Colin at his desk

Built on Curiosity

COLIN
DOUGLAS.

Software Engineer

Always learning. Always building.

01 / ABOUT

A little about me

Behind
the screen.

I’m Colin, a software engineer at Dot Foods, a food redistributor with over $12 billion in annual revenue. I focus on building and optimizing our ecommerce platform and the experiences it delivers.

Lately, I’ve been focused on incorporating AI into the software development lifecycle through agent orchestration and reusable skills. I also apply AI to business processes to help teams work more effectively, improve customer experiences, and create opportunities for revenue growth.

02 / SELECTED WORK

From Ideas
to Impact.

Performance

Accelerating the data behind ecommerce.

I reduced the time to load the full product catalog from 80+ hours to 8 hours by improving concurrency, parallel processing, and database retrieval throughout the ecommerce integration pipeline.

As part of that work, I built a custom SQL stored procedure that reduced a product-data endpoint’s runtime from more than 15 minutes to under two seconds. This was one contributing optimization within the broader pipeline improvement.

Before80+ hours
After8 hours

Time to load the full product catalog.

Integration

Modernizing critical transportation systems.

At Dot Transportation Inc. (DTI), I worked on migrating critical transportation applications to an Operational Data Store—a shared source of operational data accessed through GraphQL.

My work included implementing GraphQL integrations, identifying dependencies, and managing a critical application’s migration from assessing the required changes through completion. I also implemented transportation-order integrations using Azure Functions and Service Bus.

I used application logs to identify which endpoints were actually being used, helping the team avoid unnecessary migration work. During testing, I identified a mileage-data discrepancy before it affected driver pay.

AI & Innovation

SuperCharge / AI development

Building with AI.

I co-created and led SuperCharge, bringing AI-assisted development into real team workflows. I drove architecture, infrastructure, implementation, and the roadmap, working with engineering teams and leadership on adoption.

SuperCharge grew into a major Dot Foods IT initiative. My work also included introducing practical workflows to colleagues and preparing the roadmap and handoff to the team carrying it forward.

  1. Idea
  2. Implementation
  3. Team adoption

AI search / Ecommerce

Smarter Search.

I originated and architected an AI-assisted approach to recovering searches that returned no results. The idea began with identifying useful synonyms and evolved into Product Matching, with implementation by a colleague.

In its first 21 weeks, GTIN Product Matching was used 18,816 times by 2,139 external users across 935 accounts.

For external visitors searching 11-, 12-, and 14-digit product codes, the unresolved no-result rate was 11.6% lower than in the preceding 21 weeks.

11.6% lower no-result rate. Numeric product-code searches · 21-week before/after comparison.

  1. Unsuccessful search
  2. AI matching
  3. Relevant products

Open Source

SQLWatch / Index Advisor

Making database tuning easier to investigate.

I built the data-collection process behind SQLWatch’s Index Advisor. It captures potential indexing improvements over time and supplies the dashboard with information database professionals can use to investigate performance opportunities.

  1. Collect
  2. Track over time
  3. Inform improvements

dbatools / Database automation

See where data goes—and how long it takes.

I contributed PowerShell tools that identify SQL Server replication publications and measure delays as data moves between servers. They help database administrators understand how systems share data and investigate replication performance.

Explore the contributions

Get-DbaRepPublication discovers replication publications. Test-DbaRepLatency measures transactional replication delays using tracer tokens.

Skills & toolkit

What I work with.

AI & Agent Orchestration

Improving software development and creating with AI.

  • Codex
  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Gemini
  • OpenClaw
  • GPT-6 Astra
  • Nano Banana
  • Higgsfield
  • Seedance
More on my AI work
How I use AI
  • Agent orchestration
  • Reusable AI skills
  • MCP integrations
  • Workflow automation
  • Image & video generation
Currently building
  • Rubric-based search evaluation
  • Repeatable search test suites

Full-Stack Development

Building ecommerce platforms and the experiences they deliver.

  • C# / .NET
  • ASP.NET Core
  • Vue.js
  • React
  • JavaScript
  • Optimizely
  • Containerization
More on development
Frontend & platform
  • HTML
  • CSS / SCSS
  • Razor Pages
  • Vue 2 & 3
  • Optimizely CMS & Commerce
Used on this portfolio
  • Next.js
  • TypeScript

Cloud & Systems Integration

Connecting applications with performance and cost in mind.

  • Azure
  • Azure Functions
  • Service Bus
  • REST APIs
  • GraphQL
More on cloud & delivery
Azure services
  • Azure Web Apps
  • Cosmos DB
  • Blob Storage
  • API Management (APIM)
  • App Configuration
  • Key Vault
Monitoring & diagnostics
  • Azure Monitor
  • Application Insights
  • Grafana
  • Serilog
Delivery
  • Azure Pipelines
  • GitHub Actions

Data & Infrastructure

Making databases faster, resilient, and easier to operate.

  • SQL Server
  • T-SQL
  • SQL Managed Instance
  • PowerShell
  • dbatools
More on data & infrastructure
Performance & automation
  • Query & index tuning
  • Replication
  • SMO
  • Pester
Availability & recovery
  • Failover Cluster Instances
  • Availability Groups
  • Log Shipping
  • Disaster Recovery
Earlier work & personal projects

Technologies from earlier work and personal projects.

  • Angular
  • Bootstrap
  • MySQL
  • Unity
  • Apache Cordova
  • Ionic
  • Xamarin
03 / RÉSUMÉ

Colin Douglas

Software Engineer

Colin Douglas

Ecommerce engineering AI orchestration Performance

Experience

Dot Foods

Software Engineer

May 2023 – Present

Build and optimize the ecommerce platform, improve product discovery, and lead AI initiatives that strengthen the software development lifecycle.

Database Administrator

Dec 2014 – May 2023

Managed 1,000+ SQL Server databases across ~100 instances, improving performance, resilience, automation, and infrastructure efficiency.

Key accomplishments

≈$2,000/month

Estimated Azure cost exposure avoided by optimizing integration processing and limiting unnecessary scaling.

AI ideas → Major initiatives

Co-created and led SuperCharge, an AI Orchestration Platform; originated the concept behind Product Matching. Both grew into major initiatives across Dot Foods IT and ecommerce.

Education

MBA · IT Management

Western Governors University

Computer Science

Bachelor’s · Monmouth College

04 / CONTACT
Colin DouglasSoftware Engineer

Let’s connect

Good things start
with a conversation.

Have an opportunity, an interesting problem, or an idea for using AI? I’d love to hear about it.