KRISTOPHER ROCKOWITZ
Carlsbad,CA
Summary
Engineering leader with a track record of building scalable cloud-native platforms, leading cross-functional teams, and modernizing enterprise systems in complex, distributed environments. Experienced across GCP, GKE, microservices, event-driven architectures, and AI/ML integration. Recognized for coaching engineers, improving developer velocity, and delivering high-impact solutions for HR/IT systems serving hundreds of thousands of daily users.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
Work History
Staff Software Engineer
The Home Depot
01.2024 - Current
- Managed and coached two cross-functional engineering teams, improving uptime and platform reliability across enterprise workforce systems.
- Launched AI enablement across HR-IT, training 40+ developers and delivering Vertex AI prototypes that accelerated organizational adoption.
- Reduced incident response times by 40% via SOP development, cross-vendor alignment, and PagerDuty integration.
- Conducted 200+ PR reviews and structured mentoring sessions, increasing delivery velocity 50% and lowering defects 30%.
- Championed developer experience modernization, cutting test cycles 50% through CI/CD improvements and automation.
- Partnered with architects and PMs to design scalable, secure solutions for multi-team initiatives supporting hundreds of thousands of daily users.
Senior Software Engineer
The Home Depot
01.2022 - 01.2024
- Designed and deployed disaster recovery architecture using Terraform, reducing cloud rebuild time by 10x.
- Built a dedicated GCP UAT cluster, increasing developer throughput across 3 large product teams.
- Led 25+ architecture reviews and pairing sessions to standardize patterns and uplift engineering quality.
- Strengthened cross-functional alignment with product, design, and QA to improve delivery predictability and reduce handoff delays.
Software Engineer II
Honeywell Aerospace
01.2020 - 01.2022
- Modernized Java/Spring Boot, Bash, and C++ build and release systems, enabling 50% faster builds and 90% fewer deployment errors.
- Delivered avionics APIs and system integrations while improving ownership clarity and reducing integration delays.
- Developed distributed, safety-critical aerospace software with high standards for reliability and operational correctness.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
University of Arizona
01.2019 - 01.2020
- Reduced algorithm resource footprint by 50% on FPGA, enabling efficient ML and signal-processing workloads.
- Implemented Convolutional Neural Network layer optimizations to improve neural-network accuracy for low-resource hardware.
- Built verification harnesses and data pipelines, accelerating experiment reproducibility.
Undergraduate Research Assistant
University of Arizona
01.2017 - 01.2019
- Improved satellite image classification pipeline execution by 15× through algorithmic and system optimization.
- Implemented FFT-based rotational period algorithms, increasing satellite-tracking precision.
- Collaborated with astrophysicists to validate models against observational data.
Section Leader
United States Marine Corps
01.2010 - 01.2014
- Led and trained a 28-Marine section, improving readiness, performance, and team cohesion in high-pressure environments.
- Built mission-critical training programs for 100+ Marines that elevated qualification rates and operational execution.
- Recognized with Marine of the Quarter (2014), two Certificates of Commendation, and Meritorious Mast for superior leadership.
Education
M.S. - Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ01.2023
B.S. - Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ01.2020
Skills
- Languages: Java (Spring Boot), Go, C, C#, Python, Dart/Flutter
- Cloud: GCP (GKE, BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Cloud Run), Terraform
- Data & Messaging: SQL, NoSQL, Event Streaming, Pub/Sub
- DevOps: Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, Bitbucket Pipelines, Spinnaker
- AI/ML: Vertex AI, Generative AI (Gemini, GPT), GitHub Copilot, MCP
- Observability: Grafana, K6, PagerDuty
- Engineering Practices: CI/CD, Distributed Systems, Reliability Engineering, Performance Optimization, DX improvements, Stakeholder Management
Websites
ABOUT ME
U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, Marathon Runner, Avid Reader, Tech Enthusiast
CORE LEADERSHIP COMPETENCIES
- Psychological Safety — Builds trust-rich teams where engineers feel safe raising ideas and concerns.
- Clear Communication — Sets direction, clarifies expectations, and aligns engineering with product and business goals.
- Coaching & Mentorship — Develops engineers through structured feedback, pairing, and growth-focused guidance.
- Inclusive Collaboration — Facilitates productive discussions, values diverse viewpoints, and resolves conflict early.
- Execution & Delivery — Drives predictable delivery by removing blockers, managing dependencies, and improving team flow.
- Technical Judgment — Guides architectural decisions with deep understanding of distributed systems and best practices.
- Ownership & Empowerment — Delegates with context, enabling engineers to lead solutions with autonomy and accountability.
- Continuous Improvement — Iterates on processes and practices to improve velocity, reliability, and team health.
Timeline
Staff Software Engineer
The Home Depot
01.2024 - Current
Senior Software Engineer
The Home Depot
01.2022 - 01.2024
Software Engineer II
Honeywell Aerospace
01.2020 - 01.2022
Undergraduate Research Assistant
University of Arizona
01.2019 - 01.2020
Undergraduate Research Assistant
University of Arizona
01.2017 - 01.2019
Section Leader
United States Marine Corps
01.2010 - 01.2014
M.S. - Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Arizona
B.S. - Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Arizona