about(fred)

40 years of building, leading, and learning

Fredrick Lackey

Fredrick "Fred" Lackey

Software Architect, Engineer & Leader

Four decades of turning ideas into systems

I started writing code before I could drive a car. What began as curiosity at a keyboard turned into a four-decade career spanning enterprise architecture, full-stack development, team leadership, and now AI integration. I have seen technologies rise and fall, hype cycles come and go, but the fundamentals have never changed: understand the problem, design a clean solution, and build it with care.

My career has taken me from backup software at Arcada in the mid-90s, through a twelve-year stretch building and leading engineering at Spotless, to ongoing work with CISA and the Department of Homeland Security. Within that engagement I led enterprise architecture and AI integration work at Travelers Insurance as a project. Each chapter has taught me something different about what it means to build software that lasts.

Today my focus is on AI integration -- not the hype, but the practical work of weaving intelligent capabilities into existing systems and workflows. I believe AI does not replace developers; it amplifies what good developers already do.

Career Timeline
2021 – Present
CISA / Department of Homeland Security
Senior Software Engineer & Architect

Ongoing engagement supporting critical cybersecurity infrastructure protecting federal systems and national digital assets. Within this engagement, led enterprise architecture and AI integration work at Travelers Insurance (2022–2025) as a project under the DHS/CISA umbrella.

2006 – 2018
Spotless
Lead Architect & Engineering Manager

Twelve years building a platform from the ground up, growing and leading the engineering team, and evolving the architecture to meet scaling demands.

1994 – 1996
Arcada / Backup Exec
Software Engineer

Early career building enterprise backup and recovery solutions. A foundation in systems-level thinking that has informed everything since.

Core Expertise

AI Integration

Practical application of AI into existing codebases and business workflows. Not hype -- real, measurable value.

Software Architecture

Designing systems that scale, evolve, and survive the team that built them. Microservices, event-driven, cloud-native.

Full-Stack Engineering

.NET, Java, Node.js, React, and everything in between. Front to back, database to deployment pipeline.

Legacy Modernization

Migrating monoliths to modern architectures without burning the house down. Incremental, tested, reliable.

Engineering Leadership

Building teams, establishing technical culture, mentoring engineers, and bridging the gap between business and technology.

DevOps & Automation

CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, containerization, and the relentless pursuit of removing manual steps.

Current AI Work

Beyond the day job, I build AI tools that solve real problems. These are not demos or toys; they are working systems I use every day.

Knowledge Builder

An AI-powered system for organizing, connecting, and retrieving technical knowledge from fragmented sources.

Career Coach

An intelligent career advisory tool that helps developers navigate career decisions with data-driven insights.