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Cory Mello

@corymello

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Lead Backend Engineer with 12+ years building scalable, data-driven platforms and intelligent automation.

United States

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What I'm looking for

I’m looking for a role building scalable backend systems and data pipelines in the cloud, where I can apply LLMs/RAG responsibly, improve observability and reliability, and mentor engineers while partnering with product, data science, and ML teams.

I’m a Lead Backend Engineer with 12+ years of experience designing and delivering scalable backend systems, data pipelines, and production-grade platforms across cloud, healthcare, and enterprise technology environments. I bring a strong hands-on background in Python, Go, Java, microservices, and RESTful APIs, with a focus on reliability, performance, testing practices, and data quality.

Across my roles, I’ve architected backend services that improve throughput, reduce processing time, and strengthen operational outcomes—such as optimizing high-volume, low-latency workflows and cutting batch processing time while improving downstream data quality. I’ve also built production data services for ingestion, transformation, and storage, and delivered Go components for latency-sensitive orchestration and API responsiveness.

I’m especially energized by applied AI in production: integrating LLMs, RAG, and Machine Learning workflows to enable intelligent summarization, decision automation, and process automation. I’ve built RAG services using retrieval patterns and vector-backed retrieval concepts (including pgvector-style indexing), and I’ve optimized real-time/distributed processing with Spark, Kafka, and Hadoop ecosystems to reduce failed jobs and improve throughput. I mentor engineers and partner cross-functionally with product, data science, and ML teams to ship dependable systems with strong observability and governed data.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Lead Backend Engineer

Current

Microsoft

May 2023 - Present (3 years 1 month)

Architected scalable Java microservices and REST APIs for enterprise cloud services, improving throughput by 34% and reducing API response times by 28% with Go components. Built Python data services and integrated LLM/RAG workflows, reducing batch processing time by 41%, improving retrieval relevance by 32%, and cutting mean time to detect incidents by 45% through observability.

Java Microservices RESTful APIs Python LLM RAG Spark Kafka Docker Kubernetes

Lead Backend Engineer

CVS Health

Aug 2018 - Apr 2023 (4 years 8 months)

Designed and maintained production backend systems for enterprise healthcare platforms, supporting millions of transactions using Java, Spring Boot, microservices, and SQL. Improved data freshness by 37% with Python pipelines, reduced service overhead by 22% with Go services, and cut incident recurrence by 31% by strengthening monitoring, testing, and observability.

Java Spring Boot Microservices Python Kafka Spark Hadoop MongoDB Redis AWS

Lead Engineer

C-Metric

Jun 2015 - Jul 2018 (3 years 1 month)

Developed backend services and client workflow features using Java, Node.js, JavaScript, and SQL, improving maintainability and feature delivery speed. Built Python automation that reduced recurring support effort by 24%, implemented microservices with REST and GraphQL, and improved observability to reduce troubleshooting time by 29%.

Java SQL Microservices RESTful APIs GraphQL Python Docker AWS

Software Engineer

Adtech-IT

Jul 2013 - May 2015 (1 year 10 months)

Built database-backed web applications and transactional backend APIs using JavaScript, C#, Java, and SQL, improving code reuse via early microservices patterns. Reduced manual data preparation time by 21% using Python cleanup/migration scripts and improved release consistency with Docker and AWS deployments.