# ☕️Mark Stark > Senior Software Engineer | Security Location: Greater New Orleans Region, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/markstark I am a Software Engineer invigorated by transforming complex problems into stories that are easier to understand and achieve. I endeavour to enhance my effectiveness by honing my Functional Programming proficiency across multiple stacks while investigating dynamic new technologies. I am passionate about the future of serverless development, NodeJS, JavaScript, AWS, and Microservices and the disruptive innovation they can bring to my clients. ## Work Experience ### Senior Software Engineer Security @ Extend Jan 2023 – Present | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Microservices and packages that make the identity platform and security tools used internally and publicly on the platform: •Refactored Infosec services and packages to align with the Engineering team's initiative to migrate the platform from a legacy mono-repo to a poly-repo architecture •Conducted regular production deployments and package publishing for all team resources •Enhanced test quality and coverage in the Authorization service by implementing test harnesses based on an extensive testing matrix •Delivered a new OAuth Clients system of record, a serverless CRUD API for managing OAuth clients in the latest version of the identity platform •Configured and enabled OAuth Clients SoR for multi-region deployment, enhancing platform resiliency and availability •Implemented a Kafka streaming pipeline to the OAuth Clients SOR for publishing client creation and deletion events •Led an Infosec team in a company-wide AI Hackathon, developing a chatbot for answering security and compliance queries based on company policies and industry best practices Technologies Used: •TypeScript, Node, Git, Github, GitHub Actions, Datadog, React, OpenApi, SendGrid, Okta, Terraform, Postman, Jest, Cypress, OpenAI, LangChain, Kafka(Confluent) •AWS API Gateway(REST & HTTP), Lambda, Node SDK, DynamoDB, S3, EventBridge, CloudWatch, X-ray, Cloud Development Kit(CDK), CloudFormation, IAM, KMS, CloudFront, CodePipeline •Jira, Lucid Charts, Miro, UML, Trello and Excel ### Software Engineer 2 | Security @ Extend Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Microservices and packages that make the identity platform and security tools used internally and publicly on the platform: •Spearheaded the development of the new User Management Service, a serverless CRUD API integrated with OKTA as a user datastore and platform IdP •Developed, documented, and evangelized the new user role authorization system of record, utilizing •GitHub Actions, KMS, and S3 for continuous deployment •Reduced end-user risk by incorporating access controls with a CORS whitelist into the core infrastructure package, enabled by default on all platform APIs interacting with web browsers •Developed a token exchange mechanism in the Authentication Service to ease the transition to the new Identity platform over the existing legacy platform ### Software Engineer 2 | Core Expansion @ Extend Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Account microservice and multi-tenant support in the Enterprise initiative to iterate platform into a product to better support large enterprise merchants: •Created a proof-of-concept (POC) view in React to provide Product and Business stakeholders with an interactive experience for managing multi-tenant accounts in our portals •Participated in cross team design and planning sessions into new Account service and multi-tenant concerns, from account resource structure and hierarchy to new platform resource naming conventions •Created the data model and DynamoDB schema for the new Accounts service •Leveraged AWS serverless resources to create the Accounts service CRUD API, enabling merchants to establish organizational structures within the platform ### Software Engineer 1 | Globalization @ Extend Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States Localization and Tax microservices supporting the Internationalization initiative: •Played a key role in developing the Localization microservice, a distributed AWS serverless CRUD API seamlessly integrated with the third-party translation service Translated •Audited consumer-facing services to identify areas of complexity that could hinder localization efforts •Led discussions to evangelize the Localization effort •Guest development refactoring date formatting on consumer facing emails, enabling expansion to new markets outside of the USA and allowing merchants in Canada to go-live •Configured and deployed a team sandbox environment, addressing pain points from the distributed nature of the platform •Extensively researched third party tax services to identify if any would meet our unique use case as the company explored globalization, of needing to display total costs including all tax, but not collecting or being responsible for any tax •Conceived and implemented a serverless CRUD API that enabled business stakeholders to efficiently input and manage tax rate releases through the service's APIs •Authored an internal blog and demonstration on how to set up AWS NoSql Workbench and showing its value in data modeling DynamoDB tables ### Software Engineer @ Kysen Build Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States • Pioneered the architecture of a SaaS factory platform to streamline the production of multiple SaaS products using modular serverless components This innovative approach enabled platform members to contribute their expertise in the form of paid "nano-projects" • Roadmapped the platform development agenda to align with Product and Marketing tracks, accurately projecting milestones to deliver a highly available and resilient microservice platform Developed foundational components of the platform's user and function services, laying the groundwork for a robust and scalable architecture • Embraced a serverless-first approach utilizing AWS offerings to achieve exceptional platform availability and resiliency This strategy facilitated rapid development and feedback cycles, ensuring alignment between alpha testers and the development team without compromising reliability, durability, or scalability • Actively participated in team expansion by conducting interviews for both contract and in-house development positions • Utilized technical expertise to support company partners and conducted in-depth evaluations of the technical resources of potential investment opportunities Technologies Used: • JavaScript, Git, Github, React, OpenApi • AWS API Gateway(REST & HTTP), StepFunctions, Lambda, Node SDK, DynamoDB, S3 CloudWatch, X-ray, Serverless Application Model(SAM), CloudFormation • Lucid Charts, Jira, Trello and Excel ### Professional Application Designer @ DXC Technology Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | New Orleans, Louisiana, United States • Major engagement with Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company that leveraged event-driven architecture to develop microservices to optimize operational procedures after client data centers migrated to AWS • Identified which legacy processes could be deprecated and decommissioned, and which processes were pain points that had to remain, requiring work-arounds to achieve the advantages of hosting in the Cloud • Effectively utilized AWS’ serverless offerings to implement a REST API to handle legacy operational dependencies, so that EC2 and RDS instances could be placed on schedules via AWS Instance- Scheduler This allowed the company to optimize instance uptime, enabled instances to have consistent down time, creating cost savings of 60% • Deployed highly resilient and highly available resources in a multi-region and multi-account solution through AWS CloudFormation as well as custom DevOps Resources Technologies Used: • JavaScript, Git, Github, Subversion, React, Jest •AWS API Gateway(REST & HTTP), StepFunctions, Lambda, Node SDK, DynamoDB, S3 CloudWatch, X-ray, CloudFormation, EventBridge, EC2, RDS, Instance-Scheduler • Jira, ServiceNow ### Audio Visual Technician @ Self-Employed Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Greater New Orleans Area ### Lead Carpenter @ Self-Employed Jan 2010 – Jan 2018 | Greater New Orleans Area I was a Scenic Carpeter in New York City and New Orleans, LA ### Fine Art Specialist @ Self-Employed Jan 2003 – Jan 2018 | Greater New Orleans Area I was a Fine Art Specialist in Washington DC; Baltimore, MD; Miami, Fl; New Orleans, LA; and Charleston, SC ## Education ### Operation Spark Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 ### Bachelor of Arts - BA in Fine and Studio Arts University of Maryland Jan 2000 – Jan 2002 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/uuidforme - GitHub: https://github.com/markstarkart --- Source: https://flows.cv/markstark JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/markstark/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-22