Josh Christie

I led technology on the executive team of a publicly traded software company ($175M revenue) with responsibility for all software development, infrastructure, and information security. I've built multiple products from the ground up, architected and optimized high performance systems, expanded internationally, and created an environment for developing and retaining great engineers. First-hand experience growing from startup through successful IPO and as a public company.

Experience

Vice President of Engineering (CTO)
December 2006 - November 2023 (17 years)

I led ChannelAdvisor's global engineering organization (160+ engineers) developing SaaS e-commerce software for large brands and retailers around the world.

  • Responsible for all software development, technology strategy, information security, and cloud/datacenter/network operations. Reporting to the CEO/COO.
  • Strong software development and enterprise architecture experience building high performance, distributed systems that scale to tens of thousands of operations per second and over $10B in online sales per year.
  • Led the creation of two international engineering offices (Madrid and Shanghai) and the integration of multiple international offices into a cohesive, global engineering organization with members across the U.S., Spain, Ireland, France, China, and United Kingdom.
  • Developed a leadership team of highly technical managers who lead people, projects, and software architecture for their teams.
  • Managed an annual R&D budget greater than $25M, supporting $175M in revenue.
  • M&A experience including integration of engineering teams and product lines from domestic and international acquisitions.
  • Extensive experience with public company financial, auditing, and compliance concerns.
  • Transitioned to continuous delivery development and deployment model with hourly automated deployments to production every day with zero downtime.
  • Tech stack for hybrid cloud architecture includes C#, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, RabbitMQ, NGINX, AWS, VMWare, Microsoft Windows, and Linux.
  • Held additional key roles from startup through successful IPO in 2013 including Engineering Director, Engineering Manager, and Technical Lead Software Engineer.

Software Design Engineer
February 2003 - November 2006 (3 years 10 months)

  • One of four developers who created Microsoft Visual Studio Team System's HTTP web load testing product.
  • Personally responsible for the Web Test Recorder, coded web tests (including C# and VB.NET code generation), the WebTestFramework object model/API, and much of the highly multi-threaded web load test execution engine.
  • Expert at HTTP protocol and high performance execution.
  • Published a paper on MSDN about techniques for testing the performance of web applications.
  • Patent granted for a secure and scalable way to distribute version controlled files to remote sites over HTTP.

Software Engineer
May 2002 - August 2002

  • Developed a web application to enable clients' customer service agents to view online order details.

Web Developer
September 2000 - December 2000

  • Developed web applications to manage reports on competitors' products and compare hardware diagnostic results.
Education

B.S. Computer Engineering
B.S. Computer Science
August 1998 - December 2002

  • Graduated summa cum laude (with highest honors) for both degrees
  • Park Scholarship - full academic scholarship
  • Engineering Entrepreneurs Program
  • University Scholars Program
  • Elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies
  • Service Raleigh volunteer site leader
Accomplishments

Patents

Awards

  • 40 Under 40 Award by Triangle Business Journal
    April 2015

    The 40 Under 40 awards recognize outstanding professionals under the age of 40 for their contributions to their organizations and to the community.

Languages

  • English - native
  • Spanish - conversational (B2)
Volunteer Experience

Selection Committee
October 2004 - Present

  • Review applications and interview candidates for the NC State Park Scholarship program, the top academic scholarship at the university.

Youth Soccer Coach
August 2014 - May 2022

  • Head coach of youth soccer teams in the spring and fall seasons.

Construction Foreman
June 1999 - August 2001

  • Led weekly groups of volunteers building concrete block homes for underprivileged families for three summers near Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico.