Summary
Mac Heller-ogden is a Senior Principal Software Engineer in Chicago with 11 years of experience building full-stack, polyglot systems and leading high-performance teams to solve complex business problems. He blends hands-on engineering in Clojure, Node.js, containerization, CI/CD and AWS with a human-centered approach to product and team leadership. His background spans startups, consulting and enterprise roles—from web design and Linux systems administration to driving digital mortgage and automotive experiences at Guaranteed Rate and Cars.com. At gateless, he leads a world-class team focused on simplifying complexity, often translating deep systems thinking into pragmatic, customer-facing solutions. A longtime practitioner of open-source and tooling-minded engineering, he brings both designer sensibilities and operational rigor to large-scale delivery.
11 years of coding experience
14 years of employment as a software developer
The Evergreen State College