Tony Shepherd
Spanish Fork,United States
Summary
Engineering leader with 15+ years of experience building and operating scalable, data-driven systems across cloud and enterprise environments. As a Development Team Lead at Verisk, I combine hands-on technical execution with team leadership, delivering high-quality releases with a 95% escaped-defect-free rate. I have repeatedly pivoted into new technical domains — including database administration, infrastructure security, and AI-assisted workflows — and bring strong expertise in PostgreSQL, SQL performance optimization, API integrations, and production incident leadership. I excel at translating evolving business needs into reliable, maintainable systems while remaining deeply technical.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Development Team Lead
Verisk Property Estimating Solutions (formerly Xactware)
Lehi, UT
10.2023 - Current
- Lead and develop a team of 6 engineers, driving end-to-end delivery across the full software development lifecycle with clear ownership, accountability, and measurable outcomes.
- Consistently deliver high-impact product initiatives with a 95% escaped-defect-free rate, strengthening engineering quality and release reliability.
- Act as incident commander and senior technical lead during production outage events, coordinating cross-functional response, leading root cause analysis, and implementing systemic corrective actions.
- Maintain strong hands-on technical involvement by contributing code to complex features, resolving architectural challenges, and unblocking critical path work when needed.
- Champion adoption of AI-assisted development practices, establishing guardrails and workflows that increased development velocity while maintaining engineering standards.
- Hire, and onboard high-performing engineers, elevating team capability and long-term execution strength.
Fire/EMS Captain
Spanish Fork City
Spanish Fork, Utah, United States
08.2025 - Current
Firefighter
Utah Air National Guard
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
08.2020 - Current
Lead Software Developer
Fishbowl
Orem, UT
05.2019 - 07.2023
- Led an 8-engineer team delivering large-scale integrations with Shopify, eBay, and Amazon APIs, ensuring reliable data exchange and system interoperability across platforms.
- Owned technical execution for complex third-party integrations, translating external API specifications into scalable, maintainable internal services.
- Designed and implemented Java-based integration layers connecting desktop and SaaS products with eCommerce, accounting, and shipping systems.
- Improved delivery predictability through disciplined backlog refinement and execution planning aligned to business priorities.
- Mentored engineers across two SaaS product lines, elevating code quality, architectural consistency, and operational reliability.
- Contributed across a modern stack including Java, Spring Boot, .NET/C#, AngularJS, ReactJS, and AWS services, maintaining strong hands-on technical involvement.
Server Operations Engineer
Sawtooth Software
Orem, UT
04.2017 - 05.2019
- Owned the security posture of the company’s cloud hosting platform, driving continuous improvement across vulnerability management, hardening, and compliance practices.
- Implemented and maintained patch management, log analysis, firewall configuration, intrusion detection/prevention, and vulnerability scanning processes to ensure platform integrity and reliability.
- Served as subject matter expert for NGINX-based web services, supporting high-availability production systems and performance tuning initiatives.
- Automated configuration management and system updates using SaltStack, improving consistency, deployment reliability, and operational efficiency across enterprise environments.
Software Developer
Anglepoint Inc.
Provo, Utah Area
11.2015 - 04.2017
- Contributed to the development and maintenance of enterprise asset and financial management applications, supporting complex business workflows and high-volume data operations.
- Assumed SQL Server 2016 Enterprise DBA responsibilities in addition to development duties, performing index optimization, statistics management, query tuning, backup strategy implementation, and performance monitoring.
- Improved database performance and reliability through proactive tuning and security hardening initiatives.
- Developed full-stack solutions using C#, .NET, Entity Framework, and AngularJS, ensuring alignment between application logic and underlying data architecture.
Senior Student Developer
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT
07.2013 - 10.2015
- Designed and delivered a redesigned assessment tracking system adopted by ~250 faculty members, improving efficiency and usability across academic workflows.
- Implemented structured code review practices to improve production quality and maintainability across the development team.
- Partnered with Tier 1 support to triage, diagnose, and resolve production issues, strengthening feedback loops between users and engineering.
- Built full-stack functionality using PHP (CodeIgniter), JavaScript, and HTML/CSS.
Software Developer Intern
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington D.C., Metro Area
04.2015 - 08.2015
- Contributed to the design and development of a web application that automatically generated baseline network service reports for 100+ intelligence community customers.
- Built data-driven reporting workflows using Java, JSP, XML, and JSON to produce PDF, CSV, and web-based outputs.
- Presented technical solutions and project demonstrations to junior and senior engineering stakeholders.
- Authored technical documentation and contributed to user interface design to improve usability and maintainability.
Freelance Web Developer
Northern Wasatch Board of Realtors
09.2014 - 03.2015
- Designed and deployed a production web application used by ~2,000 Realtors and staff to support client-facing workflows and local market insights.
- Built full-stack functionality using Apache, Joomla, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and HTML/CSS, ensuring reliable data access and usability at scale.
- Coordinated integration with the Association’s IT provider to securely interface with existing systems and data sources.
- Recruited and directed two temporary contributors to support data collection and migration efforts.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Information Technology
Brigham Young University
01-2017
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Russian Language and Literature
Brigham Young University
01-2017
Timeline
Fire/EMS Captain
Spanish Fork City
08.2025 - Current
Development Team Lead
Verisk Property Estimating Solutions (formerly Xactware)
10.2023 - Current
Firefighter
Utah Air National Guard
08.2020 - Current
Lead Software Developer
Fishbowl
05.2019 - 07.2023
Server Operations Engineer
Sawtooth Software
04.2017 - 05.2019
Software Developer
Anglepoint Inc.
11.2015 - 04.2017
Software Developer Intern
Central Intelligence Agency
04.2015 - 08.2015
Freelance Web Developer
Northern Wasatch Board of Realtors
09.2014 - 03.2015
Senior Student Developer
Brigham Young University
07.2013 - 10.2015
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Russian Language and Literature
Brigham Young University
Bachelor of Science - Information Technology
Brigham Young University