About Me

I'm an accomplished technology leader with over two decades of expertise creating innovative Software as a Service (SaaS) and web applications. With a passion for continual improvement and always learning, I thrive in a fast-paced environment delivering highly performant and secure solutions at massive scale. My academic foundation includes a Master of Applied Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Computer Engineering.

In my current role as Principal Software Architect at BlackBerry Radar I drive the development of cloud-based telematics software, transforming the logistics space through innovative technology. I possess research experience in the areas of circuit simulation, multi-GPU acceleration, computer architectures, and massively parallel systems.

In my personal time I enjoy learning new technologies, frequenting Ottawa's best dog parks, kayaking, sailing, and making music.

Greg Somers with Quinn
Charlotte Hazelnut

Technical Skills

PHP

Skill Level: Proficient
Time: 10+ years

Content management systems, Drupal modules/sites, e-eommerce solutions, and web applications with Symfony

HTML/CSS

Skill Level: Expert
Time: 15+ years

HTML and semantic markup. Mastery of CSS, Less, SASS, and Bootstrap

JavaScript

Skill Level: Expert
Time: 10+ years

Node.js, AngularJS, React, ES6+

Databases

Skill Level: Proficient
Time: 10+ years

Relational databases, database design, MySQL, Mongo, ElasticSearch, Cassandra, Redis

DevOps

Skill Level: Proficient
Time: 10+ years

Docker, Terraform, Jenkins, Kubernetes, and AWS to deploy complex web applications

Work Experience

Oct 2022 -
Present

BlackBerry

Principal Software Architect

Serving as technical lead for Radar product development, as well as the DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) lead, responsible for:

  • Ensuring the software platform and underlying cloud infrastructure is always available, performant, and scalable
  • Proactively identifying and mitigate potential reliability risks and instituting SRE best practices
  • Administer and maintain Kubernetes clusters
  • Leading the technical direction and strategy
  • Feature analysis, design, implementation, and test planning
  • Stakeholder collaboration
  • Team mentorship and development
  • Technical documentation and standards
  • Defining best practices, standards, and tools
  • Designing APIs, inter-service messaging protocols, and optimizing data access patterns

May 2021 -
Oct 2022

BlackBerry

Senior Software Architect

Served as technical lead for Radar product development, responsible for:

  • Leading the technical direction and strategy
  • Feature analysis, design, implementation, and test planning
  • Stakeholder collaboration
  • Team mentorship and development
  • Technical documentation and standards
  • Define best practices, standards, and tools
  • Design APIs, inter-service messaging protocols, and optimize data access patterns

Nov 2017 -
May 2021

BlackBerry

Full Stack Developer

Served as a core member of the BlackBerry Radar cloud development team, providing technical leadership in the design, architecture, and development of microservice-based systems. Key responsibilities included:

  • Technical architecture and design
  • Clean code and standards advocacy
  • Automation and testing
  • DevOps practices implementation

Sept 2015 -
Nov 2017

IBM

Staff Software Engineer

Full stack developer on the IBM Watson Analytics cloud application, specialized in the core dashboard user interface and the supporting single page application framework. Worked daily with technologies such as JavaScript, CSS3, NodeJS, jQuery, Bootstrap, Docker, Git, and more. Also played an embedded DevOps role, managing the UI tier's CI build and pipeline infrastructure, and coordinating product deployments.

2005 -
2015

Self Employed

Web Developer & Consultant

Provided web development and consulting services to clients such as University of Ottawa, MJS BioLynx Inc., Chromatographic Specialties Inc., Essential Skills Software Inc., and Scandent LLC. Typical duties involved the full software lifecycle including requirements gathering, design, implementation, testing, debugging, and maintenance.

EDUCATION & DIPLOMAS

2016

Master of Applied Science (M.A.Sc.) - Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Ottawa

Areas of Focus: Embedded Systems, Real-time Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Circuit Simulation, RF Simulation using Harmonic Balance, Software Project Management
Research Thesis Topic: Acceleration of LU factorization of sparse matrices on heterogeneous platforms
Key Projects

  • Extending the FreeRTOS real-time kernel to implement priority ceiling protocol
  • Development of a block aware parallel LU decomposition library using C and C++
  • Development of a multi-GPU accelerated block aware parallel LU decomposition library using OpenCL, C and C++
Awards and Achievements
  • University of Ottawa Master’s Full Admissions Scholarship – 2013-2015
  • Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) - Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship – 2014-2015
  • University of Ottawa Excellence Scholarship – 2014-2015

2013

Bachelor of Applied Science (B.A.Sc.) - Computer Engineering

University of Ottawa

Areas of Focus: Java, C, Embedded Systems/Microcontrollers, VHDL, Altera FPGA, Object Oriented Software Concepts, Digital Electronics, Design of Secure Systems, Databases, Computer Architecture
Additional Areas of Focus: Management, Entrepreneurship, Accounting, and Law
Key Projects:

  • Parallel image processing using multiple Altera NIOS II embedded processors
  • Design and implementation of an embedded RFID access control system with Wi-Fi and web interface. Using a PIC microcontroller, the system integrated a TCP/IP stack, Wi-Fi module, IR sensors, magnetic sensor, solenoids, with control logic written in C
Achievements: Dean’s Honour List 2010-2011, 2012-2013

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