New Orleans
I have lived and worked in the City of New Orleans since 2003, when I moved here for graduate school at Tulane University. Whether it's surviving hurricanes or wandering the streets with a go-cup, I am in love with the vibrant culture and strong sense of community found in every unique neighborhood.What I'm Reading
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
By Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Grapes of Wrath
By John Steinbeck
The Hobbit: There and Back Again
By J. R. R. Tolkien
Philosophy
I am primarily interested Modern Philosophy (Descartes - Kant) and the Ancient Greek Philosophers Plato and Aristotle. My master's thesis was on Kant's Transcendental Arguments and my dissertation research focused on the first Critique's use of the Modal Categories (Possibility, Actuality, and Necessity). My favorite Modern Philosophers include Kant, Hume, Locke, Leibniz, and Descartes. I have also spent significant time working Aristotle's De Anima and Plato's Meno.The University of New Orleans
M.S., Computers Science, May 2015
I returned to school in 2012 to pursue a Master's degree in Computer Science. I spent a year taking catch-up courses where I filled the gaps in my education and earned a teaching assistantship for the following two years. The Computer Science Department at UNO gave me the opportunity to pursue my interests in application development, as well as foster an interest in machine learning.Theory
Computational Geometry
Theory of Computation
Programming Language Structure
Application Development
Data Models and Database Systems
Distributed Software
Big Data Analytics and Systems
Machine Learning
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Bio-Informatics II
Data Visualization
Pattern Recognition
Tulane University
M.A., Philosophy, May 2010
I pursued a PhD in Philosophy at Tulane University from 2003 - 2012. I loved my time engaging with the intellectually curious, digging deeply into problems, and learning to communicate abstract concepts effectively. While I did not complete my dissertation work, I walked away with a Master's degree and many years of teaching experience. Perhaps most importantly, I gained a profound respect for those academics who are able to juggle coursework, teaching, and research - all while navigating a highly-competitive job market!- I earned a fellowship to study at Freie Universität in Berlin for the 2008-2009 school year. During my time in Berlin, I took German Language courses, engaged with the other graduate students at the ISB, and pursued my research on Immanuel Kant.
- In 2009, I was a graduate fellow at the Murphy Institute's Center for Ethics and Public Affairs. The year provided me the opportunity to complete another chapter of my dissertation. I was also able to invite one of my favorite Kant scholars, Robert Hanna, to be a guest lecturer.
History of Philosophy
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle's De Anima
Plato's Statesman
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Kant's Critique of Practice Reason
Empiricism
Heidegger's Being and Time
Contemporary Political Philosophy
Logic & Science
Interpreting Minds
Advanced Symbolic Logic
Metaphysics
Skepticism
Contemporary Issues in Logic
Philosophical Logic
Mathematical Logic
Towson University
B.A., Psychology, Anthropology, Philosophy, May 2002
Although I began as a Computer Science major, I was quickly pulled into the new world of liberal arts. In four years, I earned majors in Psychology, Anthropology, and Philosophy. Along the way, I graduated from the Honors College, organized events as Vice President of the Philosophy Forum, and was a member of Psi Chi National Honors Association in Psychology. Some accomplishments include:- Recipient of the Ian Moore Memorial Scholarship in Philosophy, 2001
- Study-abroad course in Italian History and Archaeology, 2001
- Recipient of the Lieberman Award for Outstanding Student in Anthropology, 2002.
- Presented "The Distinction between Analytic and Synthetic A Priori Judgments: Mathematics as Synthetic A Priori Judgment" at Towson University's Undergraduate Conference in Philosophy, May 2002
Chautauqua / Chautauqua Lake High School
Graduated June 1998
I attended a small public school in Western New York with a class size of about 30 students until we merged with another school my Junior Year. Our classes were so small, one year I even had to play basketball in order for the team to have enough players! My primary extracurricular activity was the student yearbook. With two or three others, I worked on every aspect of the publishing process - selling adds, cross-checking class lists with headshots, capturing candid pictures, documenting major accomplishments, delivering layouts to the publisher, and finally presenting the final product to my classmates.
Royal Farms
Worked Graveyard-shift, supplying Baltimore's night-owls with snacks, caffeine, and good conversations.
The Sharper Image
Served audiophiles and gadget lovers as an assistant manager in a high-paced sales environment.
Technology Training Center
Created and taught labs covering various software suites used by university faculty and administration.
The Chautauqua Bookstore
Shift manager at the center of life for the Chautauqua Institution.
The Chautauquan Daily
"Use a quarter and a dime, get your Daily any time!"♫♫
Brian J. Walters
brian.joseph.walters@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-joseph-walters
https://www.github.com/brianjosephwalters
Skill Summary
- Significant professional experience with Java, Python, SQL, Spring, JPA/Hibernate, RESTful APIs, JUnit, Mockito, Angular, AngularJS, Protractor, Karma, CSS/HTML/JavaScript, TypeScript, CloudFoundry, New Relic, Jenkins, Android, Git, Linux, Bash
- Some experience with applications using message passing patterns (AMQP/RabbitMQ), the CQRS pattern, C#, ASP .NET Core, Reactive Spring, JQuery, NodeJS, JSP/Servlet applications, AWS, Docker, SOAP, Tomcat/Glassfish, PowerShell
Professional Experience
Lead Software Engineer
GE Power/Digital, April 2018 – Present
As a Lead Software Engineer, I provide technical leadership for a business-critical web application composed of seven frontend modules, over twenty backend services, and eight ERP integrations. I support our custom Jenkins-based CI/CD process that builds, validates, and deploys services to CloudFoundry environments shared by three major applications. I regularly monitor the health of our ecosystem using NewRelic, perform maintenance and updates to our databases, and engage with our support team to diagnose problems and resolve tickets. My significant accomplishments include:
- Implemented a lossless message passing architecture for a multi-tenant timesheet application using RabbitMQ and custom auditing services. The application was released in 2019 to 68 countries.
- Planned and implemented a year-long restructuring of a large-scale web application, enabling the business to plan, execute, and monitor field service events at an increased level of granularity. Coordinated with stakeholders across multiple businesses, documenting technical requirements, clarifying project scope, and communicating progress. Delivered a zero-downtime release that provided a seamless migration for users across various roles and global regions.
- Took ownership of API gateways built on Netflix Zuul, supporting OAuth2 grants to authenticate against CloudFoundry UAA clients tied to corporate SSO. Configured custom authorization filters supporting Couchbase Mobile platform. Implemented a gateway update to Spring Cloud Gateway to support Reactive paradigms. Configured service discovery using Eureka, including customizations to provide a command-document API to support our Couchbase Lite integration.
- Engaged with the architecture team to simplify applications and develop site-wide standardization of tech stacks and pipelines so that teams can pivot and surge on high priority deliverables.
- Proposed and performed the decommissioning of legacy services supporting offline-first functionality to simplify our ecosystem and reduce cloud platform costs.
Software Engineer
GE Power/Digital, May 2015 – April 2018
As a Software Engineer, I was a full-stack developer on a pod of seven team members in a large-scale Agile environment. I was responsible for delivering high-impact features for a large, cross-platform web application used by field service engineers. I implemented both backend and frontend features, as well as provided support for our application infrastructure. With my team, I engaged with stakeholders to clarify business processes, estimate levels of effort, and gain acceptance for completed features. My significant accomplishments included:
- Onboarded and maintained a legacy mobile application with a Spring/OSGi backend and a JQuery frontend. Re-wrote application using a Spring microservice architecture with an AngularJS frontend.
- Implemented a significant number of backend unit and integration tests using JUnit and Mockito and developed a suite of frontend end-to-end tests using Jasmine and Protractor. Used testing suite to identify several missed features and bugs prior to a major release of an application re-write.
- Developed responsive, multi-platform web application modules using SpringBoot and AngularJS for a containerized iOS app bundled with Couchbase to support offline-first capabilities.
- Built integrations with core business ERPs using REST, SOAP, and direct JDBC connections.
- Used Hibernate/JPA to write and optimize database integrations with Oracle, Greenplum, and Postgres databases.
- Planned and coordinated a core architectural migration across six teams. Worked with product owners to clarify requirements and prioritize features.
Adjunct Instructor
University of New Orleans, June 2017 – May 2018
I designed and taught Advanced Web Frameworks, a lab-based course covering web application development in a business environment using industry-standard frameworks such as Angular and Spring. The course introduced students to best practices such as feature refinement, iterative development, version control, and automated testing. I used repetition and progressive autonomy to prepare students to research and produce a final project implementing technologies and features not covered in the course.
GE SWEAP Software Apprentice
GE Capital, January – May 2015
As a Software Engineer Apprentice, I was tasked with learning about business operations, developing leadership skills, and delivering professional software for my team. Agile methodologies were introduced to our development work and we organized our sprints around Scrum rituals. I shadowed a mentor to learn about his role and responsibilities as a lead frontend developer for global financial products. Some of my accomplishments included:
- Developed native Android applications supporting various SDK versions on mobile devices. Successfully released a production-ready mobile Android application for the non-profit French Quarter Festival, Inc.
- Used Mockito and Espresso to write unit and instrumentation tests for our mobile application.
- Worked with SSO service to integrate an Android application with a human resources API.
Education
- University of New Orleans, M.S., Computer Science, May 2015
- Tulane University, M.A., Philosophy, May 2010
- Towson University, B.A., Psychology, Anthropology, Philosophy, May 2002
Training
- Advanced Developing on AWS, AWS Training and Certification. April 3, 2020
- Spring Cloud Data Flow Developer, Pivotal. Oct. 07, 2019