuring continuity and reliability.

Advised on cloud-native technology and software investments for a national agent media and marketing marketplace, meeting weekly with stakeholders.

Drove adoption of SDLC best practices including dependency injection, infrastructure as code, peer reviews, and Agile process adoption.

Applied experience with ETL/data warehouse/data lake solutions, pub/sub event systems, and cloud optimizations.

2015-11 to 2025-07

Adjunct Faculty, Department of Computer Science at Rochester Institute of Technology

Taught CSCI 510, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, including 2D/3D algorithms, transforms, projection, and OpenGL/GLSL shader development.

2019-09 to 2020-12

Senior Software Engineer (meal delivery platform) at TEKsystems

Contributed to an Angular SPA codebase for online ordering workflows and payment gateway integration.

Built unit tests, performed peer reviews, and guided Azure B2C OAuth integration, SEO optimization, and accessibility.

Delivered a customer management portal using .NET Core (server-side Blazor), Azure Durable Functions, and Application Insights.

Performed technical screenings and assessments for prospective hires.

2017-07 to 2019-09

Senior Software Engineer / Technical Project Lead at CaterTrax

Architected the first distributed extension to a mature flagship product, expanding from leased hardware to serverless components and upgrading identity to support stateful and SPA subsystems.

Developed a Node.js-based unit testing framework for Classic ASP with SQL/environment mocking and expect-style assertions.

Provided architectural guidance for SPAs, distributed REST APIs, and enterprise security considerations.

Partnered with product analysts on prioritizing technical backlog items such as security and future-proofing.

Advised the CIO on investments in outsourced/specialized teams and internal resource alignment.

2016-10 to 2017-07

Software Development Manager at CaterTrax

Managed day-to-day HR needs of development teams and supported recruiting, interviewing, and career planning.

2015-06 to 2016-10

Fractional Chief Technology Officer / Senior Engineer at Star Fantasy Leagues, Inc.

Provided technical direction and roadmap for fantasy sports products, including native mobile apps.

Owned IT aspects of regulatory license applications and audits.

Led a transition to SPA architecture backed by distributed REST APIs, Redis cache, Azure SQL, and OAuth/OpenID Connect.

Coordinated technical scope and timelines with partners and investors.

Secured cloud hosting credits and MSDN licenses through Microsoft programs.

2014-10 to 2015-06

Scrum Master / Project Manager at Star Fantasy Leagues, Inc.

Expanded the delivery team, coached agile practices, and improved estimation granularity.

Reduced IT operating costs through program participation and cost monitoring.

Introduced database versioning with SQL Server Data Tools and standardized release processes.

Contributed to an ASP.NET MVC codebase using Entity Framework, SQL Server, and WebSockets.

2014-03 to 2014-10

Mobile Application / iOS Developer at Mindex

Architected and developed an MVP native iOS parent portal, coordinating shared UI patterns with the Android team.

Acted as SME for iOS release practices, certificate management, and Apple Developer Center processes.

Designed and built an ASP.NET-based APNs server with SOCKS proxy support for secure district datacenters.

2011-06 to 2014-10

C# Web and SQL Developer at Mindex

Developed SQL scripts/procedures and improved performance and maintainability.

Built an externally facing bulk data import service using SQL Server, Windows Services, ASP.NET, and jQuery.

Cut release deployment duration by 20% via a replacement database schema upgrade process with LINQ-to-SQL migrations.

Architected a BI platform for data mining/visualization to complement the primary product.

Conducted code/performance reviews for SQL and C# and prepared Team Foundation Server to replace legacy tools.

2010-01 to 2011-06

Software Configuration Manager at Hospitality 101, Inc. / CaterTrax

Released software updates to ~1000 centrally hosted customer sites without service interruption.

Documented releases and trained support and sales teams on new functionality.

Developed a WPF/VB.NET release deployment application that cut release times by 66%.

2008-01 to 2010-12

Web Application Developer at Hospitality 101, Inc. / CaterTrax

Maintained and extended a Classic ASP codebase.

Built an aggregate reporting service producing financial/performance reports from 100+ sites in CSV/XML.

Implemented a proprietary SAML service provider client for SSO with partners using C# and XML.

2007-04 to 2010-12

Java Developer at ABC Electronics Services Corporation

Delivered Java development work across enterprise systems; details available on request.

Education

2006 to 2010

Rochester Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Science: Computer Science

2004 to 2006

SUNY Morrisville

Associate of Science: Computer Science

Volunteer work

Engineer, UI/UX Designer, MSP at MAD RESCUE OF WNY

Reduced nonprofit IT costs by over 90% (~$400+/yr) by modernizing its web presence with AWS serverless services (S3, Route 53, SES, SNS) and IaC.

2013-02 to 2016-06

Web Developer Consultant at Young Entrepreneurs Academy

Helped YEA students establish and grow their web presence, supporting young entrepreneurs year after year.

2018-05 to 2021-07

Volunteer Pee Wee Soccer Coach at Town of Chili

Kept kids active and built their confidence through weekly pee wee soccer coaching.

Skills

Architecture & Delivery: System Architecture, Distributed Systems, Legacy Systems, Technical Presales

Cloud & DevOps: Cloud Computing, DevOps, Docker

AWS: Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS CloudFormation, AWS SAM, AWS Lambda, AWS API Gateway, Amazon S3, Amazon SQS, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Route 53, Amazon SES, Amazon SNS

Azure: Microsoft Azure, Azure SQL, Azure Durable Functions, Application Insights, Azure AD B2C, Azure Cognitive Services Personalizer

AI & ML: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AWS Bedrock, AWS SageMaker, Amazon Q Business, TensorFlow, Keras

Languages: Python, TypeScript, Node.js, C#, VBScript

Web/App Frameworks: Angular, AngularJS, ASP.NET, ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET MVC, Blazor, Entity Framework, jQuery, WebSockets

Data Stores: PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Redis

Tools & Libraries: Puppeteer, H3, .NET, WPF, Xamarin

Domains: AdTech / MarTech, FinTech, Quantitative Finance

Identity & Security Protocols: OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, SAML, IdentityServer