Ada Graves
Backend Engineer
Go · Python/Django · PostgreSQL · Azure
Philadelphia, PA (open to remote or hybrid)
- commits
- 3,600
- repositories
- 38
- REST routes
- ~440
- Go tests
- 843
- test assertions
- ~4,260
- faster feed query
- 46×
summary
Backend engineer building production SaaS since 2024 for an early-stage AI company, contracting through my company, Graves Software. I was the primary backend author on two products: a multi-tenant business platform in Go and an AI research assistant in Django. I own the work end to end: data modeling, APIs, billing, infrastructure as code and CI/CD on Azure. I cut a slow HR feed query from 46 s to 1 s and tenant purge from 22 s to under 1 s, replaced N+1 queries that were timing out list endpoints, and stopped submission bursts from running the public API out of memory. I turn team rules into automated tests and CI gates, and I build AI tooling, including MCP servers, alongside product work.
skills
- Languages
- Go
- Python
- TypeScript
- SQL
- Backend
- REST and OpenAPI
- Django
- Django REST Framework
- pgx
- Express
- Data
- PostgreSQL (Azure Flexible Server, Supabase)
- pgvector
- schema design
- query tuning
- Cloud & DevOps
- Azure Functions
- Container Apps
- API Management
- Pulumi
- Docker
- GitHub Actions
- Integrations & AI
- Stripe
- Metronome
- Auth0
- Claude Code
- MCP
- LangChain
- OpenAI
experience
Lead Backend Engineer (contract)
American Inference, via Graves Software
Remote · – Present
Early-stage, veteran-founded AI software company. Subcontracted through Moyer Management until Nov 2025, then contracted directly through my company, Graves Software. Sole backend engineer for most of my tenure, with about 3,600 commits across 38 repositories.
1trac — multi-tenant business platform
Go · PostgreSQL · Azure · Aug 2025 – Present
- Designed and built the backend for 1trac.io, a multi-tenant SaaS with HR, CRM, accounting, project, forms and billing modules: about 440 REST routes across 16 domains.
- Built the core Go data SDK: an entity-component model on a typed containment graph, a custom SQL query builder and a boolean filter engine.
- Implemented permissions inherited down the containment graph on a precomputed ACL cache, plus field-level privacy that blocks filtering and sorting on hidden fields.
- Cut the HR feed count query from 46 s to 1 s and tenant purge from 22 s to under 1 s.
- Replaced N+1 enrichment in task, team and opportunity lists with batched queries, ending list-endpoint timeouts, and kept the public forms API up under submission bursts by caching verified API keys and capping concurrent argon2id checks, which had been running pods out of memory.
- Replaced migration files with schema-as-code: YAML definitions generate Go models, and a sync engine updates several regional databases with data-loss checks.
- Built Stripe and Metronome usage billing, a public API with scoped keys, and Pulumi (Go) infrastructure on Azure (API Management, Container Apps, Functions).
- Covered it with 843 Go tests, 72 parallel integration suites (about 4,260 assertions) and a CI gate that blocks builds with known CVEs.
Engaged Scholar — AI research assistant
Python/Django · PostgreSQL · Azure · Apr 2024 – 2025
- Led backend development and was the top committer (662 commits) on the company's first public product.
- Built the knowledge-base pipeline: nine LLM extractions run in parallel with asyncio (LangChain, OpenAI), stored in pgvector.
- Built Stripe billing, a v2 API with JWT auth and async document processing, and CI/CD on Azure Pipelines and GitHub Actions.
AI tooling
2024 – 2025
- Built MCP tooling: a management service with an OAuth 2.0 server (TypeScript, 80 test files written test-first) and outlook-mcp, a Go server over Microsoft Graph.
Web Developer (contract)
Moyer Management, for Free For Charity
Remote · –
- Built and maintained WordPress sites for Free For Charity, a 501(c)(3) that provides technology to nonprofits, and managed their deployments and third-party integrations.
Data Steward Team Lead
Veeva Systems (OpenData)
Fort Washington, PA · – · via TRC Staffing
- Led a team of data stewards maintaining Veeva OpenData healthcare reference data.
Co-Founder and Game Developer
Pick Up the Bunny Games
Telford, PA · –
- Designed games and built Unity systems in C#, including a 2D shooter framework (enemy waves, weapons, shields, object pooling) and a Bezier path editor extension for the Unity Editor.
projects
- Search Humanity (2026 – present): a search engine for writing by real people, run through Graves Software, indexing ~72k pages from 86 hand-picked sources and growing. Go and SQLite FTS5 keyword search, a Python sidecar for semantic search, and a sandboxed headless browser for JavaScript-only pages.
- Game development (2012 – 2024): freelance Unity and Godot work, including gameplay programming on Hecate's Healing Hut (Global Game Jam 2016).
- (2012): co-designed a board game at Global Game Jam 2012, co-founded Board Raptor Games, funded production on Kickstarter and published with Game Salute.
education
A.A.S., Electronic Game and Simulation Design
Montgomery County Community College ·
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