About Fred
I started writing code before most people had a computer in their house. That was 1985, give or take. What began as tinkering on early PCs became a career that has now spanned four decades, across enterprise systems, startups, government agencies, and everything in between.
I'm Fredrick Lackey -- Fred to everyone who knows me. I'm a software architect, engineer, and leader. The title changes depending on the room, but the work is always the same: understand the problem deeply, design a system that solves it cleanly, and build a team that can carry it forward.
Career Timeline
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2021 - Present
CISA / Department of Homeland Security
Senior Software Engineer
Building and maintaining critical cybersecurity infrastructure for the U.S. government. Focused on resilient, secure-by-design systems with high uptime requirements. Includes an enterprise architecture engagement at Travelers Insurance -- architecting modernization initiatives, integrating AI tooling into engineering workflows, and mentoring cross-functional teams across large-scale insurance systems.
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2006 - 2018
Spotless Cleaning
CTO / Technical Co-Founder
Built the technology platform from scratch that scaled to support multi-location operations. Full-stack development, operations, hiring, and technical strategy over twelve years of growth.
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1994 - 1996
Arcada / Backup Exec
Software Engineer
Early career systems programming on backup and storage solutions. Deep exposure to C/C++, low-level systems architecture, and the discipline of shipping software that cannot fail.
Between and around these roles: consulting, freelance work, open-source contributions, and a lot of late nights learning new things.
Core Expertise
AI Work
My current focus is on practical AI integration -- not hype, but real tools that make developers and teams more effective. Two active projects:
Knowledge Builder
An AI system for assembling structured knowledge bases from unstructured sources. Think: turning scattered documentation into something searchable and useful.
Career Coach
An AI-powered career advisor that provides contextual, data-informed guidance for software professionals navigating their careers.
I believe AI doesn't replace developers -- it changes what "developer" means. The best engineers will be the ones who know how to think alongside AI, not compete with it.