Thomas Petchel
Senior Software Engineer at Microsoft
Mukilteo, Washington, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top School
Top expert inAzure-Centric AI and Bot Development
Thomas Petchel is a Senior Software Engineer with nearly 30 years of programming experience and a 12-year focused track record building developer-facing systems and technical content at Microsoft and Chef. He blends deep C++, Java, and C# expertise with modern practices—having built tools like ReplayCheck to automate validation of millions of docs and modernized Learn modules by migrating projects to .NET 6 and System.Text.Json. A former game and graphics engineer, he still enjoys compiler work (he once wrote a LISP compiler) and is exploring functional languages starting with F#. Thomas excels at translating complex technical scenarios into reliable, maintainable code and learning experiences, having authored dozens of courses and led content platforms that drive customer engagement. Based in Mukilteo, WA, he’s motivated by mission-driven work and aims to apply software at small-team scale to tackle big problems like climate change.
12 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor's degree Computer Science, Bachelor's degree Computer Science at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
Github Skills (26)
json10
markdown10
hugo10
css10
net10
gulp10
azure-functions10
dotnet10
user-interface10
asp-net-core10
netframework10
asp-net10
markdown-it10
dotnet-core10
html10
Programming languages (12)
Github contributions (5)
MicrosoftDocs/mslearn-tailspin-spacegame-web
Mar 2019 - Jun 2022
Code used in Microsoft Learn modules to support Azure DevOps
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:161 commits, 1768 PRs, 136 pushes in 3 years 2 months
Contributions summary:Thomas primarily contributed to the front-end of the project, evidenced by changes to CSS files and the addition of close buttons to modal windows. They modified the site's CSS, including updates to the modal styling and the addition of a 'no-border' class, which suggests a focus on visual design and UI components. Furthermore, the commits involved modifications to HTML view files, specifically integrating the new modal close buttons, indicating a hands-on approach to UI implementation and user experience improvements.
azuremicrosoftazure-devopsdevops
MicrosoftDocs/mslearn-tailspin-spacegame-web-azure-functions
Jun 2020 - Dec 2021
Code used in Microsoft Learn modules to support Azure DevOps
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:17 commits, 8 PRs, 12 pushes in 1 year 6 months
Contributions summary:Thomas primarily focused on updating the project to use `System.Text.Json` for serialization, replacing `Newtonsoft.Json` across multiple models and function clients. They also made changes to update the .NET framework versions to 5.0 and then back to 3.1, demonstrating work with project configurations. Furthermore, they refactored LINQ queries in the codebase to simplify the logic.
azuremicrosoftazure-devopsdevops
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