Nick Shimokochi
Phone: 313-451-1382
Email: nick@shimokochi.com
Engineering manager with hands-on depth in cloud-native platform engineering, distributed systems, and CI/CD. Consistent track record of stepping into complex technical and organizational situations and creating clarity, momentum, and results. I lead from the front: architecture decisions, direct IC contribution, and full-cycle people leadership spanning hiring, performance management, and professional development. I build and manage teams around clear communication, thoughtful planning, and a culture where engineers take ownership of execution.
EXPERIENCE
Software Engineering Manager
Citrine Informatics
San Francisco, CA (Remote)
2025-Present
Platform engineering leadership for a materials science AI/ML platform, supporting experiment data pipelines, ML workloads, and multi-tenant compute.
• Own the architecture and execution plan to migrate isolated, single-tenant AWS deployments to shared multi-tenant EKS infrastructure, targeting nearly 50% lower per-tenant hosting costs.
• Led the Kubernetes/GitOps rearchitecture alongside an inherited compute migration built on the Temporal task framework; delivered multi-tenant capabilities to production.
• Rebuilt team trust and delivery discipline through clear ownership and planning; led hiring, performance reviews, development, and staffing decisions for employees and contractors.
2025 - Present
Engineering Lead
Nebula.io
New York, NY (Remote)
2022-2025
Led geographically distributed development (up to 11) and DevOps (2) teams concurrently, owning backend delivery and infrastructure for an AI-driven talent intelligence platform.
• Reduced build times 50%+ and deployment costs 25%+ through CI/CD improvements, including GitHub Apps, shared workflows, and repository
dispatch.
• Architected a distributed task execution framework underpinning core platform functionality.
• Led hiring, performance reviews, coaching, and career development for remote engineers and contractors; strengthened individual growth, team trust, and ownership.
2022 - 2025
Engineering Manager
Pantheon Systems
San Fransisco, CA (Remote)
2021-2022
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Led a dedicated team responsible for delivering Pantheon’s Autopilot product, increasing product stability and reducing bug reports through proactive leadership and refined development practices.
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Spearheaded team coordination to align execution with key product priorities, driving consistent sprint performance and meeting project deadlines on schedule.
2021 - 2022
Lead Software Engineer
Altair Engineering (now Siemens HPCWorks)
Troy, MI
2014 – 2021
Progressed from engineer to lead in 2019; directed architecture and engineering across product lines while participating in hiring, performance reviews, and engineer development.
• Designed and built a Python/AMQP plugin-based distributed task execution framework that became the foundation of Altair Control (now HPCWorks Control).
• Replaced a third-party installer with an original Python framework using a graph contraction algorithm for dynamic dependency resolution.
• Automated HPC system deployment and configuration (PBS Pro) across on-premises and cloud environments.
2014 - 2021
EDUCATION
Oakland University
Rochester, MI
Applied Mathematics | 2006 – 2011
M.A. earned; PhD coursework completed
2006 - 2009
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN
B.S., Applied Mathematics | 2001 – 2006
2001 - 2005
SKILLS & EXPERTISE
Leadership
Team building · Performance management · Hiring · Technical mentorship · Agile process design
Cloud Development
GCP · AWS · Azure · Docker · Kubernetes · Linux
Platform & Infrastructure
Kubernetes · Karpenter · ArgoCD · Keycloak · Helm · Terraform · Docker · AWS · GCP · Linux
CI/CD & Pipelines
GitHub Actions (advanced) · GitLab CI · Jenkins · Docker layer optimization · Self-hosted runners · GitHub Apps · Shared workflows · Repository dispatch
Orchestration & Distributed Systems
Temporal · AMQP · MQTT · Celery · Mainflux · Multi-tenant compute architecture · HPC (PBS Pro)
Observability
Datadog · Prometheus/Grafana
Recent Stack Experience
Python · FastAPI · Flask · Bash · MongoDB · Keycloak · PostgreSQL · Elasticsearch
AI-Assisted Development
Deep integration of Cursor and Claude Code · Agentic coding workflows · Context engineering · Custom tooling built on LLM APIs · MCP server development