Rōger Nōden

Vice President of Software Engineering for an AI-first company, Aspiring Film Director, Adventurer, Husband.
Software, Movies, Electric Vehicles, Cooking, BBQ, Outdoors, Music.
He/him/his — Gay.

I created this page because I receive a lot of contacts from those recruiting for a position. It is meant to complement my LinkedIn profile.

Do you want to know if I’d be a good fit for your organization, or would you like to work together? Read on below to see if we should chat!

My Current Status

I am passively open to new opportunities as a way of keeping an open mind. If you think you have a great fit, feel free to send it my way.

At a Glance

  • 20+ years developing software in the .NET ecosystem
  • 15+ years leading teams of between 5-20 individuals
  • 10+ years developing cloud-based software solutions (Azure, AWS)
  • Certified Microsoft Developer, Sitecore Developer
  • A history of substantial impact
  • Merger and Acquisitions (M&A) experience

Outcomes I Provide

  • In-depth expertise and delivery across the .NET / Microsoft ecosystem
  • High-performing, enabled, and engaged teams
  • The growth of leaders within teams and organizations
  • Organizational agility – a culture of learning, experimentation, quality, and collaboration
  • Confidence in code via automated testing and great processes
  • DevOps-related expertise (CI/CD pipelines, operational visibility, robust delivery mechanisms)

Are We a Good Match?

Types of Work

I’m likely a fit for the following types of roles or similar:

  • Technical Leadership: Rallying a team or organization toward an objective and moving things forward is something that’s in my veins. Depending on the organization, this may be a CTO, Vice-President, Director, Fellow, Principal, or Technical Manager role (or similar). I am at my best when I’m providing a large impact across teams or an organization and empowering / enabling teams to achieve that impact.

  • Developer Relations: I love forming relationships and teaching about technology and development approaches.

  • Internal / productivity engineering: I delight in being a force multiplier and enabling my colleagues to do their best. Tooling, CI/CD pipelines and systems, removing blockers, etc. I’d probably do best when combining this with some sort of technical leadership capacity, as I believe everyone should be invested in these things.

I’m potentially a great fit if…

(You don’t have to check all of these boxes, especially if you’d like me to help move you to that place.)

  • :heavy_check_mark: The position is full-time. I’m looking to find a place I can grow with and make a substantial impact.
  • :heavy_check_mark: You work in the Microsoft / .NET space. I’m comfortable in other arenas but am currently most invested in that ecosystem.
  • :heavy_check_mark: The position is remote, particularly if the organization is remote-first. I don’t mind being in person, but COVID-19 adjusted my priorities.
  • :heavy_check_mark: Your organization is looking to embrace agility.
  • :heavy_check_mark: You want smaller feedback loops. I like to move organizations toward streams of value, working iteratively and incrementally to produce it.
  • :heavy_check_mark: Culture is on the table. I believe people who work at an organization have (and should have) a hand in shaping culture.
  • :heavy_check_mark: I can create content around my work. I tend to create content – tweets, blog posts, demos – around the work I’m doing. It doesn’t have to be part of the day to day, but sharing with the world is very important to me, so it at least shouldn’t be frowned upon. (I’d never reveal anything in confidence, etc. of course.)
  • :heavy_check_mark: You’re at least cloud-curious. The cloud offers a great deal of potential for organizations. If you’re not currently using it, it would be great if you’re at least open to considering the value it can provide.
  • :heavy_check_mark: Your organization has policies that treat staff as humans. Flexible / Unlimited / Mandatory PTO, unlimited sick time, an environment of freedom/trust, etc. are some examples.
  • :heavy_check_mark: You don’t want me to stay “in a lane”. I am someone who loves “honey-combing” to provide value across an organization.
  • :heavy_check_mark: You want ideas for improvement. I have been described as an “idea-dense” person. They’re not all going to be gold, but receptive organizations will benefit the most from me.
  • :heavy_check_mark: You believe that technology delivery is a team sport.
  • :heavy_check_mark: You care about a culture which very much includes Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging. I have no desire to reinforce harmful status quo or toxic systems of inequality.

I’m potentially not a great fit if…

(It’s OK if you check some of these boxes, especially if you want my help in fixing them.)

  • :x: The position is contract / temporary. I’m only seeking full-time roles where I can invest effort and make an impact.
  • :x: The work is in consulting. I have a background in great consulting impact, but I want to bring my full potential and impact to bear on the mission of an organization.
  • :x: I will be stuck using less-than-ideal equipment, especially if I can’t bring my own. While not a game-changer, this usually signals a lack of investment in engineering culture, as the time loss of underpowered hardware vastly outweighs the cost savings.
  • :x: You work with non-civilian government or health insurance. I want to ensure my personal ethics remain aligned with my work.
  • :x: You are looking for a super-senior individual contributor. While I have the technical skills and can certainly do this as needed, I prefer working with and leveling up teams. Technology delivery is a team sport.
  • :x: You are located more than 30 minutes from Minneapolis, MN (if not remote). I am a Husband and I’d like to spend more of my time at home instead of commuting.
  • :x: You don’t want to move things forward. I am continually seeking to move approaches, technology, and organizational culture forward. It’s how I’m programmed. I’m a realist – these things don’t happen overnight, and I don’t have some grand perfect vision – but if your organization isn’t interested in that, it’s probably not a great fit.
  • :x: You ‘do Agile’ or think there’s one way to be agile. Agility takes many forms and is a continual pursuit.

Alphabet Soup – Keywords, General Skills, etc.

Category General run-down 1
Languages C#, TypeScript, Javascript, C/C++
Platforms & Frameworks .NET Core / .NET 5-9, .NET Framework 4.x, ASP.NET, MVC, WebAPI
Front-end Angular, React, WinUI, jQuery
Artificial Intelligence (AI) OpenAI, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot
Build Tools GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, OctopusDeploy, MSBuild
Cloud Azure PaaS / SaaS, Serverless, AWS .NET Serverless
Infrastructure tooling ARM, Bicep
Databases SQL Server, General NoSQL, DynamoDB, CosmosDB, ElasticSearch/OpenSearch
ORMs & Migrations Entity Framework, EF Core, Dapper
Automated Testing tools NUnit, xUnit, SpecFlow, Moq, FluentAssertions, Bogus
Automated Testing Techniques TDD, BDD, Gherkin
Other common libraries FluentValidation
Ticketing and workflows Azure DevOps, TFS, GitHub Projects
Static Sites Jekyll, GitHub Pages, Azure Static Sites
Methodologies and Mindsets Agility, Scrum, Kanban, DevOps
Leadership Transformational leadership, Leader/leader model

What I’m Reading

  • Competing Against Luck by Clayton M. Christensen, Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon & Dave S. Duncan
  • Jobs to be Done: Theory to Practice by Anthony W. Ulwick
  • Essential by Christine Smith & Kelly Monahan
  • Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore

Feedback I’ve Received

Highlights from what my peers recently said about me, anonymously. I am incredibly proud of this feedback, and feel it represents what I can bring to an organization.

Feedback

“Roger’s can do attitude is justified by his deep technical skill set. He has led multiple teams in to understand a core IT problem, identify the solving architecture or product, and own the implementation. This ability to select the correct solution and own the implementation is only possible because understanding the current IT product and technology landscape is a driven passion for him. I would not hesitate to recommend him for a large project manager or CTO position, and his enthusiasm for fully understanding his subject and managing teams and groups allows him to excel in a wide range of strategic roles.” “Roger’s commitment to improving processes and removing roadblocks to the efficient delivery of high-quality solutions were key to helping the Development and Product teams achieve their goals of delivering multiple solutions, all while continuing to make progress on the Next Generation Content system. His willingness to take ownership for shared resources (e.g. build systems) and effectively coordinate activity across multiple stakeholders served to keep the teams focused on their core job of producing software, without getting bogged down in distracting impediments. The team delivered close to 50% more feature content in 2020 than 2019, with no additional headcount, and Roger’s direct help and leadership contributed greatly to that achievement.” “Roger also proved instrumental in taking a practical approach to leading the Diversity and Inclusion task force. While Roger is only just beginning this journey leading the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and initiatives here at Outsell, we are thankful for his leadership and look forward to what is to come!” “Roger is a true leader. He coaches, asks questions (doesn’t give commands), and gives credit to others. He uses his past experience to implement well thought out solutions as a team effort. Working with him has been a tremendous learning experience. I look forward to any project I get to work with Roger on.” “Roger is probably the best supervisor I have had in my professional career. He has a great eye for talent and assembled a top notch team at Mercury Companies. He was always able to provide guidance when needed, but also knew how to let his staff take an idea and run with it so they could call it their own and be highly invested and passionate about it. I have always strived in the years since then to lead teams I was responsible for in the same manner.” “Roger is an incredibly effective manager and a wonderful person to work around. He would plug into any environment tremendously well due to his adaptability. His attention to detail and communication skills really set him apart from the rest of the pack.” “Roger did an amazing job on the [project name] database and user access management collaborating with both product and other development teams. Additionally, Roger stepped up and took on the Scrum Master role for the [team name] Team and continued to manage blockers and impediments very well.”

  1. This is not an exhaustive list. ↩