Preston and his wife standing in front of the beach

Charleston, SC

Preston Choate

Principal Software Engineer · Backend Platform Architect

Principal-level software engineer and technical architect with 11+ years of experience designing, scaling, and operating backend systems, APIs, data pipelines, and enterprise platform integrations. I lead distributed engineering teams, define architecture across complex systems, and deliver reliable production software for global enterprise customers.

Work experience Personal projects

Architecture at scale

I design fault-tolerant, observable distributed systems, from event-driven backend platforms to enterprise ETL pipelines, that hold up under real production load.

Technical leadership

I lead cross-functional, international engineering teams through system design, implementation planning, technical reviews, and long-term maintainability decisions.

Business impact

I partner with product, sales, and client stakeholders to translate ambiguous requirements into software that moves metrics: revenue growth, performance, and operational efficiency.

Technical skills

Languages

TypeScript Go JavaScript PHP Ruby C# SQL

Backend & Platform

GraphQL REST APIs Event-driven architecture Distributed systems ETL pipelines Middleware Payment integrations Transactional systems

Infrastructure & DevOps

Google Cloud Pub/Sub OpenWhisk Terraform Ansible CI/CD Deployment automation Observability Fault-tolerant systems

Data & Integration

MSSQL Enterprise data integration Data pipelines Cross-system synchronization High-volume transaction workflows

Leadership

Technical architecture Cross-functional delivery Engineering standards Internal developer tooling Enterprise solution design Technical strategy Team mentorship

Education

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

Missouri Southern State University

Joplin, MO · 2008 – 2012

Let's build something

Open to collaboration, staff augmentation, consultation, or technical leadership on complex platform problems.

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