# Michael Peal

> Software Engineer

Location: New York City Metropolitan Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/michaelpeal

I am a software engineer with a desire to solve problems and learn along the way. My experience as a developer has taught me to solve difficult problems with simple code; it has also taught me how to adapt quickly to new tools and resources. My journalism background trained me to work under pressure and sharpened my communication skills.

## Work Experience
### Staff Software Engineer @ The Hartford
Jan 2024 – Present

### Developer/Technical Lead @ The Hartford
Jan 2020 – Jan 2024
- Engineered conversational chatbots, designed to answer questions and provide account-specific information to customers.  Built with Amazon Lex, leveraging Lambda and various API integrations.
- Built and maintained the frontend user interface for aforementioned bots.
- Engineered conversational voice bots as part of a wider IVR program using same tools as above.
- As technical lead, oversaw a six-team agile release train (ART).
- Responsible for establishing and maintaining code quality and security standards as the ART's lead code reviewer.
- Spearheaded design decisions across the ART.
- Tools used: Node.js, JavaScript, React, HTML, CSS, Sass, Genesys Designer, Git

### Developer @ Aventri
Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Norwalk, CT
Played a major role in building Aventri's website builder, building front and back end features fully integrated with other areas of Aventri's event management systems 
– Features ranged from building layout selection tools to building fully customizable drag and drop widgets designed to automatically pull in data from various other areas of the Aventri event management system
 – Full LAMP stack development (PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript) in an agile environment
 – Knowledge of both PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.0
 – Leveraged Slim PHP – an MVC micro framework – applying object-oriented principles, managing HTTP routes and dependency injection, with endpoints often rendering to Smarty templates
– Unit-tested with PHPUnit 
– Wrote front end code mostly in ES6, vanilla JS
– Extensive work with Bootstrap, jQuery and AJAX on front end
– Built numerous features using state management tools like Redux and React
– MySQL database maintenance and manipulation
– Experience creating and using Grunt tasks 
– Used Git for version control

### Development Intern @ Aventri
Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Norwalk, CT
Supported the website builder team. Started by primarily fixing bugs but quickly moved to building fully fleshed-out features. Stayed on past initial summer internship, hired full-time in March 2018.

### Sports Anchor/Reporter @ WBNG-TV
Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 | Binghamton, NY
- Anchored Saturdays and Sundays at 6, 10 and 11 p.m. for market leader
- Shot, wrote and edited highlights, packages and feature stories.
- Live shot experience
- Covered wide range of sports, from AHL hockey to high school sports; from the Champions Tour to NCAA Division I athletics.
- Produced and anchored 15-minute "Sports Overtime" show on Saturdays during the fall
- Produced and anchored live preview show for Dick's Sporting Goods Open (Champions Tour golf) in August

### Reporter @ It's Relevant, LLC
Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Fairfield County, Connecticut
Functioned as a one-man-band reporter for It's Relevant.com -- a hyper local news website in Fairfield County, Connecticut.  Shot, wrote and edited broadcast-style news packages covering local topics ranging from sports to city government and politics to community outreach.

### Sports Intern @ WFSB-TV
Jan 2011 – Jan 2011 | Rocky Hill, CT
- wrote and edited daily and nightly sportscasts using AuroraEdit non-linear editing software and ENPS.

- logged games, and wrote and edited highlight packages.

- helped produce the station's 15-minute Friday night sports show.  Logged games and conducted post-game interviews with players and coaches.

- conducted interviews to be used in weekly feature stories.

- covered Connecticut high schools, the University of Connecticut and professional teams from Boston and New York.


## Education
### Master’s Degree in Computer Science - Software Development
Southern Connecticut State University
Jan 2016 – Jan 2018

### Bachelors in Journalism
University of Connecticut
Jan 2007 – Jan 2011


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/michael-peal-8a448047

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Source: https://flows.cv/michaelpeal
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/michaelpeal/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-22