David R. Bixler
Senior Software Architect
Architecture & Code 36+ years shipping real software.

Hi, I’m David Bixler — I design and build distributed systems that don’t panic under load.

Senior Software Architect & hands-on developer with deep experience in Java, Spring Boot, Kafka, AWS, and event-driven, cloud-native platforms across healthtech, defense, logistics, and fintech.

Also I keep bees, engrave things with lasers, and still enjoy a good monolith refactor.
Book a conversation View résumé
Event-driven & CQRS microservices
HIPAA / SOC 2 / security-conscious designs
Architect who still writes production code
What I do

Architecture, implementation, and the glue in between.

I help teams design and build event-driven, cloud-native systems that scale — without losing sight of developer experience, observability, or the occasional dad joke.

System & platform architecture

Big picture

Design end-to-end architectures for platforms that need to handle high volume, strict compliance, or both.

  • Event-driven and CQRS designs with Kafka & streaming.
  • Domain-driven boundaries that don’t fight your org chart.
  • APIs that are versioned, documented, and actually usable.

Hands-on development & modernization

Hands dirty

I don’t just draw boxes — I write the Java, wire the Spring, and help teams untangle legacy codebases without burning everything down.

  • Refactoring large Java codebases with test coverage as a guardrail.
  • Migrating from monoliths to focused services where it makes sense.
  • Improving performance, reliability, and observability incrementally.

Technical leadership & mentoring

People

Provide calm, practical technical leadership — from design reviews to mentoring devs — so teams level up while shipping.

  • Clarifying trade-offs and making decisions that stick.
  • Guiding proof-of-concepts and de-risking big bets.
  • Helping teams build habits around testing and quality.
Experience

A few places I’ve made systems behave.

From clinical trials and defense data to global logistics and payments, I’ve spent decades helping teams ship secure, resilient platforms.

Recent roles

Chief Architect & Distinguished Engineer @ THREAD Research
Sep 2023 – Jun 2024

Led the architectural transformation of a 500k+ line Java platform for decentralized clinical trials, introducing CQRS, Kafka, and robust test coverage while maintaining HIPAA & SOC 2 compliance.

Java · Spring Boot Kafka · Terraform · AWS
Principal Architect & Developer @ Trimble / Kuebix
2013 – 2022

Architected event-driven microservices processing 1M+ shipments per day; scaled a TMS platform to 20k+ customers; built reusable frameworks to accelerate development across teams.

Event-driven architecture CQRS · Microservices
Architect @ Polestar Defense
Nov 2022 – Mar 2023

Designed real-time vessel tracking systems and Kafka pipelines for sensitive defense data in a security-cleared environment.

Real-time data Kafka / KSQL

Earlier highlights

  • LegalData (Founder): built and ran a legal data platform ingesting traffic violations daily into MariaDB — long before “data engineering” became a buzzword.
  • Dante Consulting: helped deliver Pay.gov with full traceability and compliance for U.S. Treasury / Federal Reserve, plus large-scale systems for telecoms.
  • E-centives: led development of early Java-based consumer products, including an irregular-shaped Windows app for digital coupons, contributing to an IPO on the Swiss Exchange.
Payments & fintech Healthtech & clinical trials Defense & logistics Product & platform thinking
Tech stack

Tools I reach for (and actually enjoy using).

A few of the technologies I’m comfortable taking into production. This isn’t a buzzword bingo list — these are tools I’ve used to ship and operate real systems.

Languages & frameworks
Java (primary) Spring Boot / Spring Cloud REST APIs / gRPC TypeScript / JavaScript PHP · HTML · CSS
Cloud, data & messaging
AWS · Terraform Docker / Kubernetes Kafka & Kafka Streams Redis · PostgreSQL · MariaDB MongoDB · RabbitMQ
Architecture & compliance
Event-driven architecture CQRS · DDD · design patterns HIPAA · SOC 2 · PII/PHI Performance & scalability CI/CD & testing culture
Side quests

The rest of the story (a little more human).

When I’m not working on distributed systems, I’m usually building or tending to something in the real world — bees, gardens, wood, or pixels burned into wood with lasers.

Beekeeping & backyard experiments

Keeping hives has a lot in common with good architecture — you design for the environment, monitor health, and avoid unnecessary swarms.

  • Beekeeping, gardening, and generally encouraging pollinators.
  • Thinking about systems as living things, not just boxes and arrows.

Laser engraving, woodworking & tinkering

I enjoy making physical things: engraved pieces, small woodworking projects, and whatever my tools and curiosity suggest next.

  • Laser engraving & cutting, small-batch experiments.
  • Side projects that remind me software isn’t the only way to build.
Short version: I like complex systems, but I try very hard not to make them complicated — in code, in infrastructure, or in how we work together.
Contact

Need an architect who still enjoys writing code?

If you’re working on a platform that needs to scale, modernize, or simply stop waking people up at 3am, I’d be happy to talk.

Let’s start with a conversation.

I’m available for senior architecture roles, advisory work, and select consulting engagements. Remote is great; clear problems and good people are even better.

Based in Tampa, Florida Remote / hybrid friendly Enterprise B2B & platforms
Email David
dbixler@drbix.com  |  drbixler@gmail.com