# Finn Banks > Software Engineer at Clara AI Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/finnbanks It took me a bit of time to figure out what I wanted to put here, I think I've finally got an answer. Non-Technical Sales Pitch: I'm an operations driven software engineer. I've spent a long time working directly with (internal) customers, and I love working with them. Operations and enablement work is the perfect mix of extremely rewarding work, human connection, and can make or break a company. I drive at things from a product perspective. One of my favorite things to do in my job is honing on the exact requirements and success criteria of a system I'm working on. This is a critical element of any operations application, as internal customers should have a strong say in the direction of an application. Technical Sales Pitch: I have a lot of experience building production scale applications strictly from the ground floor. On the backend, my application are driven by Python (FastAPI + Celery). On the frontend, I've shifted the majority of my coding to being LLM generated, and I've found Typescript + React + Shadcn creates a good harmony there. In order to keep my velocity, I maintain a full-stack template that lets me spin up new applications in hours, complete with AWS hosting if that's necessary. The latest addition to this has been extensive documentation accessible via MCP, in order to fully enable coding agents. I'm always spinning up new projects (feel free to reach out to ask), including my personal website and others on my Linux server. "Being a Real Person" Sales Pitch Outside of work, I'm an avid cyclist, skier, and enthusiast about just about all things outdoors. I've been growing as a chef (but keep falling into the hole of utilitarian cooking), have about 5 perpetual coding side projects (that never get past MVP), and track just about as much as I can about my life. ## Work Experience ### Founding Software Engineer @ Clara AI Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco, CA * Architected and implemented full tech stack for Clara, including our cloud infrastructure, docker organization, backend design * Streamlined system RCA analysis by building visibility framework coupled with product specific logging (Opensearch) * Built QA testing framework with non-technical interface for better application visibility and stability * Designed and created Poplar, a internal deployed ECS task management system for running virtualized Claude Code instances ### Software Engineer @ Zoox Jan 2021 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area Tech lead on Zalendar, internal tool built for asset scheduling. - manages hundreds of daily events, thousands of assets, and hundreds of thousands of historical cataloging - unified and standardized scheduling system at company across multiple competing systems - slowly on the road to automation, including weighted cost savings algorithms for optimal operations usage Other work at Zoox - helped migrate larger team from Vue to React, including technical architecture decisions and company best practices, including pushing and driving the creation of a shared component library - led multiple migrations across architectures, including ECS to EKS, cross AWS region transfers, database shifts, and python versions / frameworks - helped progress operations forward by guiding their practices towards most effective use of internal tool ### Software Engineer Intern - UCTG @ Cisco Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | San Jose, California, United States Cisco’s Unified Communication Technology Group (UCTG) provides integrated enterprise communications solutions, spanning video conferencing to headset devices. • Designed and deployed versatile announcement bot system in Python within Webex Teams to convey critical deployment information • Researched and am implementing PoC that integrates Cisco’s native assistant (Webex Assistant) into Webex Teams in C++ • Leading project to revamp headset testing tool to allow for RESTful API endpoints and full integration into existing testing environment with Flask ### Software Engineering Intern @ Ablacon, Inc. Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Munich, Germany Ablacon is a lean, investor-funded startup that uses AI to analyze and visualize electrical flow in the heart to treat atrial fibrillation. • Created standalone dashboard application using Dash’s Python package to allow for monitoring of pipeline configuration, evaluation metrics, and database management of existing analysis files. • Proposed and headed coding sprint to shift existing data visualization implementation from Bokeh to Plotly’s Dash. • Engaged in CE (European FDA) finalization milestone, including the creation, closing, and discussion of issues required for the product to become certified. • Developed commenting and annotation system in the existing product using Python and SQLAlchemy to allow for user notation during and after a procedure. ### Software Engineering Intern @ iTradeNetwork, Inc. Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Dublin, California iTradeNetwork is a global provider of supply chain management solutions for the food and beverage industry using cloud-based software. • Developed image processing module for Android and iOS development to enable annotating and highlighting of food inspection reports and integrated into production code • Led project entailing supplier-side inspection using retailer specifications and analyzed research gathered to effectively implement solution for expansion of iTradeFresh product ### Fuller Research Group - Software Development and Chemical Data Analysis, Summer Intern @ Stanford University Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Palo Alto, CA The Fuller Research Group studies the processing of complex liquids (polymers, suspensions, emulsions, biological fluids) and how it alters their microstructure through orientation and deformation of their constitutive elements. • Interned under Dr. Gerald Fuller and doctoral candidate Vineeth Chandran Suja on a private industry-funded eye-related project studying the dynamics of complex fluid interfaces and the automation of data processes. • Programmed in Matlab and documented in LaTeX to automate the generation of thickness profiles for eye tear film in research to better diagnose the symptoms of dry eye. • Utilized complex algorithms to enhance interferometry data collected. • Retained for follow-on programming work in Python and Matlab during Fall, 2017. ### Gator Math Tutoring @ Self-Employed Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 | Palo Alto, CA Founded a high-school level math tutoring curriculum for teaching advanced concepts in math (geometry, algebra, and calculus), successfully helping multiple students achieve greatly improved math test results. ### Summer Intern - Data Analytics and Product Testing @ Spirox, Inc. Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Palo Alto, CA Spirox is a medical device company focused on developing minimally invasive technologies to improve the quality of life for patients with nasal obstruction. • Analyzed data from clinical trials of absorbable nasal implants to determine the potential useful product life. Research lead to the discovery that the nasal implants lasted much longer than previously thought. • Engaged in testing hypodermic needles on pig skin to determine their potential use for a next generation device. ## Education ### Bachelor of Science: Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Bachelor of Science: Computer Science The Johns Hopkins University ### High School in Graduated Sacred Heart Preparatory ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/finn-banks --- Source: https://flows.cv/finnbanks JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/finnbanks/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-29