Douglas Watts
Lago Vista,TX
Work Preference
Summary
Accomplished engineering executive with progressive industry background in leading SaaS product delivery, platform modernization, and managing distributed engineering teams. Proven track record as a former VP of R&D, overseeing critical functions including engineering, architecture, QA, UX, compliance, workforce planning, and technology investments. Recognized for cultivating engineering leaders and translating product priorities into actionable strategies that enhance quality ownership and delivery predictability through informed capacity decisions and data-driven practices. Expertise includes hands-on architecture and software engineering, along with extensive knowledge in cloud platforms, APIs, integrations, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, secure development, and AI-assisted engineering.
Overview
1
1
Certification
17
17
years of professional experience
Work History
Founder | Engineering & AI Advisor
WattsUp Solutions, Inc.
01.2025 - Current
- Directed technology and product leaders on enhancing engineering execution platform architecture integration while addressing risks and facilitating practical AI adoption.
- Formulated AI-supported workflows and regulated-context frameworks that advance technical analysis decision continuity documentation and improve organizational efficiency while safeguarding human oversight.
- Facilitate architecture reviews and modernization recommendations for nonprofit and association-technology platforms, interpreting technical risk into clear executive priorities and comprehensive delivery roadmaps.
- Developed strategic business plans to drive company growth and market expansion.
- Oversaw financial management activities such as budgeting, forecasting, and cash flow monitoring for improved financial stability.
Vice President, R&D - Nonprofit Division
Momentive Software
07.2023 - 01.2025
- Managed worldwide R&D organization exceeding 60 personnel across five countries, covering engineering, architecture, QA, UX, compliance, and delivery for essential SaaS platforms catering to thousands of enterprise users.
- Coordinated with product and executive leadership to align business priorities with engineering capacity architecture and delivery across MIP fund accounting and GiveSmart.
- Deployed data-centric release quality gates among product teams based on defect severity regression readiness and defect-arrival trends to increase predictability and limit high-risk pressure-driven changes.
- Supported engineering leaders and senior technical staff by establishing clear ownership, removing barriers to progress, and bolstering accountability amid significant transformations.
- Managed complex workforce transition to India, coordinating budget, staffing, retention, onboarding, and knowledge transfer while sustaining customer continuity and roadmap execution.
Senior Director, R&D - MIP Fund Accounting
Momentive Software / Community Brands
08.2021 - 07.2023
- Directed cross-functional roadmap execution across engineering, QA, product operations, and compliance for mission-critical financial SaaS platform serving approximately 2600 customers.
- Spearheaded MIP's transition from Rackspace to Microsoft Azure, elevating scalability, disaster recovery capabilities, infrastructure consistency, and operational governance without affecting customer operations.
- Addressed enduring performance and scalability challenges through refined SQL architecture and strategic workload balancing while ensuring protection of a complex legacy platform.
- Directed cross-functional teams to develop and implement software solutions enhancing customer engagement.
- Led strategic initiatives to streamline product development processes, improving time-to-market efficiency.
Director, R&D - NetForum Enterprise
Community Brands
07.2019 - 08.2021
- Managed distributed engineering team of 42, facilitating development of intricate SaaS platform spanning financials, CRM, events, fundraising, e-commerce, and partner integrations.
- Engaged with product support, customers, partners, and architecture to devise actionable delivery plans that enhanced major platform improvements such as API-driven modernization, CI/CD automation testing, secure development methodologies, and cloud-integrated operational capabilities.
- Revised customer-defect prioritization in alignment with defined capacity and support-oriented business priorities, highlighting tradeoffs while improving predictability and communication.
- Fortified quality ownership through proactive testing integration in SDLC and increased automation for intricate end-to-end business workflows.
- Supported senior engineers by mentoring in technical decision-making and engaged with teams to address delivery blockers and advance engineering practices.
- Spearheaded process improvements resulting in increased operational efficiency and streamlined workflows.
Principal Software Architect - NetForum Enterprise
Community Brands
04.2017 - 07.2019
- Engineered reusable provider-adapter architectures for payment integrations, allowing support for multiple processors while preserving core product functionality from provider-specific implementations.
- Transformed bespoke integrations into adaptable architecture facilitating workflow triggers, webhooks, and extensible third-party connectivity
- Established and amplified automated testing framework for 800+ sophisticated end-to-end scenarios while educating professionals on automation practices during industry conferences and technical workshops.
- Orchestrated application security and payment compliance initiatives, featuring OWASP training, executing penetration testing, promoting secure development practices, and developing multiple PA-DSS implementation guides to support PCI compliance.
- Designed scalable software architecture solutions to enhance system performance and reliability.
Senior & Principal Software Engineer
Abila / Sage North America
01.2010 - 01.2017
- Transitioned from senior engineer to principal technical leadership, focusing on development and deployment of Grants Management and Elevate Fundraising SaaS solutions
- Created service-oriented APIs and SDKs integration layers in conjunction with enterprise line-of-business solutions employing C#, .NET, SQL Server, WCF, Silverlight, web technologies, and innovative architectural strategies.
- Mentored junior engineers, fostering skill development and knowledge sharing within the team.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to define product requirements and ensure alignment on project goals.
- Directed troubleshooting efforts for complex technical issues, streamlining resolution processes across projects.
- Implemented best practices for code quality and testing, resulting in improved software maintainability.
Skills
- Effective Organizational leadership in engineering
- Managerial development coaching
- Strategic resource planning
- Strategic roadmap execution
- Release quality management
- Engineering process optimization
- Broad technology expertise
- Cloud software modernization
- API management
- CI/CD, DevSecOps & AI
- Cloud infrastructure & control plane knowledge
- Microservices in distributed systems
- Engineering operations management
- Scrum framework expertise (SAFe, Scrum)
- Software architectural design
- C#, NET, SQL Server, Python, TypeScript, REST APIs, GraphQL, webhooks
- AI-driven security solutions
- OWASP, PCI, IAM, AI-assisted development, governed context, human oversight
Certification
- Western Governors University, Software Development Bachelor's of Science Degree Plan, Computer Sciences Department
- Austin Community, College General Studies, Computer Sciences, Associate's Degree Plan
- Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE)
- Microsoft Certified Professional Developer
- Certified Scrum Master
- CIW Site Developer Associate
Timeline
Founder | Engineering & AI Advisor
WattsUp Solutions, Inc.
01.2025 - Current
Vice President, R&D - Nonprofit Division
Momentive Software
07.2023 - 01.2025
Senior Director, R&D - MIP Fund Accounting
Momentive Software / Community Brands
08.2021 - 07.2023
Director, R&D - NetForum Enterprise
Community Brands
07.2019 - 08.2021
Principal Software Architect - NetForum Enterprise
Community Brands
04.2017 - 07.2019
Senior & Principal Software Engineer
Abila / Sage North America
01.2010 - 01.2017