Software Engineering Manager · State Farm
ChrisThomas.
Building the platforms, pipelines, and teams that power enterprise engineering at scale.
- Years building in tech
- 10+
- AWS tenants on a platform I scaled from 50
- 900+
- Kafka and Flink, from zero to production
- 6 mo
- Production AWS account at State Farm
- 1st
Architecting the enterprise platform at State Farm.
I lead architecture and engineering for our enterprise supergraph, eventing, and workflow orchestration, built as self-service capabilities on a Kubernetes-based internal platform. The hardest part of a platform like this isn't the technology; it's enterprise adoption. I'm having a blast doing it.
- 01
Supergraph
Apollo Federation: one graph for the enterprise.
- 02
Eventing
Kafka and Flink, from zero to production in six months.
- 03
Workflows
Temporal for durable orchestration.
From Hadoop engineer to engineering manager.
Ten years at State Farm, each role a step up in scope: data platforms, then cloud, then the teams and standards around them.
- Lead architecture and engineering for the enterprise supergraph (Apollo Federation), Kafka and Flink eventing, and Temporal workflows as capabilities of State Farm's internal platform
- Took Kafka and Flink from zero to production in six months
- Deliver these capabilities on a Kubernetes-based internal platform, with KRM as the infrastructure orchestration layer
- Driving enterprise-wide adoption of these platform capabilities
- Operate as a hands-on, staff-level technical leader while managing a platform architect
- Owned end-to-end engineering strategy for commercial auto telematics — IoT data pipelines, customer experience APIs, and integrations across downstream systems
- Built a modern telematics data platform on AWS (Glue, EMR/Spark, S3, Redshift, Athena) with Apache Iceberg as the lakehouse storage layer, connecting raw telemetry with product and analytical workloads
- Defined org-wide engineering standards: API design, observability/logging, documentation, and engineering culture across a multi-team org
- Stewarded AI adoption across the telematics engineering org — establishing guidelines for AI-assisted development and helping teams integrate AI tooling responsibly into their workflows
- Built a self-service AWS account provisioning platform using Terraform modules and a GitHub/GitLab-based request workflow, enabling 150+ agile teams to onboard autonomously
- Scaled a multi-tenant AWS platform from 50 to 900+ tenants across 14 accounts — reducing provisioning time from days to hours and lowering infrastructure costs through shared tenancy
- Authored golden path templates adopted as the enterprise standard for cloud account management and IaC practices
- Collaborated with VP- and director-level stakeholders to align cloud enablement strategy with enterprise architecture direction
50 → 900+
Enterprise cloud platform
Built a self-service AWS provisioning platform that scaled from 50 to 900+ tenants across 14 accounts — cutting provisioning time from days to hours and becoming the enterprise standard for cloud account management.
Day one
First AWS production footprint
Led the initiative that introduced State Farm's first production AWS account, establishing Terraform-based IaC patterns and cloud architecture standards now used across the enterprise.
Lakehouse
Data pipeline architecture
Designed event-driven pipelines on Kafka, Spark/EMR, S3, and Redshift to modernize P&C insurance analytics — steering toward a lakehouse on Apache Iceberg and establishing data contracts adopted org-wide.
Leadership
Engineering leadership at scale
Led and mentored teams of up to 15 engineers. Today I set architectural direction and patterns for the entire enterprise, while building a culture of observability, documentation, and engineering excellence.
- 01
Serve the team. Always.
Servant leadership isn't a mode I switch into. My job is to clear the path so the people doing the work can do their best work.
- 02
Stay close to the code.
I'm building proofs of concept and designs every week. Recently it was a Kubernetes controller. It keeps my architecture opinions earned.
- 03
Set a vision. Pursue it relentlessly.
Pick a direction worth going, then get there through iteration: short loops, real feedback, steady progress.
- 04
People drive results.
Great outcomes come from people who own them. I build teams where ownership is the default.
I still ship.
I'm hands-on every week, at work and at home. These are the companies and tools I build on my own time.
Self-hosted infrastructure
Home lab
Private LLM hosting with Ollama, home automation, and custom networking — a hands-on way to stay sharp on infrastructure and Linux.
- Proxmox
- Docker
- Ollama
- Home Assistant
- Linux
Cloud & Infrastructure
- AWSExpert
- TerraformExpert
- CI/CDExpert
- Docker & KubernetesProficient
- Monitoring & LoggingProficient
Data & Streaming
- Apache KafkaExpert
- Apache Spark / EMRExpert
- Data PipelinesExpert
- Apache FlinkProficient
- Apache IcebergProficient
Application
- RESTful APIsExpert
- ReactProficient
- TypeScriptProficient
- Node.jsProficient
AI
- LLM Tooling & MCPProficient
- AI-Assisted DevelopmentProficient
- Prompt EngineeringProficient
Purdue University · 2011 – 2015
B.S. Computer & Information Technology
Software development and information security.
U.S. Army Reserve · 2010 – 2018
Automated Logistic Specialist
Accountable for millions in equipment; led soldiers under pressure.
HashiCorp · 2022
Terraform Associate
Amazon Web Services · 2019
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
The American College · Completed
Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®)
Off the clock.
Husband & dad
Family is the foundation everything else is built on.
Tinkerer
There's always a side project, a home server, or new tech on the bench.
Giving back
Mentoring aspiring engineers and investing in communities that help people grow.
Let's talk.
Always up for a conversation about engineering leadership, platforms, or data. LinkedIn is the fastest way to reach me. I usually reply within a day or two.