đź’Ľ Manager Resumeđź’» Technical Resume
đź“„ Download PDF đź“ť Download DOCX đź”» Download MD

Luqman (Luke) Samad

Durham, NC | (703) 981-7077 | luke.a.samad@gmail.com | linkedin.com/in/lukesamad | US Citizen

Manager, Applications Development - Digital Platforms | Engineering Manager

Executive Summary

Highly technical Application Development Manager and Solutions Architect with over 18 years of experience leading cross-functional engineering teams, architecting cloud-native enterprise applications, and directing large-scale digital platform modernizations. Proven track record managing 5 Tech Leads and multi-disciplinary teams across full software development lifecycles, aligning technical roadmaps with executive business strategy, and optimizing resource allocation to deliver key features while executing complete application rewrites. Deep domain expertise spanning enterprise Employee Portals, Onboarding, Benefit Enrollment, Billing & Invoicing, and Operational Reporting platforms. Blends strategic leadership with hands-on expertise in Java (17/21), Spring Boot 3, React Micro-Frontends (MFEs), Angular, AWS/Azure, Kubernetes, and AI-driven engineering tools.

Leadership & Technical Core Competencies

  • Engineering Management & Leadership: Team Leadership (5 Tech Leads, 40+ Engineers), Resource Allocation & Capacity Planning, Agile/Scrum SDLC, Cross-Functional Alignment, Senior Business Executive Engagement, Vendor Management, Technical Mentorship.
  • Digital Platform Domains: Enterprise Employee Portals, Merchant & Employee Onboarding, Benefit Enrollment Systems, Employee Billing & Invoicing, Executive & Operational Reporting Dashboards.
  • Architecture & Software Engineering: Microservices Architecture, Micro-Frontends (MFE), Decoupling Monoliths, Java (8/17/21), Spring Boot 3, Node.js, Python, TypeScript, React, Angular, RESTful APIs.
  • Cloud, DevOps & Automation: AWS, Azure, Kubernetes (AKS/EKS), Docker, Terraform, CI/CD (Azure DevOps, Jenkins, GitHub Enterprise), Helm, Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
  • Governance, Observability & Security: SonarQube Quality Gates, Veracode, Prisma, OAuth2/JWT, Keycloak, ADA Compliance, Splunk, Datadog, Elastic, AI-Driven Development (metID, GitHub Copilot).

Professional Experience

MetLife – Manager, Application Development & Lead Architect (Nov 2024 – Present)

  • Engineering Team & Resource Management: Direct 5 Tech Leads and oversee cross-functional engineering teams (40+ engineers) responsible for MetLife’s enterprise Employer Digital Platform (covering Employee Portals, Onboarding, Enrollment, Billing, and Reporting modules).
  • Executive & Business Alignment: Partner directly with senior business leaders, product managers, and enterprise stakeholders to translate business goals into technical roadmaps, quarterly delivery milestones, and capacity plans.
  • Dual-Track Delivery (Features & Application Rewrite): Strategically organize engineering resources across teams to deliver high-priority business features while simultaneously executing a complete architectural rewrite—decoupling monolithic J2EE/React systems into modular Spring Boot 3 microservices and React Micro Frontends (MFE).
  • Platform Domain Overhaul: Direct the modernization of high-volume Employee Billing engines, real-time Reporting dashboards, digital Onboarding workflows, and benefit Enrollment platforms, eliminating release bottlenecks and cutting onboarding transaction latency.
  • Code Quality & CI/CD Governance: Instituted strict Sonar quality gates and expanded test coverage across all repositories; re-engineered vulnerability remediation processes for continuous delivery while overseeing release execution via the “Bullet Train” pipeline, Azure DevOps, and containerized Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) with automated Helm rollouts.
  • AI-Accelerated Architectural Rewrites: Pioneered an AI-driven codebase translation workflow leveraging metID (MetIQ LLM) and custom prompt engineering to analyze reference modern repositories and automatically convert legacy applications into modern microservices and React components; directed multi-month stabilization, bug remediation, and refactoring phases while deploying autonomous Node.js/Python agents for ADA compliance scanning, Gulp-to-Webpack build migrations, and dynamic API service virtualization.
  • Penetration Testing & Security SLA Governance: Managed end-to-end security compliance across all repositories in partnership with client penetration testing teams, provisioning test environments/data and enforcing strict remediation SLAs (Critical: 0-day, High: 30-day, Medium: 90-day); directed teams to remediate 100% of Veracode, Prisma, and Pen Testing findings within a 3-month window.
  • Distributed Tracing & Observability Modernization: Spearheaded the implementation of a full-stack distributed tracing methodology across all frontends and microservices for end-to-end HTTP and database call traceability; managed the enterprise observability migration off AppDynamics to Elastic, centralizing telemetry, metrics, and log traceability into Splunk.

Technologies: Java 17/21, Spring Boot 3, Node.js, Python, React, Webpack, Azure, AKS, Kubernetes, GitHub Enterprise, AzDO, metID, GitHub Copilot, Splunk, Redis, AEM.

Fidelity Investments – Principal Software Engineer & Technical Team Lead (March 2022 – Oct 2024)

  • Technical Management & Team Leadership: Led technical delivery and mentored mid-to-senior software engineers across the Non-Qualified retirement platform, overseeing Enrollment, Distributions, and Tax Elections digital applications.
  • Full-Stack Application Modernization: Managed the architectural transition of legacy Spring MVC monoliths to containerized Java 17/21 Spring Boot microservices and Node.js services deployed on AWS EKS.
  • Integration & Business Process Automation: Directed service integration utilizing Apache Camel messaging routes, aligning technical solutions with business operations to automate financial reporting and enrollment workflows.
  • Quality Standards & Mentorship: Scaled engineering best practices by instituting mandatory Test-Driven Development (TDD), peer code review protocols, and automated Jenkins release pipelines.
  • Observability & Frontend Architecture: Oversee enterprise frontend implementations using Angular and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), leveraging Splunk and Redis to optimize platform responsiveness and reliability.

Technologies: Java 17/21, Spring Boot, Node.js, Angular, Apache Camel, AWS EKS, Kubernetes, Jenkins, GitHub, Splunk, Redis, AEM.

ERP International LLC – Senior Application Architect & Tech Lead (Dec 2020 – March 2022)

  • Digital Transformation Leadership: Spearheaded a cross-functional modernization program migrating legacy enterprise architectures into cloud-native microservices on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS).
  • Frontend Modernization Rewrite: Directed the complete technical rewrite from AngularJS to React, introducing modern reusable UI design systems and state management patterns.
  • Infrastructure as Code & Security Governance: Implemented Terraform for environment provisioning and integrated enterprise identity/security solutions via Keycloak and Kong API Gateway.

Technologies: Java 8, Spring Boot, Azure, AKS, Kubernetes, Terraform, React, AngularJS, Keycloak, Kong, PostgreSQL, Kafka, Jenkins.

Bank of America Merchant Services – Senior Java Full-Stack Engineer / Tech Lead (Aug 2019 – Dec 2020)

  • Onboarding & Merchant Portal Architecture: Architected and delivered high-performance Spring Boot microservices powering Clover payment digital storefronts and merchant Onboarding portals.
  • Security & Identity Governance: Engineered an enterprise OAuth2 authentication framework incorporating Spring Security, Azure AD, and JWT with serverless Azure Functions.
  • Full-Stack Admin Suite Delivery: Managed full-stack development of an administrative management suite in Angular and Spring Boot to streamline onboarding workflows, order processing, and operational reporting.

Federal Reserve Bank – Java Developer / DevOps Lead (March 2019 – June 2019)

  • Mission-Critical Repository Migration: Directed a high-priority national repository migration from Nexus to JFrog Artifactory, ensuring 100% data fidelity and zero operational downtime.
  • DevOps Pipeline Automation: Architected automated build/release pipelines using Jenkins, Groovy, and Shell scripts for federal applications.

Audible (Amazon) – Senior Java Engineer & Data Tech Lead (Sept 2018 – March 2019)

  • Zero-Downtime Database Migration: Led the technical data team on the “Amazon Rolling Stone” project, migrating a legacy monolithic Oracle database to distributed PostgreSQL on AWS RDS with zero downtime.

Monster.com – Application Architect & Development Lead (March 2012 – Sept 2018)

  • SaaS Product Engineering Management: Led engineering teams building a global HR SaaS platform compliant with US Federal standards (FedRAMP); directed application rewrites from Struts to Spring Boot REST APIs and Angular across 45+ Federal Agencies.
  • Cloud & DevOps Orchestration: Managed AWS infrastructure deployment (Beanstalk, Docker, F5) and automated provisioning using Ansible, Groovy, and Jenkins.

Red Hat – Solutions Consultant & Architect (July 2009 – March 2012)

  • Enterprise Middleware Strategy: Provided technical architecture and team leadership for federal/commercial clients (USPTO, CDC, GEICO), leading WebLogic-to-JBoss migrations and custom stack design (Spring, CXF, GWT).

Lockheed Martin – Solutions Architect (Jan 2008 – July 2009)

  • Technical leadership for legacy application refactoring, SOA web services (Axis, Hibernate), CI/CD pipelines (Maven, Hudson), and testing governance.

Actuate – Staff Consultant (April 2007 – Jan 2008)

  • Enterprise security integration (GEICO, Marriott Hotels) combining Single-Sign-On (SSO), PeopleSoft, and reporting infrastructure.

BearingPoint – Senior Systems Analyst (April 2006 – April 2007)

  • Module development lead for government property tracking systems using J2EE, Hibernate, and JSF.

Iogen Technologies – Java Programmer (Jan 2006 – April 2006)

  • Developed user administration and data access modules for National Institute of Health (NIH) grant applications.

Education

Bachelor of Business Administration in Computer Information Systems (2004)
Texas State University – San Marcos, TX