// engineering leader · dc startup ecosystem

Lin Qiu

I take high-level strategy and turn it into reliable, scalable systems and shipped products.

// about

About

Senior engineering leader with 10+ years in the DC startup ecosystem. I translate high-level strategy into tangible features and shipped products, and identify opportunities to shift how teams think and work.

My background pairs startup entrepreneurship with an art-history foundation, which shows up as an eye for user experience and a habit of shipping clean, maintainable systems.

// skills

Skills

Languages

  • Go
  • Rust
  • TypeScript
  • Ruby / Rails
  • Node.js

Platforms

  • AWS
  • Heroku
  • Kubernetes (EKS / AKS)
  • Docker

Practices

  • CI/CD
  • ArgoCD / GitOps
  • SRE
  • Security & Compliance
  • HIPAA

// experience

Experience

Staff Engineering Manager @ Second Sight Solutions

Nov 2025 – Present

Innovative technology that reimagines how drug rebate/discount data is exchanged, establishing new connections and improving transparency for drug manufacturers. As of November 1, 2025, Second Sight Solutions became a subsidiary of Berkeley Research Group (BRG).

  • Rails
  • Go
  • Azure
  • AWS
  • Kubernetes
  • Citus

Senior Engineering Manager @ BRG

Feb 2024 – Nov 2025

Innovative technology that reimagines how drug rebate/discount data is exchanged, establishing new connections and improving transparency for drug manufacturers.

  • Rails
  • Go
  • Azure
  • AWS
  • Kubernetes
  • Citus

Senior Engineering Manager @ Ideon

Aug 2021 – Feb 2024

Health insurance platform that operates as the hub of interactivity amongst benefit administration platforms and insurance carriers.

  • Rails
  • Rust
  • Heroku
  • AWS
  • Led cost optimization initiatives, resulting in over 50% reduction in monthly AWS expenses, significantly improving operational efficiency.
  • Managed migration off of Heroku to AWS EKS to increase control over compute scaling and cost.
  • Directed the development of an integration that doubled the number of lives to 600k, rearchitecting the platform for scalability.
  • Overhauled the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) and monitoring processes, enhancing system stability and ensuring adherence to service level agreements (SLAs).
  • Refined our interviewing and onboarding process to decrease time to hire.
  • Managed and mentored a high-performing team of 10 engineers, fostering career growth through promotions for 2 staff engineers, 3 senior engineers, and 1 engineering manager.

Senior Software Engineer @ Dorsata

Sep 2019 – Aug 2021

App for OB/Gyn to manage pregnancies to improve outcomes and reduce the chance of NICU admissions by partnering with ACOG. I took an IC position because my daughter spent 27 days in the NICU.

  • Rails
  • Angular 1.6
  • Vue 2
  • Gained consensus to introduce CLEAN architecture to seamlessly integrate a second EHR into the ecosystem.
  • Spearheaded a revamp of the engineers' QA process, eliminating production fires from occurring every sprint to none, thereby greatly enhancing system stability.
  • Redesigned pair programming interview process.

Tech Lead @ Upside

Jan 2017 – Sep 2019

Travel site focused on business travelers allowing people to purchase bundled deals to save money.

  • Node.js
  • Express
  • React
  • Redis
  • AWS
  • Spearheaded the development of an ecommerce platform (flight, hotel, rental car) for Upside's users, successfully increasing purchase conversion funnel from 5% to 15% and boosting customer engagement.
  • Transitioned the ecommerce platform from an untested monolith to a robust microservices architecture with over 90% test coverage, enhancing maintainability and scalability.
  • Interviewed 50+ candidates, refining the pipeline process, onboarding 5 engineers, and mentoring a mid-level engineer to a senior role, showcasing effective talent acquisition and development.
  • Introduced CLEAN architecture and TypeScript to the organization, driving innovation and improving code quality across teams.
  • Contributed to open source projects, including NextJS, demonstrating commitment to the broader software engineering community.

Senior Engineer @ Kit Check

Apr 2014 – Jan 2017

Healthcare startup using RFID tags to help hospitals better track their medication inventory throughout its lifecycle.

  • Rails
  • AngularJS
  • AWS
  • Added self upgrading system on the firmware of scanners.
  • Built custom data rails engine for Tableau Integration.
  • Built SAML SSO for help ticketing system.
  • Responsible for three front end apps in Angular 1.5.x (previously upgraded from 1.3).
  • Designed dashboards using Lambda functions that stored data in DynamoDB via API Gateway.

Software Engineer @ The Chronicle of Higher Education

Sep 2013 – Apr 2014

Building the next generation higher education career hub. My responsibilities range from connecting third party APIs all the way to front-end backbone and sass styling.

  • Ruby
  • Backbone
  • Sass

Lead Developer @ Gryphn

Feb 2013 – Sep 2013

Developed prototype secure texting app called ArmorText.

  • Rails