Interactive resume where you choose what matters most. Filter by tech stack, domain expertise, or leadership experience to create a tailored view of my 20+ years in engineering and defense technology.
"Michael is an amazing thought leader, hands-on engineer, and team member. Whether the topic was related to our Reference Architecture, Software Implementation, User Experience, Testing, or Software Accreditation, Michael was able to provide feedback rapidly and execute engineering tasks that resulted in fantastic product outcomes. I would support any team that Michael was on - he is an outstanding professional and an incredible engineer."
Founder of Adjective, ADJ.AI
"Bastos is a 'get it done' leader. We worked together on the USAF/DoD's BIZINT application. He listens to the users' needs, then crafts several options to meet their needs. I always appreciated the way Bastos provided options—it made A/B testing fast and helped us provide the best experience to our users. Bastos tackled several difficult 'how do we…?' requests—I highly recommend his work!"
Deputy Director of Contracting, AFLCM
"During the more than three years I worked with Bastos, I was continually impressed with his professionalism, passion and get it done attitude. Bastos is extremely talented both as an engineer and as a client facing manager. Michael is an asset to any organization that's looking to accelerate its product development, culture or both."
CEO @ Oddball
"Michael embodies everything it means to be a leader. He's always available. He's always willing to teach. He is determined to set a great example for his team by bringing a positive attitude to work every single day. When you have problems, have questions or are seeking advice, Michael is always ready to lend his ear and he will make sure that you are successful no matter what you are doing. He brings immense knowledge and experience with him and makes sure to spread it to his peers."
Software Engineer @ LibLab
"I only briefly got to work with Bastos, but he made a tremendous impact during his brief tenure with our team as our lead DevOps engineer. He set up a dozen pipelines for our microservice architecture, enabling seamless CI/CD functions, and prepared us for deployment to a constrained environment. His hands-on approach to creating and implementing a robust testing strategy was instrumental in achieving our integration goals. Highly recommend!"
Product Owner @ Clarity
"Michael is a great developer and leader. He's a creative problem solver that will take on any technical challenge. He's a pass-the-credit-take-the-blame leader that will advocate for his team, the organization, and the users. And he's an avid reader that understands business management and financials. In short, Michael is somebody that gets stuff done."
Senior Software Developer @ Shopify
"When asked to name someone who truly embodies leadership, my answer is Michael Bastos. Michael's ability to lead a team, guide an organization, develop excellent products, and still make time share his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and mentor team members is nothing short of inspiring. Providing direction is the essence of leadership, and he does so while fostering an environment that's high in cooperation and low in ego. It was a joy to learn from him, and I endeavor to bring the values he exhibits through my own work."
Software Developer @ Hnry
"Michael joined our startup and immediately started making our lives better. While he was developing new features he also turned our rickety-old deployment process into a rock-solid and very safe one. Because of that we were all able to start deploying new features faster. He's not just a good coder, he's a force multiplier, and that's kind of person you want on your team."
Programmer & Software Architect @ PropelAuth
"Michael loves data. Period. His topic of conversation before, during and after work is about data. Don't be fooled by his back end expertise. His creative juices flourish when there opportunity of content is discussed. A joy to work with, he also cares about his teammates and goes the distance to connect with each person. A gem of a human being and colleague."
Product Design Manager @ Paylocity
Select the technologies, domains, and roles that matter most to you. Watch the resume and blog posts adapt in real-time.
10 experiences match your current filters.
zCore Group • Jan 2023 - Present
Harden DevSecOps for a USAF TSC program on Platform One, GitLab CI across 8 Go micro-services, Embedded LLM workflows (prompt libraries, guardrails, auto-test stubs) that doubled developer throughput and increasing test coverage 30%.
Led the complete development and deployment of Guardian One, the official USSF mobile app, from concept to app stores in just 120 days. The app now serves 3K+ monthly active users with a 4.8-star rating and has received praise from USSF leadership.
LibLab • Aug 2022 - Dec 2022
Authored a Terraform Provider Generator, OpenAPI → Go + auto-tests, cutting customer coding effort 75% and publishing automatically to the Terraform Registry.
Pioneered 'code-that-writes-code' abstractions from OpenAPI standards to generate clean, linted, test-covered SDKs across multiple languages, dramatically reducing customer implementation time.
LibLab • May 2022 - Aug 2022
Pioneered 'code-that-writes-code' minimum lovable version code-gen abstractions from OpenAPI, Swagger, Postman and GraphQL standards to generate clean, linted, test-covered TypeScript, Python and Java SDKs.
Developed revolutionary code generation platform that automatically creates production-ready SDKs from API specifications, transforming how developers integrate with external services.
The Nifty, JPTC Energy • Jan 2018 - Jun 2022
Built TheNifty.com a real-time NFT price-trend dashboard with Hotwire; gated premium content behind NFT-based access control.
Built real-time NFT analytics platform with advanced on-chain data enrichment, providing traders with accurate market signals and premium insights gated by NFT ownership.
Oddball • Oct 2018 - Nov 2021
Won $1.3M SBIR (Kinderspot D2P2) and $1.5M (BIZINT Ph 1–2); built cross-functional teams and delivered both apps to DoD stores.
Led successful SBIR proposals totaling $2.8M, building innovative mobile solutions for DoD including BIZINT (business intelligence mapping) and Kinderspot (military family daycare sharing).
RealSavvy • Aug 2017 - Aug 2018
Unified Rails + Ember + React stacks into a single UX; Real Estate MLS ingestion throughput +60% and duplicate listings −90%.
Transformed fragmented tech stack into unified platform, dramatically improving data quality and SEO performance for hundreds of real estate professionals.
LocalStack • Aug 2016 - Oct 2017
Migrated on-prem to AWS and used Spot instances for web scraping; infra OpEx −50% and page-load time −45%.
Orchestrated complete infrastructure transformation from on-premises to AWS cloud, achieving significant cost savings and performance improvements through strategic use of Spot instances.
LocalStack • Sep 2014 - Aug 2016
Built national ad-arbitrage engine and Social API ingesting 5M businesses daily; deployed sentiment scoring that lifted ad ROAS 25%.
Engineered high-scale ad arbitrage platform processing millions of business records daily, with advanced sentiment analysis driving significant ROI improvements.
SPAWAR (NAVWAR) • Jun 2013 - Aug 2014
Delivered a Rails app for USMC logistics with near-100% BDD coverage; stood up VMWare + Jenkins DevSecOps lab adopted across SSC Pacific.
Built mission-critical USMC logistics application with comprehensive BDD testing and established DevSecOps practices that became standard across the organization.
United States Marine Corps • Sep 2001 - Mar 2009
Managed 120+ Marines' admin/logistics; led maintenance-data software initiative referenced in III MEF readiness briefs.
Led critical maintenance data software initiative that was referenced in III MEF readiness briefs, while managing logistics for 120+ Marines during combat deployments in Iraq.
Based on your filters, here's a tailored view of relevant experience and skills.
Director of Engineering & Technology Leader
Versatile technology leader with proven experience in DevSecOps, LLMOps, Mobile Development. Demonstrated ability to scale teams, architect robust systems, and deliver innovative solutions across diverse technical domains. Strong background in both individual contribution and leadership roles.
zCore Group
Harden DevSecOps for a USAF TSC program on Platform One, GitLab CI across 8 Go micro-services, Embedded LLM workflows (prompt libraries, guardrails, auto-test stubs) that doubled developer throughput and increasing test coverage 30%.
LibLab
Authored a Terraform Provider Generator, OpenAPI → Go + auto-tests, cutting customer coding effort 75% and publishing automatically to the Terraform Registry.
LibLab
Pioneered 'code-that-writes-code' minimum lovable version code-gen abstractions from OpenAPI, Swagger, Postman and GraphQL standards to generate clean, linted, test-covered TypeScript, Python and Java SDKs.
The Nifty, JPTC Energy
Built TheNifty.com a real-time NFT price-trend dashboard with Hotwire; gated premium content behind NFT-based access control.
Oddball
Won $1.3M SBIR (Kinderspot D2P2) and $1.5M (BIZINT Ph 1–2); built cross-functional teams and delivered both apps to DoD stores.
RealSavvy
Unified Rails + Ember + React stacks into a single UX; Real Estate MLS ingestion throughput +60% and duplicate listings −90%.
LocalStack
Migrated on-prem to AWS and used Spot instances for web scraping; infra OpEx −50% and page-load time −45%.
LocalStack
Built national ad-arbitrage engine and Social API ingesting 5M businesses daily; deployed sentiment scoring that lifted ad ROAS 25%.
SPAWAR (NAVWAR)
Delivered a Rails app for USMC logistics with near-100% BDD coverage; stood up VMWare + Jenkins DevSecOps lab adopted across SSC Pacific.
United States Marine Corps
Managed 120+ Marines' admin/logistics; led maintenance-data software initiative referenced in III MEF readiness briefs.
National University
GPA: 3.5
Student ACM President, Semantic Web Crawler Founder
U.S. Marine Corps
Logistical Maintenance Management, Human Resources, Leadership, Diversity, Communications, and Lean Six Sigma Process
26 posts match your current filters.
July 17, 2025
How Windsurf's founders made billions, Google paid big, and Cognition snagged the leftovers in an unprecedented acquisition saga.
July 15, 2025
A deep dive into the study behind the "AI slows devs by 19 %" headline and what it really says about shifting workflow bottlenecks.
July 14, 2025
LLMs can crank out code, but lasting software still demands architecture, tests, and human judgment, forcing developers to redefine their role.
July 13, 2025
History shows that waves of automation often spark the next era of smarter, more resilient industries.
July 12, 2025
AWS now mirrors Apple’s playbook: wait for an open-source hit, fork it, and monetize at scale. Is this savvy pragmatism or stifled innovation?
July 11, 2025
LLMs won’t kill programming jobs, they refocus them on testing, security, and robust system design.
July 10, 2025
Set up a workflow that tags and publishes releases every week, regardless of your stack.
July 9, 2025
Skipping tests and CI may work for unicorns, but for most teams disciplined guardrails beat chaotic heroics every time.
July 8, 2025
Senior engineers anchor every LLM‑assisted change with tests, you can too, by writing them first.
July 7, 2025
Thirty years of shipping software prove that the only metric that matters is whether you can deliver.
June 12, 2025
YC isn't about capital or advice; it's about instant credibility in a noisy startup ecosystem.
May 26, 2025
Responding to the objections, I describe stakeholders as creditors and why repaying technical debt fuels innovation.
February 10, 2025
Tech never promised limitless roles only fierce competition. Here’s how to navigate the ebb and flow of software careers.
December 6, 2024
AI isn’t eliminating jobs by itself, failed R&D bets, tax quirks, and global hiring shifts drive most tech layoffs.
November 21, 2024
Employers hire, and rehire, the people who repeatedly diagnose and fix real problems faster and better than the competition.
November 13, 2024
LLMs favor YAML's lean token footprint, keeping the format relevant, and cost-effective despite developer gripes.
October 23, 2024
True freedom as a parent means controlling your career and life, choosing high-agency over comfort to shape your family's future.
October 5, 2024
Consultancies thrive on advice they never have to implement, here’s how to spot the risk‑free pitch and demand real skin in the game.
September 18, 2024
AI code tools blur the tabs‑versus‑spaces divide, but only if your project stays consistent and models are trained accordingly.
September 12, 2024
Many corporate leaders try to swap out software engineers for AI or cheap labor not just to cut costs but to avoid roles they don’t understand.
August 27, 2024
Great mentors help, but purposeful tinkering and grit tend to forge the strongest software engineers.
August 16, 2024
Allowing engineers to pursue side projects cultivates creativity, engagement, and even long-term loyalty.
July 19, 2024
Startups embrace AI tools quickly due to flexible mindsets, while enterprises lag due to procurement constraints.
June 18, 2024
Why banning tools like ChatGPT won't fix your security risks, it'll just push them underground.
October 15, 2022
Automatically merge Dependabot pull requests after your CI workflow succeeds.
May 25, 2022
Understanding how paying down debt and investing in assets shapes long-term software health.
August 27, 2024
Great mentors help, but purposeful tinkering and grit tend to forge the strongest software engineers.
Formal education is valuable, but it is optimized for scale. It distills messy practice into neat sequences that fit a semester. Those recipes create useful proficiency, yet they rarely cultivate the intuition needed when the recipe breaks at 3 a.m. on prod.
"Purposeful Tinkering" was defined by Nassim Taleb as mastery through repetitive continual error correction: repeated cycles of trial, error, and curiosity with real stakes. The key word is purposeful, experiments are guided by a concrete goal (shipping a feature, fixing an outage), not random play.
None received step-by-step lessons first; deep skill emerged because failure was allowed, and had consequences.
Good mentors accelerate feedback and broaden perspective, but the mentee still owns the screwdriver. Code reviews matter because they expose experiments to another set of eyes, not because they replace experimentation.
Mentorship, courses, and blogs (yes, even this one) are catalysts, not replacements, for mastery. The strongest engineers earn their scar tissue by shipping, breaking, and mending software in the wild. Embrace purposeful tinkering, your future self will thank you.