ABOUT
Software Engineering Manager with 8+ years of experience designing and building scalable menu platform systems with real-world impact across 8,000+ restaurant locations. Expert in API integrations, legacy system migrations, and cross-functional technical leadership, delivering multi-million dollar business outcomes through strategic platform modernization initiatives.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Manager, Software Engineering, Taco Bell Corp.
2025-Feb - Present
Oversee Menu Management platform development across Taco Bell's digital ecosystem, enabling Byte Platform integrations and coordinating cross-functional delivery of capabilities.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Built MPM Phase 1 technical foundation, designing **pilot implementation architecture, validation frameworks and risk mitigation systems** for EDM/Hybris-to-Byte Portal transition.
- Provided technical **expertise on menu and order specifications** to cross-functional engineering teams, ensuring **consistent implementation** and **integration standards** across POS, Voice AI, digital channels, and middleware systems.
- Ensured new functionality continuity during platform transitions, providing **technical guidance for Project Fresco** and managing **new experience requirements** while coordinating **multiple overlapping dependency projects** in parallel.
Assoc. Manager, Software Engineering, Taco Bell Corp.
2022-Sep - 2025-Feb
Provided technical leadership for strategic platform modernization initiatives and enterprise architecture decisions across Taco Bell's digital ecosystem.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Managed a team of 14 engineers (6 FTE, 8 contractors) specializing in **API integrations, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure**, conducting weekly 1:1s and bi-annual performance reviews to drive individual growth and team alignment.
- Architected Byte Portal migration strategy from legacy Hybris/EDM systems, defining technical roadmap with **GraphQL API integrations** for event-driven Pricing App and Product/Menu Master phases across **domestic US market**.
- Delivered critical data integrations for **Annspire POS system rollout**, enabling menu generation and pricing updates across 8,000+ locations while supporting **legacy Xenial migration**.
- Facilitated and coached cross-team migration from **legacy platform to event-driven cloud systems** for restaurant master data, implementing solutions while **developing team expertise in AWS stack** (Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, EventBridge, Serverless Framework).
- Supported the successful **national rollout of Touch Kitchen Display System (TKDS)** by delivering and validating **product data and Order Ready Engine (ORE) integrations**, enabling enhanced kitchen workflows and accurate order routing across **8,000+ Taco Bell locations**.
Sr. Software Engineer I, Taco Bell Corp.
2021-May - 2022-Sep
Expanded organizational influence through mentoring, cross-team collaboration, and strategic partnerships.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Served as **technical liaison between operations and engineering teams**, translating franchise feedback into actionable enhancements for menu systems that aligned with the marketing experience calendar.
- Mentored team member who delivered the **Next Generation POS Menu System** using **.NET/C# AWS Lambda** modernizing architecture across **7,500+ restaurants**.
- Led consultant coordination and integration design for a **store hours modernization project** featuring **temporary scheduling capabilities**, identifying system gaps during **legacy-to-event-based architecture** migration.
- Organized cross-team design sessions and knowledge-sharing, fostering collaboration and encouraging junior engineer participation to strengthen technical communication across the organization.
- Established platform monitoring and alerting with **Lumigo** while **influencing PS/SRE support team expertise** through strategic partnership with team leads to improve operational support and incident response.
Software Engineer III, Taco Bell Corp.
2019-Nov - 2021-May
Took on a technical lead role, architecting key solutions and overseeing a contractor team's implementation and quality.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Acted as the **technical lead** for a team of up to 5 contractors, partnering with product owners to **translate ambiguous business goals** into **actionable architecture designs** and **detailed implementation plans**.
- Directed the development workflow and **led code reviews** for the contractor team to enforce **engineering best practices** and **code quality**.
- Spearheaded the technical integration of **new nationwide delivery platforms (DoorDash, Postmates, and Uber Eats)**, directly enabling a major corporate strategy that conrtibued to **a record-breaking 45% year-over-year increase in digital sales** in 2020.
- Shipped a full-stack inventory availability application using **React, Python, SQL, and AWS services** that reduced help desk call volume and delivered **over $2 million in cost savings and revenue increase**.
- Contributed to **Diablo serverless ETL framework** using **AWS (S3, Lambda, DynamoDB, SNS/SQS, and Step Functions)** to build highly scalable pipelines that **replaced costly Talend infrastructure**.
Systems Engineer II, Taco Bell Corp.
2018-Aug - 2019-Nov
Developed and supported high-availability data systems to power the enterprise cloud migration and new digital commerce platforms.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Developed, maintained, and supported the data pipelines for the new **Menu Middleware (MMW) system** (the **single source of truth**) that powered the **Grubhub** and **Kiosk** platforms, contributing to **9% system-wide sales growth** and **over $250 million** in first-year digital sales.
- Optimized the reliability and performance of the MMW data pipeline by resolving **Talend** job defects and tuning **AWS Lambda** (C#) code and configurations.
- Engineered and supported the backend systems and APIs for the **Grubhub** integration project, ensuring reliable **menu distribution** and **order processing**.
- Supported the expansion of **Kiosk 2.0** to include **alcohol ordering for the first time**, coordinating with **product stakeholders** while resolving critical integration issues.
Systems Engineer I, Taco Bell Corp.
2017-Oct - 2018-Aug
Advanced FOH system performance and efficiency by championing L3 stability initiatives and developing key software solutions.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Designed and developed a **Selenium** automation tool using **Python**, **Pytest**, and the **Page Object Model (POM)** to automate payment device transfers, **reducing processing time by over 90%**.
- Authored comprehensive training materials and technical documentation for kiosk system rollout, **conducting training sessions** and enabling standardized deployment to over 7,000+ stores nationwide.
- Drove significant stability improvements across mission-critical FOH systems (**POS**, **Kiosk**, **Payment Systems**) by leading L3 initiatives in **root cause analysis**, **PVT**, and proactive **dashboard monitoring**.
- Executed regular maintenance and updates to maintain system health and security across the FOH technology stack.
IT Intern, Taco Bell Corp.
2017-Mar - 2017-Oct
Drove key technology initiatives to improve system performance and reduce operational costs.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Independently architected and developed a **data pipeline** using **Python**, **AWS S3**, and **Athena** to collect and analyze storage drive health data from the Back of House (BOH) PCs of **over 6,500 restaurants** nationwide.
- Reduced unnecessary drive replacements by **over 30%** and identified 40+ faulty drives that vendors were reintroducing into the field, prompting a process overhaul and improving diagnostic accuracy for service desk analysts.
- Refactored the full-stack codebase (**Python**, **SQL**, **JavaScript**, **HTML/CSS**) for the Food Cost Analysis app (a menu pricing and profitability tool) on **AWS EC2**, resolving critical production issues to improve its stability for Operations
- Delivered key code updates (bug fixes, security patches, and features) and built **software releases** to improve Back of House (BOH) system stability.
SKILLS
Programming Languages
Python C# JavaScript C++ SQLCloud & Infrastructure
AWS Serverless Framework AWS CloudFormation AWS CDK Terraform Google Cloud PlatformAWS Services
EC2 Lambda Step Functions EventBridge S3 RDS DynamoDB Athena API Gateway SQS SNS VPC Route 53 IAM Secrets Manager CloudWatchWeb Development
RESTful APIs GraphQL HTML CSS Typescript Node.js ReactDatabases
PostgreSQL SQL Server MySQL DynamoDB DuckDBContainerization & CI/CD
Docker GitHub Actions GitLab CIDeveloper Tools & Monitoring
Git (Gitlab, GitHub) Grafana LumigoOperating Systems
Linux (Ubuntu, Debian) macOS Windows TrueNASEDUCATION
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science - California State University, Fullerton
2013-Aug - 2017-May
COURSES
- Graduated Cum Laude
- Dean's List (All Semesters)
- Key Coursework: Data Structures & Algorithms, Operating Systems, Database Systems, Software Engineering