Donald Thomas Stolz
Senior Software Engineer / Head of Engineering
Senior engineer with over 9 years of full stack experience, specializing in driving technical development and delivering high-impact solutions within...
Donald Thomas Stolz
Senior Software Engineer / Head of Engineering
About Me
Senior engineer with over 9 years of full stack experience, specializing in driving technical development and delivering high-impact solutions within fast-paced startup teams. Proven track record of going zero-to-one on greenfield systems — from architecture through deployment. Comfortable owning the entire stack as a solo engineer or leading small teams.
Work Experience
Head of Engineering
Walter AI is building a ratings standard for investment newsletters. We convert newsletter recommendations into deterministic, auditable track records.
- ✓Architected and built the entire platform as sole engineer — full stack, infrastructure, and DevOps — using Next.js, NestJS, and AWS
- ✓Built AI-powered newsletter parsing pipeline using Gemini and AWS Lambda to extract stock trade recommendations from financial newsletters and generate auditable performance track records
- ✓Developed Google Chrome Extension to automate Gmail filter setup, streamlining newsletter ingestion into the platform
- ✓Currently rolling out beta; architected for scale from day one with webhook-based email ingestion via Postmark
- ✓Leveraged Claude Code to accelerate development velocity as a one-person engineering team
Lacrosse Coach
Part-time coaching role supporting the lacrosse program at St. Michael's Catholic Preparatory School in Austin, TX.
- ✓Coached 5th & 6th grade lacrosse team during Spring 2025 season, leading practice planning and player development
- ✓Designed and ran youth lacrosse practices and camps; focused on introducing new players to the sport and developing fundamental skills
- ✓Varsity assistant for Spring 2026 season, focusing on faceoff-specific skill development
Full Stack Engineer
Independent engineering contractor.
- ✓Utilized Gemini LLM to perform user personality analysis and generate engaging insights based on user interactions
- ✓Created scalable data processing features using Google Cloud Tasks
- ✓Working with GCP, Firebase, and Terraform to provide cloud solutions
Education
Pennsylvania State University
Highlights:
42 - Silicon Valley
Highlights:
Loyola University Chicago
Highlights:
Skills
Front-end Development
AdvancedBack-end Development
ExpertDatabase
IntermediateDevOps
AdvancedAI/ML Engineering
ProficientAI-Assisted Development
AdvancedVolunteer Experience
Bridge Lacrosse
Bridge Lacrosse is a lacrosse club for kids in the Austin area.
- •Assisted with player development and team building
- •Helped with practices
Hack High School
The goal of HackHighSchool is to provide equality of access to computer science and digital literacy for the 21st Century to all high school students age 14-18. HackHighSchool(H2S) is a free, 8-month long coding club open from September to May.
- •Created Node JS Curriculum
- •Taught JavaScript & Web Development
- •Built app to help manage student check-in and daily reports.
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
The mission of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is to advance cures, and means of prevention, for pediatric catastrophic diseases through research and treatment. I coordinated and participated in philanthropic events for St. Jude