Jacob Heater
Jacob Heater
Based in the D.C. Metro AreaOpen to Remote OpportunitiesNot Available for Relocation
Professional Experience
Expel(Remote)
Senior Engineering Manager08/2022 - Present

Responsibilities

  • Lead two distributed remote teams:
    • A 6-person team supporting the SOC.
    • A 3-person matrixed team focused on tech debt, developer experience, and platform security.
  • Define and optimize agile workflows to boost velocity, delivery consistency, and morale.
  • Use metrics to build quarterly plans aligned to team capacity.
  • Architect scalable solutions anticipating customer growth and evolving SOC needs.
  • Partner directly with the SOC to deliver industry-leading security operations.
  • Coordinate with three PMs to ensure alignment across product domains.

Noteworthy Accomplishments

  • Created an urgent-ticket workflow—Ludicrous Speed—giving analysts direct access to engineers—helping maintain SLOs despite a 200% increase in alert volume.
  • Rebuilt stakeholder trust by delivering roadmap items on time and prioritizing SOC needs.
  • SOC partnership led to a 40% improvement in MTTR.
  • Built an Angular-based metrics dashboard integrated with Jira; adopted across 9 teams to improve forecasting.
  • Designed new intake paths for urgent and long-term SOC work, with key result of retaining two high-value customers.
  • Introduced a quarterly tech-debt rotation program; resulted in meeting vuln SLAs, improving security posture, and reducing build flakiness by 70%.
  • Implemented process and training to transform specialized engineers into full-stack team, ensuring consistent staffing and delivery times.
Engineering Manager01/2022 - 08/2022
Swimlane(Remote)
Engineering Manager03/2021 - 01/2022
Senior Software Developer06/2019 - 03/2021
Cofense (formerly PhishMe)(Remote)
Software Engineer II08/2017 - 06/2019
Harrity and Harrity(Remote)
Software Architect Consultant03/2018 - 04/2019
Earlier Roles from 2013-2017

Software engineering roles at Deltek, DHA, USDA, and United Association contributing to enterprise applications in federal and nonprofit sectors.

Education
George Mason UniversityFairfax, VA | 2009 | Cum Laude
Lord Fairfax Community CollegeMiddletown, VA | 2007
Technical Leadership Toolkit

Languages & Frameworks

JavaScript/TypeScript (React, Node.js, Angular), C#/.NET Core, Python (Django, Flask), SQL

Web & Mobile

HTML5, CSS3, Responsive Design, React Native, Native Android

Cloud & DevOps

AWS, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD

Tools & Practices

Git, Agile (Scrum/Kanban), Visual Studio, VS Code, Linux/Windows

Management Philosophy

Trained in Manager Tools philosophy. Hold weekly 1:1s. Provide regular feedback, utilizing empirical data to measure results. Strong emphasis on servant leadership. Manage difficult conversations and handle conflict with empathy utilizing the Crucial Conversations framework. Strong track record of delivering projects on time by managing trade-offs, communicating risks, and scoping work according to available capacity.

Additional Projects
npm Packages
  • system-restore
    Allows for scripting system restore points (Windows) using JavaScript.
Repositories
Other Links About Me

Resume Links

This resume was built with React and Next.js and styled with Tailwind.