Hi, I'm James Tucker Software Engineering Manager

Over the course of my career, I've led teams and delivered mission-critical software in environments ranging from large enterprises to high-growth startups and public-sector organizations. I bring a broad, hands-on technical foundation paired with proven people leadership—an approach shaped by years of building, mentoring, and scaling engineering practices.

I began as a Senior Software QA Engineer, specializing in test automation at a Thomson Reuters company. There, I started building my management toolkit by mentoring and training junior QA engineers and helping establish strong quality and delivery habits. I continued expanding that foundation at Bank of America and Lockheed Martin, working in complex, highly regulated environments where reliability, security, and process discipline were essential.

From QA, I pivoted into DevOps automation at a startup that later went public. That experience strengthened my ability to design automated delivery systems, improve operational resilience, and accelerate engineering throughput. I then moved into DevOps consulting, specializing in automation and systems integration—work that demanded both technical range and the ability to influence stakeholders, align teams, and deliver results across diverse client organizations.

That consulting practice naturally evolved into full stack web development, where I built workflow automation and reporting solutions to improve observability, operational efficiency, and business outcomes. My client work included organizations such as the Department of Defense, AMD, Kaiser Permanente, and PG&E—each requiring a pragmatic blend of engineering execution, communication, and delivery leadership.

I later took on an exclusive full-time consulting engagement as a Full Stack Web Developer, helping launch a first-of-its-kind social network focused on the company's market vertical. The role was uniquely suited to my background, allowing me to apply my full spectrum of experience—software quality, DevOps, and product-focused development—to deliver a reliable platform end-to-end. During that engagement, I increasingly contributed to strategic planning at the request of the CTO, whose trust in my judgment expanded my scope beyond implementation into broader technical direction.

I was promoted to CTO within that organization. In a small company environment where nearly every system was mission-critical due to time-sensitive needs, I led multiple cloud migrations and delivered web application and microservice initiatives—balancing architectural decision-making, delivery execution, and operational accountability.

From there, I continued to grow my cloud engineering practice at another startup, deepening my expertise in building scalable, highly available cloud-based systems. Most recently, I served as a Software Development Manager at the Air District, where I expanded my leadership practice across a larger portfolio of projects and stakeholders—operating as both a software engineering manager and a hands-on full stack developer to drive delivery excellence, team development, and sustainable execution.

Today, I'm pursuing software development management roles where I can combine technical depth, operational rigor, and people leadership to build high-performing teams and deliver software that drives measurable outcomes.