Lead software engineer
I'm Dan, a lead engineer with 15+ years in mobile and console games, internal tools, and backend systems. I lead teams, untangle old systems, and build workflows that give engineers more time to work on the product.
About
I've spent 15+ years building games and the systems behind them, from gameplay code to AWS infrastructure.
My career started in gameplay programming at WayForward and grew through Disney Imagineering and Jam City. I've shipped work on Disney Emoji Blitz, Disney Magic Match, Frozen Adventures, and Inside Out: Thought Bubbles.
Today I lead engineers as well as systems. That includes hiring, mentoring, career development, code quality, and the less glamorous work of cutting technical debt before it slows everyone down.
Experience
2019 - Present
Developed game features and internal tools for Frozen Adventures, Disney Emoji Blitz, and Disney Magic Match. Led the Tech & Tools Pod with up to four engineers. Refactored an internal AWS backend from more than 200 Lambda functions to 12 core functions.
2012 - 2019
Built gameplay systems for Inside Out: Thought Bubbles and Disney Emoji Blitz. Reworked a live-event pipeline and cut engineer support from one to three days per event to zero.
2011 - 2012
Stabilized a poorly documented internal tool and migrated a legacy C++ application from 32-bit to 64-bit architecture.
2009 - 2011
Created scripted cinematics, enemy behavior, and a data-driven lighting system for the Nintendo DS. Maintained and ported two core gameplay systems across projects. Credits included Barbie and the Three Musketeers (PC, Nintendo DS, and Wii), Batman the Brave and the Bold (Nintendo DS), uDraw Spongebob Squigglepants (Nintendo Wii and 3DS), and Happy Feet Two (Nintendo 3DS).
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