Norris Shelton
Sr Director of Engineering (Lead Software Architect) @Churchill Downs Incorporated
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WORK HISTORY
Sr Director of Engineering (Lead Software Architect) @Churchill Downs Incorporated
Louisville, KY, US
AI & Machine Learning Leadership: Developed AI Agent POC using GenAI tools (Claude Code) with direct Anthropic Claude API integration, demonstrating hands-on expertise in AI-powered applications. Leveraged GenAI tools to accelerate Java service upgrades, completing a challenging modernization in 3 weeks vs 8 weeks for a full team—50% efficiency gain through strategic AI adoption. Conducted expert code reviews and provided architectural guidance for the AI Chatbot platform, a generative AI initiative, working with architects implementing LLMs and RAG technologies to enhance customer engagement. Completed AWS training:\"Build production-ready generative AI applications.\"Cloud Architecture & Spring Boot Expertise: Subject matter expert for Spring Boot service architecture and full technology stack (AWS: EC2, S3, Lambda, SNS/SQS, Elastic Beanstalk; data persistence; event-driven messaging; distributed caching), overseeing on-premise to cloud migrations. Provided architectural oversight for cloud infrastructure initiatives and containerization efforts. Architected cost-saving migration of Marketing Datastore, evaluating DynamoDB and S3/Athena solutions.Technical Leadership: Mentored high-performing team of architects and engineers, fostering continuous learning culture. Established Backend Technology Selection Guide and contributed to ARB API Standards. Conducted code reviews ensuring high-quality, maintainable, secure code. Provided technical leadership to engineering teams, peer-reviews, and advised VP of Engineering. Collaborated with Product team on features and 3rd parties on solution feasibility.Technologies: AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, SNS/SQS, DynamoDB, Elastic Beanstalk), Spring Boot, Spring Data JPA, Anthropic Claude, GenAI, Maven, CI/CD, Datadog, Splunk.
EDUCATION
University of Louisville, J.B. Speed School
BS, Information Systems and Data Processing, minor in Mathematics
University of Louisville, J.B. Speed Scientific School
Associate's degree, Information Systems and Data Processing
Western High School
Diploma
SKILLS
ABOUT NORRIS SHELTON
A seasoned Java architect with in-depth knowledge of the java server-side layer and its impact upon the business. I have a demonstrated ability to acquire technical knowledge rapidly and apply those skills to solving the businesses problems and continue its’ growth. I thrive on solving problems and I am able to see the business and technical sides of a problem. Very experienced with the full life cycle of projects from maintaining mature systems, growing mature systems, revamping existing systems and also designing and implementing greenfield systems. Experience developing source code management (SCM), continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment procedures. Experience defining and implementing test driven development standards, core design patterns and naming conventions to guide developers. Extensive experience mentoring and training developers, including passing along newly acquired technical knowledge. 23 years of experience across 5 industries (online gaming, law enforcement, military recruitment, online media and hospital systems). Experience with 8 Java application servers (Tomcat, Glassfish, WebLogic, Sun Java Web Server, Sun Java Application Server, Websphere, JBoss, ATG Dynamo). Experience with 5 database servers (MySql, Oracle, Sybase, Ms SQL Server, HP Tandem NonStop). Experience with JSON/Rest services and clients. Also experience with SOAP clients. Extensive experience with the Spring Framework, including all 4 configuration methods, MVC, database-related APIs, Batch, scheduling via Quartz and caching. Experience with developer testing via JUnit and Cucumber.
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