Open to opportunities

James Jackson

@jamesjackson2

Message

I build scalable Python cloud platforms, reliable APIs, and AI-enabled customer workflows.

United States

Message

What I'm looking for

I'm looking to lead end-to-end delivery of scalable cloud-native backend services, improve reliability and engineering practices, mentor engineers, and build AI-enabled product capabilities that solve high-impact customer problems.

I've led cloud-connected platform capabilities at iRobot for large device fleets, building scalable Python and Java backend services with strong SLIs and SLOs.

At FranShares, I delivered customer-facing Python services end to end, from FastAPI and Pydantic design through deployment and on-call operations. I built asynchronous Celery and Redis workflows, versioned API contracts, and observability standards that improved release stability and incident response.

I use AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, GitHub Actions, and Buildkite to create repeatable delivery systems. My work also includes secure OAuth2/OIDC and JWT patterns, load testing, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, Redis, and production performance improvements.

I've mentored senior and mid-level engineers, guided technical decisions through reviews and RFCs, and prototyped AI-enabled workflows using RAG, embeddings, OpenSearch, and rollout evaluation criteria.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Senior Staff Software Engineer

FranShares

Aug 2024 - Mar 2026 (1 year 7 months)

Led end-to-end delivery of new Python services using FastAPI and Pydantic, owning design, implementation, deployment, and on-call operations. Architected a modular API layer with versioned contracts and automated schema checks, and built asynchronous job processing with Celery and Redis.

Python fastAPI Pydantic REST APIs AsyncIO SQLAlchemy Celery Redis Docker AWS AWS ECS Amazon EKS Terraform GitHub Actions OpenTelemetry Datadog Grafana React TypeScript LLM AI Assisted Engineering Pytest

Senior Principal Software Engineer

iRobot

Apr 2015 - Aug 2024 (9 years 4 months)

Owned architecture and delivery of cloud-connected platform capabilities for large fleets, building scalable backend services in Python and Java. Designed high-volume API and event-driven patterns with PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, and Redis caching, and established engineering best practices across teams.

Python Java PostgreSQL DynamoDB Redis OAuth OIDC JWT Buildkite GitHub Actions Locust OpenSearch RAG Embeddings Mentorship CI CD Load Testing Security

Software Engineer

NetApp

Jun 2012 - Apr 2015 (2 years 10 months)

Developed backend components and automation in Python and Java, improving reliability of internal services and tooling. Implemented data processing and API integrations backed by MySQL/PostgreSQL, and created test automation and CI checks using unittest/pytest.