Derek Williams

Software Architect · Full Stack Developer

A principal engineer, full-stack developer, software architect, and engineering team leader.
A starter, creator, learner, and mentor with deep experience building mission-critical software systems.


Skills

Programming Languages & Tools
Current Specializations
  • Large, cloud-native systems with Java, Spring, Quarkus, Kubernetes, AWS, and GCP
  • Single-page responsive (Angular, Bootstrap) and native mobile apps (Android, iOS)
  • Test-driven development and automation with JUnit, Cucumber, Jasmine, Gatling, and K6
  • DevOps, continuous integration and deployment with GitHub Actions, Jenkins, TeamCity, Artifactory, and Nexus
  • High-volume/performance design, analysis, and tuning
  • Agile and Scrum with JIRA and VersionOne

Experience

Principal Software Engineer

Architecting, designing, and coding store selling and checkout solutions. Deploying computer vision models and ML-based decision models. Building Kubernetes services deployed at cloud (GCP/GKE) and edge (in store).

February 2023 - Present

Principal Engineering Team Leader

Led payments engineering teams with staff direct reports and contractors. Developed new strategies and designs for our digital and card-present payments. Developed Spring microservices and native app frameworks for our customer-facing mobile and web apps and delivery platforms. Extended our Kubernetes (AWS EKS) platform.

April 2020 - February 2023

Enterprise Architect

Served as enterprise architect and lead developer for new product initiatives, cross-product integration, and technology standards.

October 2014 - April 2020

Senior Engineering Architect

Created and integrated high-volume payment systems for ACH, image, and risk analysis.

April 2007 - October 2014

Senior Software Engineer

Enhanced new payment applications and performance-tuned them to maximize throughput.

August 2006 - April 2007

Software Engineer

Developed telecommunication provisioning and performance analysis software.

January 2006 - August 2006

Senior Advisory Software Engineer

Created high-volume payment, remittance, and exception processing systems with VisualAge, Visual Studio, and DB2.

July 1996 - January 2006

Founder and Lead Developer

Founded this part-time research and contact venture which built leading-edge payment processing applications using C# and .NET.

July 2003 - March 2006

Senior Software Engineer

Built healthcare applications using VisualWorks Smalltalk, C/C++, and Sybase.

August 1993 - July 1996

Software and Systems Engineer

Developed and supported applications in C/C++ and DB2 for 401(k) processing.

April 1993 - August 1993

Staff Programmer

Created and maintained system and application products for bank check/image processing.

January 1988 - April 1993

Education

Georgia Tech

B.S. with High Honors · Computer Science
Gamma Beta Phi · Briaerean Society · Cooperative Program
1987

Columbus State University

M.S. with Highest Honors · Applied Computer Science
Phi Kappa Phi
2009