Full-Stack Software Engineer
Ashton Christie
About
Software Engineer at Microsoft, where I build features used by millions of people daily across M365 and Teams. My path here wasn't traditional. IT technician, cloud security at AWS, a startup where I modernized everything from scratch, then Microsoft. No CS degree. Just a lot of building.
I don't just ship features. I've built personal frameworks for managing information, coordinating with people, and making sure nothing gets lost. That means I can take on more, move faster, and follow through on everything I commit to.
Right now I'm deep into AI-first development: building workflows that leverage AI at every stage of the process, running an autonomous AI ops agent around the clock, and shipping at a velocity that wasn't before possible (I built this site in two days).
Entrepreneur at heart. Engineer by trade. Always building something.
Skills
Platform Engineering
Building and scaling systems that millions of people use daily. Shipped config architecture across M365 worldwide with zero customer issues. Cloud infrastructure across Azure and AWS.
Experience
Where I've built, led, and learned. Click any role for the full story.
Microsoft
Software Engineer — Time and Places
- → Shipped Auto-Detect Location for Microsoft Teams with 99% precision across all company buildings
- → Redesigned core architecture mid-rollout from push to pull model, improving detection speed and reliability
- → Diagnosed a high-severity location accuracy bug traced to OS-level networking race conditions. Shipped with zero regressions.
- → Now building meeting intelligence features integrated with Copilot: smart summaries, shared notes, and AI-powered planning workflows
Microsoft
Software Engineer — M365 Platform
- → Shipped the config system powering M365's worldwide Angular to React migration. Deployed to 100% of users with zero customer issues.
- → Cut unit test execution by over 95% (22 min down to under 1 min) via SWC/Jest integration, saving 10+ minutes per CI build
- → End-to-end owner of First Run Experience v2.0: design collaboration through rollout, telemetry, and experimentation. Built monitoring dashboards described internally as best-in-class.
- → Promoted to SDE II within first year. Consistently exceeded expectations across all review cycles.
Validar
Software Engineer
- → Built full-stack automation (React, Express, Puppeteer) that reduced setup time by ~75%
- → Modernized the entire codebase: JS to TypeScript, introduced Git, integrated error monitoring
- → Reduced error rate by ~70% through Sentry integration and type safety
Amazon Web Services
Technical CS Team Lead
- → Promoted to Team Lead within first year. Managed 6 reports across a global org.
- → Operated within 100+ person team investigating 17 categories of cloud security abuse at AWS scale
- → Built cloud infrastructure and cybersecurity expertise that shapes my engineering mindset today
Projects
Portfolio + AI Chat
This site. Designed and shipped in two days with AI-powered development. AI chat trained on my full career history.
24/7 Autonomous AI Ops Agent
Always-on AI operations agent that manages tasks, monitors infrastructure, ships code, and works while I sleep.
Fresh Prep
AI-powered meal planning that optimizes how you cook, not just what you eat. Recipe parsing, smart suggestions, and cross-recipe optimization.
Fit Check
STRONG
- ✓Platform Engineering
- ✓API Design & Integration
- ✓System Design
- ✓Frontend & UI Engineering
- ✓Testing & Quality
- ✓Leadership
- ✓Developer Experience
MODERATE
- ○Cloud Architecture
- ○DevOps / CI/CD
- ○Performance Optimization
GAPS (I'LL TELL YOU)
- ✕Native Mobile (iOS/Android)
- ✕ML / Deep Learning
- ✕Low-level Systems
Hiring for a specific role? Let the AI evaluate the fit.