Lead Software Engineer

Engineering IT

Lead Software Engineer (2024–2025)
Software Development Engineer (2022–2024)
University of Maryland

Project: Pinpoint – User Management Platform

Pinpoint is a full-stack web application for managing user access, training validation, and lab tool reservations across UMD engineering labs.

👨‍💻 Key Features:

• Two-sided Platform:
  • Admin Side: Manage labs, lab admins, machines, machine types, and user permissions.
  • User Side:
    • Swipe-to-Login: Users swipe their UID using a magnetic stripe reader. This acts as login and logs both sign-in and sign-out times for lab usage tracking.
    • Canvas Badges Integration: Connects swiped UID to university Canvas account via API and verifies badge-based training before granting tool access.
    • Training-Gated Access: Tools are grayed out unless the user has completed the required training modules.
    • Tool & Machine Reservation: Users can search for tools/machines and reserve them based on eligibility.

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🔧 Technical Responsibilities

Software Development Engineer (2022–2024):

• Developed and maintained backend and frontend features using React.js and Python Flask/FastAPI.
• Key Contribution – Machine Categorization Redesign:
  • Refactored backend logic to dynamically fetch and group machines by category.
  • Built a structured, collapsible UI view that improved user navigation and readability.
• Integrated Canvas Badges API for secure access control.
• Authored internal technical documentation and handled support tickets.

Lead Engineer (2024–2025):

• Oversaw the entire project lifecycle — from requirements gathering to deployment.
• Translated feature requests from features.umd.edu into detailed technical tickets and delegated them to the dev team based on expertise (frontend/backend).

🧠 Major Features Implemented as Lead:

1. Custom Sign-In Reasons with Auto Sign-Out:

   • Users can select a reason (e.g., "Workshop") from a dropdown when swiping in.
   • Based on the reason, users are automatically signed out after a predefined time (e.g., 15 minutes).
   • Reduced session clutter and improved backend efficiency.

2. End-of-Session User Feedback Survey:

   • After signing out, users are prompted with a short usability survey.
   • Helped collect actionable insights to improve UI/UX.

3. Admin Controls for Custom Sign-In Rules:

   • Admins can configure available sign-in reasons and assign auto-sign-out timers.
   • Required end-to-end planning:
     • Backend: Designed new endpoints and logic for reason handling and auto-timeouts.
     • Frontend: Implemented dropdown menus, admin config panels, and sign-out logic.
     • DevOps: Coordinated testing and deployment with Dockerized builds.

• Built onboarding modules and tutorial videos to train new hires on our stack and workflow.
• Led resume screening, technical interviews, and final hiring decisions.

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🛠️ Tech Stack:

• Frontend: React.js
• Backend: Python Flask, FastAPI
• Database: MySQL
• DevOps: Docker
• Version Control & CI/CD: GitLab
• Deployment: Linux environments

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🚀 What I Learned

This project gave me deep, hands-on experience with:

• End-to-End Software Development:
  Full-stack development and deployment across complex system layers.

• DevOps & Production Readiness:
  Containerized app using Docker, deployed in Linux environments, managed via GitLab CI/CD.

• GitLab Workflow:
  Hands-on experience with version control, branching strategy, merge requests, issue tracking, and automated builds.

• Agile & Scrum Leadership:
  Led stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and delegated tickets in a dynamic Agile workflow.

• Project Management:
  Scoped out multi-phase features and broke them down into frontend/backend tickets with well-defined milestones.

• API Integration & Auth Systems:
  Implemented secure Canvas Badge verification flow for role-based access.

• Technical Mentorship:
  Trained junior devs through custom modules and videos to onboard them into a live production environment.

• Linux Proficiency:
  Comfortable with Linux for hosting, debugging, and deployment.

This experience helped me grow into a confident full-stack engineer and a reliable team lead — capable of building, managing, and scaling real-world software used daily by hundreds of students and faculty.