Engineering leadership
Leading developers, QA, contractors, volunteers, and technical liaisons with a practical focus on quality, accountability, and steady delivery.
About Mike
Software leader, product builder, and practical systems thinker.
I’m Mike Walker, the maker behind Moondust Studios. I’ve spent more than two decades designing, shipping, scaling, and maintaining software for SaaS products, streaming platforms, education technology, nonprofit systems, robotics programs, and high-traffic media properties.
What I do
I connect product needs to reliable technical execution.
My work usually sits where product, operations, and engineering overlap: building the core system, automating the repetitive parts, stabilizing legacy software, mentoring teams, and translating real user needs into something people can actually use.
I’m comfortable owning both the broad picture and the details: PHP, JavaScript, Node.js, SQL, NoSQL, Redis, HTML, CSS, C#, C++, cloud infrastructure, APIs, reporting systems, video workflows, QA processes, and the glue code that keeps everything moving.
Core strengths
The patterns that show up across the work.
Automation and operations
Creating scripts, tooling, integrations, and workflows that reduce manual effort, standardize data, and make legacy systems easier to run.
Startup execution
Building usable products under constraints, from MVP to production, including streaming infrastructure, SaaS utilities, and customer-facing web platforms.
Mission-driven technology
Applying software to real-world community problems, including nonprofit resource networks, ministry systems, robotics mentorship, and education tools.
Experience
A career built across product, platforms, and people.
2025 – Present
Developer Team Lead · Navigate360
Leading developers and QA contributors on a learning management system with millions of active users, while supporting product needs, customer solutions, and escalations.
2021 – 2025
Senior Full Stack Developer and Automation Engineer · PostWorks New York
Managed software library automation, supported daily operations on legacy systems, built robotic tape-management automation, and wrote conversion tooling for non-standardized data.
2018 – 2021
CTO and Software Engineering Manager · Community Resource Network
Helped build one of the country’s early central databases connecting government, houses of faith, and nonprofits to prevent families from losing housing, supporting case management for 10,000+ people.
2019 – 2021
Software Engineering Manager · Spirit, Inc.
Oversaw the transition from an underperforming third-party development team to a team five times the scale, supported SOC 2 work, improved security conditions, and helped reduce server costs by 75%.
2015 – 2018
Senior Full Stack Developer and Project Manager · Charisma Media
Developed and maintained web properties reaching roughly 5 million monthly unique visitors, built checkout systems, integrated APIs, and modernized digital, print, audio, and marketing workflows.
2011 – 2014
Founder and Engineering Manager · Stream Monkey
Founded and scaled an online video streaming platform for houses of worship and organizations, building the MVP, engineering team, AWS and Wowza infrastructure, CDN partnerships, marketing, and client growth.
2007 – 2015
Front-end, research, simulation, and ministry technology roles
Built ministry technology platforms, Roku integrations, giving systems, research tooling, MySQL parsing systems, unmanned systems software, and serious-games UX research support at Northland and UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training.
Details
Industries, tools, and background.
Industries
Computer software, education technology, robotics, nonprofit organization management, broadcast media.
Software
PHP, JavaScript, Node.js, SQL, NoSQL, Redis, HTML, CSS, C#, C++.
Education
University of Central Florida, Industrial Engineering, Orlando, Florida.
Community
Longtime FIRST Robotics mentor and producer of “Robot in 3 Days” content supporting student teams.
Let’s talk
Need someone who can bridge product, code, and operations?
If you’re looking for technical leadership, product-minded engineering, or help turning a messy workflow into a dependable system, start with a note.