Solutions Architect · Product Manager · Tech Lead · Product Engineer

I take products from 0 to 1. The idea, architecture, and shipped system.

I've built platforms, workflows, and entire solutions from an open question: "we have this problem…" From there, I work through architecture decisions and tradeoffs, build the spec, get stakeholders on board, and take it to a working system in production.

20+ years across engineering, architecture, and product, including leadership at Apple and 0-1 delivery at multiple startups. INSEAD MBA.

View selected work Download resume

8 → 1systems consolidated

50M+records in production

0downtime on cutover

$7K/mohosting costs cut

Selected outcomes

Outcome 01

Consolidated 8 systems into one multi-tenant platform

Replaced 8 separate, overlapping systems with a single multi-tenant platform and API, rebuilding the backend, frontend, and infrastructure with zero downtime.

Business problemEight systems with significant overlap were each maintained separately, turning routine maintenance into a major, recurring cost.

What I didRebuilt the backend on Laravel as the single source of truth, rebuilt the frontend in React and TypeScript, and modernized the infrastructure with load-balanced API servers, a CloudFront-distributed frontend, and CI/CD via GitHub Actions.

Result
Replaced 8 systems with one, eliminated redundant maintenance costs, and completed the switchover with zero downtime. The consolidated platform now handles more than 50 million product records and thousands of daily requests.

LaravelReactTypeScriptMantineJWTOAuthAWSCloudFrontCI/CDGitHub Actions

Outcome 02

Reduced a day-long report to about 10 minutes

Redesigned and automated a reporting workflow that previously took most of a working day.

Business problemA recurring customer report required a product manager to spend nearly an entire day assembling data, with additional manual work from the content team.

What I didBuilt an ETL pipeline that normalized incoming XML product and fitment data into relational tables, enabling fast lookups of coverage by vehicle and local market. Chose Athena over Redshift since reports ran monthly rather than continuously, and Parquet already delivered the speed needed without the cost of an always-on warehouse or an extra ETL step into Redshift.

Result
Reduced the reporting process to roughly 10 minutes, giving the customer a self-service view of coverage by vehicle and market.

AWSETLData PipelinesReporting DashboardsAPIsReact

Outcome 03

Turned a support bottleneck into a self-service product

Migrated a datacenter-hosted platform to AWS, then pitched and delivered a self-service client portal that eliminated a recurring support burden.

Business problemThe platform ran in a costly, self-hosted datacenter, and clients had to call in for every discount campaign change. That created ongoing support load and gave clients no way to see their own stats.

What I didMigrated the platform to AWS and trained the team to manage it, then made the case to the CEO and investors for a self-service portal. Built the portal so clients could set up their own discount campaigns and view stats directly, and extended the underlying API to support the iOS and Android apps.

Result
Cut hosting costs by $7,000 per month and replaced a recurring support workflow with a self-service product clients managed themselves.

AWSREST APIsiOSAndroidCloud Migration

How I work

From open problem to shipped system

Find the real problem

Start from "we have this problem," not a spec. Figure out what's actually costing the business time or money before committing to a direction.

Make the tradeoffs explicit

Choose an architecture that fits the team, budget, and risk tolerance, and lay out what you're trading off, not just what you're building.

Get people on board

Turn the plan into something leadership and stakeholders can say yes to, whether that's a CEO and investors or an engineering team.

Stay in the work

Stay close enough to the implementation to catch problems early, not just hand off a plan and wait for a status update.

Experience

Independent Product & Technology Consultant2024-Present

Helped teams modernize older applications, introduce AI-assisted development workflows, and deliver technical changes more quickly. Worked hands-on alongside developers while also advising on architecture, product decisions, and implementation strategy.

Product & Technology Lead, dPivot2018-2024

Led product and technical direction for a data and media SaaS platform. Worked across customer needs, architecture, delivery, platform modernization, reporting, APIs, and team leadership.

Head of Technology, Trust Payments / Mobilize Systems2014-2018

Led technology strategy and delivery for a loyalty SaaS business. Migrated infrastructure to AWS, improved reliability, reduced operating costs, and helped launch a new customer-facing product.

Earlier experience: Apple, Oracle, and startups

Worked across reporting systems, enterprise data integration, education technology, product delivery, and software development.

The roles where I do my best work

I do my best work when the problem is real but the direction isn't clear yet, and the technical complexity is high enough that product and engineering can't be handled separately.

Product & Technology LeadSolutions ArchitectTechnical Product LeadProduct-minded Engineering LeadStaff Product Engineer

Get in touchrobert@entwistle.tv