Summary
Chris Petersen is a seasoned software and systems architect with 22 years of experience designing scalable web and mobile applications, distributed systems, and APIs for startups and enterprises. Based in Seattle, he blends deep hands-on skills in Linux, Python, Perl, PHP, Ruby, and RDBMS (MySQL/Postgres) with pragmatic architecture work—pivoting teams from rigid microservices to agile GraphQL/Python stacks and simplifying operational complexity. He’s led engineering teams, driven API and infrastructure design at companies from Nordstrom and RealNetworks to Center (now part of American Express), and co-founded a nonprofit that continues to provide TV listings to open-source users. A practical polyglot and mentor, he’s comfortable across CI/CD, cloud deployments, ArangoDB/Elasticsearch, and performance-focused tooling, and he often surfaces overlooked operational needs into product direction. His background in philosophy and anthropology gives him a systems-thinking perspective that favors human-centered, maintainable designs.
22 years of coding experience
29 years of employment as a software developer
MA Social Sciences (Anthropology), MA Social Sciences (Anthropology) at University of Chicago
BA Philosophy, BA Philosophy at Whitman College
English, Spanish