Senior Software Engineer & Release Lead with Azure Expertise

Kevin Howell

Austin, TX 512-***-**** ****************@*******.*** linkedin.com/in/kevin-howell-432a5a5 Summary

Software engineer and release manager specializing in .NET/Azure platforms. Founding engineer on aviation Flight Management System, scaled from startup through acquisition and enterprise integration. Delivered high uptime services and predictable releases while modernizing with React, TypeScript, GraphQL, Docker, and Azure Functions. Known for bridging engineering depth with operational reliability to help teams ship faster without sacrificing stability.

Core skills

• Languages: C#, JavaScript, SQL, jQuery

• Frameworks: ASP.NET, .NET, .NET Core, React, Node.js, TypeScript, GraphQL

• Cloud and DevOps: Azure, Azure Functions, Azure DevOps (Pipelines, Releases), Docker, Kubernetes, YAML

• Data and integration: APIs, REST, SOAP, JSON, Azure Service Bus, Azure Activity Hubs, MongoDB

• Process and collaboration: Agile, JIRA, Confluence, cross-functional release orchestration Experience

Avianis / Wheels Up — Senior Software Engineer 2014–2025

• Co-Founding Engineer: Built core FMS features across .NET/SQL/Azure used daily by flight operations, dispatch, and scheduling; delivered stable services with pragmatic front end and back end contributions.

• Enterprise Integration: Integrated FMS capabilities with Wheels Up enterprise systems post acquisition, coordinating APIs, auth, and data flows to meet business and compliance needs.

• Modernization Contributions: Participated in efforts using TypeScript, React, GraphQL, Docker, and Azure Functions to evolve services and front ends while maintaining reliability.

• Innovative Solutions: Eliminated DST errors: Designed time zone overrides leveraging Windows registry data; sustained 100% uptime for mission critical workflows despite provider delays and DST inconsistencies.

• Data Integrity: Rebuilt airport data refresh from Service Bus triggers to an Azure Function that synchronized into the enterprise Airport Data Service, keeping internal apps 100% consistent and aligned with airport and services data.

• Release Optimization (pre acquisition): Reduced release time from 3h to 2h by tuning Azure DevOps pools and execution order across multi night cycles, minimizing operational overhead for 20+ operators.

• Release orchestration (post acquisition): Partnered with FMS leadership, DevOps, and QA to run 2–3 major releases per month plus hotfixes; reduced coordination issues by 80% via clear runbooks and planning.

• Operational maturity: Led daytime and overnight rotations, eliminated noisy alerts safely, and kept on call distribution fair while improving monitoring effectiveness.

• Team growth: Onboarded and mentored new developers; codified platform practices and coding standards to raise quality and throughput.

Visa (Contract) — Lead Developer 2013–2014

• Zero Downtime Transfer: Migrated proprietary metrics engine from vendor to Visa Engineering with zero downtime for hundreds of users.

• Reverse Engineering: Reverse engineered platform to unlock custom functionality adopted by multiple departments.

• Performance: Reduced page load times by 30% through SQL tuning and front end optimization.

• Reliability At Scale: Partnered with 6 departments to sustain 99.9% uptime across 3 multi tier environments.

• Delivery Cadence: Shipped iterative releases on aggressive schedules, shortening cycles from weeks to days.

University of Texas Athletics — Application Developer 2009–2013

• Workflow Automation: Automated workflows with .NET/SQL apps, saving hours per week per staff member and cutting errors to near zero.

• Data Centralization: Built centralized databases to replace manual tracking and eliminate duplicate entry.

• Secure Publishing: Created secure C# + JSON solutions to publish XML streams, improving reliability without specialized hardware.

Erwin Special Events Center — Application Developer 2007–2009

• Self Scheduling Platform: Built usher scheduling system for 1,000+ ushers, reducing admin workload by 80%.

• Traffic Resilience: Tuned system to handle thousands of concurrent signup requests; achieved 100% uptime during peak events.

• A/V Coordination: Coordinated digital audio/video upgrades; reduced live production downtime by 80%.

Site Street Technical Services — Senior Web Developer 2006–2007

• High Volume Delivery: Built and launched 100+ client sites on .NET/SQL; maintained 200+ database driven sites at 99.9% uptime.

• E Commerce Modernization: Modernized e commerce store generating $100K+ monthly gross sales; ported ASP Classic to .NET/SQL for ~90% stability gains.

• Team Coordination: Managed contract developer pool to meet aggressive schedules. IBT Technologies — Software Engineer (Additional experience)

• LMS Development: Contributed to LMS and Enterprise Manager backend development; collaborated with QA to ship stable updates and improve internal tools.

• Customer Support: Provided front line support for a dozen client organizations; turned feedback into product improvements.

Education

• Associate Degree in Recording Engineering — Full Sail, Orlando, FL

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