Scott Sanders
Extensive enterprise software experience, creating and scaling high-performance web and mobile applications. Optimizing the 'fast path' for 20+ years. Passionate about using cloud technologies and common components to improve the developer experience (DX), which ultimately increases product quality, feature throughput, and improves user experience (UX). Member, Apache Software Foundation, previous member of the Chrome Customer Advisory Board.
Created the framework for the Visa Checkout product utilizing React, Node.js, and SASS. Framework allowed creation of shared components to drive productivity across teams. Created common component CI/publishing pipeline. Deployment included internal cloud architecture utilizing Pivotal Cloud Foundry.
Envisioned, created, and launched company-wide common components program using Web Components (Custom Elements, Shadow DOM). Included full process creation, documentation and training to over 200 engineers. Component re-use is now driving 38% cost savings on projects where they are used.
Built the world's largest ANSI 834.4010 EDI Feed for Pacific Bell (now AT&T), the largest union employee base at the time. This included all architecture to support the new HIPAA regulations that came into effect.
Todays sites and services need to be as fast as possible, to keep up with the attention of our customers.
I am a huge fan of Infrastructure-As-Code, and believe the most effective way to repeatable results is through automation. Not only automation, but a concept I call automatic. Things should just happen, they shouldn't be waiting on an email approval from a VP.
In architecture, DRY means having strongly cohesive, loosely coupled components that can be put together and re-used easily.
Version control for everything, from source code to documentation to diagrams. If it changes with the code, it should be versioned with the code
If you don't start with least privilege security, you will either never get there, or you will spend exponentially more time getting there.
If you are in the cloud, and you can't scale to zero, that means dev/test environments are expensive. Environments should be cheap enough to solve a single bug.
Move as much out of the 'fast path' as you are able. This will help in many of the outage situations that happen today, and allow you to scale ever futher.
If you can't answer a question with data, you only have an opinion, and so does everyone else.
"For most of us, there's a short-list of "go to" people ... those who get things done in a tight spot, or those who somehow have the right answer when needed. Scott is one of those select few, with that inane ability to see "through" truly complex engineering issues and quickly convert them into either non-issues or comprehensible and manageable tasks. A rare competence."
-Kris Bell, Architect of Apple's iCloud
"I have a very short list of "big guns" that I go to for important advice, technical or otherwise. Scott is tops on that list... His leadership and mentorship style of light guidance, combined with his absolute faith in the people he chooses to surround himself with is one of the most effective I have encountered. His directness and honesty are downright inspiring in a corporate world filled with half-implied implications, buzz words and jargon that hold little meaning."
-Grant Liu, VP Solution Engineering at Unravel Data
"Scott was the only person we had on our 100 developer team that could see the ENTIRE picture, and execute on making each and every team member scale higher. His architectural vision allowed us to ship Visa Checkout 30% faster than we could have imagined.”
-Ed Shie, VP Global Development, Visa