What is Bill Watters's current role?

Bill Watters is currently working as Software Engineering Manager at Meta · Full-time.

Where did Bill Watters study?

Bill Watters studied Film Production/Marketing (PR Emphasis) at San Francisco State University. They have 2 education entries on their profile.

Where is Bill Watters based?

Bill Watters is based in United States.

Bill Watters

Q: What skills does Bill Watters have?

Bill Watters's top skills include Reviews, Event Production, Press Relations, Multiple Project Coordination, Systems Development Management. They have 39 skills listed on their profile.

Senior Software Engineering Manager

United States500+ connectionsLinkedInUpdated 11 months ago

About Bill

Over 30 years of experience in software, with an emphasis in Games and Backend, Server, and DevOps/LiveOps,
in roles ranging from Engineer to Systems Architect to Engineering Manager. Seeking an opportunity as an
Engineering Manager or Engineering Lead role.
I have acted as an individual contributor, architect, and engineering manager on teams ranging in size from one to
forty.
Past game titles I've worked on include: Red Dead Redemption, UFC Undisputed 2010, Grand Theft Auto IV,
Battlefield 2142, Battlefield 2, Command & Conquer 3, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, Transformers: Legends (iOS/
Android), Running With Friends (iOS/Android), Looney Tunes Dash! (iOS/Android), Zynga Poker (iOS/Android/
WebGL).
I've worked in a wide range of languages and frameworks, from ASP to C+ to C#, from Ruby to JS, from React to Angular,
and from CakePHP to Ruby on Rails.
I've had extensive experience in Cloud Engineering, in particular leading and managing Live Ops, Dev Ops, and
Tools teams using AWS and GCP. I'm proficient in working both in dedicated notes as well as containerization
via Docker, Kubernetes, CDK, and others. I've led individuals ranging from junior engineer to senior architects,
bringing them together to optimize their contributions and their career growth paths.

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Editor/Photographer/Freelance writer covering the national Geek Culture scene, including event coverage, fashion, and current trends, achievements, and conflicts. Film and Television critic with a focus on independent and fan films.

Current and past journalism outlets include ComicsOnline.com, Examiner.com, GeeksAreSexy.net, TrekMovie.com, and BleedingCool.com.

Performed as director of programming, media team director, and general event advisor and fixer for a range of regional and national level comic-con and pop-culture convention events.

==============================================================

EPK production - Experienced in still photography and videography development for film and series production.

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Talent booking, representation, and management for special events.

Experience

Meta · Full-time
- Software Engineering Manager
  May 2025 - Present · 3 mosSan Francisco Bay Area · HybridCurrent
  Working as part of the Generative AI Production Engineering group leading highly impactful engineers through the evolution of the organization. Skills: Engineering Management · Systems Development Management · Multiple Project Coordination · Mentoring
Creation Entertainment · Contract
- Chief Technology Officer
  Mar 2024 - Present · 1 yr 5 mosSan Francisco Bay Area · RemoteCurrent
  Skills: Technology Leadership · Live Event Production · Business Process Improvement · Cross-functional Team Leadership · Distributed Team Management
The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films · Seasonal
- Producer
  2014 - Present · 11 yrs 7 mosLos Angeles Metropolitan AreaCurrent
  The SATURN AWARDS is produced by The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films celebrates and honors professionals and their work in genre TV and Film. Since the 40th anniversary, I've been editing and producing the various videos used by the Academy and the Awards Ceremony, including acceptance speeches, memorial collections, special award montages, interview pieces, and more). Skills: JavaScript · Leadership · Engineering Leadership · Team Management The Saturn Awards
Watters Mark Phototography · Self-employed
- Freelance Photographer, Writer, Editor, and Content Creator
  May 2009 - Present · 16 yrs 3 mosSan Francisco Bay Area · RemoteCurrent
  Performed variously as a writer, editor, photographer, and videographer as well as technical consultant for a range of New Media Geek and Pop-Culture outlets, including: Nerdbot.com, IGN.com, UGO.com, TrekMovie.com, BleedingCool.com, AggressiveComix.com, ComicsOnline.com, GeeksAreSexy.net, and Examiner.com Skills: Editorial Photography · Videography · Online Journalism
Renaissance Productions · Seasonal
- Co-owner / Senior Event Operations Manager
  Jan 2000 - Present · 25 yrs 7 mosSan Francisco Bay Area · RemoteCurrent
  Over the past two and a half decades, we have produced more than 30 major themed events, provided senior staff event production experience to another 20, and general staff for countless others. Events include Renaissance Faires, Pirate Festivals, Fantasy Faires, Literary Balls, Symposiums, and more. Ranging from small single day school benefit events to major multi-weekend regional festivals, we have hosted, thrilled, and delighted audiences of all ages Skills: Live Event Production · Event Production · Contract Negotiation
Volley · Part-time
- Staff Engineer
  Jun 2024 - May 2025 · 1 yrSan Francisco, California, United States · Hybrid
  Skills: JavaScript · TypeScript · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Software Engineering · Full-Stack Development · Node.js
Nextdoor · Full-time
- Senior Engineering Manager
  Mar 2023 - Nov 2023 · 9 mosSan Francisco Bay Area · Hybrid
  *Impacted by Companywide 25% reduction I led the Cloud Engineering team, bringing together a siloed set of individuals to a cohesive and collaborative organization. Oversaw ongoing cost tuning, as well as the migration from dedicated instances to a fully containerized system in Kubernetes. Skills: JavaScript · Social Influence · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Leadership · TypeScript · Engineering Management · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · DevOps · Kubernetes · Node.js · Team Management
10 yrs 2 mos
- Senior Engineering Manager
  Mar 2019 - Mar 2023 · 4 yrs 1 moSan Francisco Bay Area
  Within Zynga's Poker group, I was initially the manager of a Features team, working on new product aspects and systems. After a year, I was tasked with taking on the Live Ops and Dev Ops teams to bring them together and improve process and stability in deployments and during spikes, along with developing a range of cost savings that brought the monthly AWS expenses down by nearly 50%. Skills: JavaScript · Social Influence · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Leadership · TypeScript · Engineering Management · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Kubernetes · Node.js · Team Management
- Principal Software Engineer
  Jul 2016 - Mar 2019 · 2 yrs 9 mosSan Francisco Bay Area
  Skills: Social Influence · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Full-Stack Development · Kubernetes · Team Management
4 yrs 1 mo
- Special Features Editor
  Mar 2016 - Mar 2020 · 4 yrs 1 moSan Francisco Bay Area
  Writing on a range of geek culture topics with a focus on film and television news, reviews, and interviews. Beginning with Television and Film writing; I have moved into developing new features across the site sections, contests, video content production, and other audience-expanding content. Skills: JavaScript · Social Influence
- Special Features Editor
  Mar 2016 - Jun 2019 · 3 yrs 4 mosSan Francisco Bay Area
  Writing on a range of geek culture topics with a focus on film and television news, reviews, and interviews. Beginning with Television and Film writing; I have moved into developing new features across the site sections, contests, video content production, and other audience-expanding content. Skills: Writing · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Wordpress Development · Editorial Photography · Reviews
Silicon Valley Comic Con · Seasonal
- Director of Programming & Event Consultant/Fixer
  Nov 2015 - Feb 2022 · 6 yrs 4 mosSan Francisco Bay Area · Remote
  Developed and coordinated the programming and scheduling for the largest Comic-Con to have been held in Northern California. Worked in conjunction with the PR/Media/Volunteer teams to manage attendee experience and press content. Skills: Live Event Production · Event Planning · Press Relations · Software Engineering
10 yrs 2 mos
- Division CTO 2P Games
  Jun 2015 - Sep 2017 · 2 yrs 4 mosSan Francisco Bay Area
  Led the live operations of existing titles (Stampede Run & Looney Tunes Dash!), as well as the development, launch, and release of Ice Age: Arctic Blast. Directed, mentored, and worked with internal and external development & QA teams to deliver games on time & on budget. Skills: Social Influence · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Leadership · Engineering Management · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Full-Stack Development · Team Management
- Senior Server/Full Stack Engineer
  Feb 2013 - Jul 2016 · 3 yrs 6 mosSan Francisco Bay Area
  Acted as a lead engineer on two successive #1 titles in both the iOS as well as Android stores (Running with Friends and Looney Tunes Dash). Worked full stack from server (Rails/PHP/Memcache), to web integration (PHP/HTML/jQuery/AJAX), to the mobile clients (C++/Java/Objective-C). Supported and scaled a multi-million player a day environment. Skills: Social Influence · Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Full-Stack Development Ice Age: Arctic Blast Looney Tunes Dash! Running With Friends / Stampede Run
ngmoco
- Senior Server Engineer
  Jan 2012 - 2013 · 1 yr 1 moSan Francisco Bay Area
  Lead server engineer on Transformers: Legends for iOS and Android platforms. Skills: Amazon Web Services (AWS) · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Full-Stack Development We Rule Transformers Legends
PR Sirens
- Account Manager
  Mar 2007 - Dec 2011 · 4 yrs 10 mosSan Francisco Bay Area
IGN Entertainment (aka GameSpy)
- Lead Engineer
  2005 - Nov 2011 · 6 yrs 11 mosSan Francisco Bay Area
  Skills: Social Influence · Leadership · Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Full-Stack Development · Team Management Battlefield 2: Modern Combat THQ's UFC 2010 Red Alert 3
GameSpy Industries
- Lead Engineer
  Jan 2005 - Oct 2011 · 6 yrs 10 mos
  Working in the professional services division of GameSpy. Enabling game publishers and developers to design their titles for the next generation of multiplayer experience both in and out of game. Worked extensively with Rockstar, THQ, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Dice, LucasArts, and others to develop custom implementations of the online experience for their titles. Architecting back end solutions and processes to support some of the largest game titles published. Just a few titles of note: GTAIV, Petz, Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Command & Conquer 3, Empire at War, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, Battle for Middle Earth 2, and many others.
eNature.com
- Lead Web Engineer/Software Architect
  Sep 2002 - Mar 2005 · 2 yrs 7 mos
  Designed a new database engine model to allow for greater scalability with the existing infrastructure. Allowing servers to now handle thousands of concurrent users each. Designed and wrote the infrastructure, databases, and content management engines for http://www.sibleyguidetobirds.com Continuing to develop new application components to allow for more modular extensions to the system as the demand for new areas and content grows. Developed a number of PalmOS applications for both stand-alone as well as offline synchronization of user data to the corporate website. Created a library of stand alone applications to enable image and file processing as well as large scale data manipulation Skills: Engineering Leadership · Cloud Eng · Full-Stack Development
Montclare Technologies
- Web Systems Architect/Director of Development
  Jun 1998 - Mar 2004 · 5 yrs 10 mos
  As the founding engineer of the company, I designed and developed the strategies and implementation models for the web services division. Implemented and customized a number of web portals, including custom tile and application integration into the portal framework. Created intranets and extranets utilizing a range of technologies. Also designed migration paths from legacy applications to more modern solutions. Conceived and created, iUpdate, the companys first software suite designed to facilitate website content management by individual clients, freeing the company to focus on site technologies rather than content management. Directed the development group during its first year as the engineering team grew to over 16 programmers. Conceived and created the first of the Montclare Tools divisions suite of applications, the Blender for Website conversion as well as conceived the second application, the Spinner for rapid prototyping of websites. Skills: Engineering Leadership
Mpath Interactive
- Director of Support Services
  Sep 1996 - Apr 1998 · 1 yr 8 mos
  Created and administered both a call tracking database solution for the customer service department, as well as a bug tracking solution for engineering and quality assurance. The former currently handling over 3,000 incidents per week. Managed an 18 person call center in a high volume online environment Developed training manuals and implemented training courses for both level I and level II customer service representatives and technical support engineers. Generated reports on the status of user problem incidents and gave feedback to product development and engineering on the state of the current user base. Actively participated in engineering team meetings and assisted in project planning and design phases. Worked with Marketing to develop a range of ongoing programs to encourage development of online communities. Acted as third tier technical support as well as the company's point of contact for press and developers with technical problems and questions.
General Magic, Inc.
- Manager, PC Technologies
  Mar 1995 - Sep 1996 · 1 yr 7 mos
  Planned, administered, and reported on both internal and external Beta tests of Windows software products, involving over 500 testers. Managed numerous external Magic Cap for Windows 3rd party product developer relationships. Assisted in the implementation of beta test programs for their software. Developed and administered Windows, PC hardware, configuration, and Product training courses for both the AT &T Customer Care Center as well as a technical support outsourcing agency in preparation for their becoming a 1st tier technical support organization on the Windows platform. Wrote QA test plans for PC compatibility and hardware testing (including modems, networks, and printers). Acted as the primary PC support engineer for General Magic's PC inventory. Researched and examined new and emerging technologies for the PC platform and made recommendations to the business development teams for their ongoing project plans.
3DO
- Technical Support Manager
  Jan 1994 - Mar 1995 · 1 yr 3 mos
Spectrum Holobyte
- Technical Support Supervisor
  Jan 1992 - Jan 1994 · 2 yrs 1 mo
  Tetris Falcon 3.0 X-Com

Education

San Francisco State UniversityFilm Production/Marketing (PR Emphasis)1990 - 1993
Emporia State UniversityTheater1987 - 1990

Skills

Other

ReviewsEvent ProductionPress RelationsMultiple Project CoordinationSystems Development ManagementDistributed Team ManagementWordpress DevelopmentTechnology LeadershipMentoringLive Event ProductionEvent PlanningWritingBusiness Process ImprovementOnline JournalismEditorial PhotographyVideographyCross-functional Team LeadershipTypeScriptContract NegotiationFull-Stack DevelopmentCloudRangeAWSJavaScriptKubernetesNode.jsWordPressBlenderTransformersRubyReactAngularDocker

Experience34 years

Currently atMeta · Full-time

Based inUnited States

Studied atSan Francisco State University

Roles24

Skills33

LanguagesFrench, Middle (ca.1400-1600) · German · English · English, Old (ca.450-1100)

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