Engineering Leader

Graham Vriend

Leading distributed product and platform teams through scalable SaaS, cloud modernization, API delivery, and AI-enabled engineering productivity.

14
Years Experience
19
Engineers Led
53
PDLC Skills Built
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About Me

Engineering leader with an MBA in IT Management and 14 years of software development experience. Leads distributed product and platform teams of up to 19 US-based engineers plus an offshore squad, combining hands-on architectural depth with product judgment, customer empathy, and cross-functional leadership.

Owns ambiguous, high-impact problems end-to-end across scalable SaaS, APIs, cloud modernization, developer experience, and AI-enabled engineering productivity.

Lynden, WA

Leadership

Led two distributed squads with up to 19 US engineers and an offshore team

Strategy

Aligned Product, Sales, Support, vendors, and engineering around complex tradeoffs

Mentorship

Coached engineers across levels through promotions, performance management, hiring, and career growth

Process Improvement

Drove Service Fabric-to-Kubernetes and Azure SQL Managed Instance modernization initiatives

Data-Driven

Built Power BI and Azure DevOps workflows for delivery and operational visibility

Global Collaboration

Built an AI-enabled PDLC platform used by 52 associates with 53 Claude Code skills

Experience

IT Manager II

Nelnet
Full-time · Remote
Mar 2025 - Present
  • Lead two distributed Agile teams with up to 19 US-based direct reports, plus a 5-person offshore engineering squad, owning people leadership, delivery, technical direction, and operational health.
  • Drive architecture and modernization across cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, APIs, and large-scale data migrations, including Service Fabric-to-Kubernetes and Azure SQL Managed Instance initiatives.
  • Serve as a technical escalation point for complex production, customer, and integration issues, partnering with Product, Sales, Support, and external vendors.
  • Built an internal AI-enabled PDLC platform used by 52 associates across the department, with 53 Claude Code skills supporting Strategy, Design, Build, Launch, and Operate workflows.
  • Lead incident response and architecture governance through executive on-call responsibilities, RFC development, observability improvements, and cross-team technical decision-making.
  • Coach and develop engineers across levels through promotions, structured performance management, hiring, and career growth.
Product & Platform Strategy Cloud Architecture API Delivery AI-Enabled PDLC Talent Development Architecture Governance

IT Manager

Nelnet
Full-time · Remote
Jan 2023 - Feb 2025
  • Led two Agile teams with 12 direct reports across senior engineers, junior engineers, software analysts, and quality roles.
  • Mentored engineers and analysts through career development, technical coaching, and cross-team collaboration.
  • Improved engineering workflows and delivery practices by introducing sustainable development processes and stronger team operating norms.
  • Built reporting and metrics workflows using Power BI and Azure DevOps to improve visibility into delivery trends, operational health, and resource needs.
  • Led technical learning initiatives, including internal engineering events and presentations focused on debugging, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
  • Acted as the technical liaison for an offshore engineering team, shaping processes, delivery strategy, and architecture for a public API platform.
People Leadership Agile Delivery Engineering Metrics Technical Coaching

Technical Lead - FACTS SIS

Nelnet
Full-time · Remote
Jan 2019 - Jan 2023
  • Led engineering initiatives across K-12 platform and integration teams, combining hands-on technical leadership with developer growth, architecture, delivery planning, and process improvement.
  • Designed scalable state-reporting and data-ingestion solutions, including architecture adopted to resolve severe endpoint bottlenecks for high-volume vendors.
  • Built and supported high-availability B2B integrations, including emergency parent alerting and Canvas LMS identity and roster synchronization.
  • Co-created a 3-day architecture bootcamp that accelerated onboarding and technical development and continued to be used across the organization.
  • Modernized local development workflows with Docker and Tilt, improving consistency and developer productivity across engineering teams.
  • Helped hire and retain 12 software engineers while mentoring developers through technical growth, architecture decisions, and delivery challenges.
  • Migrated more than 150,000 legacy files into Git and introduced the organization’s first pull-request workflows and supporting training.
  • Planned and delivered recurring releases while collaborating with offshore teams to address technical debt, integration issues, and long-term platform improvements.
  • Delivered major product initiatives including tenant management, Salesforce integration, State Reporting, and an open API.
Distributed Systems Developer Experience API Integration Technical Leadership

IT Technical Support Engineer - RenWeb Professional Services

Nelnet
Full-time · United States
Feb 2016 - Jan 2019
  • Resolved complex Tier 3 technical escalations for schools and internal teams, troubleshooting application, database, and integration issues across production environments.
  • Designed and supported custom API integrations using ColdFusion, SQL, JavaScript, and Bootstrap, extending product functionality and helping external systems connect more effectively.
  • Improved engineering and support workflows by introducing Git-based source control and more structured technical processes.
  • Partnered directly with customers and internal stakeholders to diagnose root causes, resolve high-impact issues, and improve long-term product reliability.
  • Promoted to Technical Lead based on technical leadership, initiative, and contributions across engineering and support.

Web Developer

Dynamic Internet Solutions
Oct 2012 - Feb 2016
  • Built and maintained web applications and content-management solutions for churches, schools, and other organizations using ColdFusion, SQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and JSON.
  • Enhanced a ColdFusion-based CMS with new product features, backend functionality, and third-party integrations.
  • Integrated external APIs and services including Google, Amazon, and Zendesk to expand platform capabilities and automate customer workflows.
  • Contributed to a large-scale responsive redesign initiative, improving usability and consistency across desktop and mobile experiences.
  • Supported ongoing application maintenance, debugging, database work, and customer-driven feature development across multiple production websites.

Web Developer

Ozone Solutions
Jan 2012 - Oct 2012
  • Developed and maintained the company website using Symfony PHP, HTML, CSS, jQuery, and SQL.
  • Built and supported web functionality across Apache and Linux environments, gaining hands-on experience with server administration and production troubleshooting.
  • Managed Google AdWords campaigns and website performance initiatives to improve online visibility and marketing effectiveness.

Webmaster Assistant

Dordt University
Aug 2008 - Dec 2011
  • Maintained and enhanced the university’s primary website using HTML, CSS, jQuery, MySQL, and Perl.
  • Supported website updates, troubleshooting, and ongoing improvements across a large institutional web presence.
  • Provided technical support for hardware and client issues, helping resolve problems quickly and minimize downtime.
  • Built early hands-on experience across web development, databases, systems support, and production troubleshooting.

Skills & Technologies

Cloud & Platform

Azure Kubernetes Docker Azure SQL Managed Instance Cosmos DB Application Insights

Engineering

Distributed Systems API Design & Integration Developer Experience RFC Authoring Incident Command

Languages & Tools

C# .NET SQL JavaScript Python Git Power BI ColdFusion Bootstrap Symfony PHP jQuery Perl

Developer Experience & AI

AI Developer Platform AI-Enabled PDLC Claude Code Skills Claude Code GitHub Copilot Codex

Leadership

Engineering Leadership Product & Platform Strategy Distributed Teams Cross-functional Alignment Talent Development Retention

Delivery & Operations

API Product Delivery Cloud Modernization Security Incident Response Agile

Education

MBA, IT Management

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
2025

BA, Computer Science: Information Systems

Dordt University
2012

Let's Connect

Engineering leader focused on product and platform strategy, scalable systems, and high-performing distributed teams.

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