# Denise Salazar

> Software Engineer, Backend

Location: Mountain View, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/denisesalazar

I am a backend developer with 4+ years of experience building internal tools and APIs. I graduated with my Master's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in June 2016. Since graduating, I was a co-founder of a startup, Meddy, in a project manager role and I decided to switch careers to Software Engineering. My languages include Python, Java, and Golang.

## Work Experience
### Software Engineer @ Hayden AI
Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States

### Software Engineer II @ Electronic Arts (EA)
Jan 2020 – Jan 2024 | Redwood Shores, CA
- Designed and implemented self-service provisioning tool for Configuration Publishing service (Java & Spring Boot app) by enabling editing publish destinations and project preferences; established relevant tables in MySQL relational database with CRUD interface as REST APIs
- Developed core backend features of Game Configuration Service (Java and Spring Boot app) with APIs called on game startup; completed fetching config feature with configs stored on EFS; enabled auditing events with API calls to internal Auditing service
- Applied authentication and authorization middleware to Configuration Management (CM, Golang app) gRPC APIs to verify JWT tokens
- Defined APIs for the CM service in protobuf - including a gitlab proxy endpoint and self-service deployment environment endpoints for creating and deleting; generated Golang code of the APIs with buf and then implemented them
- Performed load testing for CM service with internal tool; set-up infrastructure for load testing including test user, test project, a new Kubernetes cluster and terraform to spin up AWS resources; constructed load test scenarios with Gatling; discovered high load times on certain SQL functions during analysis
- Collaborated to define team working agreement; facilitated regular knowledge sharing with synchronous code reviews

### Software Engineer I @ Electronic Arts (EA)
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Redwood Shores, CA
- Designed notifications feature for Configuration Publishing service (Java app) using AWS cloud resources S3, SNS, and Lambda; Auto-generated notifications for developer team and 7 game team customers of publishes and exceptions over email and Slack in real time, which allowed for faster debugging and communication
- Added custom app-level metrics with dimensions to send to AWS CloudWatch; then enhanced Grafana dashboard for monitoring
- Queried Postgres db for data and created front-end d3js UI for monthly CP service usage report; deployed report to AWS S3
- Improved CP test coverage by about 40% through the implementation of JUnit tests for all CP REST controllers

### Software Engineer Intern @ Electronic Arts (EA)
Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Redwood Shores, California
- Devised test automation pipeline for Configuration Publishing service (Java app); developed integration tests with Python unittest framework and arranged containerized test deployment with Jenkins
- Test automation pipeline ensured every commit to main is of good quality; caught 8 bugs in a 2-month period
- Worked on a d3js powered front-end UI to display the test results report generated by the pipeline in a user-friendly manner

### Co-Founder @ Meddy
Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Mountain View, CA
- Directed the development of a mobile application for my startup in healthcare space
- Led technical discussions between internal team and developer team in project manager role during app development process from October 2017 to February 2018
- Created company website with front-end skills HTML, CSS, JavaScript
- Completed the prototype and design phases

### Math Instructor @ Mathnasium - The Math Learning Center
Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Redwood City, California
- Taught math concepts to students ranging from elementary school through high school
- Clearly communicated concepts to students until they could explain back to me
- Helped the students with their math homework
- Performed private tutoring for SAT prep, Geometry, and Calculus.

### Graduate Teaching Assistant @ Stanford University
Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Stanford, California
- Held teaching assistant position for AA 240A Analysis of Structures class in Autumn quarter 2015
- Held office hours, graded assignments, and presented problem sessions
- End of quarter feedback indicated I spoke clearly in problem sessions and was very approachable

### Aerospace Engineering Intern @ The Aerospace Corporation
Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Chantilly, Virginia
- Worked in the Performance Modeling and Analysis Department
- Optimized a budget portfolio by creating C++ code that maximizes Commander’s rankings and minimizes risk; I implemented the study with internal genetic evolutionary optimization tool
- Minimized revisit time and number of satellites for final SBIRS constellation in another optimization study
- Compiled low velocity encounter cases of satellites at GEO and computed probability of collision for each case using internal tools
- Brainstormed ideas to investigate the performance of a team of UAVs in a disaster scenario

### Aerospace Engineering Intern @ The Aerospace Corporation
Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | El Segundo, California
- Worked in the Navigation and Geo-positioning Systems Department
- Investigated the resiliency and weak points of a Walker 18/6/2 GPS constellation
- Utilized the Satellite Orbit Analysis Program (SOAP) to visualize satellite formations
- Ported propagation code from C to Python and demonstrated the use of an internal C library in Python

### Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Intern @ NASA Ames Research Center
Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Moffett Field, California
- Performed tests in the 80- by 120- foot wind tunnel using Cobra and Alnor probes to study the effects of turbulence from a wall in front of a small scale inlet
- Automated process with Excel Macros to create visuals and plots in order to analyze the large amount of data produced from the tests
- Study was published as a NASA Technical Report titled "Turbulence Intensity at Inlet of 80- by 120- Foot Wind Tunnel Caused by Upwind Blockage." NASA/CR-2014-216637

### Space Academy Research Associate @ NASA Glenn Research Center
Jan 2013 – Jan 2013 | Cleveland/Akron, Ohio Area
- Designed a customized General Purpose Heat Source Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (GPHS-RTG) for a small low-power lander to operate for a long duration mission on the surface of Venus
- Collaborated on two conceptual designs for missions to Venus and Titan with 7 other research associates
- One study titled "Non-Cooled Power System for Venus Lander," AIAA 2014-3459, was presented at the AIAA Propulsion and Energy conference in Cleveland, OH, on July 28, 2014
- Another study for a complete Venus lander conceptual design was presented at the IAC conference in 2014


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/salazardenise
- Portfolio: http://salazardenise.com/
- GitHub: https://github.com/salazardenise

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Source: https://flows.cv/denisesalazar
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/denisesalazar/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10