Glade Lynch

Summary

In an industry being reshaped by AI, I bring expert understanding of when and where it delivers real impact. I solve problems, not symptoms. I lead with radical candor, extreme ownership, and a bias toward action, building teams that are empowered to decide, trusted to execute, and supported. Whether I'm coaching leaders, guiding technical direction, or aligning stakeholders, my focus is the same. Make sure the team understands the problem, align on the path forward, then move decisively.

Experience

Senior Engineering Manager

Sunday

03/2025 - 06/2026

• Operated at director scope across an 8-person direct team within a 14-person engineering org. Owned cross-org technical roadmap and capacity planning, presenting to C-suite stakeholders, driving org design decisions, managing team budget, coaching tech leads, and serving as a systems architect across engineering.
• Drove AI processes across the full engineering org - shifting teams from manual to automated development and delivery practices including CI/CD quality gates, code review, and AI-generated tests. Patterns adopted company-wide, multiplying output beyond my direct reports.
• Led the Post-Purchase Customer Experience team (6 reports, 1 PM partner) - oversaw a 400 bps lift in customer retention, the company's first positive retention movement since inception, through A/B experimentation across hundreds of thousands of customers.
• Led the Mobile App team (3 reports, 1 PM partner) to 25,000 downloads in its first week and a 4+ star rating, built in React Native.
• Served as cross-functional partner to the AI team, aligning agentic infrastructure with product and engineering needs across the org. Designed with RAG, evals, and custom agents.
• Contributed directly across microservices in React (JavaScript & TypeScript), Python, Django, and Go on GCP with Kubernetes. Monitored with Datadog and Sentry.
• Grew the highest-performing engineering team through automated processes, individualized coaching, and hands-on contribution across React, Node.js, Python, FastAPI, and Django.

Staff Full-Stack Engineer

Totara Learning

06/2019 - 03/2025

• Owned technical direction for AI-driven processes reducing case volume 22% and improving 3-day resolution rate to 93%.
• Delivered DISC-compliant federal systems across 5 agencies, ensuring data integrity through regulatory reporting tooling and AWS migrations.
• Led 175,000-customer ServiceNow migration coordinating across multiple agencies to eliminate siloed architecture and consolidate onto a single platform.
• Drove cross-agency data analysis program - Python and Go tools adopted across federal teams in PowerBI, surfacing usage patterns and operational gaps.
• Contributed to core LMS product architecture - Root cause analysis, feature delivery, and system design across the PHP stack.

Chief Technology & Operations Officer

Big Dumb Gaming

03/2016 - 01/2023

• Founded and scaled a top-5 world esports org building the full operational and technical stack from scratch using Go, PHP, and Lua.
• Hired and led a 35-person organization with broadcast production, coaching, and operations leads reporting in alongside engineering, players, and event staff. Six top-5 world finishes.
• Negotiated $2M in brand partnerships with the Golden State Warriors, Zenni, and Redbull ranging from sponsorships to product integrations.
• Owned 7-figure budget and P&L - Managing annual budget across salaries, events, and production. Planned and executed 20+ live events reaching 1,000,000+ unique viewers, coordinating 30+ event and broadcast staff.
• Raised $143,000 for charity for Girls Who Code, RAINN, and Rise Above the Disorder through charity streams and community fundraising.

Senior Web Developer

Clay Pot Creative

03/2017 - 04/2019

• Led a team of 5 engineers and designers delivering commerce platforms (Shopify, WooCommerce) and enterprise ERPs for retail and ecommerce clients.
• Built 100+ client websites using PHP, WordPress, JavaScript, React, and Vue. Architected shared AWS infrastructure and deployment pipelines across clients.
• Built 15 reusable plugins cutting project startup time alongside 2 themes and 6 internal tools in Go and PHP.

Chief Technology Officer & Founder

Product of Caffeine

01/2009 - 09/2015

• Founded and scaled a 7-person web studio delivering website (WordPress, PHP), ecommerce (Shopify, WooCommerce), and enterprise platforms (Go, C#, PHP) for clients including the NFL, Microsoft, and Penton Media.
• Managed full project delivery lifecycle - Client consultation, design, development, and delivery.
• Owned budget, P&L, and marketing operations - Managed a 6-figure annual budget while maintaining profitability through growth.
• Achieved zero turnover and consistently ahead-of-schedule deliveries across all 6 years, built on candor and coaching.

Software Engineer & Platform Architect

Enventive Engineering

01/2015 - 01/2017

• Built a SaaS engineering simulation platform allowing hundreds of customers to run mechanical tolerance simulations through a web interface in JavaScript and KendoUI.
• Architected bare-metal to AWS migration - Moved from Windows servers to load-balanced, distributed AWS with automated CI/CD.
• Designed REST-driven client frontend ingesting data from backend APIs to achieve feature parity with the desktop application.

Web Developer

Madwire Media

04/2008 - 05/2009

• Developed and maintained client websites using PHP and JavaScript on WordPress, BigCommerce, and Drupal.
• Delivered responsive, user-friendly web experiences collaborating with designers and clients on each project.
• Optimized website performance and SEO improving load times and search rankings across client sites.