# Gavin Nelson > Software Engineer Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/gavinnelson Hi, Iā€™m Gavin šŸ‘‹ ā€” a Software Engineer who loves building scalable systems, wrangling massive datasets, and pushing the boundaries of what data can do. ## Work Experience ### Software Engineer @ Academia.edu Jan 2025 ā€“ Present | San Francisco Bay Area ### Technical Lead @ OneOrigin Jan 2024 ā€“ Jan 2025 | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States As a Technical Lead at OneOrigin, I drive the development of innovative web applications and data solutions, with a strong emphasis on scalability, cloud infrastructure, and efficient data management. My leadership has been pivotal in the successful delivery of complex projects, including the creation of Triangulator, a course equivalency suggestion engine built on AWS Neptune and Python. This project involved managing large-scale datasets with millions of nodes and edges, providing clients with accurate and actionable data insights. Key Responsibilities & Achievements: Project Leadership: Led a team in developing and optimizing ELT/ETL pipelines, resulting in a 10x improvement in data ingestion speed and reducing data inconsistencies to less than 1%. Cloud Architecture: Implemented Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, automating cloud resource provisioning and reducing deployment times by 50%. Backend Engineering: Developed scalable RESTful APIs using Flask, contributing to enhanced backend efficiency and reliability. Client Liaison: Served as the primary technical contact, ensuring alignment between technical solutions and business objectives, leading to successful project outcomes and high client satisfaction. Performance Optimization: Spearheaded initiatives that reduced cloud environmental costs by 57% and improved the performance of large graph queries by 7x, significantly enhancing application stability. In this role, I continue to refine my expertise in cloud technologies, data engineering, and team leadership, consistently delivering solutions that exceed client expectations and drive business success. ### Associate Technical Lead @ OneOrigin Jan 2023 ā€“ Jan 2024 | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States In my role as an Associate Technical Lead, I played a crucial role in bridging the gap between development and management, guiding a team of engineers in the implementation of scalable and efficient software solutions. During this period, I was instrumental in the early stages of the Triangulator project, setting the foundation for its success. Key Contributions: Team Leadership: Enhanced the productivity of a 4-member team by streamlining processes and ensuring the successful integration of complex data pipelines with AWS services. Technical Development: Worked closely on developing the backend architecture, including RESTful APIs and the implementation of IaC practices using Terraform, which improved deployment efficiency and consistency. Client Collaboration: Engaged directly with clients to gather requirements, provide technical insights, and ensure that the delivered solutions met their needs and expectations. Performance Improvement: Contributed to optimizing cloud-based solutions, leading to a significant increase in system performance and reliability. This role allowed me to sharpen my leadership skills, deepen my technical expertise, and lay the groundwork for my subsequent promotion to Technical Lead. ### Software Engineer II @ OneOrigin Jan 2022 ā€“ Jan 2023 | Scottsdale, Arizona, United States As a Software Engineer II at OneOrigin, I was responsible for developing robust backend solutions and integrating advanced machine learning models into our projects. My work primarily focused on building scalable applications and improving data processing pipelines. Notable Projects & Achievements: Machine Learning Integration: Developed a TensorFlow-based computer vision model for human behavior analysis, which was seamlessly integrated with existing data pipelines. Automation & Efficiency: Created an automated website monitoring tool using JavaScript and AWS, demonstrating my ability to enhance backend systems and streamline operations. Data Pipeline Management: Played a key role in the development and maintenance of data pipelines, handling large, interconnected datasets that enhanced processing efficiency and data quality. Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked closely with other teams to ensure that our backend solutions supported frontend requirements, contributing to the overall success of our projects. This role provided a solid foundation in backend development, data engineering, and machine learning, setting the stage for my advancement within the company. ### Software Developer Contractor @ U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Jan 2021 ā€“ Jan 2022 | Flagstaff, Arizona, United States - Contributed to multiple scientific open source software projects. - Performed quality control and created reporting metrics to ensure full functionality from the production environment. - Developed a CLI tool to allow a user to download and interact with mission specific data, acquired from various global aerospace agencies, directly through the use of AWS S3 Buckets. - Built data pipelines to support back end functions to preface team's development to front end. ### Information Technology Contractor @ U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Jan 2021 ā€“ Jan 2021 | Flagstaff, Arizona, United States - Bridging the gap between technical deep dive of application and logic to upper leadership, bringing metrics to a universally understood environment. - Designed and proposed interface plans to connect local desktop networks with remote, High-Performance computing clusters. - Created a full-stack web with the use of Python and Flask to allow members of the Administration team to automatically send out configurable email reminders. ### System Admin/Hardware Technician @ Northern Arizona University Jan 2019 ā€“ Jan 2021 - Machine software and hardware setup, LAN/WAN setup for major campus events, and computer/systems maintenance. - Maintain and update Python and C coded proprietary software used campus wide for financial transactions, Microsoft Windows Admin and multiple server/cluster upkeep and building. - IT services for campus database & cluster management, focused on projects in VBA, R and SQL ### Crew Lead/Mover @ The Prescott Fire Men Movers Jan 2016 ā€“ Jan 2020 | Prescott, Arizona, United States - Presented bills and collected payments for completion of services. - Trained employees on safety, and moving techniques. - Cautiously and efficiently transported and moved inventory valued between $20 - $100,000 +. - Loaded/unloaded of household furniture, office furniture, hospital furniture, etc. - Provided excellent customer service and worked in a fast-paced environment moving multiple customer houses within a day. - Drove 30ft+ long commercial trucks and trailers ranging from a few miles to cross country moves. ## Education ### Bachelor's degree of Computer Science in Computer Programming, Specific Applications Northern Arizona University ### Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Northern Arizona University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/gavin-nelson-gsn --- Source: https://flows.cv/gavinnelson JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/gavinnelson/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-11