Hi, I’m Ted, a Technical Lead and former Microsoft engineer with 9+ years of experience building production SaaS, cloud, backend, full-stack, and AI-powered systems.

I currently lead engineering work at Pepper, a vertical SaaS startup where I’ve helped build and scale products from early-stage ambiguity into production systems used by real customers. Most recently, I led development of Order Agent, an AI-powered order processing platform that turns messy inbound communication, such as SMS, email, voicemail, and semi-structured messages, into structured customer orders. That work involved backend architecture, LLM-powered data extraction, integrations, product discovery, technical leadership, and mentoring other engineers.

Before Pepper, I worked at Microsoft on Azure-based enterprise services, including Windows Update for Business and Desktop Analytics, where I built scalable APIs, cloud services, data pipelines, and full-stack user experiences for large-scale enterprise customers.

I mentor early-career, mid-level, and senior individual contributors who want to grow as software engineers, become more effective product-minded builders, and prepare for stronger career opportunities. I can help with:

- Backend, full-stack, and SaaS engineering growth
- Python, TypeScript, C#, SQL, Django, .NET, APIs, integrations, and cloud systems
- Practical AI/LLM product engineering
- System design fundamentals
- Becoming more effective as a senior IC or technical lead
- Resume, LinkedIn, and career positioning
- Interview prep up to senior-level roles, including coding, backend/system design, behavioral interviews, and project storytelling

My mentoring style is practical and grounded in real production experience. I’m especially helpful for engineers who want to move beyond “just completing tickets” and start thinking more like owners: making better technical decisions, communicating tradeoffs clearly, designing systems thoughtfully, and showing stronger senior-level impact.

If you’re preparing for interviews, trying to level up in your current role, or figuring out how to position yourself for senior engineering opportunities, I’d be happy to help.