Randy L. Smith — Senior Software Engineer

SaaS Modernization • AI & Full-Stack Engineering • Production Stability • AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Email: randy@randylsmith.com • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/saphea • GitHub: github.com/sapheallc
Professional Summary

Senior Software Engineer with deep experience modernizing legacy applications, integrating enterprise systems, improving production stability, and supporting mission-critical SaaS platforms. Skilled in ColdFusion/Lucee ecosystems, SQL architecture, secure coding practices, troubleshooting complex production issues, and delivering practical modernization strategies for long-running systems.

Recently expanding into AI-enabled development workflows, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, and modern full-stack tooling including React, Tailwind, FastAPI, and PostgreSQL.

Open to: Full-time employment • Contract work
Full-Stack Engineering Capability Layers

A visual representation of how my experience maps across modern full-stack engineering layers including frontend development, backend architecture, databases, cloud infrastructure, security, deployment, production support, and operational reliability.

Featured AI Engineering Initiative

Recently developed an early-stage Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) observability prototype focused on operational telemetry, ingestion visibility, source governance, semantic drift monitoring, and live query inspection for enterprise knowledge systems.

The platform was developed alongside a six-part engineering article series exploring practical RAG architecture, operational maintenance, and AI-enabled knowledge workflows.

Independent Engineering Ecosystem

In addition to enterprise SaaS modernization work, current independent initiatives explore Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) observability, AI-assisted operational workflows, messaging infrastructure, financial visibility systems, and human-centered educational tooling.

Saphea RAGDashboard EMAPlatform ElderCareProTraining SimpleMessageSender MyFBSDashboard
Selected Skills & Technologies
ColdFusion / Lucee Full-Stack Development MS SQL Server AWS Cloud Fundamentals CI/CD & DevOps Secure Coding Legacy Modernization JavaScript / React FastAPI PostgreSQL Tailwind CSS Git / GitHub
Additional experience includes IIS administration, Jenkins, Azure integrations, queue processing, production troubleshooting, database optimization, and enterprise SaaS support.
Engineering Initiatives & Impact
  • Led modernization and refactoring initiatives for long-running SaaS platforms supporting active production users.
  • Resolved high-priority production and security incidents across enterprise ColdFusion applications.
  • Optimized heavy SQL processing and queue workflows to improve platform scalability and operational reliability.
  • Built tooling and automation supporting large-scale course imports, operational workflows, and platform maintenance.
  • Mentored junior engineers and collaborated across engineering, QA, operations, and business stakeholders.
Certifications
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner badge
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner — Foundational
Validates core AWS cloud concepts, security, pricing, architecture fundamentals, and cloud value principles.