Adam Vanderhyden

Application Architect. Craftsman. Entrepreneur.

Professional Summary

I'm a software engineer and enterprise architect with two decades of experience delivering highly available, efficient, and inventive solutions to complex, real-world challenges. My concurrent ventures have required mastery across a broad and often unrelated set of technologies and programming languages.

Over the years I've refined my craft as an employee, consultant, CIO, business owner, and helpful friend with startups, small businesses, Fortune 100 corporations, and government agencies alike.

I don’t maintain a dev blog — my time is better spent delivering lasting results in production.

Unique Past Projects

Credit Card Processing

Real-time approvals for millions of transactions per day. Ultra-reliable, low-latency architecture.

  • Mainframe z/OS, CICS, Assembler, COBOL, C++, DB2
Fraud Profiling

Fast, accurate, high-volume scoring and behavioral profiling system across distributed services.

  • Linux, Java, Apache, MQ, Oracle, Kafka
Proprietary E-Commerce

Highly flexible custom platform for product and order management, discounts, and digital gift cards.

  • Linux, HTML/CSS, Bootstrap, jQuery, Web3, Rails, Go, Solidity, PostgreSQL
Private Event Ticketing

Custom platform for ticket purchase, display, and mobile-based validation by staff at entry.

  • SwiftUI, Kotlin, Go, PostgreSQL

Weirdest Projects

When I think back on the wackiest requests I'm able to disclose I immediately think of Huginn, VBA tasks, and mainframe emulator macros to automate data collection.

However, none come close to the client who refused to use a database. They instead insisted on keeping data in a Google Sheet so an Apps Script could build a json object and commit to a GitHub repo. This data would ultimately be retrieved, parsed and displayed with TypeScript by a customer-facing Angular application.

Skills

  • Cryptography
  • Object Oriented Principals
  • Application Design
  • Enterprise Design
  • Database Design
  • Event Processing
  • Connection Pooling
  • Data Analysis and Trending
  • C++
  • Go
  • Java
  • COBOL
  • IBM System/360 Assembler
  • Kubernetes
  • AWS
  • Google Cloud
  • Azure

Approach & Philosophy

Flexibile Determination:

Some efforts require me to adapt to unfamiliar programming languages, platforms or infrastructure. I enjoy learning new technology quickly.

Battle tested:

Exceptional at identifying issues in high-stakes environments under pressure. Strong analytical skills allow me to determine root causes and create processes to reduce issues and impact.

Do it Once, Do it Right:

My systems are built according to strict architectural guidelines and are designed to work quietly and consistently for years.

Purposeful Scarcity:

I limit my professional engagements to ensure full focus on the ones that excite me most. Quality over quantity. Depth over reach.

Education and Collaboration

  • Carnegie Mellon University

    • Collaboration with the Computer-Human Interaction Institute
    • Small Business Panel for Master's Students

    Bucknell University

    • Mentor Engineering Students
    • Machine Design and Development, CNC Programming

    University Loyola Chicago

    • Master's Degree in Computer Science
    • 4.0 GPA, Alan Turing High Achievement Award

    Northern Illinois University

    • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
    • Association for Computing Machinery President

Hobbies & Interests

Motorcycle Restoration

Custom fabircation, vintage BMW builds, and late nights wrenching in the garage. I like any mechanical.

Sports and Fitness

I love playing ice hockey and prefer to watch the Chicago Blackhawks. I feel my best both physically and mentally when I stay active.

Comedy

Can't take everything seriously. I enjoy podcasts, standup, and learning about people.

Interested in Working Together?

If you’re building something exciting or trying to solve a problem, feel free to reach out.