Avi Flax
Software Engineer/Architect/Leader
Summary
- I’ve designed, built, maintained, & operated
many successful software systems &
products, including:
- An LLM prompt engineering tool
- A system for managing access to many different AWS accounts
- An open-source tool for data-driven architecture diagrams
- Streaming data pipelines for IoT events, sensor readings, product
metrics, etc.
- Many RESTful Web APIs
- A Web/SOA insurance platform covering all key aspects of
policy origination & management
- A Web API at the heart of an API-centric (hybrid) publishing
platform
- I’ve built, managed, & supported
many successful software engineering teams
& orgs; for example I’ve:
- Helped grow & optimize engineering orgs via
hiring/firing, mentoring, professional development programs,
& regular refactoring of team structures
- Leveled-up engineering culture & practices, e.g. introduced
automated testing, code review, continuous delivery,
infrastructure-as-code, & immutable infrastructure
- Leveled-up documentation & knowledge sharing at multiple
orgs
Experience
2015–2025
2024–2025
Chief Software Architect Omne
- Built & refined the team & its strategy, processes, &
culture
- Designed & built an ERP system for the manufacturing market
- Tech: PostgreSQL, C#, Playwright, GitHub Actions, Kafka, Azure
Cloud, Terraform, Bicep, Docker
2023–2024
Principal Software Engineer Trudy
- Designed, implemented, & maintained:
- An internal prompt engineering tool for rapidly testing many
variations of LLM invocations
- A prototype SaaS product to enable non-experts to craft, test, &
use LLM prompts with multiple LLM providers
- Tech: JavaScript, Google Apps Script, Google Workspace APIs,
PostgreSQL, HTMX, Python, Django, Clojure
2022–2023
Staff Software Engineer Latacora
- Designed, implemented, & maintained:
- A system that manages access to many AWS accounts via AWS SSO &
Pulumi
- A system for deploying multiple tools to many AWS accounts via
Pulumi
- A custom database for crucial business data & CLI tools for
integrating the DB with tools such as Fibery & JIRA
- Tech: Clojure, AWS, Pulumi, GitHub Actions, Docker
2020–2021
Senior Director of Technology Modern Energy
- Helped bootstrap a new Retail Energy Provider (REP) in Texas’ ERCOT
market
- Automated wholesale energy trades for a few different markets via APX
MarketSuite
- Helped bootstrap a new HVAC optimization startup by integrating with
InfiSense & MelRok
- Tech: Clojure, Kafka, Airflow, Python, Docker, Pulumi, Google
Workspace APIs
2017–2020
Principal Software Engineer Funding Circle
- Leveled-up documentation & knowledge sharing at a 250-person
software product org
- Conceived, built, released, & maintained FC4, an open-source framework
for authoring software architecture diagrams
- Tech: Clojure, Ruby, Kafka, GitHub Actions, Docker, C4 Model, Structurizr
2015–2017
Principal Software Architect Park Assist
- Rewrote a critical data pipeline using stream processing to reduce
latency & improve reliability
- Designed, built, maintained, & operated stream data topologies
for high-throughput & low-latency data processing
- Leveled-up engineering culture & practices, e.g. introduced
infrastructure-as-code, immutable infrastructure, & continuous
delivery
- Tech: Ruby, JRuby, Kafka, Kafka Streams, SQL Server, Kubernetes,
AWS, Terraform, CircleCI, Ansible, Datadog
2005–2015
2015 Timehop
- Rewrote a critical data pipeline using stream processing to reduce
latency & improve reliability
- Designed & implemented:
- An integration with Twilio for SMS-based signup
- A tool for quickly processing billions of records
- Tech: Go (Golang), AWS, Redis, DynamoDB, Kinesis
2014 Thinkful
- Designed & implemented an event-driven system to automate Stripe
subscription management
- Tech: Python, Django
2013–2014 CTO
SFX Entertainment
- Led the design & implementation of an ambitious
new-from-the-ground-up streaming music platform
- With multiple teams: platform, Web, iOS, Android
- Recruited key team members
- Tech: Clojure, REST APIs, AWS
2005–2013 Arc90
- Wore many hats: developer, architect, tech lead, director,
partner
- Worked with teams to design, build, & maintain advanced software
platforms, including:
- A Web/SOA insurance platform covering all key aspects of policy
origination & management
- A Web-based search engine & reference platform for
engineers
- A Web API at the heart of a new-from-the-ground-up news distribution
platform for Reuters
- Conducted technical audits of clients’ acquisition targets
- Helped manage the business
- Managed client relationships
- Invested much time & effort in recruiting & retaining
exceptional team members
- Started practice of regular company-wide code review
- Tech: ColdFusion,
Groovy, Java, Python, XQuery, XSLT, XSD, Relax NG, eXist, MarkLogic, MongoDB,
SQL Server, AWS
1997–2005
2001–2004 ADP
- Refactored, enhanced, & maintained a system for producing custom
financial documents for on-demand printing
- Tech: Microsoft SQL Server, ColdFusion, XSLT, XSL-FO
2001 register.com
- Team lead position for large high-traffic auction site
- Responsibilities included designing, implementing, & maintaining
features; reengineering site technology & architecture
- Created new internal tools & development procedures
- Tech: ColdFusion
2000 RewardsPlus
- Maintained & enhanced a large-scale online employee benefits
enrollment system for diverse clients with diverse needs
- Tech: ColdFusion
1998–2000 Words
In Progress
- Developed requirements & specifications for high traffic
websites directly with clients; crafted application architecture &
database design
- Maintained one of the earliest major e-commerce Websites for
T-Mobile
- Tech: Microsoft Access, ColdFusion, HomeSite
1998
Ideal Computer Strategies
- Worked with teams of designers, coders, & project managers to
concurrently develop & deploy client websites with basic dynamic
features
- Tech: Microsoft Access, ColdFusion, HomeSite
1997–1998 PCC
Internet Design
- Founded & managed a small Web design shop in Baltimore, MD
providing full-service Web design & development to small businesses
in the area
- Tech: Windows Notepad, HTML
Output
Code
- I’m currently working on a side project: a Web app to help
community organizers create digital calendars for their community
programs
- In 2021 I built & launched the Web app
ny.vax.help
to help people get appointments for COVID-19 vaccines in New York State
(repo)
- In 2018 I released FC4,
an open-source framework for authoring software architecture
diagrams