Michael Lehenbauer
EIR at Shortwave
Kenmore, Washington, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolMichael Lehenbauer is a seasoned software engineer and executive with 15 years of experience building developer-facing platforms and client SDKs, currently serving as an Entrepreneur in Residence in Kenmore, Washington. He was an early Firebase engineer and a key contributor and API lead on Cloud Firestore and Realtime Database, with deep expertise in offline data handling, SDK design, and developer tooling across iOS, Android, and JavaScript. Michael pairs systems-level backend work—refactoring write pipelines, offline state, and TypeScript typings—with product-minded front-end improvements, reflecting a rare full-stack fluency. He has led engineering teams at Microsoft and startups, designed critical infrastructure like Firebase Security Rules and Firepad, and is comfortable moving between hands-on implementation and technical strategy. Notably, his open-source contributions include substantive fixes and test/priming mechanisms in the widely used Firebase SDKs, demonstrating attention to reliability and developer experience.
15 years of coding experience
19 years of employment as a software developer
BS Computer Science and Math, BS Computer Science and Math at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Stackoverflow
16,269reputation
847kreached
144answers
7questions
android
top-5%
firebase
top-1%
firebase-storage
top-1%
javascript
top-5%
firebase-realtime-database
top-1%
firebase-security
top-5%
Github Skills (41)
objective-c10
google-cloud-firestore10
javascript10
ios10
backend-as-a-service10
data-service10
apidoc10
api-design10
data-services10
css10
typescript10
firebase-realtime-database10
java10
javas10
api10
Programming languages (20)
Github contributions (5)
firebase/firebase-js-sdk
Sep 2017 - Apr 2019
Firebase Javascript SDK
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:1 review, 110 commits, 284 PRs in 1 year 6 months
Contributions summary:Michael primarily contributed to the Firebase Javascript SDK's internal workings. They made several improvements related to the TypeScript typings, addressing compile errors by removing incorrect type definitions. Additionally, the user worked on preventing build errors and improving test functionality by exposing internal methods for testing and addressing test flakiness. These contributions span various modules within the SDK, demonstrating a broad understanding of the project's underlying architecture.
firebase-databasefirebase-functionsfirebase-dbreal-timefirebase-admin
firebase/firebase-android-sdk
Sep 2018 - Apr 2019
Firebase Android SDK
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:13 commits, 35 PRs, 50 pushes in 7 months
Contributions summary:Michael primarily contributed to the Firebase Android SDK, focusing on improvements to the Firestore component. Their work included fixing offline data retrieval issues, adding internal logging for developer errors, and implementing a priming mechanism for integration tests to address backend cold starts. Furthermore, they implemented support for POJOs, which significantly enhanced the usability of the API. Lastly, they addressed a series of minor fixes.
firebase-remote-configfirebase-databasefirebase-firestorefirebase-functionsdatabase-as-a-service
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