Travis Smith

Experience
Chief Architect, STSM
IBM, Watson Advertising & Weather, The Weather ChannelNov 2019-Present
  • Architected the modernization of our applications and platforms into a cloud native, cloud agnostic, multi-cloud and multi-region architecture using Kubernetes, Cloud Functions, among other technologies including the web properties, mobile applications (50+ million MAUs), and APIs capable of serving over a trillion API requests/day during severe weather.
  • Strategized, architected and sponsored the end-to-end privacy architecture capable of scaling to and serving any privacy regime onboarding new regimes quickly.
  • Led a cross-organization architecture and development effort to deliver the COVID Data Platform in a matter of weeks demonstrating our time to market velocity using SAFe practices.
  • Developed and implemented a multi-CDN strategy for The Weather Company managing a $10M CDN budget across three different prominent CDNs.
  • Evaluates vendors and various technologies using an architecture-team-developed scorecard developing proof-of-concepts and MVPs.
  • Heavily involved in our Agile SDLC processes performing code reviews, kickoffs, retrospectives, and providing approvals as required ensuring security, privacy, and data governance.
  • As an IBM Watson Executive Architect, I worked as a member of the IBM Cloud Architecture Guild responsible for guiding the development of IBM’s next generation Watson Cloud, Data and AI/Cognitive platforms with The Weather Company serving as a premiere case study on IBM Cloud.
  • Lead an Architecture Guild to bring much needed maturity, cross-departmental collaboration and engineering discipline in the organization. Responsible for Technical Roadmaps and Architectural Runways. 
Consumer Products Principal Architect
IBM, Watson Advertising & Weather, The Weather ChannelJun 2017 - Nov 2019
  • Develop and/or maintain enterprise architecture artifacts including integration models, design documentation and system diagrams.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the architecture is aligned with the business requirements, engaging in research and advocacy for new directions in software design, programming approaches and applications to provide new features and revenue sources.
  • Work closely with application architects and lead developers to align application architecture with Engineering Handbook including Reference Architectural Patterns, Rules and Standards. Help evolve Engineering Handbook to align with both product and development team’s needs.
  • Provide technical leadership to the application development and system administration teams, including guidance on open source solutions, industry best practices, and technical trends.
  • Build prototypes and working models of complex or new design elements.
  • Collaborate with development to define, document and communicate the architecture plan.
  • Mentor other architects and lead developers.
Senior Application Architect
IBM, Watson Advertising & Weather, The Weather ChannelApr 2016 - Jun 2017
  • Provide architectural guidance to development teams. Work with development teams to derive solution architecture for specific product requirements or applications.
  • Develop and/or maintain application architecture artifacts including application models, design documentation and data flow diagrams.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the architecture is aligned with the business requirements, engaging in research and advocacy for new directions in software design, programming approaches and applications to provide new features and revenue sources.
  • Work closely with Enterprise Architecture to align application architecture with Engineering Handbook including Reference Architectural Patterns, Rules and Standards. Help evolve Engineering Handbook to align with both product and development team’s needs.
  • Provide technical leadership to the application development and system administration teams, including guidance on open source solutions, industry best practices, and technical trends.
  • Build prototypes and working models of complex or new design elements.
  • Collaborate with development to define, document and communicate the architecture plan.
  • Keep a critical eye on new design specifications and raise quality, performance or architectural concerns.
  • Manage risk identification and risk mitigation strategies associated with the architecture.
  • Mentor other developers with a constructive, results oriented approach.
Senior Software Engineer
IBM, Watson Advertising & Weather, The Weather ChannelNov 2015 - Apr 2016
  • Manage and automate the delivery of the "Local on the Eights" videos using nodejs, AutoDesk's scaleform, Adobe Flash & ActionScript3, and ffmpeg.
  • Using AngularJS extend, update, and develop solutions that implement designs, develop new features, and fix existing issues. Implemented an origin aggregation app using GOLang (for scaling and performance purposes). 
Education
Machine Learning
Georgia Institute of Technology2020-Present
Th.M. Theology, Higher Education
Dallas Theological Seminary2002-2006
B.S. Secondary Education, Theology
Columbia International University1999-2002

DISCLAIMER: My thoughts, words, and actions on this blog do not necessarily represent the views of any of the companies that I have worked for or am currently working in any way, shape, or form. Thus, the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent my company’s or my company’s department’s positions, strategies or opinions.