Architectural judgment
applied during implementation.
The Engineer
I didn't start in software. I studied digital art and telecommunications at University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which is an unusual path into engineering and, it turns out, a useful one. Thinking about how systems communicate, how they feel to use, and how they fail gracefully came naturally to me in ways that a more traditional background might not have emphasized.
I've been building in Colorado since 2006. In those twenty years I've worked across cloud-native backends, distributed systems, secure APIs, and cross-platform mobile. For several years I helped lead the engineering behind secure mobile credential systems: Azure APIs integrated with the phone's BLE, NFC, and digital-wallet stacks. I've decomposed legacy monoliths, built event-driven architectures, and mentored engineers from junior to senior.
Across that work, I've learned that architecture earns its value over time. A sound early decision makes the next change easier. An old decision that no longer fits needs to be understood before it is replaced. I bring that lifecycle judgment to both new software and systems that have become important enough to modernize.
I started Pelican Digital Pathways to stay close to software that matters to the business. Sometimes that means building the first production system behind a proven need. Sometimes it means adapting an existing system to responsibilities that emerged as the product grew. In both cases, I want the technical decisions and the implementation to remain connected.
Senior accountability
stays close to the work.
I take the discovery call, shape the architecture, and remain directly accountable for implementation. When a project benefits from additional capacity, I keep senior responsibility for the technical decisions and for how the work reaches production. The method is described on How I Work.
That accountability makes selectivity necessary. I take on work where my experience fits the system's responsibilities and where I can establish a credible route from the current situation to a production result.
I build with the next engineer and the next change in mind. Delivery includes documentation, knowledge transfer, and a codebase designed for continued operation. The goal is software whose history is documented and available to the people responsible for it.
What colleagues have said.
Simply put - Michael is an expert in software and systems engineering and design. I know him to be one of the smartest and most capable engineers I've ever been able to collaborate with. His passion for excellence is evident in everything he does.
Senior Software Engineer Having worked with Michael both as a colleague and a longtime peer, I've watched him adopt AI-augmented workflows without losing the rigor that made him a great engineer in the first place. He's one of the few people I trust to use these tools aggressively and still deliver software that's clean, tested, and maintainable.
Director of Engineering Michael is an exceptionally skilled Cloud Software Architect and one of the best engineers I have had the privilege to work alongside. As the subject-matter expert for our mobile credentialing solutions, he consistently delivers high-quality architecture and solutions with remarkable speed and precision. He strikes an excellent balance between expert judgment and pragmatic use of AI tools (e.g., Claude) to boost productivity without sacrificing quality.
Lead Software Systems Engineer Michael communicates in a transparent way that makes it easy for everyone, even those that are non-technical, to understand the concepts that he is conveying. He puts in the effort to educate the team, making sure that he puts information in easily consumable ways such as visuals, documents, and other tangible deliverables.
Group Product Manager Michael is a technical superstar. The best compliment I can give Michael is that he empowers other engineers and makes them a better version of themselves. It is rare to find a technical person who not only understands the technical nuances, but also ensures there is clarity of execution and strategy for the team and also the organization.
Software PMO Michael is one of the best software engineers I have worked with. He is reasonable, cares about the business and their goals, has a vision that can be communicated and has a passion for technology. I can't list out all of the positives that he brings to the table as there are too many.
Product Manager
If this is the engineer you need,
let's talk.
Tell me what the software needs to do, whether it exists today or still needs its first production build. I'll tell you how I see the problem and whether Pelican fits it.