Chris Cholette

SVP R&D Shared Services

2024

I run Security, Infra, IT, and Architecture at Navan.

VP Engineering and SRE

2021 - 2024

Responsible for various engineering teams as well as the SRE and Developer Productivity teams. Privileged to deliver value every day as we create a new category: Business Software for People. Some highlights include: Drove elite level DORA performance across the Engineering teams, maintaining at least 99.99% uptime while deploying hundreds of times a day, 50% reduction in Infrastructure costs as traffic soared post-Pandemic, drove a business-aligned metrics-driven approach across the engineering teams, finally - drove elite DevSecOps performance by enabling weekly updates of key software components.

Powerhouse Ventures Investor

2019

Powerhouse Ventures identifies and supports founding teams building innovative software to rapidly transform our global energy and mobility systems. Powerhouse Ventures believes that addressing the climate crisis requires deploying our most viable market-based solutions today.

Director Platform and Productivity - Mulesoft

2018 - 2021

Led multiple teams focused on Developer Productivity, Risk Management, and Compliance as well as the overall infrastructure for the Control Plane. Also managed the On-Premise version of the Mulesoft Platform, deployed via Kubernetes. Some highlights: Drove a massive improvement in quality and customer experience by taking the existing CICD process and applying targeted initiatives to keep the speed and agility, but stop hurting customers, drove parity in quality and performance on the Mule 4 runtime - allowing the most reluctant customers to upgrade with confidence, influenced teams at Salesforce to push for more of a DevSecOps approach.

Sabbatical

2018 - 2018

Explored various Cleantech Ideas, invested in Powerhouse's Venture Fund, Advised and Mentored.

Senior Director, Software Engineering

2016 - 2018

I led the team that worked on Sunrun's core software assets, including the BrightPath™ platform - an automated solar system design platform which delivered a fully buildable, optimized system using a simple interface - similar to design tools such as Aurora Solar. I ran the DevOps, QA, Data Science, and Software Engineering orgs. Achievements: •Scaled Brightpath to design thousands of solar systems per day. •Contributed to cross-functional initiatives that resulted in over $25M in margin contribution to Sunrun's business. •Moved team to Continuous Delivery and Infrastructure as Code. •Migrated much of the stack to Serverless with AWS Lambda, introduced Node.js as a primary language. •Migrated Sales Platform application from a native mobile app to a fully responsive React-Redux application. •Led integration of Google Sunroof data into Sunrun's software stack, resulting in 50% improvement in solar system design time and higher system performance. •Built out infrastructure for training, testing, and deploying algorithmic (data science) applications. •Continued to extend Sunrun's lead in optimal solar design generation, which contributed $30M in additional revenue in 2018. •Built out the core of Sunrun's Grid Services platform, processing millions of transactions daily using event driven patterns. •Personally recruited top talent, leveraging articles and supporting docs to sell talent on Sunrun.

Senior Manager and Director Software Engineering

2012 - 2016

•Scaled Engineering through $250M IPO, delivering the Brightpath platform, monitoring enhancements and revenue enhancements which allowed us to go public. •Drove cross functional initiatives to contribute $10-15M of margin in Sunrun's solar business. •Expanded engineering capacity by hiring, onboarding, and developing several engineers in a highly competitive market. •Led move of legacy platform to AWS. •Kept AWS budget flat to down despite massive increase in traffic and usage. •Retired v1 of the software stack, replacing all tools with the integrated Brightpath platform.

Manager, Software Engineering

2010 - 2013

•Managed team of 15 developers (4 scrum teams) working on Rocket Aldon's signature products. (Now packaged as Rocket DevOps.) •Drove successful releases of LMe and Deployment Manager, expanding Aldon's reach outside of IBMi. •Oversaw resolution of architecture, implementation, and other technical problems. •Kept my teams obstacle-free through wide collaboration with Support, QA, and other teams.

Director PM and Engineering

2009 - 2010

Defined structure and process for development of the company's core product, MultiTax. •Defined and implemented issue resolution process, release process, and Agile project management. •Spearheaded key technical projects and certifications, including Windows 7 certification and Partner certification. •Defined and implemented process to certify our application with 48 state agencies and the IRS. •Oversaw team of 12 developers.

Founder

2003 - 2009

•Established a consulting firm focused on e-commerce enablement for mid-sized retailers. •Recruited and managed teams of engineers and analysts located in the US, India and Europe. Key Projects & Achievements: •Managed 2 e-Commerce build outs and go-lives to successful conclusions. •Managed over $35m in Google Adwords spend for an apparel and fashion client base. •Implemented strategies to improve conversion at several e-commerce sites resulting in up to a 80% increase in conversion. •Was the first company to implement meta-searches for fashion and apparel "search by color/matching color" and "search by purpose."

Operations Manager

2002 - 2005

Provided operational and technical project leadership for this $200M textile manufacturer with locations in China and California. Led teams of 10-15 members engaged in major software implementations, including a Warehouse Management System, BI System, and Order Management System. Received the 2004 Supplier Award of Excellence from Wal-Mart during my tenure. Key Projects & Achievements: •Led implementation of a Warehouse Management System (Infor) across all company facilities, driving 30% reduction in per-unit costs. •Designed and led implementation of Order Management and Automation, reducing time-to-floor by 90% and labor costs by 60%. •Managed 8-member Distribution and Customer Service team for the Wal-Mart account, which represented 70% of company revenues. •Evaluated ETL tools and was involved in the implementation and integration of the ETL tool Boomi with the Order Processing and Warehouse Management System.

Product Manager - Inventory Systems

2000 - 2002