← About

Profile

I am a dedicated life-long learner who is passionate about science and software engineering. I enjoy solving complicated problems, teaching, and bringing new ideas to life. In my spare time I like to cook, keep learning, and eat baked goods, and I love being around people, especially my family.

Website: holtherndon.com

Languages

Java Golang JavaScript (TypeScript) Bash React SQL Python Scala Ruby

Tools

Bazel REST/HTTP Kafka Git PostgreSQL MongoDB CassandraDB Elasticsearch

Platforms

AWS Kubernetes On Premesis

Expertise

Developer Productivity Real-Time Messaging Protocol Design Mutation Testing Distributed Systems

Holt Herndon

Experience

Senior Software Engineer

Stripe - South San Francisco, CA (Remote) | April 2022 - Present

  • Led Large-Scale Infrastructure Migrations: Executed large, structured code changes across a Java & Scala monorepo of over 30 million lines of code, managing repository-wide transitions from legacy versions to modern software standards and creating governance models that streamlined versioning and long-term upgrades.
  • Optimized Engineering Tooling and Performance: Architected comprehensive improvements to build system throughput, linting, and development environments — including custom IntelliJ plugins — significantly reducing build times and improving overall developer productivity.
  • Standardized Code Quality and Formatting: Designed and led the implementation of company-wide Java code quality standards and industry-standard formatting and linting tools, increasing development pipeline throughput by 18x and drastically reducing build failures.
  • Automated Code Quality and Analysis: Built custom command-line tools to automate the suppression of compiler warnings, replacing manual, error-prone processes with reliable, AST-based diagnostic parsing.
  • Created Automated Error Remediation Pipelines: Engineered diagnostic tooling that identifies codebase issues and automatically generates actionable tickets, enabling efficient bug resolution and technical debt management at scale.
  • Optimized Performance Through Runtime Innovation: Enabled early adoption of advanced concurrency models (VirtualThreads) ahead of official platform releases, unlocking substantial resource cost savings and improved throughput for high-scale services.
  • Enhanced Remote Developer Experience: Drove the full organizational transition to unified remote development platforms, reducing infrastructure resource wastage and enabling more robust, scalable development workflows.
  • Defined Long-Term Engineering Strategy: Authored "Managed Java" and "2029 Vision" documentation, establishing technical frameworks and strategic governance models, and used data-driven metrics from internal tooling to identify bottlenecks and guide team planning.
  • Facilitated Cross-Functional Dependency Management: Developed automated, tier-based dependency update mechanisms, enabling safer, coordinated version deployments across complex, multi-team engineering environments.
  • Championed Technical Knowledge Sharing: Led collaborative workshops and authored technical documentation to improve team proficiency in performance profiling, debugging, and advanced build system utilization.

Senior Software Engineer

Zimperium - Dallas, TX (Remote) | April 2021 - April 2022

  • Led Production Feature Delivery: Served as lead developer for multiple features delivered to production.
  • Deployed Multi-Cloud SaaS Solutions: Deployed SaaS solutions to AWS, GCP, on-premises, and other cloud environments using Kubernetes.
  • Built Robust Microservices: Developed heavily tested microservices in Java/Spring Boot and Golang.
  • Designed Event-Driven Architecture: Built services on a Kafka-backed event sourcing architecture.

Sr. Associate Software Engineer

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. - Plano, TX (Remote) | June 2020 - April 2021

  • Owned Document Ingest Software: Maintained and improved software to efficiently collect, store, and transfer customer documents.
  • Resolved Critical Encoding Issues: Quickly debugged and solved document encoding problems introduced by middleware.
  • Developed Tested Microservices: Built and tested microservices in Java/Spring Boot.

Converted to full-time employee from consultant at Judge Technical Services in October 2020

Software Engineer

USAA - Plano, TX | January 2019 - May 2020

  • Launched USAA SafePilot: Developed the JBoss API layer and launched the SafePilot mobile app, helping members save money through safe driving habits.
  • Ensured Code Reliability: Thoroughly tested code using JUnit and mutation testing.
  • Implemented Event Messaging: Built microservice messaging using Kafka.
  • Presented Keynote Talks: Delivered multiple keynote presentations on clean code and code quality.

Senior Software Engineer

Hypixel, Inc. - Canada (Remote) | May 2012 - December 2016

  • Built Real-Time Messaging System: Developed a homegrown, low-latency, high-throughput, real-time messaging system with minimalistic TCP/IP protocols.
  • Scaled Core Systems: Optimized and scaled core systems to support 92,000+ concurrent players.
  • Created Popular Minigames: Built several minigames played by millions of players around the world.
  • Collaborated Across Time Zones: Worked with remote teammates located in many different countries.

Freelance Development

Freelance (Remote) | March 2010 - May 2012

  • Delivered Custom Java Applications: Developed various Java applications for numerous clients as needed.
  • Optimized Client Systems: Debugged and resolved major bottlenecks in clients' networks.

Education

M.S. Computer Science

Georgia Tech University | 2023 (in progress)

B.S. Computer Science

Abilene Christian University | 2015-2018