Summary
Kai Tillman is a software engineering leader based in Atlanta with over a decade of experience building scalable, secure distributed systems and guiding cross-functional teams from architecture through delivery. Currently leading engineering at serviceminder after senior roles at Ambassador/Gravitee, he has driven measurable operational improvements—cutting release times from a week to hours and increasing order processing throughput by 80x. Kai blends hands-on engineering (notably on the Blackbird MCP server, Edge Stack, and CLI tooling) with strong people leadership, mentoring multiple engineers and establishing chaos engineering "Game Days" to harden production. He has deep expertise in API-first design, authentication/authorization, CI/CD, and microservices observability, and is comfortable shifting between coding, security audits, and product translation. Unusually, his background pairs a BS in Computer Science with a BA in History, reflecting both technical rigor and a broader contextual mindset that aids in cross-team communication and system design.
7 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
BS Computer Science, BS Computer Science at Valdosta State University