Hi, my name is

Brandon Heck

Software Engineer building reliable, scalable backend systems.

Experienced Software Engineer with 17+ years simplifying the developer experience and delivering highly scalable, performant distributed systems, cloud-native microservices, and enterprise data platforms across healthcare IT, retail, fintech, and payments.

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About Me

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Experienced Software Engineer with 17+ years simplifying the developer experience, delivering highly scalable and performant distributed systems, cloud-native microservices, and enterprise data platforms. Proven track record across healthcare IT, retail, fintech, and payments.

Delivering reliable backend services and platforms on GCP and AWS, and implementing standardized service contracts and event-driven architecture. Experienced technical lead, architect, and mentor with a strong background in cloud infrastructure, IaC, and cross-functional collaboration — with a focus on delivering reliable backend services that improve member experiences and operational excellence.

Technologies & Tools
  • Java SE / Java EE
  • Apache Maven
  • Terraform
  • REST (JAX-RS)
  • BigQuery (GCP)
  • Dataform (GCP)
  • Datastream (GCP)
  • Pub/Sub (GCP)
  • Cloud Functions (GCP)
  • Workflows (GCP)
  • Cloud Storage (GCP)
  • Cloud Monitoring (GCP)
  • AWS Lambda
  • AWS Batch
  • AWS S3
  • AWS Step Functions
  • AWS SNS/SQS
  • SQL
  • Protocol Buffers
  • Jenkins
  • Docker
  • JMS
  • JMX
  • OAuth
  • Spring Boot
  • Python
  • Node.js
  • React.js
  • Clojure
  • Groovy

Experience

Sr. Software Engineer - Hy-Vee
Apr 2024 - Present
  • Build and maintain data extraction pipelines on GCP using Java, Cloud Functions, BigQuery, Dataform, and other GCP infrastructure
  • Orchestrate ETL workflows and implement data quality checks to ensure reliable, timely data delivery
  • Develop infrastructure monitoring and alerting tools to detect and surface execution deviations
  • Create microservices to serve business-relevant aggregate data
  • Manage cloud infrastructure as code (Terraform) across data platform services
Sr. Software Engineer - Marqeta
Nov 2021 - Mar 2024
  • Designed and implemented a multi-stage data ingestion pipeline using AWS native services, handling batch file parsing of disparate encodings and enriching data with correlated internal system records
  • Composed transaction-level views and standardized output into structured, random-access Apache Parquet files
  • Leveraged AWS Lambda, Step Functions, Batch, EventBridge, S3, SNS, and SQS to automate workflow; managed infrastructure with Terraform
  • Developed core application logic in Java, deploying multiple stages within Docker containers
  • Enhanced the Transaction Reconciliation service by storing financial transaction data, automating discrepancy reconciliation between system records and partner data, and generating detailed mismatch reports
  • Acted as security champion, monitoring vulnerability scans and prioritizing/resolving issues to strengthen system security
  • Served as privacy champion and liaison to Privacy and Compliance teams, ensuring product compliance with PCI-DSS and company privacy standards
Software Engineer IV - Cerner Corporation
Feb 2019 - Nov 2021
  • Led as subject matter expert for the Java service development platform on Millennium, enhancing middleware and operational tooling to standardize system integration across the flagship product suite
  • Developed and improved platform libraries covering service discovery, reliability, operational tooling, resilience, data serialization, message broker interaction, IOC/dependency injection, database config, caching, ORM, and logging abstraction
  • Delivered design guidance via sessions, knowledge transfers, meetups, wiki docs, sample projects, and Javadoc to streamline developer adoption for Millennium services
  • Validated integration of the Millennium platform with new OS, JRE, Java Enterprise, middleware brokers, and APM versions using automated regression, integration, and manual testing in isolated environments
  • Implemented and maintained Maven and Eclipse IDE plugins to accelerate creation and maintenance of Millennium services
  • Integrated Java enterprise runtime with a containerized platform, enabling migration of dozens of existing services to SaaS
  • Served as platform security champion, reviewing vulnerabilities, managing notifications, logging POA&Ms, and coordinating remediations in a FedRAMP environment
  • Mentored 8 developers, conducted code reviews, and led monthly knowledge transfers and demos to boost team capability
  • Advised on standardizing build and release pipelines for Java artifacts, leveraging Maven and Jenkins for improved CI/CD efficiency
Sr. Software Engineer
May 2008 - Nov 2018
  • Led a major uplift of Java enterprise platform APIs to utilize functions and generics, reducing developer configuration and environment skew with annotation-based design-time configuration
  • Enhanced platform integration with popular observability tools, enabling near-real-time monitoring of Java services across diverse client production environments
  • Designed and executed performance tests; established enterprise-wide standards for Java service performance tuning
  • Supported production operations by diagnosing performance issues and coordinating fixes between application development teams
  • Collaborated with vendors to resolve integration issues discovered during testing
  • Directed evolution of the team’s continuous integration system into a robust integration and release management pipeline; defined reusable patterns for all Java development company-wide
  • Served as subject matter expert for the Java enterprise platform
  • Developed WebSphere Application Server tooling to simplify web app deployment by integrating discoverability and removing manual configuration
  • Owned and enhanced enterprise platform libraries standardizing integrations with tooling and middleware
  • Created testing libraries to autowire test environments for black box testing
  • Improved integration with WebSphere MQ message queueing to enable cross-application traceability
  • Built Java services to serve and persist clinical data for scheduling, insurance authorization, and demographics
  • Developed a playground web application for an in-house OAuth provider using Java JSP and Selenium
Senior Software Engineer - PayIt
Nov 2018 - Feb 2019
  • Built Java REST microservices and a Clojure-based finite state machine for customer workflow automation
  • Integrated with client data systems; transformed and loaded customer data models into MongoDB
  • Enhanced a Node.js ES6 service for data transformation and display

Education

April 2008
Master of Science, Applied Computer Science
Northwest Missouri State University
GPA: 3.82
April 2006
Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
Northwest Missouri State University
GPA: 3.01

Community & Leadership

Scouting America
Committee Chair & Volunteer, September 2024 - Present.
Kansas City Java User's Group
Organizer & Host, June 2017 - December 2022. Managed speakers, sponsors, venues, web presence, and member communications to grow meetup attendance.
Cerner Java Developers Meetup
Lead Organizer & Emcee, March 2012 - November 2018. Coordinated topics and speakers; presented on practical Java topics for day-to-day development.
Eagle Scout
Boy Scouts of America, December 2019.

Get in Touch

My inbox is always open. Whether you have a question or just want to say hi, I’ll try my best to get back to you!
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