About Me

Zak Brinlee

Senior Software Engineer

Hi, my name is Zak Brinlee. I'm a full-stack software engineer with 8+ years of experience shipping production web applications and AWS serverless systems for clients in retail, aerospace, aviation and automotive.

I build AI into how software gets delivered: I designed a Claude Code agentic workflow, adopted by 10+ engineers, that raised per-engineer sprint throughput 2–3x. I'm also an adjunct instructor at Bellevue College, where I'm developing a course on AI-assisted software development.

Location:Seattle, WA
Email:zak.brinlee@proton.me
Languages:English

Study:North Seattle College
Degree:Bachelor of Applied Science, Application Development
Interest:Animals, Traveling, Hiking, Coding

Experience

2024 - Present
Slalom
Consultant, Software Engineering
2025 - Present
Bellevue College
Adjunct Instructor, Software Development
2024
Nostra AI
Senior Customer Solutions Engineer
2022 - 2023
Shogun
Senior Customer Engineer, Implementation Engineer
2019 - 2022
Slalom
Consultant, Software Engineering
2017 - 2019
Ravens Bard Studio
Lead Software Developer
2017 - 2019
Seattle Central College
Tutor, TA
2013 - 2015
Microsoft
Program Manager
A filled dot marks a role you still hold.

Education

2018 - 2019
North Seattle College
Bachelor of Applied Science, Application Development
2016 - 2018
Seattle Central College
Associate of Applied Science, Software Development

Volunteer

2024 - 2025
Mentors in Tech
Mentor
2024
CodeDay Labs
Mentor
2023 - 2024
Seattle Central College
Tutor, TA

Knowledge

AI-assisted development:Claude Code (custom skills, agents, commands), GitHub Copilot, Kiro, agentic workflows, Claude API, context and steering-file design
Languages:TypeScript, JavaScript, C#, Python, SQL, HTML/CSS, Java, Kotlin
Frontend:React, Next.js, Vite, Svelte, Tailwind CSS, Cloudscape, TanStack React Query, Highcharts
Backend & cloud:AWS (Lambda, API Gateway, EventBridge, SQS, S3, DynamoDB, CDK), Node.js, .NET, REST, GraphQL, Smithy IDL, event-driven architecture
Quality & operations:TDD, xUnit, Jest, Playwright, CI/CD, GitHub Actions, CloudWatch

Interests

Mobile:Build a mobile app with Flutter and native iOS
Cloud:Build cloud-based agentic workflows on Amazon Bedrock, like a spoken-language tutor
AI:Build agentic development apps for education and the software factory
Performance:Optimize web performance: Web Vitals, service workers, and PWAs