~/bryan-hughes
bryan@hugheba ~/portfolio % cat experience.md
Bryan Hughes
● bryan_hughes :: Bixby, Oklahoma

Bryan Hughes

I’m a principal software architect with 15+ years turning monolithic Java systems into event-driven, cloud-native architectures on AWS — and the unglamorous parts are the ones I like: failure modes, delivery pipelines, the interface that makes a hard system feel obvious.

I’ve led the modernization of a customer platform off legacy CMS and BPMS onto Next.js, Spring Boot, and Quarkus native-image; pioneered agentic automation on AWS Bedrock; and stood up an Enterprise Architecture practice across 50+ engineers. Six years fully remote, async-first, documentation-first.

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career.log

// 15+ years · three chapters
Jan 2020 — Present

Principal Software Architect · Enterprise Architecture Lead

CrossCountry Healthcare — Remote
  • Decomposed monolithic Java apps into AWS-managed serverless microservices (API Gateway, Lambda, EventBridge, Step Functions) — cutting infrastructure cost $210K+/year and enabling elastic scaling.
  • Led modernization of the customer portal & corporate site from Oracle WCM / OutSystems to Next.js 15, Spring Boot 3, and Quarkus native-image — PageSpeed 40s → high-90s, uptime ~90% → 99.9%.
  • Pioneered AI/agentic automation on AWS Bedrock with LangChain4j and Strands — reducing manual credential review by 80% and enabling 24/7 candidate engagement.
  • Replaced 30+ Boomi integrations with an EventBridge + Kafka event-driven backbone — real-time instead of hourly, $50K/year saved.
  • Established the Enterprise Architecture practice across 50+ engineers on 7 teams: review board, RFC process, and codified standards.
Mar 2011 — Dec 2019

Software Dev Manager → Principal Java Architect

Logan Group, LLC (formerly KLMA) — Remote/Hybrid
  • Architected a distributed real-time chat & collaboration platform on a Spring Boot cluster with Apache Ignite, syncing in-memory state across Kubernetes pods for thousands of concurrent users.
  • Built media asset management with on-the-fly image manipulation and FFmpeg transcoding — one upload generating device- and bitrate-optimized variants.
  • Delivered low-latency live video (Wowza, Red5, WebRTC/HLS) — sub-second in-browser video chat, replacing Flash.
  • Led Docker/Kubernetes migration of a legacy API stack to Kafka-backed microservices across AWS, GCP, and private infrastructure.
2000 — 2011

Software Engineer → Senior Engineer

Various Companies
  • 11 years building enterprise Java/J2EE, e-commerce, and insurance/underwriting portals — from mail-order to online commerce, with early cloud adoption.
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capabilities

// what I bring
Languages
Java 17/21KotlinTypeScriptGroovyPythonRust
Backend & Runtimes
Spring Boot 3Quarkus (GraalVM)MicronautNode.jsNestJS
Frontend
React 18Next.js 15Tailwind CSSReact Native
Cloud & Serverless
AWS LambdaEKS / ECS / FargateAPI GatewayStep FunctionsCDKTerraform
Event-Driven
Apache KafkaEventBridgeEventBridge PipesSQS / SNSCQRSEvent Sourcing
AI / Agentic
AWS Bedrock (Claude, Nova)LangChain4jLangGraphStrandsRAG
Data & Observability
PostgreSQL / AuroraDynamoDBRedisElasticsearchDatadogOpenTelemetry