Tanner Hickey
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01
ABOUT
I am a Senior Software Engineer with 10 years of experience building large-scale systems at Reddit, Klaviyo, Google, and DataBackfill. I specialize in production conversational AI, LLM orchestration, and distributed data processing.
My work focuses on deep system design and end-to-end delivery. Whether improving latency for 150M+ users or optimizing cost-aware model routing for AI platforms, I enjoy tackling problems that improve performance and user engagement through measurable data.
I am passionate about building production guardrails, evaluation infrastructure, and scalable telemetry. I value cross-functional collaboration with product and data science teams to iterate on AI-driven features that perform reliably under heavy traffic.
Strong background in backend infrastructure, including cloud architecture on GCP and AWS, microservices, and event-driven systems.
AT A GLANCE
Location
San Antonio, TX
Focus
AI/LLM · Backend · Distributed Systems
Experience
10 years in software engineering
Core Stack
Python · Go · TypeScript · SQL
Cloud
GCP (Vertex AI, BigQuery) · AWS
Current
Open to senior software roles
TECHNICAL SKILLS
LANGUAGES
Python · Go · TypeScript · Java · Bash · SQL
AI & DATA
Conversational AI · RAG · LangChain · Vertex AI · BigQuery · Spark
INFRASTRUCTURE
Kubernetes · Docker · Terraform · Kafka · Redis · PostgreSQL
FULL-STACK
React · Next.js · Node.js · gRPC · REST
OBSERVABILITY
Prometheus · OpenTelemetry · A/B Testing
PRACTICES
System Design · Technical Leadership · Agile
EDUCATION
2012 — 2016
Bachelor of Science
2016 — Present
Continuous learning through industry experience at Reddit, Google, Klaviyo, and DataBackfill.
EXPERIENCE
Senior Software Engineer — DataBackfill (2024-2026). Led architecture for conversational AI, improving FCR by 42% and reducing latency.
Software Engineer — Google (2020-2024). Owned ranking/retrieval for Search suggestions; delivered Gemini-powered Compose Assist.
Software Engineer — Klaviyo (2017-2020). Built automation engine, processing billions of events monthly for retention campaigns.
Software Engineer — Reddit (2016-2017). Contributed to feed ranking systems and moderation tooling at high scale.
Always open to new opportunities in distributed systems and AI platform engineering.
Tanner Hickey
Senior Software Engineer · San Antonio, TX
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© 2026 — Tanner Hickey
Senior Software Engineer