CHRIS SAVAGE

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Principal-level architect and engineering leader with 22+ years building enterprise-scale platforms, specializing in AI/ML architecture, cloud-native systems, and microservices transformation. Led development of production agentic AI systems serving millions of users, filed patent for novel expert-assisted AI architecture, and drove end-to-end modernization of monolithic applications into 30+ distributed microservices. Proven track record architecting secure, scalable AI solutions with measurable business impact including significant ticket deflection and substantial response time improvements. Expert in cross-functional collaboration, technical leadership, and driving architectural alignment across engineering, product, security, and executive stakeholders.

CORE COMPETENCIES

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Director of Software Engineering | July 2021 – Present

Lead technical strategy, architecture, and delivery for tax platform serving millions of annual returns with peak concurrent users in the tens of thousands. Direct planning processes, manage offshore development teams (40+ contractors), and spearhead AI/ML innovation initiatives. Partner with C-level executives on strategic technology decisions and architectural governance.

AI/ML Platform Leadership (2023–Present)

• Architected and delivered production agentic AI platform from concept through deployment, including RAG-based internal support system (Microsoft Teams integration) and customer-facing tax Q&A agent (Five9 IVA integration)
• Designed multi-stage AI pipeline architecture with real-time knowledge ingestion, semantic retrieval, context orchestration, and human feedback loops for continuous model improvement
• Achieved significant ticket deflection and reduced average response time by over 75% through intelligent agent architecture and evaluation-driven optimization
• Implemented documentation gap detection instrumentation using AI-powered analysis to identify missing or outdated content, improving knowledge base freshness and agent accuracy
• Filed patent for expert-assisted generative AI architecture integrating subject-matter expert feedback into production systems
• Led architecture reviews with CISO, CEO, and CTO to secure approval for next-generation document classification agentic platform (2026) featuring multi-agent workflows for classification and structured data extraction
• Established AI governance framework ensuring Responsible AI principles, security controls, and compliance requirements embedded in solution design from inception

Document Classification Agentic Platform (2026 – Current POC)

• Designed multi-agent platform architecture leveraging LLMs for intelligent document classification and automated data extraction into structured JSON formats
• Secured executive approval (CISO, CEO, CTO) for phased "walk, crawl, run" implementation strategy with integration touchpoints across enterprise systems
• Defined technical roadmap balancing speed-to-value with security, compliance, cost optimization, and long-term maintainability for production-scale agentic workflows

Enterprise Architecture & Platform Modernization

• Reduced developer onboarding time 85% (10–14 days → 2 days) through automated environment provisioning scripts, containerized databases, and comprehensive documentation
• Directed revenue-generating platform enhancements including credit card recovery workflow and state refund routing expansion, delivering significant annual revenue increases
• Drove cost optimization initiatives consolidating deployment tooling saving six figures annually while improving pipeline maintainability

Third-Party Partner Integration Architecture (2024)

• Designed comprehensive partner integration platform supporting SAML passthrough (SSO), streaming webhook events, and iframe embedding for white-label scenarios
• Architected queue-based event architecture decoupling production workloads from partner API calls, centralizing resiliency, retries, and observability
• Created reusable integration library enabling developers to instrument events with minimal code, expanded to second partner within 6 months
• Resolved critical Safari third-party cookie blocking issue by designing secure token exchange architecture with browser-server encryption key management and sessionStorage-based authentication
• Coordinated security validation including CISO approval and external security firm review (4 discovery sessions) ensuring production readiness while preserving critical partnership

Technical Community & Mentorship

• Delivered company-wide technical education sessions including "Magic of Chatbots," "Under The Hood: How RAG Bots Work," and upcoming "E-File Transmitting" presentation
• Organized 2-day internal hackathon with 40+ participants, fostering innovation culture and cross-team collaboration
• Mentored engineering teams on architecture patterns, AI best practices, and Responsible AI principles

Senior Solutions Architect | January 2019 – July 2021

Led strategic architectural initiatives transforming monolithic tax platform into modern, cloud-native microservices architecture. Designed and implemented critical infrastructure migrations enabling scalability, reliability, and rapid feature delivery.

Microservices Architecture Transformation

• Architected decomposition of monolithic MVC application (~500K LOC, 4 modules) into 30+ .NET Core microservices with micro-frontend patterns
• Designed Clean Architecture patterns with strict domain boundaries, DI-based interface abstractions, and CQRS for command/query separation
• Established containerization strategy using Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm for consistent deployment across environments
• Implemented comprehensive testing framework (unit + integration) enabling teams to validate service isolation and contract adherence
• Achieved staged traffic migration (10% → 20% → 100%) with zero customer-facing incidents, completing full cutover by 2023
• Delivered measurable reliability improvements including 100% uptime during peak tax season

Identity & Authentication Modernization (2020)

• Led Identity Server 4 migration unifying authentication across multiple products and enabling microservices security architecture
• Solved complex technical challenges including custom OAuth grants, partial login cookies, custom tokens, and impersonation workflows
• Designed secure SSO architecture serving as prerequisite for React-based micro-frontend rollout
• Improved security posture through centralized auth, token management, and OIDC compliance

Messaging & Integration Architecture (2019)

• Designed vendor-agnostic service bus abstraction layer enabling seamless migration from MSMQ to RabbitMQ without application-level changes
• Improved messaging reliability and throughput while maintaining OS-agnostic portability for future platform flexibility
• Reduced coupling between services and infrastructure, accelerating microservices adoption across development teams

Session State Replatforming (2020)

• Architected migration from AppFabric to Redis for distributed session state management
• Implemented security hardening modifications to open-source Redis session provider, securing CISO approval for enterprise deployment
• Improved session latency and horizontal scalability enabling HA cluster deployment (3 nodes per data center)

Principal Software Developer | June 2015 – January 2019

Led backend development initiatives focused on deployment automation, scalability improvements, and consumer product expansion. Established foundation for CI/CD modernization and high-availability architecture.

Platform Scalability & Performance

• Architected consumer product scaling initiatives supporting growing user base and peak seasonal demand
• Established deployment automation framework reducing manual release overhead and improving deployment frequency
• Implemented performance optimization patterns reducing latency and improving throughput across critical user workflows

Partner Integration Development

• Designed and implemented ADP payroll integration expanding consumer product capabilities and feature set
• Built white-label real-time data sharing architecture using pub/sub patterns for external partner synchronization

Software Developer | June 2003 – June 2015

Built foundational platform capabilities enabling automated tax return transmission, multi-bank partnerships, and legacy system modernization.

Backend Automation & Integration

• Architected automated backend tax return transmission system eliminating manual processes for IRS and state agency submissions
• Built intelligent error handling and retry mechanisms ensuring high transmission success rates during peak tax season
• Designed continuous transmission workflows supporting real-time return processing and status updates
• Developed multi-bank partner integrations for refund advance products with major financial institutions
• Led FoxPro to .NET migration efforts modernizing legacy codebase and establishing patterns for future platform evolution

FEATURED PROJECTS

EDUCATION

Master of Science, Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology | 2018–2021
Specialization: Computing Systems

Master of Science, Management Information Systems
University of Phoenix | 2005–2006

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science
University of Georgia | 1999–2003

PATENTS & RECOGNITION

Patent: Expert-Assisted Generative AI System with Human Feedback Integration
Patent No. 2026/0037558 | View Patent PDF

Awards: Innovation Award (2023) • Leadership Award (2022) • Bold – Outside the Box Thinker (2021) • Unified Leadership (2018) • Most Outstanding Performance (Multiple Years) • Most Productive Employee (2012–2013)

KEY DIFFERENTIATORS