Joshua T Kalis index

Strategic technology leader with a proven track record of driving innovation and building high-performance engineering teams. Expertise in developing cloud-native, scalable software solutions and leading complex, distributed systems. Adept at translating business objectives into engineering roadmaps, mentoring teams, and fostering inclusive environments that encourage diversity and creativity. Passionate about empowering teams to deliver high-quality solutions with measurable impact.

Experience

05/2023 - 09/2024 | Visiting Media | Software Engineering Team Lead

Transformed Engineering Quality: Introduced comprehensive quality standards across JavaScript and TypeScript, improving code coverage from 0% to 80%, with all new code achieving 100%. This boosted team ownership and resulted in more stable, maintainable code.
Attracted and Retained Top Talent: Successfully built and retained a high-performing team by creating a collaborative culture, identifying talent through strategic hiring practices, and fostering a growth-oriented environment with clear development paths.
Drove Process Modernization: Led the implementation of CI/CD automation and ephemeral environments for pull requests, streamlining workflows and increasing developer efficiency.
Enhanced Product Usability: Applied usage patterns based on user research to create features that simplified onboarding and enhanced the overall user experience.
Scaled Team Operations: Led the integration of automated user acceptance testing (UATaaS), ensuring product integrity through consistent testing.
Leadership in Talent Development: Assembled a high-caliber team through strategic hiring, rigorous candidate evaluation, and ongoing mentorship.

12/2021 - 07/2022 | Guaranteed Rate | Software Engineering Team Lead

Optimized Technical Debt Reduction: Spearheaded initiatives to retire low-value legacy services, freeing up core service teams and optimizing operational efficiency.
Cultivated Team Engagement: Created a structured evaluation process that significantly boosted morale and retention in a high-turnover environment.

03/2018 - 12/2021 | Rocket Mortgage | Software Engineering Team Lead

Pioneered SRE Practices: Established the company’s first Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team, enhancing site reliability through multi-region cloud solutions and improved incident response times.
Aligned Engineering with Business Growth: Developed and scaled core services using Node.js and AWS-native services, directly supporting top-of-funnel traffic and third-party integrations.
Improved Incident Resolution: Achieved a 10% reduction in mean time to resolution for incidents by implementing a status page for distributed service applications.
Leadership in DEI: Fostered a team culture rooted in diversity, equity, and inclusion, making the team a top destination for both internal and external talent.
Attracted and Developed Top Talent: Led efforts to attract and hire top engineering talent by promoting a strong team culture and fostering a sense of ownership and pride within the team, resulting in a high retention rate and a preferred destination for internal and external candidates.

11/2015 - 03/2018 | Rocket Mortgage | Software Architect

Architected Fintech Services: Designed high-value, high-traffic, and secure networks for distributed fintech services, ensuring a robust and scalable infrastructure.
Led Cloud Migration: Promoted cloud-native application development standards across the enterprise, facilitating a smooth migration from on-premises data centers to AWS.
Enhanced Developer Experience: Developed an open-source API specification linter, improving developer experience and reducing cycle times during crucial migrations.
Empowered Engineering Teams: Delivered educational workshops on REST principles, facilitating a smooth transition from SOAP to RESTful APIs and improving overall team proficiency.

04/2012 - 11/2015 | Rocket Mortgage | Staff Software Engineer

Fostered Collaboration: Built a community of practice that improved communication and code-sharing across organizational units, driving cross-team collaboration.
Enhanced UX and Design: Improved user experience and design patterns for internal and external web applications, resulting in more intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.
Collaborated on Solutions: Worked closely with design and business partners to discover and implement solutions that best met user needs.

Education

05/2006 | Michigan State University | BA, Information Science

Study Abroad: The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, and Germany
Student Greenhouse Project website