About

Hi, I’m JC. I build things and lead teams, but what I really do is find better ways to think about problems. For over 20 years, I’ve been turning a childhood curiosity with computers into a pragmatic leadership style focused on empathy, credibility, and challenging the status quo. I specialize in full-stack development and creating environments where engineers can thrive.

My Journey Thus Far

My journey in tech didn’t start in a classroom; it started with a screwdriver. At 14, I was taking apart any computer I could get my hands on, not to understand the theory, but to see what happened when I yanked a component. I learned through trial and error, mostly error, and fell in love with the simple, tangible logic of it all.

Formal education came later, after a few false starts, and I landed my first job as a systems analyst. There, I lived in the terminal, writing shell scripts and learning Perl. I fell in love with the Unix philosophy—small tools that do one thing well, connected to create powerful solutions. That mindset naturally led me to web development, where I started building small, ugly, functional things on the side. That focus on doing good work led to more opportunities and, over time, more responsibility.

For the next decade, I honed that craft at larger companies, building enterprise-level applications. I was working alongside peers, learning from senior engineers, and absorbing everything I could about building robust systems. It was during this time, growing as a developer and being mentored myself, that my natural tendency to organize and help people have a larger impact began to emerge. That set the stage for my next move.

That’s how I found myself at a health tech startup, eager to apply my skills in a more dynamic environment. I started as a Senior Engineer, but it wasn’t long before I was pulled into a vague “Senior Web Chapter Lead” role through a series of re-orgs. Suddenly, I had direct reports and was responsible for performance management. I was leading, but I was almost completely removed from the hands-on work that grounded me.

It was a critical experiment. I learned that while I enjoyed the mentorship and multiplying impact, I lost my edge when I was completely removed from the code. My confidence and effectiveness as a leader are directly tied to my credibility as a builder. So, I made a deliberate choice to pivot back to an individual contributor role, determined to simply be a great Senior Engineer again.

That deep dive back into engineering was incredibly productive. It reignited my passion and, to my surprise, my natural leadership tendencies continued to emerge in more organic, informal ways. This newfound clarity, combined with my drive to master my craft, led to a promotion to Staff Engineer. This experience, coupled with being part of two companies that scaled from dozens to hundreds of engineers, taught me a crucial lesson: my value isn’t tied to a title like “Manager” or “Staff.” It’s in finding the right balance of building and leading for the team I’m on.

How I Lead Today

Today, my role as a Tech Lead Manager is the embodiment of that principle. It’s a constant experiment in staying hands-on while multiplying the team’s impact. I lead by being in the trenches, architecting and solving the hardest problems alongside my team. My focus ebbs and flows based on what the team needs most, but my work is guided by a few core principles drawn from over two decades of experience:

• Leadership Through Credibility: The best way to lead is to understand the problem from the inside out. I stay deep in the code to maintain the technical credibility that allows me to guide, unblock, and mentor effectively.
• Code is a Human Activity: We build systems for humans to maintain. I focus on creating architectures that are not just scalable, but also understandable, and I optimize for developer sanity, not just for CPU cycles.
• Challenge the ‘Why’: I constantly question our processes. Is our daily sync creating clarity or just noise? Is our testing strategy giving us confidence or just checking a box? I’m here to break the ‘symbolic complexes’ that get in the way of good work.

Beyond the Code

When I’m not refactoring legacy code or mentoring a junior engineer, I’m a proud girl dad to three daughters. They teach me more about patience, negotiation, and the art of letting go than any technical challenge ever has. It’s a constant reminder that the most complex systems we build are the relationships we have with each other.