Robert Baker

Summary

I'm a technical leader with a long history in software across private and public sectors — from startups and top marketing agencies to enterprises, retail chains, and county government. I've worked full stack across the entire SDLC, from planning to production, and scaled code and infrastructure from tens to millions of concurrent users. Today I run R5 Industries, the IT department for small local businesses — building their web presence, setting up the right business software, and keeping the tech running so owners can focus on their trade.

Experience

1. Founder & Principal Technology Consultant · R5 Industries

   Oct 2019 – Present

   Phoenix, AZ · Hybrid · Self-employed

   I founded R5 Industries to be the IT department for small local businesses that lack the skills, time, or size to justify hiring tech staff — independent auto shops, restaurants, barber shops, plumbers, and other owner-run businesses. I translate technology into plain English and recommend only what a business actually needs.

   • Build and manage clients' web and social presence: websites, Google and Apple Maps profiles, social media, and local search ads.
   • Assess how each business runs, then recommend and set up the right tools, like Square POS, invoicing and payments, scheduling, email, and back-office admin software.
   • Provide ongoing tech support so owners can focus on their trade instead of troubleshooting.
   • Bring in trusted contract specialists for larger or specialized projects, and use AI-assisted tools to keep work fast and affordable.
   • Small Business IT
   • Square POS
   • Web Design
   • Social Media Marketing
   • Local SEO
   • Google Ads
   • Business Process Software
   • Technical Support

2. VP of Product Engineering · Sperse

   Jan 2022 – Aug 2022

   Phoenix, AZ · Full-time

   Led product engineering for Sperse, a SaaS business management and financial software platform for subscription businesses that leverages artificial intelligence.

   • Managed and oversaw multiple remote development teams distributed across time zones.
   • Owned product roadmaps, infrastructure, and architecture for all Sperse products.
   • Reviewed KPIs and operational costs to find improvements across the entire SDLC.
   • Team Management
   • DevOps
   • .NET
   • Azure
   • Angular

3. Software Developer II · TEKsystems (Patterson Companies)

   Oct 2021 – Mar 2022

   Phoenix, AZ · Contract

   Front-end development on a CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) compliance project built on C# Web APIs and Vue.

   • Vue
   • C#
   • ASP.NET Web API

4. Architect & Technical Lead · TEKsystems

   May 2018 – Oct 2019

   Phoenix, AZ · Contract

   Technical direction, architecture, and best practices on Azure, ASP.NET Core, and Angular for the Maricopa County Treasurer's and Assessor's offices, the Arizona Corporation Commission, and PetSmart.

   • Led architecture for new eGovernment services, implementing Azure AD B2C and .NET API services; presented architecture and coding standards to stakeholders.
   • Lead developer on the Arizona Corporation Commission's pipeline safety digitization project: digitized government inspection forms with Angular and built tooling to import 100,000+ federal and state safety codes into a relational database.
   • Led the PODS services team at PetSmart: Azure Functions and Service Bus messaging between services, Salesforce integrations, and database sync scripts across environments.
   • Led a team of five on a .NET Core Web API behind Azure API Management; mentored interns and junior developers.
   • Team lead for a new PetSmart loyalty program that required integrations across several systems.
   • .NET Core
   • Azure
   • Azure AD B2C
   • Angular
   • SQL Server
   • Redis

5. Sr. Enterprise Architect · VincentBenjamin

   Sep 2017 – Jan 2018

   Phoenix, AZ · Contract

   Senior architect on the enterprise team, responsible for APIs, reporting, CMS, and tooling for high-traffic, highly concurrent promotions for Fortune 500 companies, including T-Mobile.

   • Built services that handled over 5 million concurrent requests.
   • Led the migration to a multi-cloud deployment across AWS and Microsoft Azure.
   • Converted the codebase from ASP.NET MVC to ASP.NET Core so it could run on Linux.
   • Built a suite of shared libraries, services, and tooling used across all promotions.
   • .NET Standard
   • ASP.NET Core
   • Azure
   • AWS
   • SQL Server
   • Redis

6. Merchandising Engineer · Carvana

   Jul 2016 – Jun 2017

   Phoenix, AZ · Full-time

   Owned business-critical areas of the storefront: vehicle details, recommendations, search, and On Demand.

   • Architected the VehicleAPI behind vehicle detail pages and the mobile apps, cutting page loads from 12 seconds to milliseconds.
   • Decomposed monolithic codebases into independently deployable microservices so teams could ship faster and make their own technical choices.
   • Shipped features to increase KPIs and improve customer experience.
   • Created NuGet packages and VSTS build definitions; deployed to production with Azure Release Management.
   • Designed JIRA workflows used by every engineering track, and collaborated with the EDGE architecture team.
   • C#
   • ASP.NET Web API
   • SQL Server
   • MongoDB
   • Azure
   • VSTS

7. Full Stack Software Engineer · POSitive Technology, Inc.

   Mar 2015 – Jul 2016

   Scottsdale, AZ

   Designed and developed a new mobile point-of-sale system, leading the team on the Xamarin app and supporting libraries.

   • Built an AngularJS / TypeScript / Cordova app with a custom gulp-based build system.
   • Led the conversion of the POS app to Xamarin, re-architecting it around MvvmCross (MVVM), and worked on an Angular version of the POS.
   • Integrated POS hardware — printers, barcode scanners, VFD displays, cash drawers — behind DI-friendly device abstractions.
   • Moved the team from TFS to Git and JIRA, and from Hangouts to Slack; configured TeamCity CI/CD to build and ship to the app stores.
   • Xamarin
   • MvvmCross
   • AngularJS
   • TypeScript
   • Cordova
   • TeamCity

8. Full Stack Application Developer II · VincentBenjamin

   Jul 2014 – Dec 2014

   Phoenix, AZ

   Developed features and fixed bugs for top clients across WebForms and MVC projects.

   • Worked across MS SQL and MongoDB-backed sites.
   • Upgraded Umbraco installations and repaired corrupted Umbraco databases with Red Gate.
   • Addressed security issues and refactored .NET 4 MVC sites.
   • ASP.NET MVC
   • WebForms
   • Umbraco
   • SQL Server
   • MongoDB

9. Developer · Lavidge

   2014 – 2014

   Phoenix, AZ

   Web development for the marketing agency's client projects.

   • Built the Arizona Commerce Authority website and its LinkedIn integrations.
   • Built the Valley Youth Theatre website.
   • Worked on TestFit, a real estate feasibility platform, and other client projects.
   • LinkedIn API
   • Web Development

10. Freelance .NET Developer · Self-employed

    2010 – 2014

    Phoenix, AZ · Freelance

    Freelance development for small businesses and individuals, alongside building the open-source Seven Update platform.

    • Created and maintained Seven Update as sole developer: an open-source universal software updater with a Windows 7-style interface, built years before Chocolatey and winget. Development began on SVN, with the first GitHub commit in June 2009.
    • Active in open source, including contributions to OrcaSlicer; run nightly and beta builds of the software I use and report bugs upstream.
    • C#
    • .NET
    • WPF
    • WinForms