Joseph Guadagno 602-293-6767 jguadagno@hotmail.com

Experience

Real Time Technologies (RT²)

Remote 9/2023 to Present

Vice President of IT

Fill in responsibilities here

Rocket Mortgage

Detroit, MI 8/2013 to 8/2023

Senior Director in Engineering - 1/2019 to 8/2023

As a Senior Director, I am responsible for the growth of the products I own and the growth of my teams along with their team members. I started in the position with two teams, fourteen team members and three products. Our team has since grown to five teams, fifty-five people and over fifteen products. The growth of about 400% of the team and products was done seamlessly through leadership and the work that was done to enable it. Along with my leadership team, we established some common processes to enable the stability of our applications with enabled us to grow. Some processes included onboarding processes for new team members to ensure they had the right tools and processes to effectively do their role. We standardized the deployment process across all our products, which includes change processes, documentation, and testing. This change process enabled the team to increase the number of deployments by over 500% from the start of the year.

I enabled and encouraged Team Member growth through training. We have quarterly team training goals to level up the team. Through experimentation, we frequently try new things to tweak/improve our processes including Mob Programming, Machine Learning, Reorganizing the teams based on projects and skill sets, and trying out new tools.

We have also been a fully remote, location-aware, team prior to Covid. My team members are split between two different offices (in two time zones) along with multiple time zones in the US. This remote team works well because of what is done to keep the team connected. We have “fun rooms” in Teams, life celebrations (new children, birthday, anniversary, etc.), theme weeks, and more.

Outside the ‘day to day’ roles and responsibilities of being a Senior Director, I also mentor other Directors and leaders looking to improve their skills set and advance in leadership. I am also an international public speaker, who speaks on multiple technology topics and is an active blogger. I also am active in the community to educate people and help with brand awareness.

Team Leader – 1/2014 to 1/2019

As a Team Leader, I lead a team of Business Analysts, Quality Assurance Engineers, Software Engineers, and a Software Architect to deliver several quality projects.

My team built a service that allows our clients to automatically gather, with their permission, Asset, Income, and Income Tax data and forms from our partners to include in their mortgage application. For the work and creativity for this product, I was awarded U.S. Patent #10,042,949

Another project was a new, reimagined, Sales Force automation system. This system was redesigned from the ground up to help our bankers’ collect data from our clients during the mortgage process. My tasks included: discovery, project estimation, application architecture, status reporting, and presentations on the progress of the project.

Although not part of my day-to-day work:

  • I participate in several virtual teams, including the Open-Source Big Rock team.
  • The Open-Source Big Rock team's goal was to get an open-source mind set at work, and to create a culture of being able to jump in and contribute code to projects and applications that you do not normally work on.
  • I also help mentor other leaders, both new and seasoned.
  • I do this by having one on ones with them where we talk about the challenges we are having together.
  • I also was part of the Technology Public Relations team as well as the .NET Interviewers team.
  • I helped organize the Quicken Loans Technology conference for around 1200 team members.
  • This conference had 3 tracks with 2 keynotes and 15 sessions.
  • I also participate in a team to investigate the future and figure out what we need to do to make are systems and processes better for our clients and our team members.

Software Architect – 8/2013 to 1/2014

As a Software Architect, I was brought onto a net-new project that was being managed by another company to assist with its design and development. During this project, I moved into the role of technical lead on the application to fill the void left once the contract was up with the other company. My tasks included: mentoring fellow team members, assigning development tasks, attending planning meetings, coordinating efforts with other teams, performing code reviews, and helping to design the SDLC process for the team. The project had a successful pilot launch, and several successful launches throughout its lifespan. As our team was transitioning this project to another team, for continued development and support, I trained the other team on the application, solution, and workflow as well as provided development support as they ramped up.

I have provided several training events and presentations to fellow team members on topics such as “Debugging Applications”, Twitter Bootstrap, ReSharper, and many more.

IO

Phoenix, AZ 1/2013 to 8/2013

Senior Software Engineer

As a Senior Software Engineer, I was tasked with doing research, design, and discovery for new features or products to add to the company’s offerings. I was also tasked with researching existing problems and looking for solutions to them. I presented at several “Lunch and Learns” to teach fellow software developers modern technology.

One of my other tasks was to help set the standard and best practices for development. This included improving the current software development standards documentation, establishing processes for software development, and choosing the right tools to help with the process.

Wells Fargo

Chandler, AZ 2006 to 1/2013

Technology Advisor

As the Technology Advisor, I was charged with creating and implementing development coding standards, As the Technology Advisor, I was charged with creating and implementing development coding standards, development best practices, and common development software for the Technology Operations group, approximately four hundred developers. In addition, I acted as the internal developer evangelist for Microsoft development technologies. I provided several internal training classes on architecture and development for groups ranging from 5 to 200 people. I was tasked as a “hired gun” to join troubled projects to fix them up and/or help projects that were stumped with implementation or integration technologies. I implemented an internal NuGet server for common and internal libraries.

Technology Lead

I was the lead developer for several internal applications as well as third party implementation projects.

I sat on the Source Code Control Advisory committee tasked with setting the standards for Source Code Control standards for the entire bank. I assisted in the implementation of the Enterprise Microsoft Team Foundation Server.

I implemented a metric reporting system, which consumed data from multiple locations, performed calculations on those metrics, and then displayed them on screen. To accomplish this, I implemented a pluggable framework which loads and schedules .NET assemblies dynamically to consume feeds from multiple locations and perform the calculations.

I also started an internal .NET user group to provide education on .NET technologies, standardization of tools, and built out an internal community.

I improved the performance and reliability of the “CORE” application. This application used a custom threading library, custom TCP/IP messaging of ClearQuest objects to automate the movement of defects and code packages through the ClearQuest workflow. The CORE system generates approximately 300 error messages a day. After a month of debugging and coding, the error messages were reduced to one or two a week.

Created a custom ADO.NET provider and SQL client application for querying the ClearQuest data store using SQL syntax. This involved the parsing of incoming SQL requests (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, SELECT) and converting them to the corresponding ClearQuest API calls.

Created a web service for queries to the ClearQuest data store using either web services protocols or JavaScript objects.

For many of these applications, I generated unit test and executed them with NUnit and added additional logging with log4net.

Another project that I created was a custom task scheduler, like that of the Windows Scheduler, with a few exceptions. This application allowed the user to create a task using any .NET language. Once created the plug-in or task would be placed in the plug-ins folder and on the next restart of the scheduler the plug-in would be loaded and executed based on its schedule.

Created custom CodeSmith templates, a CodeSmith SQLite schema provider, and a CodeSmith template to generate NUnit tests for an existing .NET assembly.

Technologies Used

C#, SQL Server 2008, Windows Services, Entity Framework, Team Foundation Server (TFS), Visual Studio, jQuery, jQueryUi, Telerik Controls, NHibernate, ELMAH, WCF, Log4Net, Custom Threading Library, Custom TCP/IP messaging, CodeSmith, NUnit, SQLite, Oracle, Custom CodeSmith Schema Provider. Rational ClearQuest, Rational ClearCase, Nuget, Red Gate SQL Toolbelt.

Intel Corporation

Chandler, AZ 1/2006 to 6/2006

Lead Software Developer

As part of the Flex Services Technical Operations team (TechOps), I was tasked to improve the performance and reliability of one of Flex Services’ internal billing sites. This web site supports 600 users across the globe. Application performance was dramatically improved (search speeds when from 3 minutes for 600 records to 3-17 seconds for 1200 records), page load times when from 45-60 to about 5 seconds. The user interface was also improved dramatically by using Ajax technology to dynamically load pages (or sections of) when needed. The security, menu and database interfaces were improved. I was also tasked with reviewing third party developed code to ensure it was following general programming requirements and design.

I also created a dynamic reporting application, which used reflection to see a list of available reports. In conjunction with this reporting application a Microsoft Excel add-in was created to merge cells in a spreadsheet programmatically.

Technologies Used

ASP.NET, C#, IIS6, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft Excel, Ajax Professional.NET, Infragistics NetVantage, ComponentArt WebUI.

Express Scripts

Tempe, AZ 7/2005 to 1/2006

Software Programmer Analyst

As part of the Tempe Application Development group for Express Scripts, Inc., I was tasked to help clean up the development processes and help support their existing applications.

Some of the accomplishments that I achieved during this time frame include:

  • Put in place a process for application development.
  • Created the source code control repository.
  • Outlined procedures for gathering requirements.
  • Outlined procedures for documenting functional specifications.
  • Outlined procedures for developing applications.
  • Outlined procedures for testing applications.
  • Outlines procedures for implementing and supporting the applications.
  • “Cleaned Up” several of the applications to make use of stored procedures and features of the operating systems and/or frameworks.
  • Had one major release (approx. 150 users) of their letter generating application.
  • Implemented a fax notification application, to let the users know when their faxes were sent successfully.
  • Started a data warehouse project to store approximately 100 gigabytes of their Pharmacy data.
  • Implemented several data extracts using Crystal Reports, SQL Server Reporting Services and Microsoft Excel.
Technologies Used

Visual Basic 6.0, Visual Basic.NET, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Oracle 9.0i, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, Crystal Reports.

Guardian Life Insurance

New York, NY 12/1998 to 7/2005

Development Manager and Manager of Imaging Practice

I managed a team of four people which includes: one project manager, one business analyst, one support person / system administrator, and one developer. Management tasks include handling day to day personnel issues, assigning work to people, ensuring that work is complete, and performing semiannual reviews. Daily tasks include creating status reports, attending status meetings, supporting existing systems, designing new systems, and gathering requirements.

I also looked for ways to optimize the current applications by re-architecting them as newer technologies come out. Examples include Redesigning Kofax Batch Classes, using new components/technologies that became available.

Some of the day-to-day programming tasks included: designing Kofax Batch Classes, modifying OCR for AnyDoc templates, modifying the Web site and components that have been created, creating Kofax release scripts, and recognition scripts.

Some of the accomplishments I achieved while being the manager of the imaging practice included:

  • Created a conversion application to take documents out of Optika and place them in a FileNet repository.
  • Create a secure remote scanning facility, which allows Guardian’s agencies to scan documents and transmit them securely to the central capture area.
  • Part of a team of individuals that was responsible for creating a workflow RFI and gathering business requirements.
  • Optimized existing Optika workflow application.
  • Created disaster recovery solution for all the imaging systems at the Guardian.
  • Created Forms Design Guidelines for Visual Basic development in user at the Guardian.
  • Served as a member of the Enterprise Architecture team to create a framework for the company using .NET technologies.

Project Manager

From 12/1998 to 7/2005

I managed a project for Guardian’s Individual Market profit center. This application was designed to enable faster underwriting of the insurance applications. This was accomplished by having the agencies scan or fax in their application to our capture system which in term indexed them for storage in the FileNet repository. I was responsible for getting the project approved, designed, developed, implemented, and supported. The project team consisted of 4 developers, 1 DBA, 1 system administrator, and me. I managed this project from end to end.

I started on the team as the lead developer, but I quickly became the project manager to build the Billing Information Storage and Retrieval System that is currently in production. While working on the team my responsibilities entailed: installing and configuring a FileNet Image Services server, implementing a Datacap capture system, creating a Visual Basic front end, and an Intranet based front end to query the FileNet repository. I also built several scripts for retrieving a data file from the corporate mainframe and uploading it to the Oracle validation database. I was also responsible for training all the users in the administration and use of the BISAR system. Other responsibilities included evaluating other capture and imaging products for use in production. In building the Intranet application to query the FileNet repository, I designed and developed a connection pooler to FileNet. The connection pooler ran as an NT service and handled multiple requests coming in FileNet connections. This saved the company over $400k in licensing fees. The connection pooler was able to use 15 connections to support over 300 users. I created an imaging framework that sat on top of the FileNet API, to provide easier, more object oriented, access to the FileNet repository. With this Intranet application, I built a suite of FileNet Visual Basic COM wrappers that accept parameters and return results as XML documents.

Technologies Used

Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft ASP, Microsoft VBA, FileNet SDK, Desaware NT Service Toolkit, OCR for AnyDoc, DCOM, Accusoft ImageGear, XML.Visual Basic 5.0 – 6.0, Microsoft InterDev, FileNet IDMIS, Datacap 2000, Microsoft Ado, Oracle 8.0.5, Windows Scripting Host, IIS 4.0, Active Server Pages, HTML, Dynamic HTML, ASP, Accusoft ImageGear, Digital Certificates, COM, DCOM, XML, and NT services.

Technical Consultant

From 12/1998 to 7/2005

I served as an imaging consultant for the Guardian Life Insurance Company & Berkshire Life Insurance Company merger. I helped Berkshire Life Insurance with recommendations for their design of the imaging and workflow application. Project Life Cycle: Full Life Cycle.

I headed the development team for an imaging workflow project for Park Avenue Securities. With this system I designed the backend workflow database and form data storage. I was also responsible for designing and developing over 10 components for interacting with FileNet, CereSoft and SQL server. These components performed data validation, data verification and workflow routing. I also had to build a custom SGML parser to read export files. Project Life Cycle: Full Cycle.

I also worked on the Online Electronic Forms Repository project. For this project, I created a prototype Internet site where people can search through a database of forms that the Guardian had to offer. I was also involved in many vendor meetings to determine which vendor application met the needs of this project. For the production system, I design the backend database for the forms repository. I also created the conversion program for the department’s old Microsoft Access database to the new DB2 database.

Technologies Used

Microsoft InterDev, ASP, Microsoft Ado, UDB, IIS 4.0, Active Server Pages, and HTML.

DeBari Associates

New York, NY 4/1998 to 10/1998

Director of Technology

I managed the technical staff that consisted of six programmers, 2 network administrators, and 3 interns. Part of my responsibilities included managing all in-house development, 5-6 projects a month. These projects were custom designed document imaging projects. Documents are scanned, then “coded” using the scanned image. We then created a custom export application for the clients to use with their document system. Other duties included the interviewing of prospective candidates and terminating employees. I was also responsible for the computer network that consisted of over 300 computers both in New York and the country of St. Vincent. I also maintained client contact to ensure the data that we were providing them with was accurate.

Technologies Used

Visual Basic 3-6, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Word, Microsoft FrontPage, Microsoft ADO, Microsoft RDO, Microsoft DAO, ODBC, Microsoft SQL Server, Kofax Imaging, Caere OCR, Seagate Crystal Reports. Microsoft Project and Microsoft Team Manager.

Bear Stearns

New York, NY 12/1997 to 3/1998

Vice President

I managed the development of all 15 projects that the group created; part of my responsibilities included the managing of the developers on these projects, attending several weekly project status meetings and new development/project meetings, and holding monthly code reviews. I created several graphical custom controls for this organization and a project documenting utility add-in.

Technologies Used

Visual Basic 5.0, ADO, AS/400

Lehrer McGovern Bovis

New York, NY 6/1996 to 12/1997

Project Leader

American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY. Project Leader, 7/97 to 12/97. I served as the primary developer and contact to build a totally customizable project tracking system for the museum. The application included familiar Windows interfaces, such as the Explorer and "hot tracking". Project Life Cycle: Through development.

U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Washington DC. Senior Programmer, 6/96 to 12/97. I served as the primary developer for a nationwide project management system. In constant contact with the GSA through meeting and telephone calls, I managed the development and the evolution of this product. Duties included creating new database tables, assigning team resources, and keeping the client update to date with the most recent copy of the application. In addition to assigning a reviewing the work of other developers on the project and interacting with the rest of the team, I also developed and implemented the financial, contract, cost, security and administration modules in the Project Manager's Toolbox. These modules track how money is spend on projects by the Public Building Services of GSA. The financial module issues requisitions and tracks commitments, obligations, and payments on awarded contract. This module also allows the project manager to create a spending plan, allocate funds and track actual and future estimated costs thought out its lifetime. Project Life Cycle: Full Life cycle, and deployment to 12 regional offices.

Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. Project Manager, 9/96 to 12/97. I visited with the Princeton University staff and determined what their needs were for a project management system. Though several meeting with the team I determined what they needed as far of the software goes. And headed the project development team to build this. Project Life Cycle: Full Life Cycle.

Technologies Used

Visual Basic 5.0, ADO, Erwin, Microsoft Project, and Crystal Reports. Visual Basic 5.0, ADO, VBSQL, SQL Server, Wise Installation, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Crystal Reports. Visual Basic 4.0, DAO, Microsoft Access, and Crystal Reports.

Norwood Computer Services

Hicksville, NY 6/1995 to 6/1996

Programmer

Norwood Computer Services, Hicksville, NY. Programmer Analyst, 6/95 to 6/96. I developed and implemented their payroll and invoicing system. This system included interaction with Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, MAS 90, and Advance Software to create many different reports. The system included transactions with accounts payable, accounts receivable and general ledger. Project Life Cycle: Full Life Cycle

Norwood Computer Services, Hicksville, NY. Network Administrator. 6/95 to 6/96. I was responsible for a 40 computer wide area networks in over four cities throughout the U.S. I was also responsible for configuring and maintaining a Windows NT and Novell Server. Responsible for configuring workstations for the seven workgroups and configuring the software on the workstations.

Technologies Used

Visual Basic 3.0, Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, Sybase, FoxPro, and MAS90. Windows NT 3.51, Novell NetWare 2.1, Ascend Communications, and ISDN.

Patriot Computer Services

Queens, NY 2/1991 to 2/1993

Programmer

I was responsible for creating a real estate database system that tracked available apartments and rented apartments. It maintained a list of upcoming apartments and the managers of these apartments.

Technologies Used

QuickBASIC

RGIS Inventory Specialist

Westbury, NY 12/1987 to 6/1995

Area Manager

I developed a time sheet and invoicing system. This system was used to bill over 100,000 customers a year.

Technologies Used

Visual Basic 3.0, Microsoft Access

Speaking Engagements/Presentations

For a list of past and present speaking engagements please visit: https://www.josephguadagno.net/speaking-engagements.

For a list of presentations that I can/have done, please visit: https://www.josephguadagno.net/presentations

Published Articles

I actively publish content on my blog at https://josephguadagno.net and have guest posts on the Telerik blog. Here is a list of older articles I have written before my blog became active.

Title Url Published
Guadagno Task Scheduler https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/18795/Guadagno-Task-Scheduler October 2008
log4net XmlConfigurator Simplified https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/19207/log4net-XmlConfigurator-Simplified June 2007
Task Plug-in: A Flexible .NET Plug-in Architecture https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/18480/Task-Plug-in-A-Flexible-NET-Plug-in-Architecture April 2007
Customizing Folders in C## https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/18811/Customizing-Folders-in-C May 2007

Community Work

Organization / Work Role When
.NET Foundation Board of Directors President 2023-2024
.NET Foundation Board of Directors Vice President and Outreach Committee 2022-2023
.NET Foundation Member Committee Member 2019-2021
INETA Community Leadership Summit at Microsoft TechEd Organizer 6/2012
MVP 2 MVP Sessions at the Microsoft Global MVP Summit Organizer 2/2012
INETA Community Leadership Summit at Microsoft TechEd Organizer 5/2011
MVP 2 MVP Sessions at the Microsoft Global MVP Summit Organizer 2/2011, 2/2012, 2/2013, 3/2013, 11/2013, 11/2014
INETA North America Vice President 4/2013 - Present
INETA North America President 3/2011 – 3/2013
City of Chandler - Parks and Recreation board Board Member 3/2011 - Present
Gangplank Jr. Organizer 1/2010 - 12/2010
SEVDNUG Social Mixer Organizer 1/2010 - Present
Desert Code Camp Organizer 10/2009 - Present
INETA North America Marketing Director 11/2009 - 2/2011
TechLunchSouth Organizer 1/2009 - 3/2012
Redwood Estates Homeowners Association President 5/2007 - 5/2012

Community Websites

Used for Site
The site for Desert Code Camp, the Phoenix area code camp. https://www.desertcodecamp.com
The site for the Southeast Valley .NET User Group in Chandler, AZ https://www.sevdnug.org
The site for tracking all the events and after parties at Microsoft Global MVP Summit. https://www.mvpsummitevents.info
The site for tracking all the events and after parties at Microsoft TechEd. https://www.techedevents.info
The site for tracking all the events and after parties at Connections conference. https://www.devconnectionevents.info
The site for tracking all the events and after parties at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC). https://www.pdcevents.info
The site for tracking all the events and after parties at the Mix conference. https://www.visitmixevents.info
The site for tracking all the events and after parties at SQL Pass Summit. https://www.passsummitevents.info

Affiliations, Awards and Certifications

Company Affiliation / Award / Certification When received
Microsoft Microsoft Developer Services MVP 2009 through 2024
Progress Telerik Telerik Ninja 2018 through 2021
Telerik Telerik MVP 2009 thought 2013
Microsoft Microsoft Visual Basic MVP 1996

Additional Information

I have had two articles published in a magazine, one in Windows Developers Journal, and the other in Microsoft Developers Network library. I have received the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional award, which is awarded to developers who aid other developers or community using Microsoft technologies. I belonged to the beta test teams for the following products. Dundas TCP/IP Software, Symantec Anti-Virus, Microsoft Windows 95,98, Millennium Edition, Microsoft Visual Basic v5.0, Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft Outlook 2.x and 98. I have worked with the following operating systems, Microsoft Windows, Versions 3.0 - 98, Microsoft Windows NT, Versions 3.51 – 2000, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, MS-DOS, Versions 3.3 - 6.22, and Windows NT Server, Version 3.51 –2008.

Resume in Word

Download a copy of my resume here: Joseph Guadagno Resume