Joe Bader

LinkedIn

Senior Engineering Leader
Platform, Enablement & Architecture

Summary

Engineering leader with 20+ years building web platforms across enterprise, SaaS, and startup environments. Led up to six teams (approximately 30 engineers), improving on-time delivery from 30% to 95% and lead time by 4x through operating-model, architecture, and developer-experience leadership.

Areas of Focus

  • Platform & Engineering Enablement
  • Architecture Stewardship & Technical Governance
  • Engineering Operating Model & Org Design
  • AI-Assisted and Agentic Development Practices
  • Cross-Team Execution, Stakeholder Alignment & Dependency Ownership
  • People Leadership & Talent Development
  • Developer Productivity & Experience
  • Scalable SaaS and Web Platforms

Professional Experience

Senior Manager, Software Engineering

Riskonnect | Remote

12/2021 - 12/2025

  • Led five cross-functional engineering teams (approximately 30 engineers) on a core B2B SaaS platform, improving on-time delivery from 30% to 95% while meeting reliability targets.
  • Co-designed the organization-wide engineering operating model, improving average cycle time by 3x and reducing cross-team dependency delays.
  • Scaled AI-assisted and agentic development practices from pilot teams to adoption across five teams, increasing pull request throughput by 40%.
  • Served as senior architecture reviewer for high-impact initiatives, preventing high-risk design patterns before implementation and reducing long-term platform risk.
  • Implemented DORA metrics and leadership review cadences, improving lead time for changes by 4x and increasing delivery visibility for executive planning.
  • Partnered with product and executive leadership to sequence multi-quarter initiatives, improving roadmap predictability by 90% and strengthening portfolio-level delivery confidence.

Lead Software Engineer (Contract)

Comcast (via TEKsystems) | Philadelphia, PA

10/2018 - 07/2021

  • Led engineering for four high-visibility initiatives across Comcast's digital sales and account management platforms, delivering releases within 95% of planned timeline targets.
  • Served as a senior developer on Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store (BOPIS) implementation across five applications and services, reducing hardware-shipping overhead and replacing multi-day mail fulfillment or 2-3 hour in-store onboarding waits with faster pickup workflows.
  • Contributed to re-architecture of high-traffic customer-facing systems serving millions of users, reducing critical page latency by 60% and production defects by 75%.
  • Owned billing, consent, and call-center integration workflows tied to revenue and compliance, reducing compliance-related defects by 97% in audited workflows.

Founder, Managing Partner, and Technology Principal

5 Foot Gorilla, LLC | Philadelphia, PA / Remote

10/2017 - 10/2018

  • Built and led a technology consulting firm delivering custom SaaS, web, and mobile solutions from discovery through production launch.
  • Owned technical execution, solution architecture, sales scoping, and delivery governance across client engagements, aligning outcomes to business goals, budgets, and timelines.
  • Advised clients on platform modernization and scalable architecture strategy, reducing delivery friction and improving long-term maintainability.

Principal Software Engineer / Development Manager (Contract)

Comcast (via FIS Global / Yoh) | Philadelphia, PA

02/2016 - 09/2017

  • Led redesign and re-architecture of Xfinity My Account (approximately 11M monthly users), owning billing and payment journeys representing 80% of self-service traffic.
  • Received the Creativity International Gold Award for Web Redesign as part of the Xfinity My Account redesign program.
  • Partnered with product, design, and service architecture leaders to deliver 26 major releases in 19 months while keeping scope churn under 10% through disciplined backlog and release management.
  • Delivered the program eight weeks ahead of schedule and 20% under budget, reducing average session duration by 40% and increasing successful bill payment rates by 80%.

Chief Product Officer

Cnverg | Philadelphia, PA

05/2015 - 02/2016

  • Took a prototype-stage product to market in under six months by stabilizing the codebase and formalizing delivery practices, eliminating critical pre-launch defects in final release cycles.
  • Led a mixed team of full-time engineers, contractors, and interns (6 total), delivering 85% of committed roadmap milestones on time while remaining hands-on in priority delivery areas.
  • Drove targeted feature delivery, performance tuning, and platform hardening that supported 560% user growth while building net-new product capabilities from the ground up.

User Interface Architect / Tech Lead

EY Design Studio (formerly Intuitive Company) | Philadelphia, PA

11/2013 - 05/2015

  • Served as technical lead on multidisciplinary teams delivering custom enterprise solutions across 3 concurrent client engagements.
  • Partnered with principals and engagement leads on architecture, planning, and client strategy to improve delivery predictability and reduce rework across engagements.
  • Several years as an independent contractor delivering 25+ web and systems engineering projects across industries, with 90% repeat-client business across retained accounts and 95% on-time delivery.
  • As UI Developer at cPanel, contributed to a major interface overhaul used by millions of end users, improving usability metrics (for example, task completion/time-to-complete) by 80%.
  • As Director of IT at Exam Master Corporation, led infrastructure modernization and platform redevelopment as greenfield initiatives that established scalable foundations for future reliability and support operations.

Technical Background

Languages
JavaScript, SQL, Ruby, .NET, PHP, HTML, CSS
Frameworks
React, AngularJS, Node.js, Ruby on Rails
Cloud & Infrastructure
AWS, Heroku, DigitalOcean, Linux
CI/CD
Jenkins, CircleCI, Azure DevOps
Practices
Agile delivery, DevOps, DORA metrics, platform engineering

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