Thomas Chen
Senior Software Engineer | Backend & ML Systems | Technical Mentor at Formation (Part-time) | Formerly Microsoft, Amazon, Finny
8 yrs experience · Seattle, WA · <10 hrs/week
About
Seasoned Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years building high-throughput distributed systems and ML-powered products at Microsoft, Amazon, and Finny. Expertise spans backend engineering (Java, Python, C#, Go, Rust), event-driven pipelines (Kafka, Kinesis), and AI/LLM systems (Azure OpenAI, LangChain, Semantic Kernel). Passionate mentor who delivers scalable, secure software across cloud and on-prem environments.
Skills
Experience
- Technical Mentor (Part-time) · Formation02-01-2026 –
Mentored fellows across mid-to-large tech firms on system design, architecture, and coding practices; led technical sessions and provided hands-on guidance.
- Senior Software Engineer · Microsoft – Bing Search Platform07-01-2024 –
Contributed to the Bing infrastructure and backend services, building scalable, high-throughput search and AI-enabled features. Mentored engineers, implemented end-to-end solutions, and collaborated across teams to improve latency and throughput.
- Senior Software Engineer · Finny – AI Financial Advisor Platform (Contract)02-01-2024 – 07-31-2024
Built backend services on Finny’s AI platform, focusing on scalable, secure data pipelines and AI model integration to support financial advisory features.
- Senior Software Engineer · Amazon – Retail Division08-01-2019 – 02-28-2024
Engineered core backend services and data pipelines for retail platform, focusing on performance, reliability, and secure data handling at scale.
- Software Engineer · Amazon03-01-2016 – 08-31-2019
Developed large-scale backend systems, contributed to distributed services, and collaborated with cross-functional teams to deliver high-impact features for the e-commerce platform.
Education
- Rensselaer Polytechnic InstituteBachelor of Science, Computer Science
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