Ian Lintner

Lead Engineer · Full Stack · Distributed Systems · AI Platforms · Functional Programming

Executive Summary

  • Lead Engineer with 20+ years building cloud-native, event-driven systems and secure APIs.
  • Recent focus: AI communications platform (LLM chat/routing, orchestration, summarization).
  • Strong in Scala (ZIO/Akka), Kafka, Kubernetes, Terraform, and OpenTelemetry end-to-end tracing.
  • Track record: performance + reliability wins, migrations, and mentoring teams.
Distributed SystemsEvent-DrivenAI / LLM ProductsPlatform + SecurityScalaKubernetesOpenTelemetry
Minneapolis, MN LinkedIn (preferred)
LinkedIn GitHub Portfolio

Key Highlights

  • • Team Lead (Carvana) — AI communications platform
  • • Scala (ZIO/Akka), Python, TypeScript, SQL
  • • Kafka / event-driven microservices
  • • Kubernetes + Terraform, AWS + GCP
  • • Observability: OpenTelemetry, Datadog, Grafana
  • • Security: IAM, OIDC/SAML/SSO, secure messaging

Technical Expertise

Cloud & Infra

AWS, GCP, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, serverless, containers, IaC

Distributed systems

Event-driven architecture, microservices, secure APIs, data pipelines, messaging

Languages

Scala, Python, Java, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL, C#

AI / LLM systems

LLM chat + routing, summarization pipelines, human-in-the-loop workflows, AI-assisted engineering

Reliability & Observability

Kafka, ZIO, Akka, OpenTelemetry, Datadog, Grafana

Leadership

Architecture reviews, RFCs, mentoring, cross-stack collaboration, execution ownership

Selected impact

  • Carvana — AI Chat Platform: Helped architect an LLM-based communications platform; led platform team delivery of new features to production.
  • Carvana — Performance: Reduced a critical chat backend span by ~10× (from 1s+ to ~90ms) using caching and pooled Twilio identities.
  • Observability at scale: Implemented end-to-end tracing across UI → gateways → microservices → AI flows with OpenTelemetry.
  • Workiva — Serverless + SSO: Built SSO/SAML/OIDC gateways and serverless integrations on AWS.

Experience

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Carvana — Senior Engineer II → Team Lead (AI Communications Platform)

Aug 2022 – Jun 2025 · Remote

  • Led backend transformation of customer communications: AI-driven chat, routing, and orchestration between LLMs and human agents.
  • Architected event-driven systems with Scala/ZIO/Akka; migrated Kafka workloads to Confluent Cloud.
  • Designed LLM summarization pipelines and secure messaging infrastructure (privacy-aware data handling, safe API design).
  • Implemented distributed tracing across UI → gateways → microservices → AI flows via OpenTelemetry.
  • Achieved a ~10× latency reduction on a critical backend span through caching and pooled Twilio identities.
  • Advanced AI-first engineering workflows (Copilot, agentic tools) to improve team throughput and feedback loops.
ScalaZIOAkkaKafkaPythonGCPKubernetesTerraformOpenTelemetryDatadogGrafana
Technical Deep Dive & Leadership

Focus areas included event-driven orchestration, safe fallbacks for human escalation, and reliability guardrails (timeouts, backpressure, and tracing-based troubleshooting). Emphasis on security and observability to keep AI flows debuggable in production.

Samsung SmartThings — Senior Software Engineer

Jun 2021 – Aug 2022 · Minneapolis, MN

  • Designed identity and access services for a global IoT platform.
  • Built high-throughput Scala/Groovy services with Akka and Spring Security.
  • Managed AWS infrastructure with Terraform; improved operability with Datadog + Sumo Logic.
  • Supported mission-critical 24/7 platform spanning US and Korea.
ScalaAkkaSpring SecurityAWSTerraformDatadog

Workiva — Senior Software Engineer

Dec 2013 – Jun 2021 · Ames, IA

  • Drove platform and IAM initiatives across internal tools and customer-facing systems.
  • Built SSO/SAML/OIDC gateways (Python/Flask on AWS Lambda) for SaaS integrations.
  • Developed an internal video streaming platform that scaled to 2,000 users within minutes.
  • Delivered backend services with AWS Lambda, Kinesis, Redshift, and relational databases.
  • Mentored engineers and reviewed designs across multiple backend teams.
PythonFlaskAWS LambdaOIDCSAMLKinesisRedshiftPostgreSQLMySQL

Two Rivers Marketing — Senior Web Developer / Architect

Nov 2007 – Nov 2013 · Des Moines, IA

  • Built enterprise web applications and CMS-backed platforms for Fortune 500 clients.
  • Led migration from proprietary frameworks to open-source CMS, improving developer efficiency.

Earlier roles

  • • Vodaci Technologies — Software Engineer (C#, VB, SQL Server, infra support)
  • • Customer Ease — Director of Technical Service (startup generalist, full-stack & infra)

Education

Drake University — B.A. Computer Science, Biology

Interests

  • • Guitar & music
  • • Tabletop gaming & miniature painting
  • • Running the battery out of my e-bike

Links

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LinkedIn GitHub Portfolio

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Ian Lintner — Lead Engineer

Minneapolis, MN\n LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ianlintner/\n GitHub: https://github.com/ianlintner\n Portfolio: https://portfolio.hugecat.net

Summary

Lead Engineer with 20+ years building secure, event-driven, cloud-native systems. Strengths in Scala (ZIO/Akka), Kafka, Kubernetes, Terraform, OpenTelemetry, and LLM-enabled products.

Core Skills

Distributed Systems; Event-driven Architecture; Microservices; Secure APIs; IAM; SSO/OIDC/SAML; Observability; OpenTelemetry; Datadog; Grafana; Kafka; Kubernetes; Terraform; AWS; GCP; Scala; ZIO; Akka; Python; TypeScript; SQL.

Experience

Carvana — Senior Engineer II → Team Lead (AI Communications Platform), Aug 2022 – Jun 2025\n Samsung SmartThings — Senior Software Engineer, Jun 2021 – Aug 2022\n Workiva — Senior Software Engineer, Dec 2013 – Jun 2021\n Two Rivers Marketing — Senior Web Developer / Architect, Nov 2007 – Nov 2013

Education

Drake University — B.A. Computer Science, Biology

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