Charles Graves

About Charles Graves

Senior Software Engineer with 20+ years of experience designing and delivering large-scale enterprise systems — most recently contributing to Apple, via TEKsystems.Hands-on expertise in Java (11–22), PostgreSQL, REST APIs, and secure deployments through Kubernetes, Spinnaker, and CI/CD pipelines. Skilled in performance tuning, multi-tiered caching, and database design with complex relational structures. Experienced with mTLS/OIDC authentication and Swagger/OpenAPI documentation.Strong advocate for clean, maintainable code — I’ve performed code reviews and continuously apply AI/LLM-assisted development tools (Claude Code CLI, ChatGPT) to accelerate delivery and improve quality.Known for collaboration in Agile environments and trusted by architects and SREs for reliable, scalable solutions.Former U.S. Army Blackhawk Pilot-in-Command — mission-focused, disciplined, and calm under pressure; I bring that same focus to engineering high-performing systems that meet critical objectives.

Experience

1. Software Engineer Team Lead

   TEKsystems

   Oct 2024 — Present

   Contributed to Apple’s Secrets Management platform managing shared secrets across applications, ensuring security and scalability in Apple Services. Led development of three new applications: Splunk Monitoring Tool – Automated migration tracking by analyzing Splunk logs via API, grouping/processing results, and storing outputs in Postgres with FreeSteps/FreeFlow workers, enabling visibility into app secret usage previously impossible through manual methods. Developer CLI (Picocli) – Created a multitasking command-line interface with custom menu system, Slack and Radar API integrations, Postgres backend, and secrets interaction APIs, streamlining ticket tracking for specialized internal developers. Self-Service Migration App (React/TypeScript) – Built frontend tooling (with Roo scaffolding) to help SREs seamlessly switch applications’ secrets source-of-truth, designed as the primary migration path for future workloads. Collaborated with architects and senior engineers to align with platform design and security requirements while executing projects independently end-to-end. Leveraged Rio Pipelines, Spinnaker, Roo, Postgres, Splunk APIs, Picocli, React, and TypeScript across projects.

Education

• Excelsior University

  Bachelor's degree, Psychology, Criminal Justice