# Brian Barr

> Senior Software Engineer / Tech Lead at Walmart Global Tech

Location: San Francisco, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/brianbarr

Software Engineer with ~8 years of experience on agile software development teams. Currently focused on Node/React applications and API Architecture (REST, GraphQL). 

Always building: github.com/BarrBrian

## Work Experience
### Senior Software Engineer @ Walmart Global Tech
Jan 2021 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area
⦁ Supported 10+ microservices in Java and Node/Typescript with an Event-Driven Architecture leveraging Kafka pub/sub, database change feeds and HTTPS to manage both synchronous and asynchronous activities with internal systems and external vendors as we scaled from 1-million to 40-million active users.
⦁ Speared backend development to integrate a new service to launch a physical product nationwide that brought in over $40,000,000 in annual recurring revenue in the first year.
⦁ Eliminated the need for over 15,000,000 monthly inbound API calls and SQL lookups by designing and implementing an event-driven web hook to sync data with Fortune 500 partners.
⦁ Led a cross-domain project to integrate 5 separate engineering orgs and implemented a new cookie that enabled real-time user cohort targeting at the Torbit network layer to securely customize and analyze user experience across multiple devices.
⦁ Migrated critical services for 10-million+ users to a new Java backend by leveraging ID hashing, parallel API processing, and database query forwarding to ensure that Walmart+ remained available during the complete API and database migration with no downtime or incidents.
⦁ Enhanced functionality of the GraphQL platform libraries by implementing utility functions that were leveraged by Walmart’s most critical functions including accounts, cart, transactions, and identity services.
⦁ Managed a full stack feature team of 11 engineers, overseeing development, requirement grooming, testing, delivery timelines, and code reviews working in Java, Kotlin, Swift, and Typescript.
⦁ Served as on-call captain during holiday events such as Black Friday and Walmart+ Week where I triaged issues and represented Walmart+ engineering to leadership in cross-domain reporting and incident calls.
⦁ Optimized Splunk dashboard and alert queries to provide more robust coverage while reducing notification noise and cost.

### Software Engineer @ ShipShape
Jan 2021 – Jan 2021
⦁ Architected an Apollo GraphQL server with Node.js that aggregates Kubernetes cluster metrics into a single schema for clients to query without multiple API calls or slow over-fetching requests and remains flexible for future iterations.
⦁ Leveraged NodeJS worker threads to run asynchronous processes in parallel to improve GraphQL query runtime and port-forward a prometheus server without blocking synchronous I/O functionality or the single-threaded event loop.
⦁ Implemented React Hooks to manage state with minimal code and leverage the lifecycle methods of functional components to trigger conditional rendering of presentational component visualizations based on user input within sibling components.
⦁ Configured Travis CI to execute unit & integration tests developed with Jest and Enzyme, streamlining the code review process while ensuring the integrity and performance of the codebase across iterations. 
• Built a custom Webpack to provide an agile dev environment by writing the configuration to utilize hot module reloading and harnessing minification to reduce the bundle size in production, improving speed and UX.
⦁ Oversaw a team of engineers through an agile development process by facilitating architecture discussions, managing code integration, coaching individuals through technical challenges across the stack, and leading code reviews.
⦁ Containerized full-stack React applications with Docker and deployed to Google Kubernetes Service and AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service to test ShipShape’s monitoring tools under different stress conditions and use cases on both providers.

### Technical Product Owner @ American Express
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | New York, New York, United States
⦁ Led a team of engineers within a Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) to upgrade React web and native iOS apps, driving ~100,000 new accounts and a $1 billion increase in global card spend while maintaining international compliance.
⦁ Oversaw the implementation of a NoSQL document store that saves 400+ engineering hours annually by removing code dependencies required to launch new campaigns and paving the way for a no-code self-serve GUI that will save even more hours.
⦁ Reviewed RFCs and Jenkins test results with DevOps to ensure successful releases through a Blue-Green deployment model that eliminated downtime and defect risk on critical applications around the world used by millions daily.

### Multicomunicado | Real-time translation messaging service @ Open Source
Jan 2021 – Jan 2021
⦁ Optimized Redux with Thunk middleware to abstract async fetch calls from components to keep them pure and declarative, keeping the code clean for improved maintainability and debugging.
⦁ Utilized a NoSQL database to store conversation threads for fast read times and a flexible schema that supported rapid iteration and aggregation queries to display the correct language without storing duplicate message documents.
⦁ Created unit and integration tests with Jest/Enzyme to ensure that the application met specifications and to prevent defects.

### Spotify Tribe @ Open Source
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021
⦁ Integrated OAuth2 protocol for a direct authentication pattern that provided frictionless sessions managed by a third-party platform and access to user data for a seamless onboarding experience.
⦁ Implemented an Express server to leverage the single-threaded event loop with a chained modularized middleware pattern to authenticate and sanitize HTTP requests before executing database & 3rd Party API queries.
⦁ Utilized Atomic Component-Driven Development to give users unique profile configurations by positioning customizable widgets with CSS Grid and Flexbox based on React Router parameters used to pull page settings from a NoSQL database.

### Cofounder @ TryHards
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020
⦁ Created functional prototypes in Figma to coordinate engineers in iterating on our React/Node.js application.
⦁ Groomed user stories and estimated engineering effort to prioritize our product backlog along the RICE scoring model backed by quantitative & qualitative data from Google Analytics, FullStory, user interviews, competitor analysis, and live tests.
⦁ Managed the agile development process for a team of remote developers and designers.

### Director of Promotion Strategy @ Growth Machine
Jan 2017 – Jan 2019
⦁ Created a project management system that coordinated 60 people to publish and distribute content to over 3,000,000 monthly readers; scaling our business from ~$6,000 MRR to $150,000+ MRR in 18 months with clients from the Fortune 500 and Y Combinator.

### Product Manager @ SureDone
Jan 2014 – Jan 2016 | New York, New York
⦁ Scripted tools with Python, PHP, SQL, and Regex to automate business operations and integrate custom data feeds for our customers.
⦁ Oversaw front-end refactor to AngularJS that leveraged MVC architecture to create a responsive UI with real-time data editing and conditional rendering powered by an extended version of the existing API for backward compatibility.
⦁ Wrote requirements for a PHP server that was capable of receiving and sending REST API requests via HTTP & FTP to support authentication and updating an ACID compliant SQL database, avoiding concurrency issues with eCommerce transactions.
⦁ Wrote the documentation of our API and internal system design for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Developed a tiered defect triage system that maximized the use of engineering resources by prioritizing critical fixes in an efficient manner.
• Established engineering paradigms and practices for the company with the VP of Engineering to keep code maintainable and consistent across different components and integrations.
⦁ Created UI Wireframes and collaborated with designers & engineers to implement responsive design.
⦁ Nurtured strategic partnerships with companies like Amazon, eBay, Etsy, and Alibaba and gained access to early versions of technical releases, internal documentation, developer support, and client referrals.
⦁ Closed sales by serving as the technical liaison with engineers at client companies. 
⦁ Interviewed and hired software engineers & QA analysts to scale the team as we grew from less than $10,000 ARR to over $1,200,000 ARR.

### Strategy Analyst @ SureDone
Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | New York, New York
⦁ Interviewed users to develop strategic and product priorities.
⦁ Implemented a triaged support system and hired client success team that reduced churn by 30%.
⦁ Refined pitch decks that secured 7-figure seed funding.
⦁ Tracked and analyzed client's Google Analytics.
⦁ Developed a new financial model to report company P&L and projections to the Board of Directors.


## Education
### Bachelor's degree in Statistics and Quantitative Modeling (Minor: Mathematics)
Baruch College


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/barrbrian
- GitHub: https://github.com/BarrBrian

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Source: https://flows.cv/brianbarr
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/brianbarr/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-22