Kevin Klein

Software Engineer

[email protected] | Hermosa Beach, CA

Short Resume - View the Full Resume Here

Summary

Kevin Klein is a highly accomplished engineer with extensive experience in developing and scaling complex technical systems across various industries. Kevin describes himself as not just a full-stack engineer but a full lifecycle engineer, owning all aspects from design and development to testing, deploying, monitoring, and support. As the Head of Engineering at FLOWER CO., he successfully rebuilt and optimized a customer and admin website, reducing latency and enhancing reliability, as well as building an extensive set of tools to manage deploying, building local environments, and general development, reducing the need for developers to reference documentation. Kevin has a wide range of expertise spanning across multiple technologies, including PHP, React, Kubernetes, AWS, GraphQL, and REST APIs, as well as migrating legacy infrastructure to modern platforms.

Prior to this, he co-founded Obeo.io, where he developed an SMS marketing platform with real-time messaging and automation, and held engineering roles at Life360 and BloomThat, where he led the development of critical backend systems and large-scale e-commerce solutions. Before he started working in website engineering, Kevin worked in the television and advertising industries, supporting post-production systems, managing storage networks, and leading assistant editor teams to support editorial staff.

Experience

FLOWER CO.

Head of Engineering | Los Angeles, CA | February 2020 - Present

A leading cannabis delivery and wholesale company in California.

Languages: PHP, HTML, CSS, React, Next.js, Vite, Java, Selenium, AWS, Terraform, Bash, Python, Docker, Kubernetes, Chef

  • Rebuilt and Enhanced Core Systems: Led the complete redevelopment of the customer and admin website from a Ruby-based Spree CMS to a PHP CodeIgniter framework within 8 months, improving performance, reducing latency, and integrating custom business logic and new features.
  • Infrastructure Modernization and Optimization: Migrated services to Docker and Kubernetes, integrated ElasticSearch for advanced search capabilities, and utilized Redis and DynamoDB for caching and session management. Established Redshift and Athena for data analytics, handling database migrations and maintaining ETL jobs.
  • Development of Custom Solutions and Compliance Integration: Built multiple custom admin dashboards for various job roles and developed brand websites using React and GraphQL. Launched REST and GraphQL APIs for service integration and managed complex compliance by integrating with California's cannabis track and trace system, Metrc. Integrated AI into workflows to expedite feature development and infrastructure deployment, reducing production issues. Implemented comprehensive testing and monitoring using Java, Selenium, and New Relic, and developed robust command-line tools for deployment and infrastructure management.

Life360

Software Engineer | San Francisco, CA | July 2019 - January 2020

Life360 is the leading family location safety app.

Languages: PHP, Java, Terraform, Bash, GO, Python, Prometheus, Docker, Chef

  • Rapid Promotion and Leadership Potential: Hired as a Software Engineer I and quickly promoted to Software Engineer II due to exceptional performance and leadership skills; was on track for a Senior role before departing in January 2020.
  • Lead Backend Engineer for Critical Systems: Served as the primary backend engineer for a free crash detection notification system, ensuring reliable, timely, and accurate notifications to users.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration and Integration: Worked closely with product managers, engineering managers, and app development teams to report on project progress, integrate backend services into applications, and enhance overall functionality and user experience.
  • Infrastructure Scaling and Data-Driven Improvements: Partnered with DevOps to launch new infrastructure and scale existing systems for robust performance; collaborated with data analysts to review feature performance and collect data, contributing to informed decision-making and continuous product improvement.

Obeo.io

CO-Founder | San Francisco, CA | October 2018 - February 2022

Obeo was an SMS marketing and communication platform that features campaign sending, link tracking, 3rd party integrations, public API, and message automation.

Languages: PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Terraform, Bash, MySQL, Google Cloud

  • System Architecture and Backend Development: Built the application using PHP and MySQL on Google Cloud App Engine, designing a versioned MySQL schema for streamlined database updates. Utilized a Pub/Sub queue system to handle bulk processing, background jobs, and large imports such as uploading contact lists and sending campaigns.
  • Real-Time Functionality and Event Management: Implemented WebSockets with Node.js and PHP to provide live messaging and real-time updates of user interface elements. Designed an event management system that allows events to trigger other actions within the system in real time.
  • Integration and Automated Testing: Developed integrations to connect customer accounts with Slack, MailChimp, Shopify, and custom-built applications. Wrote PHPUnit tests to validate models, controllers, and other critical system functions, ensuring system reliability.
  • Development Environment and Deployment Automation: Created a local development environment using Chef and Vagrant to simplify onboarding new developers and streamline testing and deployment tasks. Employed Bash scripts, Terraform, Chef, and Google App Engine to set up staging and production environments with automated horizontal scaling.

BloomThat

Sr. Software Engineer | San Francisco, CA | September 2013 - October 2018

BloomThat was a flower delivery startup that had a national presence with same day and next day delivery.

Languages: PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Terraform, Bash, MySQL, Chef

  • Custom E-commerce Solution Development and Management: Led the development of a custom-built e-commerce platform using PHP and MySQL, hosted on Rackspace custom servers. Built and managed a large-scale administration and distribution system that fulfilled thousands of orders daily through multiple vendors. Created an administration dashboard with billing and statistical features for accounting purposes.
  • Innovative Applications for Vendors and Customer Support: Developed a vendor distribution app to assist farms in fulfilling orders, which became a new standard that farms now require from retailers. Created a customer support app to help representatives identify order issues and communicate with customers effectively. Implemented WebSockets to provide real-time dashboard updates for administrative and fulfillment services.
  • Automation and System Monitoring: Employed Terraform, Chef, Jenkins, and Bash scripts to automate deployment, scaling, and system migration. Utilized New Relic for system usage monitoring, receiving notable recognition from the company.
  • Leadership and Operational Oversight: Managed a team of developers by delegating tasks, reviewing work, conducting performance reviews, and handling layoffs. Oversaw internal customer support, on-call scheduling, and disaster recovery planning. As the first employee hired, facilitated the technical transition during the acquisition by FTD and was the last employee to depart post-acquisition.