Career

Career

Career & Education Journey

From blueprints to code: How an architect became a Microsoft engineer

The Foundation: Architecture Education

My journey began with four years of architectural training at Norwich University and Vermont College in Montpelier and Northfield, Vermont. This foundation in design thinking, spatial reasoning, and systematic problem-solving would prove invaluable throughout my career—even when I eventually traded blueprints for code.

Early Career: The Architectural Years

After graduation, I spent the next decade working as an Architectural Draftsman, mastering both CAD systems and traditional drafting techniques. But my curiosity led me beyond typical architectural work. I found myself doing physics and mathematical analysis for a civil engineer, calculating complex measurements, materials analysis, and weight distributions to plan crane ‘pick points’ for dismantling a bridge in Flemington, New Jersey.

I progressed to working as an Architectural Designer for several firms, with my final architectural position at NKP in Flemington, NJ—a firm that designed most of the public schools in the tri-state area (NY, NJ, PA). One of our designs, Auten School, won recognition in an architectural magazine. Ironically, my contribution highlighted in the article was an elaborate color scheme for different spaces—despite being pretty colorblind!

The Pivot: Discovering Programming

While I was enjoying my work with Sin-U Nam, Nam Kim Park, and Stephen Kim at NKP, I started creating AutoCAD macros to make our team more productive. This led to building the company’s website, which rekindled memories of programming skills I’d learned from my father—a hardware engineer for Burroughs/Unisys during the mainframe era.

To scratch this growing itch, I enrolled in a programming school and aced it, earning a certificate that would land me my first job in the computer industry.

First Steps in Tech: Vickers Stock Research

My first programming role was at Vickers Stock Research (a subsidiary of Argus Research), where I was given an incredible opportunity—and challenge. The previous engineering team had quit the month before I arrived (should have been a red flag!), leaving me to re-architect their entire data flow system.

Vickers transformed SEC filings by corporate insiders (like Bill Gates trading MSFT options) into consumable data for reports and predictions. The existing system ran on ancient Unix AIX servers using COBOL with flat, non-delimited data files stored on actual tape drives.

I modernized this entire operation, moving to SQL Server storage with a web frontend. In the process, I accomplished two things without fully realizing their significance at the time:

  1. Created a machine learning algorithm to automatically classify which filings corresponded to what financial instruments and traders—replacing 25 human data entry personnel
  2. Mastered full-stack development, learning SQL Server, web application development, and Perl (that’s a good story for another time) for file management and parsing

The Microsoft Journey Begins: Sybari Acquisition

After five years at Vickers, a friend-of-a-friend connection led to an interview opportunity at Microsoft’s newest Long Island acquisition: Sybari. They provided a five-engine malware detection system for Microsoft Exchange.

Here’s the kickers: I aced four out of five interviews, and ended up working for the interviewer who failed me! 🫡

Microsoft: A Decade-Plus Adventure

Forefront Online Protection (10+ years)

My Microsoft journey began with improving Exchange and Office security through anti-virus, anti-malware, and data leakage protection features. This was incredibly rewarding work that directly protected millions of users worldwide.

During this time, I also pursued higher education as a part-time student while working full-time at Microsoft. Around 2010, I earned my Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and Economics in Information Systems (BME-IS), achieving a 3.9 GPA with only one B among a sea of A’s. Balancing full-time work with evening classes was challenging, but it provided valuable business perspective that complemented my technical skills.

IoT Maker Team

Next, I joined the IoT team, where I had a blast building open-source projects for DIY electronics integrated with Microsoft services. One of my proudest achievements was writing the Raspberry Pi NOOBS installer for Windows Preview—bridging the gap between Microsoft’s ecosystem and the maker community.

Applications, Partners, and Store (APS)

I then moved to APS, where I created open-source toolkits and supported an incredible range of partners—from tech giants like Apple and Spotify to industrial leaders like Siemens and automation platforms like IFTTT. This role taught me the art of building bridges between different technology ecosystems.

Windows AI and Inbox Apps Team (Current)

Today, I’m a Senior Development Engineer on the Windows AI and Inbox Apps team, working on the applications that ship with Windows—Calculator, Notepad, Sound Recorder, and Alarms & Clock.

I spent three years primarily focused on the Snipping Tool, then worked through 2024 and most of 2025 on the Paint app, where I helped add exciting AI features like Generative Stickers. Currently, I’m focused on AI features across Windows OS while continuing to drive improvements for Inbox apps.

Reflections on the Journey

Looking back, the transition from architecture to software engineering wasn’t as dramatic as it might seem. Both disciplines require:

  • Systems thinking - Understanding how components work together
  • Design principles - Creating solutions that are both functional and elegant
  • Problem-solving - Breaking down complex challenges into manageable pieces
  • Attention to detail - Because small mistakes can have big consequences

The biggest difference? In architecture, you measure twice and cut once. In software, you can iterate rapidly and refactor as you learn.

This diverse career path has allowed me to learn far more than a typical development role would offer, exposing me to everything from legacy COBOL systems to cutting-edge AI features, from individual maker projects to enterprise-scale security solutions.

Want to know what I’m up to outside of work? Check out my About page for the personal side of the story.