James Drakes

James
Drakes

Staff Software Engineer · Austin, TX

I build products on a backend base.

Eleven years in, most of what I have shipped was the first version of something: a fraud engine that challenges suspect orders instead of blocking checkout, the expression language behind a location data platform, the capture layer behind an AI annotation product. I am best in the early, unclear stretch, where the right answer is usually a product call before a technical one.

Experience

  1. Staff Software Engineer · H-E-B Jun 2025 - Present

    Owns H-E-B's GraphQL layer at 80 million requests a day, and designed and built the Redis-backed circuit breaker that keeps a failing downstream service from taking down the web or mobile apps.

    Node.js · TypeScript · GraphQL · AWS · PostgreSQL · Redis · CI/CD

  2. Founding Engineer · TerraVerum Jan 2025 - Jun 2025

    Built the local-to-cloud file sync and the Vue tools annotators work in, and led fundraising into Antler.

    TypeScript · Vue · Supabase · PostgreSQL · Dexie/IndexedDB

  3. Staff Software Engineer · Assured Claims Mar 2024 - Jan 2025

    Built the rules engine for child-safety-seat replacement under each state's law, and worked on the first-notice-of-loss pipelines and the React adjuster dashboard.

    React

  4. Engineering Consultant · TerraVerum, via Lumos Mar 2024 - Jan 2025

    Part-time, alongside Assured. Built the product's core differentiator, the event capture layer that records an annotator's full process.

    Python · DynamoDB · WebSockets

  5. Senior Software Engineer · H-E-B Jan 2023 - Mar 2024

    Built a fraud assessment engine that challenged rather than blocked suspect orders, saving ~$500K a week.

    Node.js · TypeScript · GraphQL · Apache Kafka · AWS · PostgreSQL · Redis

Work history

Outside of work

  • Travel
  • Soccer
  • Fiction
  • Ultimate Frisbee
  • Teaching Financial Literacy