Amir Sehic
, MS, PMP, CSM, CSPO, CSD
Software Engineering Leader
Hixson, Greater Chattanooga, Tennessee, US
Summary
Amir is an experienced software engineering leader who delights in learning and aplying technologies, as well as building and leading high-performing teams. He has a strong background in software development, solution architecture design, process optimization, project management, and team leadership. Amir enjoys mentoring others to achieve their full potential, and is passionate about creating elegant, innovative solutions that drive business success, as well as the teams' pride, wonder and delight at our accomplishments and continuous learning.
Career Narative
My career progression has followed the evolution of my understanding of what truly drives software development success. Starting as a programmer and technical architect, I believed that technical architecture, elegant design and well written code including tests were paramount. And while they are important, experience taught me that software development process and methodology are also critical for project success. Just like there is no one best solution architecture applicable to every problem, there is not one best process or even a process framework applicable to every project. That led me to layer project management and process design expertise onto my technical foundation, so that I could lead teams to success. As I moved into project management and team leadership, I realized that the most crucial factor was actually people/HR. Capable and motivated people will find a way to be successful even without optimal technical architecture and process. That led me to improve my hiring, coaching, mentoring and leadership skills, and I am happiest when I lead teams not only to be more productive, but to be enthusiastic about learning and working together, and proud of the product we deliver. I lead by example, learn continuously, and maintain high level of technical expertise while also bringing deep expertise in process optimization, team dynamics and leadership. I am now exploring what the optimal use of AI is across all of these dimensions of software development, as that will probably be the most important factor driving project success.
With decades of experience selecting the best available technologies for specific problems, designing solutions, managing projects and leading teams, I have a deep understanding of what leads to software development success. I am equally comfortable discussing strategy, facilitating cross-functional communication, developing a project plan, designing technical architecture, writing code, or coaching and leading a development team. That now includes AI prompt engineering, for both spec-driven development, and AI (sub)agent development.
Work Experience
ACT
Lakewood, CO and remote since 2020
August 2017 - June 2025
Director, EIS Software Engineering Services
Managed several software engineering teams working on tools ACT uses to create and manage assessment content (questions and tests), as well as an AI/ML essay scoring engine.
- Aided and guided ACT's adoption of cloud computing on AWS and serverless architecture
- Designed serverless architecture of the essay scoring engine based on AWS API Gateway, Lambda and S3
- Minimized the cloud computing costs while simultaneously maximizing the performance of the Automated Test Assembly (ATA) system by designing an architecture that launces a large EC2 instance for each ATA job (optimization performed by FICO Xpress solver) that can run from minutes to hours, and terminating the instance immediately after the job is complete
- Eliminated some of the error-prone data copying and synchronization between different system databases by designing architecture of the ACT Common Assessment Content Repository (CCR) as a GraphQL API implemented with AWS AppSync, Lambda, S3 and RDS
- Led the architecture design and implementation of the ACT's new Content Development Environment (CDE) that uses CCR and replaces some obsolete technologies (like Angular 1) with more modern ones (like React)
- Hired and mentored software engineers
- Facilitated software engineering Community of Practice to ensure that different teams all follow the same standards, and have an opportunity to share things they are excited about learning with their colleagues
- Explored the most effective ways to boost my own and my teams' productivity by using AI coding assistants
August 2016 - August 2017
Software Architect
Designed software architecture solutions for assessment technology systems, implemented proofs of concept, and guided the development, testing and implementation of these systems in AWS cloud computing environment.
- Designed Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) Engine API using OpenAPI (Swagger) Specification. That API definition was used for both the IMS Global aQTI CAT standard, and the Echo-Adapt shadow test approach CAT product
- Designed the Echo-Adapt data model for item pools, test configurations including constraints, actual and simulated test administrations, usage data for exposure control, audit data/simulation results, etc.
- Analyzed the architecture of Content Development Environment (CDE) and Test Delivery Environment (TDE) applications, identified opportunities for improvement, and worked on evolving their architecture design
- Designed and developed a POC of elastic Amazon SQS queue consumer implemented with Amazon Lambda functions
- Designed almost completely serverless architecture (in AWS) for storing, analyzing, filtering, grouping and packaging assessment events data using IMS Global Caliper Analytics standard
- Wrote (when it was needed in production on a very short notice) a configurable Caliper events parser in Python
- Designed Assessment Results Repository system including its relational database schema
- Evaluated several Identity as a Service (IDaaS) providers, and designed enterprise Identity and Authorization (IAM) architecture using Auth0 IDaaS provider. The design based on OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect protocols covered authentication and authorization of both users (using UIs) and client applications (using APIs) in multi-tenant environments. Implemented POC/example/reference architecture applications to supplement the design documentation
Perficient, Inc.
June 2001 - February 2016
Sr. Technical Architect
Delivered business-driven technology solutions to a variety of clients in diverse industries.
- Established agile software development methodologies on new projects including defining roles, deliverables and responsibilities, documenting design and coding standards, setting up version control, issue tracking, change management, review, build, deployment and test processes.
- Led teams performing business and systems analysis, specifications writing, solution design, development, testing, implementation and maintenance of complex mission critical systems.
- Worked on small and large projects in a variety of industries, and consistently met the challenges, overcame the obstacles, and delivered high quality solutions.
- Primary roles: Project Manager, Integration Architect, Cloud Computing Architect, Full Stack Developer, ScrumMaster
Clients:
April 2015 - February 2016
- Led a team developing Axway APIs and AngularJS applications in order to replace separate web applications providing the same functionality for desktop and mobile users with just one Responsive Web Design application that works across multitude of devices and browsers.
- Designed a content management architecture for Adobe Experience Manager that utilizes the RWD AngularJS applications we developed.
- Assisted with business and systems analysis, wrote user stories, conducted code reviews, and performed manual testing.
- Designed and communicated in BPMN a process to interview, hire and onboard over 100 people for this project.
- Wrote interview knockout questions for several areas in which I have expertise, and used them along with questions contributed by other experts to create standard interview feedback forms for this project specific internal and external candidate interviewing process. Conducted a large number of phone and in person interviews.
- Analyzed Halliburton field operations related to acquisition, storage, transmission and analysis of well site data.
- Identified well site architecture elements to redesign as part of the RTS program to improve the platform used by Halliburton to deliver real time services to its customers.
- Researched hardware and software products applicable to Halliburton's new Real Time Services architecture, facilitated communications with the vendors of these products, and defined proof of concept projects to evaluate products and design alternatives.
- Worked on Enterprise Architecture project to implement IT as a Service (ITaaS) using Google Cloud Platform.
- Designed Hadoop on Google Cloud Platform service as the first ITaaS offering using SequenceIQ Cloudbreak.
December 2013 - June 2014
- Worked on integrating a new Liferay portal application to legacy backend systems.
- Helped a newly formed Enterprise Integration Services team define service interface and implementation architecture, establish essential SOA governance, and use Scrum to implement the service development methodology.
- Designed CardServicing and ReportsAccess service interfaces in WSDL, analyzed legacy system APIs for implementing these services, and designed the implementation.
March 2013 - November 2013
- Managed an offshore team to provide production support for a critical and complex Rich Media Transfer (RMT) system developed using Microsoft, TIBCO, Equilibrium and other technologies, and deployed in multiple data centers and thousands of PCs and mobile devices around the world.
- Facilitated communication between the client, Perficient team, other vendors, and teams within World Vision responsible for maintaining different components of the RMT system.
- Investigated production incidents to determine root causes of the issues, and directed ours, other vendors' and/or client teams to repair defects or resolve issues in other ways.
- Learned details of the existing RMT system (and recommended that it be redesigned as soon as possible), documented the knowledge about the system and its support and maintenance procedures, and managed "reverse" knowledge transfer to a client team taking over the support responsibilities.
October 2012 - February 2013
- Facilitated cooperation between the client and an offshore development team to rewrite Jetspeed based portal as a JSF based web application.
- Built and deployed the code on WebLogic servers in the client's environment.
- Tested the functionality, documented and communicated issues to the offshore development team as well as the client's teams maintain the backend systems that this web application depends on.
- Directed the design, development, and configuration and testing efforts to the project completion and acceptance.
November 2010 - September 2012
- Implemented interface with Sprint API that allowed the client to act as a mobile virtual network operator, and acquire national coverage without losses incurred for the customers roaming most of the time.
- Created services for the interactive voice response system and the consumer facing web application to enable more self-service functionality for Cricket's customers. This project was recognized for its high ROI based on significant reduction of calls handled by the call center staff.
- Evaluated Test Data Management procedures, documented the current state and the issues lowering the testing productivity, and recommended several improvements in the form of a roadmap document and a presentation.
September 2010 - October 2010
- Analyzed and documented the existing foreclosure and customer bankruptcy handling processes using BPMN in TIBCO Business Studio.
- Run simulations, and recommended process improvements to avoid bottlenecks identified by the simulations and increase the overall efficiency.
- Performed systems analysis, wrote specifications, designed integration solutions within a Service-Oriented Architecture, and led a team of developers and testers to develop, test and implement these solutions using TIBCO software.
- Performed planning, scheduling and other project management tasks.
- Integrated new location and product catalog systems with existing inventory, point of sale and data warehouse systems.
Electric Reliability Council of Texas
October 2007 - June 2009
- Worked on the Enterprise Application Integration aspect of the switch to nodal market project.
- Facilitated cooperation of business analysts, designers, off-shore developers and testers to produce interfaces for the new Nodal systems.
- Resolved design issues, managed off-shore code development, accepted, reviewed, unit tested, built and delivered interface implementations to the client.
- Supported integration and acceptance testing, and analyzed and resolved defects and other issues.
HSBC Technology and Services
September 2007 - October 2007
- Led a review of the client's architecture by conducting Perficient's standardized Service-Oriented Architecture Health Check, and delivered the findings and recommendations document.
- Designed a transitional architecture that would better position some of the client's current projects for later Service-Oriented Architecture adoption.
- Designed solutions to service versioning and regional customization problems with Java technology.
- Evaluated the challenges the client faced on a large SAP deployment project, and advised on using Service-Oriented Architecture and TIBCO software to meet these challenges.
- Designed high level architectural solutions for several integration and workflow management problems, estimated the effort to implement these solutions, and proposed a high level project plan.
- Wrote a report containing all our findings and a presentation for the client's CIO.
- Worked with users and SMEs to design a medical management platform using Service-Oriented Architecture principles.
- Identified, defined and prioritized business services, and designed a framework for their implementation and management with TIBCO software.
- Established a software development methodology including version control, issue/task tracking, change management and coding standards.
- Led a large team of software architects and developers to deliver a platform of web services and a pilot application based on them.
- Implemented a Service-Oriented Architecture competency center based on Perficient's Quick Start Rulebook methodology including all governance and procedures associated with design, development, deployment and administration of the client's systems.
- Assisted in detail design of the client's first major Service-Oriented Architecture implementation utilizing strategies and procedures from the Perficient's Quick Start Rulebook.
- Established monitoring and management processes utilizing Perficient's Generic Audit Logger and Generic Exception Handler software.
December 2005 - April 2006
- Implemented a Service-Oriented Architecture competency center based on Perficient's Quick Start Rulebook methodology including all governance and procedures associated with design, development, deployment and administration of the client's systems.
- Assisted in detail design of the client's first major Service-Oriented Architecture implementation utilizing strategies and procedures from the Perficient's Quick Start Rulebook.
- Implemented central logging and exception handling framework using IBM Common Business Event standard.
November 2005 - December 2005
- Helped client troubleshoot Perficient's Generic Audit Logger and Generic Exception Handler installation.
July 2005 - November 2005
- Analyzed the architecture and design of the Energy Resource Management Portal integrated with 10 different enterprise applications primarily using TIBCO BusinessWorks components, and identified opportunities to simplify and improve the design in order to increase reliability and improve productivity of the staff maintaining the TIBCO BusinessWorks processes and adapter configurations.
- Designed and implemented a highly configurable error notification system using TIBCO BusinessWorks and custom Java code.
- Designed and implemented a data completeness monitoring and verification system using TIBCO BusinessWorks and TIBCO Hawk
- Traced the problem of a particular TIBCO BusinessWorks engine shutting down without apparent reason to a PI ODBC driver used via JDBC-ODBC bridge. Isolated the minimum amount of code using this ODBC driver in separate engine, and adjusted the Hawk rules to deal with the occasional shutting down of this engine.
August 2005 - September 2005
- Reviewed the client's enterprise application integration architecture with the goal of determining feasibility of porting the solution from TIBCO to the equivalent IBM software, and identifying opportunities for improvement during that process.
- Delivered a detailed report of the findings after just one week of analysis.
London Borough of Ealing Council
April 2005 - July 2005
- Analyzed the previously developed solution, and identified and documented issues with its architecture and design.
- Produced high level and detailed design documents for the new portal.
- Developed a detailed project plan for development and integration testing, tracked the team's progress, and ensured that the portal development stayed on a very aggressive schedule.
- Led a team of 4 architects and 6 developers building and configuring a portal for Internet and intranet users consisting of over 600 pages and complying with complex government standards.
Bonneville Power Administration
April 2002 - April 2005
- Designed a software development methodology (including specifications, design and coding standards, deployment and testing methodology, team organization and responsibility for a defined set of deliverables) for a team consisting of both contractors and client employees.
- Designed client's overall enterprise application integration architecture (in an environment severely constrained due to security concerns) including fault tolerance and monitoring strategy
- Developed and tracked project plans, and reported status to senior management
- Led the development team by example writing specifications, designing, developing, performing design and code reviews, and testing over 40 mission critical integration points over 3 years.
- Organized production deployments and 24x7 production support.
October 2001 - April 2002
- Designed the architecture for the main trading system built on BEA WebLogic Application Server using Enterprise Java Beans, a controller servlet and Velocity templates.
- Replaced a cumbersome custom internal instant messaging and real time event notification system with Jabber instant messaging server.
- Designed software development methodology for a team of eight architects, developers and business analysts that enabled us to add functionality and deliver new versions of a working system in two week iterations.
- Re-designed the integration architecture to use TIBCO Adapter for ActiveDatabase instead of a custom built database polling solution that was causing a lot of problems.
- Designed and developed an Adapter for Sockets using TIBCO Adapter SDK and TIBCO Rendezvous Java API.
February 2000 - March 2001
Product Architect
Worked on a web application written in Sybase PowerDynamo, and redesigned its architecture to take advantage of Java and J2EE technologies including Java Server Pages and Enterprise Java Beans on Sybase Jaguar CTS application server.
- Led a team of developers on their first J2EE project, and helped them learn a new programming language as well as a completely different software development paradigm.
- Developed a document management system using Servlets and Java Server Pages, and a template email EJB component utilizing XML technology.
- Evaluated and participated in selection of vendors for Java IDE, application servers, rules engine and other components of the overall architecture.
- Interviewed employee and contractor candidates for technical and management position, and participated in the hiring process.
October 1998 - February 2000
Sr. Software Developer
Worked on WorldStreet Sales, a customer relationship management system for brokerage firms written in Java.
- Integrated Technimetrics holdings data into WorldStreet Sales. Negotiated data formats and delivery with the vendor. Developed Java classes to extend the data model, and implemented loading and front-end functionality to allow users access to the subset of that data they were entitled to.
- Designed and implemented Servlet based Contact Import Tool that allowed users to import their contacts data from a comma separated values file through a web browser.
- Implemented management reporting feature of WorldStreet Sales. Evaluated commercially available reporting products, and selected Actuate e.Reporting suite as the most applicable. Designed architecture for integrating Actuate e.Reporting with WorldStreet Sales, and developed servlets and build scripts needed to implement that architecture. Learned and then taught others how to build Actuate reports, program in Actuate Basic, and administer Actuate report server.
February 1998 - October 1998
Consultant
Worked for DST Systems on the Securities Transfer System written in IBM Visual Age Smalltalk.
- Collaborated with a business analyst and two other developers to design, implement and test the automatic issue capitalization feature. This was the first project ever at DST Systems to be delivered to Quality Assurance with no defects.
- Implemented several reusable custom GUI components that requirements described, but were not available in Visual Age Smalltalk.
United States Fidelity and Guaranty
April 1996 - February 1998
Programmer Analyst
Worked on the Business Foundation System, a client-server policy writing system written in ParcPlace Digitalk Visual Smalltalk with The Object People TOPLink object-relational mapping persistence framework.
- Defined requirements with the business partners, and then designed, implemented and coordinated testing of a feature that allowed users to compare two versions of a policy and highlight the changes.
- Made a significant contribution to the success of the team that designed and implemented user profiles with different access permissions and other security features that made it possible to allow agents access to the system over the Internet for the first time.
- Prepared training materials for "Object Oriented Bootcamp". Taught basic object oriented concepts and Smalltalk programming to colleagues with no prior object oriented programming experience, and organized team-building activities.
- As a member of the frameworks team, provided leadership and support on different projects in the form of technical consulting, code reviews and application frameworks development.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
September 1994 - April 1996
Teaching Assistant
Taught object oriented analysis and design, and C++ programming in a UNIX environment.
- Prepared and delivered lectures, administered and graded exams, and mentored students individually.
Certifications
Project Management Professional
July 30, 2013 - July 30, 2028
Project Management Institute
PMP Number: 1654970
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
November 01, 2023 - November 30, 2026
Amazon Web Services
Credential
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
February 13, 2017 - February 13, 2023
Amazon Web Services
AWS-PSA-3744
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
February 13, 2015 - February 13, 2023
Amazon Web Services
AWS-ASA-5927
AWS TCO and Cloud Economics
April 24, 2015
Amazon Web Services
AWS Business Professional
December 01, 2014
Amazon Web Services
AWS Technical Professional
November 24, 2014
Amazon Web Services
TIBCO Certified Professional for TIBCO BusinessWorks
November 29, 2004
TIBCO Software Inc.
Business Process Management with BEA WebLogic
December 16, 2002
BEA Systems, Inc.
Sun Certified Architect for Java Technology
January 05, 2000
Sun Microsystems
Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform
December 28, 1999
Sun Microsystems
Object Oriented Analysis and Design
July 01, 1997
ObjectSpace
Instructional Design for New Designers Workshop
December 11, 1996
Langevin Learning Services
Education
Master of Science in Computer Science
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science