# Graham Kelco

> Principal Engineer | Performance & Distributed Systems Expert | Technical Leader | Snowflake, Ex-Google, Ex-Startup Founder

Location: San Jose, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/grahamkelco

Seasoned Software Engineer with a proven track record of architecting and leading large-scale distributed systems. Expert in performance engineering, consistently delivering solutions that significantly enhance system efficiency and scalability. Demonstrated ability to guide cross-functional teams through complex technical challenges, while aligning technology strategy with business objectives. Adept at translating high-level requirements into robust, scalable architectures.

## Work Experience
### Principal Software Engineer @ Snowflake
Jan 2020 – Present | San Mateo, California, United States
Unistore Performance Lead
- Led a multi-year project to significantly improve the OLTP query performance for Snowflake's Hybrid Tables procut.
- Directed project lifecycle and communicated progress to executive stakeholders, including SVP of Engineering and CTO 
- Implemented innovative solutions to overcome technical challenges impeding throughput and latency

Service Infrastructure Technical Lead 
- Led team responsible for Observability, Debuggability, and Performance Engineering 
- Revitalized understaffed configuration management team, growing from 1 to 6 members, restoring operational capacity and elevating to a self-sufficient team
- Developed and implemented strategies to improve system reliability and scalability 

Performance Engineering Lead 
- Resolved numerous complex production issues, significantly improving system stability 
- Architected distributed profiling infrastructure, enabling data-driven optimization decisions 
- Mentored junior engineers in performance analysis and optimization techniques

### Founder & CEO @ Graffe
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Redwood City, California, United States
- Co-founded a data analytics startup, leading all aspects of business and technology strategy
- Conceptualized and drove development of an innovative analytics platform using search technology to uncover insights in 60-80% of previously unexplored data
- Architected scalable, distributed systems to process and analyze large volumes of diverse data types
Directed technical vision and product roadmap, resulting in successful deployments across multiple industries
- Balanced technical leadership with executive responsibilities, including fundraising, client acquisition, and team building from the ground up
- Leveraged deep technical expertise to guide product strategy and communicate complex concepts to non-technical stakeholders

### Senior Software Engineer @ Google
Jan 2013 – Jan 2018 | Mountain View, CA
- Performed Technical Project Management tasks. Including, but not limited to: cross functional collaboration, product evangelisation, and technical coordination.
- Served as primary engineer overseeing a re-architecture of Youtube Search infrastructure, resulting in >25% CPU reduction and >5% latency reduction across Youtube search.
- Conducted over 150 interviews and participated in University outreach.
- Worked on building a smart assistant for Google Cloud Platform.
- Continued work from Talaria Tech post acquisition with a focus on integrating with Google Cloud Platform.

### Software Engineer @ Talaria Technologies
Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Developed code generation, analysis, and optimization passes for a JIT compiler for PHP built on top of LLVM.
- Tuned system performance to reduce latency by over 50% for a beta customer in the Alexa top 25 US sites.
- Lead an effort to expand compiler and core library support to be able to run all top open source PHP applications.

### Software Engineering Intern @ Facebook
Jan 2009 – Jan 2009 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Developed new ways to optimize Facebook’s backend web infrastructure.
- Led development on the open source PECL Optimizer project.
- Involved in development of internal software tools.


## Education
### Penn State University

### Bachelor of Science - BS in Computer Science
George Mason University


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/grahamkelco

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Source: https://flows.cv/grahamkelco
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/grahamkelco/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-12