Application/Solution Architect - Senior Software Engineer - Technical Product Manager
Greater Denver Area
- Current
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- Lead Application/Solution Architect at Etilize
- Past
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- Founder, Consultant at Novisum Development Inc.
- Programmer, Webmaster at Open Concept Internet, Inc.
- Recommended
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8 people have recommended Ben - Connections
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- Industry
- Information Technology and Services
- Websites
Ben Christensen’s Summary
Technical Product Manager * Application/Solution Architect
Dynamic, innovative IT leader with over 10 years of success in software design, architecture, development, and the delivery of production software solutions with profit margins up to 50+%. Excel at leading technical teams to deliver solutions for a wide range of companies including Fortune 100 leaders such as Ingram Micro and Wal-Mart and other large companies such as SP Richards, Buy.com, and Acer. Particularly adept at coding, requirements elicitation, and driving development with off-shore teams located in Canada and Pakistan. Highly skilled at isolating, profiling, and resolving production issues caused by threading bugs, memory leaks, and JVM configuration. Dual US and Canadian citizen.
Ben Christensen’s Specialties:
Java (J2SE/J2EE): Web Services (SOAP/REST), SOA, JVM Tuning Performance Optimization, Concurrency, Multi-Threaded & Multi-Core, Database (MySQL, Oracle, SQLServer), Large Memory 64-bit Applications (10GB+ Heaps)
Architecture & Design: Documentation, SOWs, Presentations, Prototyping, Wireframes
Ben Christensen’s Experience
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Lead Application/Solution Architect
Etilize
(Public Company; GFK; Information Technology and Services industry)
April 2002 — Present (7 years 8 months)
*Propelled this profitable product data business to more than 100 customers throughout North America and Europe in less than 5 years as a key member of the senior management team charged with designing and implementing business growth strategies. Recently acquired by German-based GfK SE.
*Helped drive business from startup to successful acquisition by contributing to the origination of product content strategies and playing a critical role on the senior management team.
*Optimized the success of distributed development with team members in Canada and Pakistan by mentoring off-shore developers and traveling to customer and colleague locations throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Pakistan.
Key projects include:
**inQuire Search:** Laid the groundwork for web cataloging of millions of products in multiple languages by steering the design and architecture during a 5-year product life cycle and 3 major releases of this multi-tier, horizontally distributed, clustered catalog search engine. Enabled up-sales/cross-sales, banner ads, and search sort merchandising by integrating merchandising rule engines and expanded functionality to include faceted navigation, parametric filtering, keyword search with normalization, stemming, synonyms, and spelling suggestions. Search engine serves Acer and IngramMicro.com, the world’s largest IT distributor and powers the Etilize SpexLive SAAS platform in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Also served as Lead Developer and Product Manager.
**SpexLive SAAS Platform (Web Services and SOA):** Built an ecommerce platform to serve over 50 million monthly transactions on 4 million+ products by spearheading infrastructure design, procurement, set-up, and production operations over a 2–year period. Built the business case, vision, and requirements for this new platform based on Etilize’s inQuire Search product and sold the concept to SP Richards who partnered with Etilize to build and operate the platform. -
Founder, Consultant
Novisum Development Inc.
(Computer Software industry)
January 2001 — April 2002 (1 year 4 months)
Launched company from the ground up from incorporation through business planning and completion of financial projections and product plans. Developed technical design documentation for CRM/SFA solution for small and mid-sized businesses and successfully raised seed capital from local businesses.
*Streamlined Linux system administration and web development for local companies by providing solution-driven consulting services, including design/development of database-driven web sites. -
Programmer, Webmaster
Open Concept Internet, Inc.
(Internet industry)
August 1995 — December 2001 (6 years 5 months)
Provided Unix systems administration and built/maintained multiple company/customer websites and web applications.
*Won Sun Microsystems recognition for 100% Pure Java by customizing and implementing a SFA/CRM Java application based on ISP business needs. Tied application into sales/financial operations via openQuote Java Swing desktop application.
*Automated user account management by designing and executing an openISP Swing Java desktop application to enable staff to manage Internet user access and online accounts. Provided Internet/web user and client support by email, phone, and on-site.
