End-to-End Encrypted Data Platform
Designing zero-knowledge encrypted storage and pioneering edge-deployed cryptographic applications — before the rest of the industry caught up.
The Problem
The company built secure authentication, identity, and privacy management tools for enterprise partners. The core challenge was designing systems where sensitive personally identifying information (PII) could be stored and queried without the platform operator — or anyone who compromised the platform — ever having access to the plaintext data.
The company also needed to deliver cryptographic web applications to end users securely and at scale, at a time when edge computing was still in its infancy and the tooling barely existed.
My Role
I joined as a Software Engineer and was promoted to Head of Engineering within 18 months. I designed core platform components, led the engineering team, and drove technical partnerships — including an early collaboration with Amazon on Lambda@Edge while it was still in beta.
What I Built
- Designed and developed a scalable, end-to-end encrypted database for managing consumers' PII — a zero-knowledge architecture where data remained encrypted at rest and the platform never held decryption keys.
- Devised a dynamically-scalable, real-time event notification system for record publication, enabling downstream consumers to react to data changes without exposing plaintext content.
- Partnered with Amazon to leverage Lambda@Edge (while in beta) to safely deliver single-page cryptographic web applications to end users at the edge — one of the earliest production uses of the service.
- Designed the secure onboarding and registration system that powered a municipal transit authority's mobile application.
Impact
The encrypted data platform was adopted by government-funded health monitoring programs, supporting smartphone applications for detecting warfighter health indicators. The municipal transit mobile app launched successfully using the secure registration system. The Lambda@Edge work was featured as an early example of personalized, secure content delivery at the edge.