Benn Salter

VP, Artificial Intelligence & Software Engineering at Forge
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Contact Information
Location
Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, US
Languages
  • English Native or bilingual proficiency

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Bio

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Melanie Seaborn

I had the good fortune of working with Benn as a fellow founding member of the Forge leadership team. While Benn’s primary experience is in leading high-impact Engineering teams, he also contributed greatly to our overall product and company strategy. Benn is comfortable with ambiguity and managing through strategic changes and pivots. He is an exceptional team leader who provides shrewd clarity of goals and delivers results 100% of the time. And he also cares a lot about the people he works with and has a calm and kind way of constantly showing his support. I deeply appreciated his ability to call out when we weren’t living our values or were getting distracted away from our goals. He helped everyone on the team become more accountable to each other and to great results.

Margaret Morgan

Benn Salter was my supervisor, department director, and mentor over the course of four years at Intrepid Pursuits (now Accenture Digital Products). As an engineer on his fullstack web team, I can attest to the profound impact Benn has on individuals, teams, and organizations. Benn built our Web Team from the ground up. It was a real joy to be a member of a group characterized by collaborative camaraderie and a commitment to quality software. Benn’s tenure as Web Director was marked by his forward thinking, people-driven, and transparent leadership style that led to constant plans for driving our team’s growth. One of the most impactful aspects of working with Benn was his dedication to identifying growth opportunities for individuals on his teams. On many occasions he encouraged me to step up to challenges I wasn’t sure if I was prepared for, and each became a period of true growth. He was a fantastic resource for technical and consulting advice, and has a knack for reframing problems to encourage strategic thinking and new solutions. Benn’s mentorship has had a huge influence on my own career as a software engineer, and I would gladly join one of his teams again in the future.

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Credentials

  • Mini MBA
    Miami University
    Dec, 2020
    - Sep, 2024
  • AWS Solutions Architect - Associate
    Alpine Testing Solutions, Inc.
    Jul, 2017
    - Sep, 2024
  • AWS Certified Developer - Associate
    Alpine Testing Solutions, Inc.
    Jun, 2017
    - Sep, 2024

Experience

    • South Africa
    • Farming
    • 1 - 100 Employee
    • VP, Artificial Intelligence & Software Engineering
      • Nov 2020 - Present

      I am on the company's founding team as VP of software engineering. I took the engineering practice at Forge from 0 to 1, hiring from scratch and scaling to a 16-person design, product, and software team. I determined technical strategy for the creation of the several nascent technical products. I implemented development best practices, SDLC, and delivery processes, creating a culture of reliably and consistently delivering top-quality software on time. I drove engineering processes toward realizing product vision and corporate strategies. My division is responsible for all of technology at Forge, including software application development, the corporate website, AI, IT & IoT solutions, and the software project management that brings these projects to production. Projects include: remote assistance software utilizing smart glasses, an operations software suite for both web and Flutter, an application to track candidate progress into our apprentice program, and applications leveraging semantic search & RAG techniques, machine learning, computer vision and GPT-3.5 & GPT-4. Show less

    • United States
    • Insurance
    • 1 - 100 Employee
    • Technical Advisor
      • Sep 2020 - May 2022

      I provided technical strategy and product consulting for this insurance tech startup. I advised on technical stack & roadmap, hiring, and SDLC under tight deadlines. I consulted on outsourcing decisions. I determined the product's initial technical stack and mentored the company's current engineering team. I screened and interviewed developer and technical lead candidates for the company's engineering team. I provided technical strategy and product consulting for this insurance tech startup. I advised on technical stack & roadmap, hiring, and SDLC under tight deadlines. I consulted on outsourcing decisions. I determined the product's initial technical stack and mentored the company's current engineering team. I screened and interviewed developer and technical lead candidates for the company's engineering team.

    • United States
    • Advertising Services
    • 700 & Above Employee
    • Head Software Engineering, Digital Products East
      • Jun 2019 - Sep 2020

      I joined Accenture via acquisition as part of Intrepid Pursuits leadership team. I led a team of over one hundred engineers in native Android and iOS, full-stack web applications, DevOps and cloud disciplines, with clients in diverse technology business classes including education, energy, biotech, finance and health. I was a key technical consultant within the software solution process for our clients, having successfully executed in revenue-producing software projects valued over $50m during my tenure with Accenture. I was a decision-maker on hiring, promotions, staffing, and technical direction for the engineering team in my region. I managed and mentored director-level engineers as they led their individual capabilities. Show less

    • Head Web Engineering, Intrepid Studio
      • Jan 2019 - Jun 2019

      I led a team of over forty web engineers, distributed across studios in New York City, Houston, Chicago and Boston. My role was pivotal in managing my team's transition from a division within a small, independent company, to the largest engineering team at our network of studios within Accenture's ecosystem. Throughout this highly challenging period I drove successful delivery of web software for clients including major universities, pharmaceuticals, oil & gas, and technology sectors.

    • United States
    • Computer Software
    • 1 - 100 Employee
    • Director of Web Engineering
      • Jan 2016 - Jan 2019

      During my tenure I built the web team from 5 to 35 developers, accounting for 4x top-line revenue increase for the company. I evolved the team’s technical capabilities, via direct mentoring and organized training, from working strictly on mobile APIs, to developing full stack engineering solutions in web, Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud architecture spaces. I built out and refined development processes, including code review practices, CI/CD, and technical stack selection. I contributed code directly to client projects in many different fields, for companies that ranged from tiny startups to enterprise-level organizations. To grow the team rapidly, I created the interview process for selecting and hiring top-notch web engineers. I contributed to the process of Intrepid Pursuits being successfully acquired, as a key member of the leadership team during a period of substantial business growth. Show less

    • Software Engineering Lead Architect & Team Lead
      • Feb 2009 - Jan 2016

      I led a team of 7 software developers and software quality assurance engineers to construct and integrate a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), a $3.6+ million project which was adopted successfully by all onsite personnel (150+ people). I worked closely with key stakeholders to write specifications and design applications to best fit stakeholder requirements. I created a Single Page Application framework built on JQuery from scratch, and created a process by which new applications could be rapidly built to meet strict deadlines in a very fast-paced startup-like environment. I designed and built multiple application workflows within the LIMS, two of which received corporate technology and innovation awards. Show less

    • United States
    • Education Administration Programs
    • 1 - 100 Employee
    • Fellow in Digital Humanities
      • Sep 2008 - 2016

      In this self-managed work, I designed software tools using a combination of Perl pre-processing scripts & XSLT. These scripts convert books & articles from Open Office XML format into TEI XML, for display online & through ebook readers. I developed a recursive technique for generating hierarchical, machine-readable data from “flat” Open Office-generated XML. Through these techniques, I vastly improved the technological capabilities for the Center for Hellenic Studies, providing new methods for publishing and distributing texts. Show less

    • United States
    • Software Development
    • Software Engineer
      • Aug 2004 - May 2008

      I engineered a SaaS version of CISPro Global, an inventory management system serving enterprise clients including Procter & Gamble and Philip Morris International. I built a custom grid library and refined various workflows within CISPro. I engineered a SaaS version of CISPro Global, an inventory management system serving enterprise clients including Procter & Gamble and Philip Morris International. I built a custom grid library and refined various workflows within CISPro.

    • United States
    • Software Development
    • 1 - 100 Employee
    • Software Developer & Technical Writer
      • Aug 2003 - Aug 2004

      I wrote technical manuals and developed the administrative user interface for a Mobile Forensics Platform. I gave internal technical presentations and collaborated on DARPA RFP responses. I wrote technical manuals and developed the administrative user interface for a Mobile Forensics Platform. I gave internal technical presentations and collaborated on DARPA RFP responses.

    • United States
    • E-Learning Providers
    • 100 - 200 Employee
    • Software Tools Specialist
      • Aug 1999 - Aug 2002

      I invented a procedure for transforming flat generic xml using XSLT and supporting PERL scripts. I created and maintained techniques for converting whole texts for O'Reilly's Safari Books Online during its inception. I invented a procedure for transforming flat generic xml using XSLT and supporting PERL scripts. I created and maintained techniques for converting whole texts for O'Reilly's Safari Books Online during its inception.

Education

  • Tufts University
    Master's degree, Computer Science
  • Tufts University
    M.S. in Engineering Management
  • Miami University
    Master's degree, Philosophy
  • Grinnell College
    Bachelor's degree, Philosophy

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