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Bryan O'Connor

Bryan O'Connor

I’ve been building software for more than 16 years. Sometimes that means writing the code, sometimes designing the architecture, planning the product, or leading the team doing the work. I’ve done it for Fortune 100 companies, a regional bank, an aerospace manufacturer, and small family-owned businesses, and I’ve run my own software business since 2018.

ExperienceProjects

About

Professional background

I’ve worked as a software engineer, lead engineer, solutions architect, technical director, technical product owner, and business owner. Across those roles I’ve written production code from front end to back end, designed systems and integrations, managed product backlogs and roadmaps, mentored engineers, and led technical work for enterprise clients and small businesses.

The problems I enjoy most usually need several of those at once: understanding what an organization needs, choosing an approach that will hold up, building it, and making sure the people who rely on it can use it.

In 2018 I started MyBetterMe, my own software business. Running it has taught me the parts of technology work that don’t show up in code: scoping, budgets, client relationships, and supporting what you’ve built long after launch.

B.S. in Computer Science, The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. Magna Cum Laude, 3.97 GPA.

Outside of work

Teaching is a big part of my life. I teach coding and practical skills to homeschool students, and those classes led me to build Moonspire Academy. I also teach karate; I hold a Shodan (black belt) in Matsumura Seiyo Shorin-Ryu.

I wrote Becoming Agile, a book on Agile practices, and I co-chair the Salt Lake City Homeless Project. I also build things on my own, including Skye, an AI assistant I use every day.

Experience

MyBetterMeOwnerMay 2018 – Present

Custom software and technical consulting for small and mid-sized businesses.

mybetterme.net

MyBetterMe overview (video)
  • Lead client work from requirements through architecture, development, deployment, training, and ongoing support.
  • Serve as fractional technical director for a field-services company, advising ownership, operations, HR, and finance on roadmap, governance, security, and technical debt.
  • Replaced that company’s workforce tool and manual processes with a single operations platform, now used by more than 300 field technicians.
  • Architected a multi-tenant SaaS platform.
  • Built operations and e-commerce platforms for an engineering services company and an educational products company.
Kin + CartaLead Engineer, Senior Engineer, Solutions Architect, Technical Director, Technical Product Owner, Principal EngineerJun 2021 – May 2024
  • Worked across concurrent enterprise client engagements in aerospace and financial services.
  • Built a computer vision proof of concept for an aerospace client, delivered about two weeks ahead of an 11-week deadline.
  • As technical product owner for a Fortune 100 financial services client, managed the backlog and roadmap for a regulation-driven modernization and ran refinement sessions.
  • Built support dashboards for the same client that cut ticket response times from about three weeks to one to two days. They were adopted across the organization.
  • Designed and implemented AWS-based CI/CD pipelines.
  • Integrated AI-powered analytics and data workflows for clients.
  • Mentored 12 engineers.
  • Provided architectural leadership on a Gold Stevie Award–winning project.
VivintWeb Developer (contract)Nov 2020 – Jun 2021
  • Took over the customer-facing My Account application (Vue.js) through a handoff from the lead engineer.
  • Resolved a Salesforce-related production issue that had gone unfixed for more than a year. I traced it to a module loading before its dependency, and the fix was one line.
  • Was retained for an additional project after the contract ended.
Zions BancorporationWeb Developer IVJul 2019 – Nov 2020
  • Built the front end for the Treasury Gateway, a new treasury platform on Liferay DXP.
  • Recommended against the planned React front end after finding it conflicted with Liferay’s module loader and state handling. The lead backend engineer and Liferay specialist agreed, and the team used the platform’s native approach.
  • Worked with the Marketing Director and an outside design agency to revise the designs before implementation.
CiscoSoftware Engineer III (contract)Dec 2018 – May 2019
  • Took over and finished a server health dashboard after the original engineer left, ahead of schedule.
  • With a database specialist, redesigned a data migration, reducing its estimated runtime from about 256 days to seconds.
AscentialSenior Software Engineer (contract)Aug 2018 – Oct 2018
  • Helped stabilize an Angular application during a post-acquisition restructuring.
TranontSenior Software EngineerOct 2017 – Aug 2018
  • Redesigned the associate back-office portal and about six public websites.
  • Created a company-wide brand and style guide and applied it across the portal and sites, working with the Marketing Director and VP.
AlphaGraphicsSenior DesignerMar 2015 – Oct 2017
  • Organized a production library of about 3,500 fonts, wrote AppleScripts to automate repetitive work, and built templates and reference guides for the sales team. Department output rose about 80%, and the company had its best year in more than two decades.
Earlier experienceMatthews International, M Graphics & Signs, Freelance web design
Matthews International, Data Specialist
Automated about 90% of repetitive data entry using the application’s built-in scripting. Corporate headquarters sent someone to learn the process for wider use.
M Graphics & Signs, Web Developer / Production Designer
Print production and website work.
Freelance web design
While in college.

Organizations I’ve worked with

  • Blue Origin logo
  • Discover logo
  • Cisco logo
  • Zions logo
  • Vivint logo
  • DISH logo
  • Trimble logo
  • Alphagraphics logo
  • MDRT logo
  • Tranont logo
  • Matthews logo

Projects

Client work

Client names are withheld for confidentiality.

  • Field-services company

    Operations platform

    After a failed audit, the company was running on a third-party workforce tool and a set of disconnected manual processes. Over several years, I built a single platform covering work orders, time tracking, payroll, compliance, photo management, HR reporting, executive dashboards, client portals, and analytics. Legacy systems ran in parallel until the final cutover in May 2026. More than 300 field technicians and six senior stakeholders now use it.

    Node.js, Express, MongoDB, AWS, Chart.js

  • Engineering services company

    Operations platform

    The owner wanted the office, the field engineers, and clients working from the same information. I built a platform with separate roles for each, including:

    • project tracking with statuses and labels
    • a client portal for invoices and updates
    • clock-in time tracking
    • document storage on AWS S3
    • CSV exports for payroll

    Budget was always a consideration, so we planned a roadmap that let the platform grow in stages.

    Node.js, Express, MongoDB, AWS S3

  • Educational products company

    E-commerce platform

    The company sells physical products, installation services, pilot programs, and subscriptions. I built the storefront, the marketing pages, and an administrative back office with role-based permissions, Stripe payments and subscriptions, and product, pricing, and inventory management. Then I trained the staff to run it without a developer.

    Node.js, Express, MongoDB, Stripe, AWS S3

  • Aerospace manufacturer

    Computer vision proof of concept

    The question was whether computer vision could align in-process manufacturing images with post-production CT scans to find defects. The timeline was 11 weeks, the data was inconsistent, and computing resources were limited. I built the image registration and alignment approach in Python and OpenCV, reporting directly to the client’s VP and subject-matter expert, and delivered about two weeks early. The results showed the alignment problems came from inconsistent source data. I recommended validating against 5,000–10,000 samples before any production investment.

    Python, OpenCV

  • Fortune 100 financial services company

    Support dashboards

    Internal support for product and engineering teams ran through legacy Jira, with response times around three weeks. As support moved to ServiceNow, I built dashboards and charts that tracked tickets, prioritized critical issues, and categorized the rest. Response times dropped to one to two days, and a VP asked me to roll the dashboards out across the organization.

    ServiceNow, Jira

  • Large networking company

    Server health dashboard and data migration

    I took over an unfinished React and D3 dashboard that showed engineers where servers were struggling, built on Prometheus data, and delivered it ahead of schedule. I then worked with a database specialist on a Cassandra-to-relational migration estimated to take about 256 days. Redesigning it around multithreaded Python worker pools brought the runtime down to seconds.

    React, D3.js, Prometheus, Python, Cassandra

1 of 6

Personal projects

  • Skye’s customer view, with pipeline summary and a chat panel for asking Skye to draft replies or find meeting times

    Skye

    An AI assistant I built for my own work. It connects to my email, calendar, Trello board, and customer records to draft messages, plan meetings, and prepare a daily briefing. It can only propose actions. Nothing is sent, booked, or created without my approval, which limits the risk from malicious instructions in incoming email. It saves me more than five hours a week at about $0.10 per run. Demo available on request.

    Node, Express, React, MongoDB, Anthropic Claude API

  • Moonspire Academy battle arena, with a character facing two zombies and an inventory bar of spells and items

    Moonspire Academy

    A learning game for homeschool students that grew out of the classes I teach. Crafting activities, like brewing a potion or forging a sword, teach fractions, measurement, ratios, and following instructions. Parents see which skills their child has demonstrated rather than percentage scores. About 50 students have used it, and 8 are active now. The codebase has about 150 automated test files.

    Node, Express, MongoDB, Socket.io, Stripe

    moonspireacademy.com

  • Northstar roadmap with color-coded swimlanes, milestones by quarter, and PNG and PDF export buttons

    Northstar

    A roadmap planning tool with swimlanes, milestones, and PNG and PDF export.

  • Cadence week view, showing each day’s events in a calendar grouped by team member, with filters for routines, blocks, moments, and milestones

    Cadence

    A free calendar tool for Agile teams that shows product and event timelines, so everyone can see who is working on what, when, and where.

  • Becoming Agile

    A book on Agile practices for people working in technology.

    Available on Amazon

Skills

Languages and frameworks
JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, Express, React, Vue, Angular, Python, C# / ASP.NET, .NET, jQuery, HTML, CSS
Data
MongoDB, Oracle, Cassandra, Relational databases, Data migration
Platforms and tools
AWS, Liferay DXP, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Stripe, Prometheus, D3.js, Chart.js, Socket.io, Git, Linux, CI/CD
AI
Anthropic Claude API, OpenCV / computer vision, Claude Code, Cursor, OpenAI Codex
Architecture and delivery
System design, Integrations, Role-based access control, Agile/Scrum, Backlog and roadmap management, Requirements gathering
Working with people
Mentoring, Teaching, Stakeholder communication, Client training, Working with design and marketing teams

Contact

Email is the best way to reach me:

[email protected]

I’m also on LinkedIn and GitHub.

Based in the Salt Lake City area. Résumé available on request.