About

Hey there. I’m Kaleb - a husband, an avid reader of Science Fiction and Fantasy, a coffee and tea enthusiast, a music and movie aficionado, a hobbyist writer and speaker, and occasionally, I write some code.

Thanks for dropping by!

What I Do:

I help solve business problems through modern custom web applications.

Blending leadership acumen with technical expertise, I work closely with colleagues and cross-functional teams to produce quality software accomplshing business objectives. My journey has taken me across diverse industries, allowing me to contribute to projects that have left a positive mark on the world.

Beyond addressing business needs, I’m dedicated to staying updated with emerging technologies, improving code bases as I learn from mistakes, grow through experiences, and gain insight from top developers in our industry!

My Story

I believe everyone has a wonderful story to explain how in the world they got to the current moment we call now. Here’s a bit of mine!

Short Version of My Story (TLDR):

I’m Kaleb McKelvey, a Software Engineer who focuses on exhibiting high character combined with strong ambition to continously grow a little bit each day.

My journey began as a Junior AX Dynamics developer at a Telecom company, leveraging Microsoft Dynamics to enhance business processes. Starting as an intern, I transitioned to a full-time role while pursuing my college education. Post-graduation, I joined GE’s Digital Technology Leadership Program, where I learned how to be a Software Engineer and leader through experiences and mentorship. This path led to me joining a new team within GE. Our focus was on increasing productivity in GE Healthcare manufacturing shops through modern web applications.

Fueled by a passion for Personal Finance, I made the jump to Northwestern Mutual, where I built UIs for an application that helped financial planners deliver comprehensive plans to their clients.

Next in my journey, I decided that it was time to help bring magic to the world at Disney by working on Disney+ and launching Star+ globally! Presently, I work at Netflix on the Growth team - helping people subscribe as we bring more joy to the world!

My diverse experiences have molded me into a holistic Software Engineer. Committed to continuous growth, I’m driven by a desire to leave a positive impact on the world.

Long Version of My Story (if you’re interested!)

I’m a Software Engineer, driven by a desire to inspire, evolve, and excel in various areas of my life.

Small town life

Growing up in a small town built the foundation of who I am today in a few ways.

My family instilled in me the values of responsibility, character, and integrity. I believe character is the bedrock that gives you the foundation to achieve your dreams.

My coaches and teachers taught me the values of work ethic and accountability. They demonstrated the importance of practice leading to high peroformance, taking in feedback to improve your craft, and knowledge leading to better actions.

Lastly, growing up in my hometown taught me to find joy in simplicity. It led to boredom being replaced with canoe trips down the river, swimming in the quarry, hanging with friends, playing sports at the park, and of course now, learning new technologies!

How a video game changed my life

One summer during my middle school years, a friend of mine introduced me to the world of Diablo 1. Next thing you know, I was buying the game too. The more I learned about the game, the more I played. Eventually an empiphany moment happened: instead of being an NBA basketball player, I wanted to be a software developer.

Eventually, I moved on from Diablo 1 and started playing Diablo 2. There were ways to dupe items, run bots, trade on forums, and even join private realms that centered around PVP - not beating the game. This period was definitely my golden age of video games. If video games as a sport and twitch existed, who knows what my career trajectory would have been instead.

Transitioning to high scool, sports remained a central to my life. I played football, basketball, and baseball - basketball was and is my favorite still. My goal was to get a scholarship and graduate with a Computer Science degree. This would lead me to being able to develop video games, bringing the same joy that I felt from playing them.

Although a big time scholarship never happened, getting into university and starting my Computer Science studies became a reality!

College Years

Intro to programming at my university was a huge struggle for me. I had no idea what I was doing and quickly realized that this wasn’t going to be a piece of cake. The class was set up so that every two weeks, we’d receive a new assignment that was due before the next one started.

For the first few, they were not too difficult - as the class progressed, the difficulty did as well. I realized early on that if I spent time in the computing labs on the first week after a new assignment was given, everyone who procrastinated wouldn’t be there. This meant more readily available teacher assistants in the labs, who would help us when we got stuck. I was really fortunate that one of the TA’s for that year was Zaid. Zaid, who now works at MIT was an excellent teacher - he made sure not to give me answers, but instead helped me think through the code. This practice has helped me still today! I always give Zaid credit (along with my professors) for getting through that difficult year.

Outside of classes, college was the first time for me being around the world at large. We had exchange students, people from all over the USA, and each with their own unique story. It really opened my mind and taught me how to balance my time between multiple priorities.

As my college years rolled by, I completed my dream of learning to program and became a member of the greatest fraternity in the world, Kappa Alpha Psi I was fortunate to have an internship that led to a full-time role while I was in school. It was all of these various experiences that led me to become who I am today.

One that looks at the future as much as the present, and recognizing the importance of having amazing people in our lives.

Becoming a Software Engineer!

After college, I began working at GE in their Digital Technology Leadership Program that led to achieving my dream of becoming a Software Engineer in my first role after graduating! GE is a company that focuses on the development of both technical and leadership skill-sets. Because of this, I have grown in both my professional and personal worlds thanks to the fabulous people I’ve met on the way.

A few years later, I decided to change cities and change industries. I joined Northwestern Mutual - a company that has more than a century under its belt -  adventuring through a digital transformation. Personal finance has long been a passion of mine, so getting an opportunity to spend 40+ hours a week developing software to help people with that area of their life was a great experience!

An amazing opportunity came up while working at NM - joining Disney to work on Disney+ right after their launch in 2019. I decided to take the new role and have baby yoda as my new teammate! During my time there, I worked on an internal app that content editors used to configure content across Disney+ and Star+. I worked on transforming our app from single to multi-tenant, created many UI enhancements that let content editors do their job more effectively as Disney+ expanded, and developed an algorithm that dynamically determined what hero images are shown on the home page. It was around my two year mark that a recruiter reached out to my, and I decided to take the opportunity to join Netflix!

It’s a new opportunity to work on external facing features and TVUI, helping to grow Netflix subscribers and bring more joy to the world. I’m learning and growing every single day!

Concluding Thoughts

Overall I am excited to grow through new experiences! My passion for technology and desire to make the world a better place drives me to continue learning. Life is a feeling process and a journey to achieve all that you want on the way!

I hope to influence your journey towards achieving anything you want. I truly believe you are the executive of your life.

Best wishes,

Kaleb McKelvey