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AK.
Available for new opportunities

Hey, I'm

Alex Korn

Backend Engineer

I bridge the gap between technical excellence and business outcomes. With 8+ years spanning consulting and product engineering, I've partnered with executives and stakeholders to translate complex business needs into scalable solutions—while leading technical teams at Okta, Slalom, and Discover. Skilled in TypeScript/JavaScript, Go, React, AWS, Azure, Docker, and Kubernetes, I thrive in collaborative environments where I can drive both technical innovation and business impact.

ABOUT ME

My Journey

With 8+ years in software engineering, I've evolved from building tools at medical device companies to architecting high-throughput distributed systems that serve millions of users. My journey has taken me through biotech, consulting, fintech, and now identity & security platforms.

What I Bring

  • Technical Leadership: Led cross-functional teams and mentored junior engineers
  • Business Acumen: Partner with stakeholders and customers to align technical solutions with business goals
  • Full-Stack Expertise: From React frontends to Go microservices and cloud infrastructure
  • Product Security Expertise: Consistently deliver products with security and compliance in mind
  • DevOps Expertise: Proficient in CI/CD, Kubernetes, and cloud infrastructure
  • AI Expertise: Expertise in AI tools and building AI-driven applications

Beyond Code

AWS Solutions Architect Certified
Hockey, Soccer and Baseball Player
Book worm
Passionate about fitness

FEATURED PROJECTS

Astro Portfolio

A modern, high-performance portfolio website showcasing my expertise in frontend development and performance optimization. Built with Astro for optimal loading speeds and SEO.

Technologies

  • Astro
  • TypeScript
  • Tailwind CSS
  • Netlify

Key Features

  • 100% Lighthouse performance score
  • Zero JavaScript bundle for instant loading

Instagram Recipe Extractor

This repository provides a tool for extracting recipes from Instagram Reels and organizing them into structured Markdown files using local AI. Users can paste a public Reel URL to automatically generate ingredients and instructions, which can then be saved and browsed within the application.

Technologies

  • Python
  • React
  • Typescript
  • Docker
  • Ollama

Key Features

  • Local AI processing for privacy
  • Automatic recipe structuring from video content

Tailscale MCP Server

An MCP server for Tailscale that allows you to interact with your Tailscale network using AI.

Technologies

  • Python
  • FastMCP
  • Docker
  • Tailscale
  • MCP

Key Features

  • Integrated private networking with AI assistants
  • Robust, automated local API diagnostics

EXPERIENCE

Okta - Senior Software Engineer (Auth0 Extensibility)

San Francisco, CA (remote)

August 2024 - Current
  • Collaborate with product managers and stakeholders to prioritize features that deliver maximum customer value while ensuring platform reliability
  • Enhanced platform performance by 40% under peak load of 5,000+ RPS by implementing optimized caching strategy, maintaining P99 latencies below 300ms
  • Engineered and maintained extensibility infrastructure, empowering thousands of developers to run custom code in their authentication and authorization flows
  • Drove a 50-80% reduction in CI/CD build and test times by re-architecting the pipeline with parallelized jobs and improved caching
  • Led efforts to modernize and implement AI solutions, boosting developer productivity and enhancing platform documentation
  • Reduced Kubernetes cluster startup time from 2m 45s to 1m 30s by parallelizing pod initialization and optimizing resource allocation

Key Technologies

Go Typescript NodeJs React Kubernetes Docker AWS Azure Terraform Redis PostgreSQL MongoDB Snowflake DataDog Jenkins ArgoCD GitHub Actions

Slalom - Senior Software Engineering Consultant

Austin, TX (remote)

March 2022 - August 2024
  • Partnered with sales and leadership across multiple client engagements to conduct discovery sessions, understand business requirements, and architect tailored solutions that addressed client needs
  • Served as technical advisor to enterprise clients, presenting solutions to executive stakeholders and guiding technology strategy decisions
  • Led technical initiatives as a lead engineer, collaborating with cross-functional teams to translate business needs into scalable, secure systems
  • Developed secure, high-traffic GraphQL, REST, and gRPC APIs supporting millions of users and billions of daily requests
  • Mentored and coached junior engineers to help them grow and develop their technical skills
  • Built scalable, real-time data pipelines to support large-scale data processing for AI/ML and BI applications

Key Technologies

Go TypeScript C# Python Django Nodejs .NET React AWS Azure GraphQL PostgreSQL MongoDB Snowflake Cassandra Elasticsearch Docker Kubernetes Terraform Kafka

Discover Financial Services - Senior Software Engineer

Austin, TX (remote)

July 2021 - March 2022
  • Built a new financial product from scratch, partnering with product owners to define requirements and successfully delivering beta and MVP versions to market
  • Engineered secure REST APIs supporting millions of daily requests and developed user interface functionality
  • Deployed and managed cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines supporting blue/green deployment

Key Technologies

Typescript Nodejs React AWS Jenkins PostgreSQL MongoDB

Cox Automotive - Software Engineer II

Austin, TX (remote)

Oct 2020 - July 2021
  • Built and launched a customer-facing API portal, enabling external users to sign up, track usage, monitor performance, and optimize their API experience
  • Implemented CI/CD pipelines to reduce deployment time from 15 minutes to 3 minutes
  • Developed internal tools and SDKs to optimize developer experience throughout the organization

Key Technologies

Typescript C# .NET React AWS PostgreSQL DyanmoDB

Beckman Coulter - Software Engineer II

Chaska, MN

Jan 2019 - Oct 2020
  • Developed internal full-stack applications to support engineers in the development of research chemicals.
  • Engineered and streamlined application deployment and automated testing to leverage Azure cloud resources.
  • Developed, designed, and tested REST APIs and implemented user interface functionality.

Key Technologies

Javascript C# .NET Node.js JQuery Azure MySQL

Genesis 10 - Java Developer

Minneapolis, MN

Jun 2018 - Dec 2018
  • Created REST APIs for internal use, streamlining application development and integration.
  • Modernized Ameriprise’s cloud approach from on-prem to leveraging Docker and Kubernetes on AWS.

Key Technologies

Java Spring Docker Kubernetes JQuery ElastricSearch Kibana Azure MySQL

Beckman Coulter - Software Engineering Intern

Chaska, MN

May 2017 - Aug 2017
  • Built and launched a troubleshooting system to help users fix common issues without contacting support.

Key Technologies

Javascript C# .NET Node.js JQuery Azure MySQL

TECHNOLOGIES

Languages

TypeScript
Go
Python

Frameworks

React
Next.js
Node.js
TailwindCSS
LangGraph
Django

Databases & Caching

PostgreSQL
MongoDB
Cassandra
Redis
Pinecone icon Pinecone
Snowflake

Artificial Intelligence

GitHub Copilot
Cursor
Claude Code
Gemini
Hugging Face
Amazon Bedrock

Cloud & Infrastructure

AWS
Azure
Docker
Kubernetes
Terraform
Kafka

Monitoring & CI/CD

DataDog
Jenkins
Argo CD
CloudWatch
OpenTelemetry
GitHub Actions

CERTIFICATIONS

  • AWS Solutions Architect

EDUCATION

Gustavus Adolphus College

St. Peter, MN

2014 - 2018
  • Bachelors in Computer Science

Eden Prairie High School

Eden Prairie

2010 - 2014
  • High School Diploma

Let's Build Something Amazing Together

I'm always interested in hearing about new opportunities, interesting projects, or just having a great conversation about technology.

Ready to Connect?

Whether you're looking for a senior engineer to join your team, need consultation on a project, or just want to chat about the latest in tech, I'd love to hear from you.