Brad Merrill

brad_merrill@hotmail.com
Redmond, WA

Cell: 425-444-7124
Home: 425-885-6135


Technology Skills

Other Skills


Books


Articles


PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE


March 2007 - April 2009
InfoSpace, Inc., Bellevue, WA

Senior Development Manager
Managed the Dogpile.com team, an Agile software development team, in multiple successful SCRUM/Sprint processes. Worked closely with both product management, and engineering management, to balance and set priorities with team. Remained 75% hands-on technical contributor as well. Contributions were: developed query term analysis architecture, provide technical design guidance, implemented prototypes, lead design discussions, lead code reviews, coordinated cross-team dependencies, and new technology prototypes such as Silverlight. Technology space was internet search technology including: AJAX and ASP.NET presentation layer; multi-search engine meta-search Java layer; results ranking, fuzzy logic rule processing, customized content management system, and distributed processing.

May 2006 - January 2007
CDigix, Inc., Seattle, WA

Director of Development
Created and managed team of developers during the lifecycle of 3 significant products releases using SCRUM and Agile development processes. Developed architecture, specifications, including operational and support plans. Worked with marketing, and executive team, to help set priorities and make time to market trade-offs. Also contributed significant technology components to products: .NET web services, SQL Server 2005 integration, ASP.NET, AJAX, IIS automation. Co-inventor of patent pending video media delivery product for college course content.

September 1996 - April 2006
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA

Fenway Team, Program Manager
Wrote specifications and architectural outlines for porting the Axapta X++ language and kernel to the .NET platform. Established development guidelines, resolved language design issues, and created interoperable runtime API signatures. Introduced SCRUM and Sprint practices to team, to deliver predictable, high quality, and demonstrable product releases.
Certified SCRUM Master: January 2006

.NET Developer Platform, Program Manager (CLR)
Worked with .NET Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR) team, helping ISVs create programming language compilers targeting the CLR. Worked with both commercial and academic developers during this time. Customer presentations, industry conference speaking, all on .NET Technology. Also developed samples and presentations for .NET Remoting technology.

Sample development: MyC compiler for .NET Framework SDK, CsLex (C# Lexer), .NET Remoting, Webservices, C#/MySql API for .NET (Windows/Linux).
Books: C# Essentials (O'Reilly), C#/VB.NET Design Patterns (Wiley)
Articles: C# Regular Expressions (O'Reilly website)

Developer Relations Group, Technical Evangelist (Java)
Worked with ISVs and the Java developer community to drive the adoption of the Microsoft Java technologies. Responsibilities included: creating new ISV contacts, various group presentations, technology demonstrations, design previews, industry conferences.

Sample development: C++/Java via COM (JPoint for Developmentor), classic ASP/Java sample (htmlTable), an MTS/Java sample (mtsjtx), a DCOM/Java sample (comjtx), and native method sample (jdblib).

February 1994 - August 1996
Sybase Inc, Emeryville/Mountain View, CA

Internet Products Group, Staff Software Engineer
Development on web.sql V1.0, which provides database access from web pages using CGI and NSAPI protocols. Developed support for stored procedures, database datatypes, and extended handling of row data. Developed and delivered course work for technical support training. Development of electronic commerce gateway, working with payment system protocols for First Virtual and Cybercash. Early Java-based development of servlet solution.

Transaction Management Group, Sr Software Engineer
Project lead for Sybase XA/Tuxedo product. XA is a X/Open DTP standard. Developed XA support for the Sybase SQLserver database engine with the Tuxedo TP monitor. Worked with Novell Tuxedo engineering and Sybase SQLserver engineering groups. Developed testing methodology and specifications. Developed XA support for CICS/6000, Encina, and TopEnd support, working with respective vendors development groups. Developed and delivered course work for technical support training for all XA products.

June 1980 - February 1994
Digital Equipment Corporation, Littleton, MA

RTR Software Engineering, Sr Software Engineer
RTR (Reliable Transaction Router) is a transactional messaging product with routing, delivery, and fault tolerant features. Ported RTR V2.1 to Alpha/AXP. Performance benchmarking.

ACMS/Unix Software Engineering, Software Engineer II
Developed distributed systems management entities in DCE environment (DECmcc). Developed functional specifications, design specifications, and test specifications.

Tpwest Software Engineering, Software Engineer II
Developed UNIX based X/OPEN (TX, XA) compliant, multi-threaded transaction manager. Extended to support UNIX-based DECdtm interface. Developed VMS-UNIX TCP/IP network transaction protocol.

DecIntact V2.0 Project Leader, Software Engineer II
Developed DECintact transaction commit protocol using DECdtm. Included functional specifications, design specifications, and test specifications. Participated in Digital X/OPEN working group (includes XA standard). DECintact V1.1: Developed enhancements for threading, node failure recovery (clusters), RMS journaling, and distributed queuing facility. DECintact/PC V1.0: Developed product assessment, acceptance criteria and bug fixes.

Large Computer Group, Commercial Software, Software Engineer I
Developed VAX native translators of HP and CDC tape formats. Maintenance of layered products: Traffic-20, Cobol-10/20, others. Development of TCS, an automated testing & tracking tool utilized by several projects. Maintenance of Fortran-10/20 compiler & runtime environment. Enhancements of Fortran source debugger system, extended addressing support.

Technical Support Group, Software Specialist I
Tops-10 operating system maintenance. Developed fixes for SPRs, provided telephone support to customers and field representatives.


Education

University of Arizona (1 YR BS EE)


Hobbies

Politics, Wines, Expert chess player (peak USCF 2065), computer chess programming, bridge, science-fiction reading


Brad Merrill <brad_merrill@hotmail.com>
Last modified: Sun Sep 23 20:05:39 Pacific Daylight Time 2007