Jay Parsell
Seattle,WA
Summary
Lead Engineer with 13+ years of experience building scalable, data-driven, and cloud-connected interactive systems. Adept at leading cross-functional teams to deliver reliable, high-performance user experiences for millions of customers. Experienced in live service monitoring, platform architecture, and rapid prototyping using C#, Unity, and cloud technologies. Thrives in ambiguous environments, quickly becoming productive in unfamiliar technical areas to drive project success.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Lead Engineer
Netflix
12.2023 - 10.2025
- Led development and maintenance of live-service systems for the Netflix Stories app, owning reliability, telemetry, and LiveOps coordination across engineering, art, and production teams.
- Collaborated with designers, narrative teams, and artists to bring interactive features from concept to polished in-app experiences, balancing technical feasibility with creative goals.
- Architected prototypes for cloud-streamed gaming experiences leveraging custom controllers and content delivery systems; collaborated with internal platform teams to define scalable technical standards.
- Conducted technical onboarding, documentation, and knowledge-sharing sessions for cross-discipline teams.
Senior Software Engineer
Netflix
11.2022 - 12.2023
- Built and maintained foundational systems (analytics, player data persistence, addressables, content hub communication) for the Netflix Stories app.
- Partnered with internal SDK teams to ensure data integrity, telemetry accuracy, and consistent content delivery performance.
Software Engineer
The Pokemon Company International
02.2020 - 11.2022
- Implemented and optimized the rules engine powering the Pokémon Trading Card Game Live, ensuring server-hosted simulations delivered accurate, consistent outcomes at scale.
- Built and maintained internal tools for data ingestion, validation, and card logic configuration, reducing human error and increasing feature velocity.
- Partnered with backend and analytics teams to diagnose live issues.
Software Engineering Manager
DoubleDown Interactive
10.2018 - 02.2020
- Managed cross-disciplinary team delivering live-service casino and mobile applications; owned release coordination, feature integration, and on-time delivery.
- Mentored engineers in scalable system design and CI/CD practices; championed code quality and platform stability initiatives.
Multimedia Game Engineer III
DoubleDown Interactive
03.2016 - 10.2018
- Designed and implemented a Unity-based prototyping engine used across 20+ later shipped titles, enabling rapid iteration and reuse of core gameplay systems.
- Co-developed a new SDK for supporting iOS and Android deployment and integrated backend communication systems to improve platform scalability.
Software Engineer I / II
DoubleDown Interactive
11.2012 - 03.2016
- Hired full-time in March of 2013 (one of their fastest contract-to-hire’s). Localized 17 slot games instead of the originally planned for 10 for our initial release of the system.
- Primary developer on an untitled project. Involved creating a number of new systems and mechanisms in the Casino.
- Implemented a variety of new slot games using Actionscript and Flash for the Desktop version of the casino. Worked with San Francisco sister studio to start creating new titles.
- Primary developer using this system, responsible for helping Artists with the new system and coordinating with a server developer for outcomes.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science and Game Design
Digipen Institute of Technology
Redmond, WA01.2012
Skills
- Unity & Gameplay Engineering
- Gameplay Systems
- C# Architecture
- REST
- Git/Perforce
- UI Flows
- Live-Ops
- IOS
- Android
- Cloud/WebGL
- Microservices
- Performance optimization
- Memory / GC Optimization
- Crash Analysis
- Build Size Optimization
- Debugging Tools
- Content Pipelines
- Client-Server Messaging
- Telemetry
- Data Integrity
- Remote Config Systems
- Live Content Delivery
- Team & Leadership
- Feature Ownership
- Mentorship
- Live service systems
- Cross-disciplinary collaboration
- Technical documentation
- CI/CD practices
Recognition & Impact
DoubleDown Interactive Innovation Week 2013 Grand Prize Winner (Team of 4), Formed a team with 3 artists to create a prototype for a new game idea. We used the code base (Actionscript) being utilized in our desktop app and were able to build a full concept. The project was put on the roadmap and officially being worked on until the summer of 2014 when the original founders left and the company structure changed.
DoubleDown Interactive Gold Achievement Winner 2018, Monetary amount given once every quarter for exceeding job expectations, yielding significant impact in a quantifiable and material way.
Timeline
Lead Engineer
Netflix
12.2023 - 10.2025
Senior Software Engineer
Netflix
11.2022 - 12.2023
Software Engineer
The Pokemon Company International
02.2020 - 11.2022
Software Engineering Manager
DoubleDown Interactive
10.2018 - 02.2020
Multimedia Game Engineer III
DoubleDown Interactive
03.2016 - 10.2018
Software Engineer I / II
DoubleDown Interactive
11.2012 - 03.2016
Bachelor of Science - Computer Science and Game Design
Digipen Institute of Technology