Senior Software Engineer
I design, build, and ship scalable systems end-to-end — from Kubernetes platforms and backend services to the products on top of them.
12+ years across regulated enterprise and startups, leading teams and turning complex requirements into reliable software that ships.
A track record of building backend, platform, and full-stack systems — and leading the teams that ship them.
Senior and lead roles across enterprise and startups.
Senior Lead Software Engineer
New York, NY • 09/2024 – Present
Migrated 80 applications from a legacy environment to a managed Kubernetes platform (Rafay), building a repeatable migration playbook and a simulation framework to de-risk cluster readiness. Shifted releases from ServiceNow change processes to Jenkins pipelines with Jira-based approvals.
Technical Lead
New York, NY • 01/2022 – 09/2024
Technical lead for Athleta, coordinating delivery across 4 squads of contractors and GAP FTEs while contributing hands-on to React/TypeScript front ends and Node.js services for catalog, PDP, and checkout. Mentored junior engineers and established engineering practices that raised baseline quality.
Lead Software Engineer
New York, NY • 07/2020 – 01/2022
Oversaw e-commerce platform development on serverless/container-based architectures, integrating Stripe and PayPal and transitioning development in-house. Reduced production bugs via TDD and code quality tooling (ESLint, SonarQube).
Senior Software Engineer
New York, NY • 08/2019 – 05/2020
Built secure, HIPAA-compliant healthcare SaaS apps, architecting AWS microservices with Node.js and Python, creating RESTful APIs, and integrating OAuth/SSO. Improved delivery predictability through Agile/Kanban workflows.
Principal Engineer
New York, NY • 03/2018 – 07/2019
Built a mobile-first e-commerce product with React Native and Firebase, delivering core commerce flows and a scalable client architecture. Integrated WooCommerce REST APIs and shipped onboarding and personalized product recommendations.
Senior Full Stack Engineer
New York, NY • 07/2014 – 03/2018
Built high-traffic, content-driven web apps with Node.js, React, and AWS, increasing mobile web monetization by 400%. Enhanced performance via Redis, CloudFront, and SEO/accessibility best practices, and led CI setup with CircleCI.
Software Engineer
Austin, TX • 06/2012 – 07/2014
Built enterprise applications in JavaScript, Java, and C# for global deployments. Led legacy-to-modern system migrations, MVC refactoring, and CI/CD automation while ensuring modular, maintainable codebases.
Products and systems I've designed and built hands-on.
Developed a cross-platform cryptocurrency wallet extension supporting Chrome, Safari, and iOS Safari web-extensions.
Built a React Native app for iOS with AWS and MongoDB Realm for sound transcription and note management.
Created a web-based application for film and content editing, allowing users to edit and manage multimedia content directly in their browsers.
Developed a responsive SPA for DNS lookup access records and built a dockerized BDD test suite.
Built a game creation platform in React with Redux for interactive cycling classes (used by 10+ games).
Streamlined account creation flow and improved conversion rates by addressing bugs across the site.
Architected single page application with HTML5 Mode that was responsive across all device types.
Sole front end developer for all web apps: Viggle Live, MyGuy, Ellen-Sync, Rewards Catalog.
About
I'm Luke Gary, a software engineer based in New York with 12+ years building and shipping production systems. I studied Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, and I've spent my career working across the full stack — but my focus has shifted toward the parts that keep systems scalable and reliable: backend services, platform and infrastructure, and the architecture decisions that hold up as a product grows.
I've done that work in very different environments — a regulated enterprise like Freddie Mac, e-commerce at scale with GAP and Refinery29, and earlier-stage startups where I owned large surface areas end-to-end. Along the way I've led squads, mentored engineers, and cared a lot about delivery: making sure good work actually ships.
Design and build APIs, services, and data layers that stay reliable under real load — microservices, REST/GraphQL, PostgreSQL, and AWS.
Kubernetes migrations, CI/CD pipelines, and the tooling that lets teams ship safely and often — most recently migrating 80 apps to a managed K8s platform.
Comfortable owning a feature end-to-end, from data model and services to the React/TypeScript UI — useful for the breadth startups need.
Led delivery across multiple squads, mentored engineers, and set the engineering practices that raise a team’s baseline quality.