Hi, I'm Dean Kusler
Experienced Software Engineer & Systems Architect
I’m a backend- and infrastructure-focused senior software engineer with 20+ years of experience across cloud platforms, bioinformatics, and AAA game development. My strengths lie in systems architecture, automation, and developer tooling. While I’ve built full-stack systems when needed, I’m most effective designing scalable backends, building reliable internal tools, and leading infrastructure projects.
About Me
Looking back over 20+ years, my biggest talent is analyzing and understanding complex systems. I can learn existing codebases quickly, anticipate when small changes will cause side-effects elsewhere, and find safe places to make meaningful improvements across gaming, bioinformatics, and cloud infrastructure domains.
I think about safety, extensibility, maintainability, and readability in everything I build. I encourage critical thinking in my teammates and help teams grow through mentoring and technical guidance rather than traditional management. I've consistently been trusted with root-level access to company-critical systems because of proven integrity and judgment.
My experience ranges from individual contributor roles at established companies to fractional technical director positions at startups. Whether implementing performance optimizations that enable AAA game launches or architecting DNA analysis platforms that help solve cold cases, I focus on building systems that enable teams to accomplish their goals.
I'm currently seeking remote-first opportunities where I can apply my systems thinking to meaningful problems - whether that's a senior engineering role at an established company or a staff/principal position at a startup that needs technical leadership and architecture experience.
20+
Years Experience
Startup
to Enterprise
1
Nature Publication
10+
Shipped Games
Areas of Expertise
Game Development
Contributed to 10+ shipped titles from AAA franchises to indie games. Specialized in understanding complex existing systems, optimizing performance, and building the infrastructure that enables development teams to ship on schedule.
Bioinformatics & Research
Designed and built DNA analysis platforms used for solving cold cases and medical genomics. Contributed to Nature Communications publication and maintained trusted access to sensitive forensic and medical data systems.
Systems Architecture
My biggest talent is analyzing and understanding complex systems. I can anticipate when changes in one place will cause side-effects elsewhere, and I think about safety, extensibility, and maintainability in everything I build.