Taylor Frank
Staff Software Engineer
Distributed Systems • Platform Engineering • Cloud Infrastructure

I build production platforms that turn ambiguity into durable systems.

Staff software engineer specializing in distributed systems, event-driven architectures, and cloud infrastructure. I design and operate production platforms that improve reliability, automation, and operational leverage.

Core architecture profile

Systems and architecture patterns I’ve built and operated in production.

Event-Driven Systems

Designed resilient async workflows with SQS, Lambda, DynamoDB, and S3 for fulfillment, onboarding, and data processing.

Distributed Data Architecture

Led hybrid DynamoDB + Postgres designs that separate high-throughput lifecycle state from relational business workflows.

Cloud Infrastructure Ownership

Owned AWS infrastructure end-to-end across ECS Fargate, ALB, Route53, IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager, and multi-environment delivery.

Platform Delivery & CI/CD

Built GitLab CI/CD systems with promotion workflows, OIDC role assumption, container pipelines, and Terraform-based delivery.

Platform impact

Systems I’ve built and operated in production

2,000
users supported
6,000
tenant contexts
50K/day
requests handled
250K+/day
queue jobs processed
$2M+
annual savings delivered
70%
faster deal-to-fulfillment
Core architecture expertise

Signals that matter in the staff engineering market.

The strongest engineering portfolios do more than list tools. They show judgment across architecture, delivery, and operational impact.

Event-Driven Systems

Designed resilient async workflows with SQS, Lambda, DynamoDB, and S3 for fulfillment, onboarding, and data processing.

Distributed Data Architecture

Led hybrid DynamoDB + Postgres designs that separate high-throughput lifecycle state from relational business workflows.

Cloud Infrastructure Ownership

Owned AWS infrastructure end-to-end across ECS Fargate, ALB, Route53, IAM, KMS, Secrets Manager, and multi-environment delivery.

Platform Delivery & CI/CD

Built GitLab CI/CD systems with promotion workflows, OIDC role assumption, container pipelines, and Terraform-based delivery.

Featured systems

Architecture, delivery, and operational leverage.

These are the kinds of systems I most enjoy building: high-ownership platforms with real throughput, clear business impact, and carefully chosen tradeoffs.

Take Everywhere Platform

Multi-service product platform

  • Architected and owned a cloud-native platform serving thousands of users across thousands of tenant contexts.
  • Built internal APIs, order flows, operations dashboards, uploads, reporting, and secure middleware patterns.
  • Operated across application, data, and infrastructure layers with end-to-end ownership.
Next.jsTypeScriptNode.jsPostgresDynamoDBAWS

Fulfillment Lifecycle Pipeline

Event-driven orchestration on AWS

  • Designed asynchronous order and fulfillment pipelines using SQS → Lambda/services → DynamoDB/S3.
  • Improved fault isolation, traceability, and operational visibility across downstream workflows.
  • Accepted eventual consistency in exchange for resiliency, retries, and independent scaling.
SQSLambdaDynamoDBS3Async Processing

Assessment File Processing Engine

Large-file ingestion and validation

  • Built ingestion workflows for CSV/XLSX uploads using object storage, queues, and worker-based processing.
  • Handled validation, deduplication, dynamic mapping, staged writes, and operator feedback loops.
  • Designed for throughput, retry safety, and clearer visibility into partial failures.
S3SQSLambdaPrismaPostgresData Pipelines

Infrastructure & Delivery Control Plane

Terraform + CI/CD architecture

  • Standardized infrastructure across sandbox, staging, and production with Terraform-managed AWS resources.
  • Implemented branch-based promotion, Docker/ECR pipelines, and OIDC-based deployment workflows.
  • Improved consistency, delivery speed, and long-term maintainability of platform operations.
TerraformGitLab CI/CDECSALBRoute53OIDC
Selected architecture decisions

Why the shape of the system matters.

Strong systems are not just collections of services. They are sets of decisions made against real constraints: throughput, reliability, operator visibility, cost, and maintainability.

Hybrid DynamoDB + Postgres

Why this won: Separated high-throughput lifecycle state from relational assessment and workflow logic.

Tradeoff accepted: Introduced additional operational complexity and consistency boundaries, but enabled each data model to optimize for the workload it served best.

Async Pipeline over Synchronous Processing

Why this won: Improved throughput, fault isolation, and retryability for large operational workflows and file processing.

Tradeoff accepted: Accepted eventual consistency and more operational components in exchange for resiliency and independent scaling.

Terraform + GitLab Delivery Architecture

Why this won: Created reproducible environments, safer deployments, and infrastructure governance across teams and environments.

Tradeoff accepted: Required more upfront systems investment, but paid off in speed, reliability, and repeatability.

Experience

A progression built on systems depth.

Just Right Reader
Senior Full Stack Engineer (Staff Level)
Dec 2024 – Present

Led architecture and roadmap for a multi-service platform spanning product, operations, data, and infrastructure. Delivered measurable business impact through automation, architecture simplification, and platform ownership.

Edgio
Software Development Engineer II
Dec 2021 – Dec 2024

Built full-stack observability and workflow platforms, improved client response and ticket flows, and helped drive reliability and deployment improvements across distributed systems.

Yahoo / Verizon Media
Software Developer / Support Engineering
2018 – 2021

Grew from operations and support engineering into software development, building automation, improving production reliability, and developing strong systems and infrastructure fundamentals.

What I bring

Staff-market positioning, grounded in real platform work.

I work best where engineering intersects with operations, product, and infrastructure. My strongest contributions come from translating ambiguity into systems that last: clear architecture, thoughtful tradeoffs, strong delivery, and measurable impact.

End-to-end platform ownership
Architecture decisions with explicit tradeoffs
Infrastructure, CI/CD, and reliability depth
Operational leverage tied to business outcomes
Contact

Let’s build something durable.

I’m interested in staff-level opportunities focused on distributed systems, platform engineering, and infrastructure where architecture and long-term system ownership matter.