Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Projects
Languages
Technology Highlights
Work Preference
Timeline
Generic

LESTER PENNING

Olympia,WA

Summary

Dynamic Lead Software Engineer with a proven track record at USAA in leading high-impact projects and mentoring teams. Expert in Java Microservices, Spring Boot, and fostering innovation. Excelled in driving modern architecture adoption and enhancing software efficiency. Passionate about leveraging event-driven architectures and promoting continuous learning.

Overview

23
23
years of professional experience

Work History

Lead Software Engineer

USAA
Phoenix, AZ
03.2018 - 12.2024
  • Led team in designing, executing, and maintaining high-traffic applications.
  • Helped push the organization toward a more modern architecture.
  • Directed the adoption process for incorporating Spring Boot technology in organizational projects.
  • Provided mentorship to numerous colleagues.
  • Conducted interviews to help grow our development family.
  • Participated in design reviews, sprint planning meetings and daily standups.
  • Worked with project managers and other stakeholders to fully understand software design specifications, and plan optimal development approaches.
  • Resolved problems spanning multiple applications to drive improvements across portfolios.
  • Assisted in the estimation of project scopes and timelines during planning phases.
  • Monitored software performance metrics to identify and resolve efficiency issues.

Senior Software Engineer

Shutterfly Business Solutions
Tempe, AZ
03.2016 - 03.2018
  • Led small development teams, overseeing project progress and mentoring junior engineers.
  • Developed Spring Boot services utilizing Hibernate and Spring Cloud technologies.
  • Developed an event-driven system utilizing Kafka.
  • Prepared services for Kubernetes.
  • Hibernate and MySQL database optimizations.
  • Developed efficient RESTful web services for seamless data communication.
  • Microservice orchestration with the Activiti BPM workflow engine.
  • Frontend work with Angular.
  • Implemented Sonarqube for automated code quality checks within the Jenkins pipeline.

Cofounder and Lead Developer

Book Bangers LLC
Tempe, AZ
01.2010 - 12.2016
  • Extend and maintain a Drupal 7 website
  • Created an inventory API that allowed our Android app to scan and add books to our inventory
  • Engineered business processes

Software Engineer II

General Dynamics
Scottsdale, AZ
12.2014 - 03.2016
  • Utilized Play Framework for developing efficient server-side solutions in Scala.
  • Designed robust data storage solutions using PostgreSQL.
  • Designed and implemented responsive user interfaces using AngularJS framework and Bootstrap.
  • Engineered robust testing framework for RESTful APIs leveraging SPECS2 and Scala technologies.
  • Conducted penetration testing on internal systems as required.
  • Facilitated agile processes to enhance team performance.

Business Analyst

LiveOps
Tempe, AZ
10.2012 - 12.2014
  • Engineer front-end scripting and back-end file transmissions.
  • Oversee client integrations within the agent scripting system.
  • Plan and oversee third-party integrations.

Business Analyst

West
Mesa, AZ
04.2002 - 10.2012
  • Created Visual Basic macros to help streamline manual tasks.
  • Designed Access databases to help with reporting needs.

Education

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science (Software Engineering)

Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ
12.2014

Undergraduate Coursework -

Maricopa Community Colleges
Mesa, AZ
12.2012

Skills

  • Java Microservices Development
  • Spring Boot
  • Kubernetes & Docker
  • CI/CD
  • Git
  • Event-driven architectures with Kafka
  • RESTful API Design
  • Database Design
  • AWS Lambda, EKS, SQS & DynamoDB
  • Reactive programming
  • Unit testing with Junit & Spock
  • Domain Driven Design
  • Grafana, Jaeger, & Data Dog
  • Kibana & Splunk

Projects

Double Elimination Billiard Tournament Website

2009 - 2011

PHP, HTML, JavaScript, MySQL 

Used to manage and run billiard tournaments while tracking basic stats. 

Google Glass Fact Finding Platform – Team Capstone Project

2014

Google Web Toolkit, Google Glass APIs

Allowed a designer to create a “world” which was a series of GPS based points of interest. Google Glass users could enter the “world” and gather data on each point of interest if they were within a certain distance threshold. 

Hacking Game

2024 - Present

Java, Spring Boot, Web Sockets (RSocket), ReactJS, GitLab, Has an easily extensible command framework that allows a new command to be easily added to the game.

Languages

  • Java (expert)
  • Scala
  • Groovy (proficient)
  • C#
  • HTML (proficient)
  • JavaScript (proficient)
  • TypeScript (proficient)
  • PHP
  • SQL (proficient)

Technology Highlights

  • Java based microservices with Spring Boot/Spring Cloud
  • Containerization with Kubernetes/Openshift/Helm
  • CI/CD and version control using gitlab
  • Event driven architecture with Kafka/Kafka Streams
  • RESTful Standards and Best Practices
  • Database and Hibernate ORM performance optimizations
  • AWS Lambda, EKS, and DynamoDB
  • Reactive programming with Spring Web Flux
  • Unit testing with Junit and Spock
  • Domain Driven Design
  • Grafana/Kibana/Splunk/Jaeger/Data Dog

Work Preference

Work Type

Full Time

Work Location

RemoteHybrid

Important To Me

Career advancementWork-life balanceCompany Culture401k matchPaid time offWork from home optionFlexible work hoursHealthcare benefitsPersonal development programs

Timeline

Lead Software Engineer

USAA
03.2018 - 12.2024

Senior Software Engineer

Shutterfly Business Solutions
03.2016 - 03.2018

Software Engineer II

General Dynamics
12.2014 - 03.2016

Business Analyst

LiveOps
10.2012 - 12.2014

Cofounder and Lead Developer

Book Bangers LLC
01.2010 - 12.2016

Business Analyst

West
04.2002 - 10.2012

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science (Software Engineering)

Arizona State University

Undergraduate Coursework -

Maricopa Community Colleges

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LESTER PENNING