Hello
I've spent most of my career developing software, both in New England and in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've worked for iconic companies including Apple and Netflix, and also for startups. Along the way, I've developed expertise in software for video and audio, along with software for data analysis, modeling and visualization. I've also become a leader, who can build and inspire engineering teams.
My Story
I graduated from College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. in Physics in 1991. In the following years, I earned an M.A. in Electro-Acoustic Music from Dartmouth College, where I developed expertise in digital audio and began a career writing software for media products. I worked for 8 years as a software engineer at Avid Technology, contributing to their Emmy and Oscar winning video editing product, Media Composer. While working at Avid, I earned an M.B.A. from Babson College in the evenings.
In 2005, I moved west to the San Francisco Bay Area. Shortly after moving, I was hired by Apple as an engineering manager. I worked at Apple for 9 years, leading teams that contributed to the media functionality in macOS, iOS, tvOS, QuickTime Player, iMovie and iTunes. While at Apple, I became an expert in media accessibility technologies and led the effort to support subtitles, closed captions and audio descriptions across all of Apple’s products.
I joined Netflix in 2017. I first managed a team of engineers who develop the video player inside the Netflix App on Smart TVs, setup boxes, streaming sticks and game consoles. In 2020, I moved to the Netflix Mobile team and led the team developing the platform architecture for Netflix’s iOS Mobile App. As part of that effort, I helped launch Netflix mobile games at the end of 2020, and transitioned into leading the team that developed a Games SDK to integrate games into the Netflix ecosystem in 2021.
At the end of 2022, I returned to the East Coast and moved into an antique farmhouse in Maine. I continued to work for Netflix remotely until I resigned in July of 2023.
While at Netflix, I also began a Master of Information in Data Science program at UC Berkeley. I graduated from that program in the August of 2023.
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In my free time, I enjoy hiking and traveling. I continue to express my lifelong love of music by playing guitar and singing.
Professional History
Netflix, Inc
December 2017 - July 2023
Engineering Manager
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Created a Games SDK team and helped launch Netflix’s mobile games MVP.
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Led teams developing the streaming player for the Netflix app on Smart TVs, set-top boxes, game consoles, streaming sticks and iOS.
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Collaborated on cross-functional projects to add functionality to the Netflix app such as seamless playback from one episode to another in tv series.
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Contributed to supporting of interactive titles in the Netflix app, including the Emmy Award Winning episode of Black Mirror called Bandersnatch.
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Analyzed data and metrics to assess the impact of changes to the streaming player software on the performance and stability of the Netflix app across a diverse set of devices.
Catalina Labs
June 2016 - June 2017
Director of Engineering
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Directed growth and maintenance of a diverse technical ecosystem, consisting of iOS and Android apps, Ruby on Rails backend running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), web-based frontend portal built in ReactJS, data collection and analysis system.
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Grew engineering team from 4 to 15 people, consisting of backend, frontend, mobile, DevOps and quality assurance engineers, a program manager and supporting staff.
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Instituted agile processes to improve quality and increase engineering velocity.
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Rolled out best practice security processes for products and company.
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Led teams in adopting a Content Delivery Network (CDN) for mobile app assets.
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Designed a set of APIs for a cross-platform and multi-language ( Java, Swift, Objective-C ) SDK.
Apple, Inc.
March 2006 - October 2015
Engineering Manager
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Led a team of software engineers developing media authoring functionality for iOS and macOS.
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Steered a large multi-functional team to implement support for captions and subtitles across Apple products.
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Guided development of Media Sharing functionality in the AVFoundation framework for the Apple ecosystem.
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Performed video quality assessments of movies authored using AVFoundation APIs.
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Contributed to API design for controlling metadata in authored movies, incorporating support for Apple’s privacy policies.
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Directed Media Accessibility functionality, including support for captions and audio descriptions, across Apple products.
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Supervised efforts to secure Apple’s QuickTime product. Developed and implemented hardening strategies to identify and address exploitable vulnerabilities within the QuickTime architecture.
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As part of a small team, developed strong ongoing relationships with camera manufacturers, to integrate their cameras with Apple’s iMovie and Final Cut Pro products.
Education
University of California, Berkeley
Master of Information in Data Science
Summa Cum Laude
Berkeley, CA
August 2024
Babson College
Master of Business Administration
Magna Cum Laude
Wellesley, MA
December 2004
Dartmouth College
Master of Electro-Acoustic Music
Hanover, NH
June 1994
College of the Holy Cross
Bachelor of Arts in Physics
Worcester, MA
May 1991
Patents
Movie package file format to persist HLS onto disk
September 4, 2018
Video format for digital video recorder October 8, 2013
Defines a video format for cameras that can be edited quickly and easily.
Object detection metadata
November 27, 2012
Defines a method for recording the perimeter of an object detected in video that is independent of video resolution.
Public Speaking
Netflix Automation Meetup
November 2019
Hosted an evening of talks on some of the ways that Netflix uses automation in their products.
Gave the keynote address for the 2019 Women in Science event at Holy Cross. The talk was titled “Overcoming Imposter Syndrome, Finding My Voice and Bringing My Whole Self to Work in Silicon Valley”.
Contact
I'd love to hear about your business and find ways for us to work together.
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Let's connect.