Chris Blachnio
Senior Software Developer
About
Senior Software Developer with over a decade of experience in designing, developing, and maintaining web applications. Proficient in multiple programming languages and frameworks, with a strong focus on backend technologies like Go. Skilled in database management, cloud infrastructure and services, and API integrations. Passionate about creating efficient and scalable software solutions to meet business needs. I'm passionate about AI and machine learning, with hands-on experience implementing cutting-edge AI solutions at scale including semantic search using LLMs, embeddings, and vector databases. I love helping small businesses and startups grow by providing them with the processes and tools they need to succeed.
Experience
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- Senior Software Developer @ CrowdRiffToronto, Canada - RemoteScope & Role:
Trusted senior engineer leading cross-team initiatives in authorization, authentication, search infrastructure, and system scalability. Known for driving complex migrations, reducing infrastructure costs, and delivering sustainable architecture for long-term growth. Facilitates knowledge sharing through technical deep dives on AI, HNSW search, and cutting-edge technologies.
Major Technical Initiatives:
authorization And Authentication:
- Led redesign of permissions and user roles across the platform, reducing complexity and preparing migration to a ReBAC (Zanzibar/SpiceDB) model.
- Implemented enterprise SSO (OIDC/SAML) for large customers, enabling new revenue streams and strengthening security.
- Standardized feature flagging into a centralized service, simplifying rollout and experimentation across microservices.
search And Data Infrastructure:
- Brought semantic search at massive scale to life: billions of assets indexed with LLMs, embeddings, and vector databases, combined with hybrid retrieval techniques.
- Directed full migration of legacy search to Elasticsearch 8, optimizing HNSW vector search, batch workflows, and recall testing.
- Spearheaded Elasticsearch performance/cost project, improving query performance and cutting ~$100K in annual infra spend.
- Optimized storage costs by 50% by analyzing traffic patterns and moving less frequently accessed data to cheaper storage options, saving $300k annually.
scalability And Developer Experience:
- Designed GCS-based signed URL upload pipeline for asynchronous processing of visual media, improving reliability and throughput.
- Optimized batch workflows for ingestion, embedding generation, and indexing pipelines, ensuring fault tolerance and predictable SLAs.
- Standardized Docker Compose dev environments and Go test strategies, reducing ramp-up time and cutting CI runtimes.
Leadership & Responsibilities:
- Drove technical direction on multi-team projects, balancing immediate product needs with long-term architecture.
- Acted as architect and mentor, guiding engineers through complex systems (search, auth, infra) and reviewing critical designs.
- Led technical deep dives and knowledge sharing sessions on AI, HNSW search algorithms, and other advanced technical topics.
- Embedded maintainability and resilience into platform evolution by enforcing forward/backward compatible APIs and contracts.
Impact & Achievements:
- Enabled semantic search across billions of photos and videos, transforming customer discovery experience.
- Reduced infra spend by six figures annually through Elasticsearch and GCS optimizations.
- Successfully migrated critical workloads (search pipelines, embeddings, permissions) without customer downtime.
- Recognized internally as a high-reliability engineer, consistently trusted with mission-critical initiatives that cut across product and platform.
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- Backend Developer @ BMO Financial GroupToronto, Canada - RemoteScope & Role:
Trusted backend developer specializing in financial services infrastructure, document generation systems, and customer onboarding platforms.
Major Technical Initiatives:
document Generation And Workflow:
- Spearheaded AWS serverless architecture for document generation, reducing mortgage application processing from days to minutes.
- Launched updated document generation system with shopping cart integration for seamless information retrieval.
customer Onboarding Systems:
- Developed microservices for My Wealth and Home Finance onboarding, improving customer experience in various product lines.
- Optimized MongoDB cache performance for application search and retrieval, significantly boosting search performance.
Leadership & Responsibilities:
- Owned technical decisions for document generation architecture.
- Collaborated with business teams to streamline customer onboarding flows.
- Managed microservices development for multiple financial product lines.
Impact & Achievements:
- Reduced mortgage application processing time by 90% through automation.
- Improved onboarding search performance by 60% through cache optimization.
- Successfully launched co-applicant features for My Wealth platform.
- Enhanced document generation flow enabling mortgage applications to be created and approved within minutes.
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- Software Developer and Tester @ IBMToronto, Canada - OfficeScope & Role:
Software developer focused on build systems optimization and test automation for enterprise software development.
Major Technical Initiatives:
build System Optimization:
- Optimized multi-OS build system, reducing machine usage and maintenance costs by enhancing scripts in Build Forge, Bash, and Perl.
test Automation:
- Implemented cost-effective, automated JUnit tests with CI/CD for agile development.
Leadership & Responsibilities:
- Owned build system performance and reliability.
- Established testing standards and CI/CD practices.
Impact & Achievements:
- Reduced build system maintenance costs through automation.
- Improved development velocity through standardized testing practices.
- Enhanced multi-OS build system efficiency reducing machine use and maintenance costs.