Michael E. Scott-Nelson

Senior Software Engineer | Technical Leader | Reliability & Efficiency Advocate

mscottnelson@gmail.com | (724) 953-6892 | GitHub

Professional Summary

Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience leading greenfield development as well as modernization efforts of legacy projects on high-volume, mission-critical platforms. Expert in low-latency systems, analytics pipelines, and cross-functional collaboration. Known for enabling new revenue streams, reducing infrastructure costs, and mentoring high-performing teams – all while maintaining operational stability.

Curated Work Experience

33Across | Remote

Senior Software Engineer

May 2022 - Sept 2025

• Modernization & Performance: Led the re-architecture of legacy ad-exchange services across Java, Node.js, and TypeScript, improving efficiency, decreasing error rates, and increasing throughput. Reduced infrastructure costs by ~30% while improving reliability with canary and blue/green deployments, A/B testing, and trace monitoring.
• Revenue Enablement: Rolled out app and CTV monetization using dynamic traffic management, directly increasing programmatic revenue.
• Mentorship & Team Enablement: Guided a team of 11 engineers to implement continuous architecture improvements and observability enhancements without production disruption.
• AI/ML Strategy: Participated in tiger-teams to integrate ML/AI-oriented tooling into our bid-stream and traffic-optimization models.
• Analytics Platform: Designed and delivered a new analytics data pipeline, giving clients improved reporting and transparency.
• Edge Data Processing: Built a Golang enrichment processor handling 150 B events/day with ~2 ms latency overhead and zero downtime since launch.

SAS Institute | Remote

Senior Software Developer

July 2017 - May 2022

• Designed and built enterprise cybersecurity tools on top of ElasticSearch, Kafka/RabbitMQ pipelines, and Angular UI components with explorable GraphQL API, improving threat detection and response times for clients.
• Prototyped React and Golang codebases to create a company-wide guideline for adoption of new technologies and best practices as part of a cross-team effort to standardize front-end and back-end development.
• Refactored a Node.js backend serving the entire 10_000+ software organization from JavaScript into TypeScript with a per-team accessible plugin architecture, improving developer experience and delivery times, visibility to automated systems while maintaining backward compatibility with existing clients.
• Led efforts to containerize and orchestrate internal applications using Docker and Kubernetes, improving deployment speed and reliability.
• Championed infrastructure as code practices, implementing Terraform and Ansible to automate provisioning and configuration management while supporting dev/test teams on a hybrid cloud environment (vSphere and Azure).
• Collaborated with cross-functional teams to define requirements, design solutions, and ensure successful project delivery.
• Assisted with CI/CD pipelines, Kubernetes cluster operations, and infrastructure reliability efforts.
• Mentored junior developers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Goucher College | Baltimore, MD

Academic Director and Professor of Digital Arts

Aug 2011 - Jul 2017

• Directed a graduate program, managed nine faculty, and maintained a makerspace integrating electronics and art.
• Taught courses in web development, graphics programming, and digital signal-processing, mentoring students and encouraging interdisciplinary exploration.

Education

University of Kansas

Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition

2010 - 2013

Researched and implemented various algorithms for real-time music generation, with a focus on interactive live music software via Markov chain based system adaptation. Developed a system that allows performers to interact with generative music in real-time, enhancing the live performance experience. Additionally, taught undergraduate and remedial graduate courses on computer music and in traditional music theory.

Johns Hopkins

Master of Music in Computer Music

2008 - 2010

Explored the intersection of computer science, human-computer interfaces, perception, acoustics, and music, focusing on real-time audio processing and generative music systems and musical composition. Developed software tools for live performance and interactive installations, enhancing the creative possibilities for musicians and artists.

Kenyon College

Bachelor of Arts with High Honors

2002 - 2006

Studied music, computer science, and anthropology, culuminating in an interactive music software / performance project that combined elements of all three disciplines. Additionally, was the lead technician for the college’s audio-visual computing lab, managing both the computer systems for students as well as sound and lighting for various events and performances.

Core Competencies

Languages

JavaScript / TypeScript, Golang / Go, Java / Spring, Lua, HCL, Zig, C/C++, Pd/GEM, Arduino, and more.

I enjoy learning new languages and paradigms, and have a strong foundation in both functional and object-oriented programming.

Systems & Tools

Node.js, Kubernetes, Jenkins CI/CD, Kafka/RabbitMQ, ElasticSearch/OpenSearch, Postgres, esbuild, OpenAPI/Swagger, Terraform, Ansible, Git, Docker, Prometheus, Grafana, etc.

Specialties

System scalability, edge processing, privacy compliance (GDPR/CPPA), monitoring & observability, monetization strategies, low-latency systems, cross-functional collaboration, mentoring and team leadership.