The foundation of any technology company is its engineers. Hire motivated, flexible, collaborative, problem-solvers and you and your organization will be rewarded many times over.
About Me
Who I am and what I do...
I'm Neil Sambol and I'm a
Hi! My name is Neil Sambol. I am a hands-on engineering executive with a history of success. I'm very passionate about what I do, with 20+ years experience as a professional Engineer / Manager / Technology Leader, I have the skills to build your team, your technology stack, and your product.
- New Rochelle, New York, USA
- Roswell, Georgia, USA
- Agile Transformation, DevOps Transformation (CICD Pipeline), Building Teams, Mobile Applications
- Organic Gardening, Heirloom Tomatoes, Taijiquan, Baguazhang, Xingyiquan
- Yale University (New Haven)
- Master
- Iona University (New York)
- Undergraduate (Computer Science)
- www.neilsambol.com
- nsambol@gmail.com
- 678-481-7568
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nsambol/
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“...not only is he extremely knowledgeable, he is the type of person that everybody loves to work with/for. Neil is hands down one of the best managers I have ever had and I would work with him/for him again in a heartbeat.”
Frank Benoit, Sr. Software Architect, FARMWAVE
(Frank reported to Neil at Amplify)
My Story...
It all started when I was 6 and took my father's clock-radio apart. This was not a particularly instructive effort, but I did receive an erector set for my next birthday. By my teenage years, I discovered the magic of computers and using bits and bytes to tell a machine what to do.
After an undergraduate degree in computer science and ten years as a C/C++ developer, I discovered that people were just as interesting as technology and that the combination of the two was the sweet-spot in which I wanted to spend the rest of my career.
This has been proven true through numerous successful management and leadership roles. I still find the challenges of the combination of people and technology intriguing and compelling.
I continue to look for ways in which I help technology companies disrupt the status quo and improve efficiency, reduce time to market, increase quality, and reduce the cost burdens of both the supplier and the consumer of the technologies.
- Neil
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“...he exceeded all of my expectations and then some. Neil is a leader in the true sense in that he makes everyone around him better. His easy going, yet professional, manner makes him a pleasure to work with.”
John Lamb, Strategic Technology Business Executive
(Neil reported to John while at CallMaX)
Specialities
I do a lot of things well, but these I do best!-
Hiring
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Growing Teams
Once you hire amazing folks, it is important to guide their career growth and support them educationally. Remove roadblocks, politics, and bureaucracy from the team and open the throttle. A thoroughbred is meant to run; so is your team.
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Agile Transformation
Rapid iterations and incremental deliveries are the way to hit market windows and keep customers happy. Reducing sample size, tuning process, increasing automation, and removing obstacles are the way to deliver more quickly and keep your team happy as a bonus.
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CICD Pipeline
Getting high-quality product to market rapidly is the Holy Grail of technology. Infrastructure as code / Test Driven Development (TDD) / Continuous delivery are inexpensive and repeatable ways to get there. Let an experienced professional show you the way.
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Mobile
Want to stay in touch with your customers 24x7? Consider mobile applications. The truly personal computer in everyone's pocket is a way to keep in touch with customers, deliver targeted content, and provide more opportunities for service and product upgrades.
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Slaying the monolith & scaling horizontally
No longer able to scale vertically? Scale horizontally with microservices which also help to deploy independent functionality without risk of breaking other features. As an added bonus -- it is proven to be significantly less expensive to scale horizontally than vertically.
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“Neil is passionate about making things happen, and rightfully recognizes the path to this as inspiring people.”
Matthew Slossberg, VP PMP at AMC Health
(Neil and Matt were peers in different groups while at Amplify)
Professional Artifacts
A few examples of my work...
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“Neil’s greatest area of achievement is in the managing of the people on his teams. First and foremost they love working for him. He nurtures and mentors them as if they were his own children. He motivates them just by his desire to see them succeed. Neil is one of the greatest people managers I have ever seen. In my opinion he set the bar for the company.”
Charles Bassham, CTO FARMWAVE
(Neil reported directly to Charlie while at TMX Finance and again at Amplify)
Reading
Some things I've read that may be of value...-
November 17, 2019 The Phoenix Project
Best for DevOps Inspriation
A better review shortly, after I re-read...
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December 3, 2019 The Unicorn Project
A DevOps Fairytale That Can Happen To You!
A rag-tag band of disgruntled engineers unite...the results are quite spectacular!
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“I worked for Neil for over a year. He's a manager of vision. He focuses on and amplifies your strength and potential. He's an inspiring mentor that encourages you to explore and excel. The knowledge and experience I gain from him, make it worth every drop of sweat. He is the type of manager that everyone would wish to work for.”
Zekai Huang, Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft
(Zekai reported directly to Neil while at Amplify)
Articles
Some things I've written along the way...-
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November 17, 2019 Agile Secrets
The Agile Hamster Wheel
An inside view of Agile from an Engineering point of view
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November 24, 2019 Modern Software Delivery
Keeping the Sample Size Small
Small sample size dramatically reduces the time finding defects...
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“Even though I did not work directly with Neil for very long, everyone works for him always tells me how great he is behind his back. :-) I had the pleasure of working for him for a few weeks at the end of his stay at TMX Finance, and he impressed me as a hardworking, extremely fair and motivating leader. He treats everyone with respect and people always are inspired and motivated to do their best. I have learned a lot from him and wish that our path will cross again.”
Mei Lingwood, Director of Software Engineering, NetRoadShow
(Mei worked in a parallel group to Neil's while at TMX Finance)