Kit Burgess

Experience

• 

  UBTA-UBET Communications

  May 2003 - Jul 2006

  Supervising Groundskeeper

  * Maintained the aesthetics of the lawn, grounds, gardens, trees, and hedges for eight sites.* Trained new employees in safety procedures and the use of equipment.* Scheduled work for crews, kept employees’ time records, documented tasks, and ensured quality of service.

• 

  IBeta Quality Assurance

  Aug 2006 - Aug 2007

  Quality Assurance Tester

  * Worked along with developers to find, verify, document, and fix software bugs in video games.* Debugged software titles on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, PlayStation 2, and PC platforms.* Successful projects include Turok, Two Worlds, Marvel Trading Card Game, Rune Factory, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Snoopy vs. the Red Baron.

• 

  Westwood College

  Aug 2007 - May 2009

  ITS Lab Assistant

  * Provided on-call technical support to instructors, staff, and over 4,000 students.* Installed, upgraded, and maintained software and hardware for more than 600 individual workstations.* Administered, secured, and maintained the print servers, database servers, and infrastructures of two WANs.

• 

  Fuel Industries

  May 2009 - Aug 2009

  Game Developer

  * Interfaced with artists and clients to port existing iPhone titles to the Zune HD.* Developed game mechanics and physics engine from ground up.* Designed and developed software architecture on new mobile technology.

• 

  PlayFirst, Inc.

  Oct 2009 - Dec 2009

  Contract Programmer

  * Enhanced image conversion and compression tool to support iPhone image formats.* Ported toolset used by over 25 game development studios from Windows to Mac OS X.

• 

  Leviathan Games

  Feb 2010 - May 2014

  Technical Lead/Project Manager

  Lead developer at indie studio focused on mobile and free-to-play games. Mentored and supervised junior engineers. Managed projects and worked with clients, product owners, and brand managers. * Developed 10 commercial game titles across iOS, Android, and Facebook using Unity3D and C#.* Released and provided two years of live-ops support for fantasy baseball card game with over 20,000 monthly active users.* Scoped projects, prioritized tasks, managed crises, and maintained team morale and productivity.* Drove monetization design, metrics analysis, and iteration of 4 freemium mobile games.* Trained and mentored junior programmers in programming methodologies and best practices.* Interfaced directly with clients including Konami, Capcom, LEGO, THQ, and Sony. Show less

• 

  DreamQuest Games

  May 2014 - Jul 2014

  * Taught a video game design summer camp for 10-16 year-old kids using Unity3D.* Assisted students in developing their own games from scratch over the two-week long camps.* Planned courses and lectures, and recommended changes to curriculum and procedures.* Assisted in the design of an after-school program teaching the same skills and tools. * Analyzed existing game titles and proposed new monetization and In-App Purchase scheme with the aim of improving retention, increasing free/paid conversion rate, and capitalizing on games' existing strengths.* Worked with developers to implement proposed changes along with improved metrics.

  • Lead Instructor

    Jun 2014 - Jul 2014

  • Freemium Game Consultant

    May 2014 - Jun 2014
• 

  Warballoon

  Aug 2014 - Sept 2016

  Senior Game Developer

  * Developed hit space strategy/simulation game released on Steam using Unity3D, C#, and Lua.* Architected most core technical systems including graphics, AI, combat, and procedural generation. * Rapidly iterated on live product–adding features, balancing, and fixing bugs on a monthly schedule.* Wrote truly unique 2D rendering system supporting lighting, shadows, particles, and 3D physics.

• 

  QuickCharge Games

  May 2016 - Nov 2016

  Game Developer

  * Developed multiplayer board game/video game hybrid using TypeScript, Phaser, and Node.js.* Adopted platform agnostic principles–interfacing iOS, Android, and Windows phones and tablets.

• 

  Amazon

  Feb 2017 - Jul 2019

  Software Development Engineer II, Technical Program Manager

  Headed project management, scrum, analytics, and cross-team initiatives while serving as full-stack engineer for various teams in the smart home, private label, and machine learning spaces.* Architect and lead engineer on PLM project that saved Amazon an estimated $22M in 2018.* Developed virtual-reality Alexa Smart Home experience for iOS/Android using Unity3D and C#.* Independently developed ad generation and rendering tech adding $5.2M in yearly gross sales.

• 

  Health Scholars

  Aug 2019 - Jul 2023

  Director of VR Development

  Served as technical leader and manager for teams developing VR medical simulations. Drove project management, system architecture, and process improvement. Hired, mentored, and grew developers.* Led $2M project spanning 18 months and 5 Scrum teams--delivering on schedule and without crunch. This project now serves as Health Scholars' flagship content-creation and learning platform.* Supervised 3 multidiscipline development teams through the creation and live support of 12+ VR medical training simulations.* Managed as many as 11 engineers--setting career growth goals, mentoring technical and leadership skills, and removing obstacles to success. In 2022, achieved 100% job satisfaction and retention among everyone I managed.* Contributed code and design for patent-pending voice technology that serves as Health Scholars' key market differentiator. (Gillette, 2022)* Reduced app development time from 7 to 2 months through process refinement and modularization.* Established and coached hiring and interview practices to grow company from 9 to 40+ employees within 2 years.* Wore the hat of director, product owner, designer, project manager, and architect as needed to support development teams.* Collaborated with sales, marketing, customer experience, and product team to establish division roadmap and R&D initiatives.* Designed, documented, and delegated implementation of the system architecture for flagship VR learning and content-creation platform.* Established and trained on software best-practices to ensure health and long-term success of codebase and library. Show less