Kyle Neal
Lead Elixir & Erlang Engineer
10+ years building revenue-critical distributed systems on the BEAM. Erlang/OTP, Elixir, Phoenix LiveView, Cassandra, RabbitMQ, and technical leadership.
10+
Years on the BEAM
1.5M+
Daily events processed by systems I built
$2.5M+
Monthly revenue supported by systems I built
5
Engineers managed
Professional Summary
Lead Distributed Systems Engineer focused on long-lived, production BEAM systems (Erlang/OTP + Elixir)
Builds and operates high-throughput, revenue-critical platforms with a strong performance and operability mindset
Designs distributed data + messaging architectures across Cassandra/PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ, and search/analytics
Owns data modeling and query tuning across OLTP and time-series workloads, with deep comfort debugging production paths
Reliability-first engineering: OTP fault tolerance, BEAM VM tuning, release strategy, CI/CD automation, and incident response
Full-stack builder with Phoenix/LiveView and Ash; ships internal platforms and tooling from concept to production
Hands-on technical leader: mentors engineers, aligns cross-team delivery, and stays deep in the code
Infrastructure-aware across AWS and Linux, with pragmatic automation experience (Jenkins/Ansible)
Technical Expertise
BEAM & Languages
- Erlang/OTP (GenServers, Supervisors, clustering)
- Elixir
- Phoenix + LiveView
- Ash Framework
- BEAM VM tuning & relup zero-downtime upgrades
- REST API design & third-party integrations
Data & Messaging
- Cassandra (6-node production cluster)
- PostgreSQL
- Elasticsearch / OpenSearch analytics
- Apache Spark (AWS EMR)
- RabbitMQ distributed messaging pipelines
- Time-series data modeling (1.5M+ events/day)
Infrastructure & DevOps
- AWS (EC2, RDS, S3)
- Linux operations & administration
- Ansible automation
- CI/CD (Jenkins, Ansible)
- Observability & reliability engineering
Professional Experience
Lead Distributed Systems Engineer
Ubiquity Agency an Ionik company
- Lead architect and primary backend engineer for a revenue-critical affiliate network platform written in Erlang, supporting $2.5M+ monthly revenue and processing 1.5M+ events daily (~20+ events/sec average with significantly higher peak throughput).
- Design and operate distributed data and messaging architecture including a 6-node Cassandra production cluster, RabbitMQ event pipelines, and Elasticsearch/OpenSearch analytics infrastructure.
- Own data modeling and performance strategy across Cassandra and PostgreSQL; routinely debug and optimize complex production queries and high-volume transaction paths.
- Responsible for system reliability, BEAM VM tuning, release strategy (relup), CI/CD automation, and production incident debugging across distributed environments.
- Architected and built an internal infrastructure management platform from inception, a full-stack Elixir (Phoenix + Ash) internal infrastructure control platform enabling resource lifecycle orchestration, authorization modeling, operational auditability, and cross-system automation.
- Lead and managed 5 engineers (UI + infrastructure) while remaining hands-on across backend, data architecture, and full-stack feature delivery. Conducted technical interviews and evaluated engineering candidates as part of the hiring process.
Founder & Software Engineer
RevenueLink Technologies LLC
- Founded a consulting and technology services company used for independent software projects, consulting engagements, and local technology services.
- Designed and built hardcorehandyman.fly.dev (formerly hardcorehandymanoflawton.com), a custom lead-generation platform for a local handyman business. Built with Elixir, Phoenix LiveView, and Ecto, the system included SEO-driven service pages, conversion-focused design, and an internal admin interface for managing customer quote requests with photo uploads of project details. The platform ultimately generated more inbound demand than the business could operationally support.
- Built and operate revstack.fly.dev , a Phoenix LiveView application serving as a professional portfolio, lead-generation platform, and development sandbox for new ideas.
- Provide consulting and technical services including custom web application development, systems architecture guidance, and local technology support for individuals and small businesses.
- Use the company as a vehicle for experimentation with Elixir, distributed systems, infrastructure tooling, and small SaaS-style projects.
Application Programmer
CGI Federal
- Performed detailed source code analysis for enterprise Java/ADA systems.
- Developed tooling and assisted with build/release workflows for multi-million SLOC applications.
- Created smoke and sanity testing processes supporting production releases.
In-House Technician
Wichita Online
- Provided in-field network troubleshooting and wireless equipment deployment (MikroTik, Canopy routers).
Career Portfolio
Two major chapters of production systems engineering on the BEAM.
click a phase to explore the systems and projects behind it.
Personal Live Projects
Production applications I designed, built, and deployed on my spare time
click a project to explore.
Hardcore Handyman
Production Phoenix LiveView system enabling customers to submit job requests with image uploads. Data is validated, stored with Ecto, and triggers email notifications for a streamlined quoting workflow.
https://hardcorehandyman.fly.dev/
RevenueLink
My personal business website and portfolio hub. Showcases my professional profile and services, and serves as a central point for inquiries and collaborations.
https://revenuelink.net/
Leadership
Team Work
I have led, collaborated with, and supported distributed engineering teams while building a multi-million-dollar affiliate network platform and the infrastructure around it.
Affiliate Platform Build Team
Poland-based backend and DevOps collaboration
- Worked closely with 5 backend engineers in Poland and 3 DevOps engineers in Poland while actively building the affiliate network platform, a multi-million-dollar production system.
- Initially partnered with the 2 lead backend engineers who started the platform, collaborating on architecture, implementation, and getting the system into a production-ready state.
- Later became the solo engineer responsible for new features, maintenance, long-term ownership, and major rewrites across the affiliate network platform.
- Spent more years evolving the platform independently than were spent building the original larger-team release, and ultimately rewrote more of the system than the first production-ready version contained.
Infrastructure Team Support
Operational leadership with hands-on support
- Regularly stepped in to help the Philippines-based infrastructure team during heavy operational grinds and high-pressure delivery periods.
- Built that team to operate as a mostly self-managed black box, giving it the structure and autonomy to run effectively without constant oversight.
- Balanced delegation with direct technical involvement, stepping into difficult work when needed while keeping the team sustainable and operationally independent.
Education
B.S. Computer Science
Cameron University
2010 — 2014
Magna Cum LaudeA.S. Information Technology
Cameron University
2014 — 2016
Magna Cum LaudeWhen I'm Not Coding
Need consulting or project work?
I occasionally take on consulting and small project engagements.
View ServicesView the Source Code
This portfolio site is open source. Check out the code on GitHub to see how it's built with Phoenix LiveView.
View on GitHub