Chris George Work with me

Product & Engineering Leader

I turn high-volatility engineering orgs into predictable, scalable systems.

I build products, the platforms that drive them, and leaders that operate independently long after I step away.

Work with me See experience

How I work

Four rules I come back to.

  • Measure friction and flow, not people.

    Developer health metrics point at blocked work and slow handoffs. They never score individuals.

  • Build leaders who run the system without me.

    I coach, promote and plan succession so teams keep working after I step away.

  • Make delivery predictable before making it fast.

    Steady metrics and automated pipelines come first. Speed follows from them.

  • Fit the operating model to the stage of the company.

    A 6-person team and a 40-engineer org need different team topology and cadence.

Outcomes

Numbers first. Each one traces to a role below.

  • 10×

    revenue growth in 18 months

    AppDirect / AppInsights

  • 6 → 40

    engineers, org scaled

    AppDirect

  • 50K+

    peak orders/day, ~$32M GMV over peak periods

    Minted

  • 33%

    faster fulfillment, 3 → 2 days

    Minted

  • 25%

    lower operating cost via platform consolidation

    LiveRamp

  • 20–30%

    shorter cycle time via AI workflow tooling

    Full Chaos Studio clients

Case studies

Three roles in one format: situation, what I did, results.

Minted: peak operations

Head of Engineering, Orders & Fulfillment · Oct 2022 – Jun 2025

Situation
Orders and fulfillment ran in a high-volatility environment. I was accountable for systems handling 50K+ peak orders/day and ~$32M GMV over peak periods.
What I did
  • Redesigned the fulfillment workflow.
  • Standardized CI/CD and QA automation.
  • Fixed architecture and added observability.
  • Tightened Product and Ops readiness.
Results
  • 33% faster end-to-end fulfillment, 3 → 2 days
  • 33% shorter deployment lead time
  • 25% lower engineering support burden
  • 15% better on-time delivery

AppDirect / AppInsights: 10× growth

Head of AppInsights (Product & Engineering) · Jul 2015 – Dec 2018

Situation
AppInsights was the SaaS and PaaS analytics arm of AppDirect. I founded it as a new product line and took it from first idea to scale.
What I did
  • Built a self-serve analytics product: dashboards, metric definitions, exploration workflows, permissions and admin tools.
  • Owned product and engineering from inception to global scale.
  • Built career and leadership frameworks as the org grew.
Results
  • 10× revenue growth in 18 months
  • 6 → 40 engineers in the org
  • Weeks → hours customer onboarding time

LiveRamp: platform consolidation

Head of Engineering, Activations Platform · Nov 2020 – Jul 2021

Situation
I owned engineering delivery for the TV, B2C and B2B activation business lines. I led a 35-person distributed organization across multiple activation teams.
What I did
  • Consolidated fragmented codebases.
  • Standardized agile metrics.
  • Aligned platform evolution to revenue-critical commitments.
Results
  • 25% lower operating costs
  • 20% better cycle time and predictability

Also: Mya Systems

Director of Engineering, Integrations & Platform · Aug 2019 – Jul 2020

I led platform and integrations engineering for AI-driven hiring workflows and reported directly to the CTO and CEO. I raised engineering throughput 25% by tightening metrics and visibility. I built leadership capacity through internal promotions and succession planning.

Advisory

Full Chaos Studio is my consultancy. I advise on architecture, product and scaling.

  • Architecture & platform strategy

    Guide early- and growth-stage startups to reduce execution risk.

  • Org design & operating cadence

    Team topology, operating model and CTO coaching.

  • AI & workflow automation

    AI-driven tooling for engineering teams. Clients cut cycle time 20–30%.

  • Technical due diligence

    Roadmap clarity and technical diligence support for investors.

Who it's for

SaaS and PaaS startups, early and growth stage.

Work with me Full Chaos Studio Since Aug 2021

Engineering intelligence

Full Chaos Dev is the product I am building.

Full Chaos Dev turns delivery data into developer health and engineering intelligence. It measures friction and flow, not people. I explain the thinking in Developer Health Metrics Were Never About Scoring People.

Visit fullchaos.dev

Open-source core

More on github.com/full-chaos

Experience

Five roles since 2015, drawn to scale by month. Earlier product work is listed below.

Tenure chart, Jan 2015 to Dec 2026. Each bar runs from the first to the last month in role. Present is Oct 2026. The list below gives the same dates in text.

Role detail

  1. – Present

    Full Chaos Studio, LLC Founder & Principal Advisor

    Consultancy advising SaaS and PaaS startups on architecture, product and scaling.

  2. –

    Minted, Inc. Head of Engineering, Orders & Fulfillment

    Turning a high-volatility environment into predictable, cost-efficient, scalable systems.

  3. –

    LiveRamp, Inc. Head of Engineering, Activations Platform

    Owned engineering delivery for TV, B2C and B2B activation business lines.

  4. –

    Mya Systems, Inc. Director of Engineering, Integrations & Platform

    Led platform and integrations engineering for AI-driven hiring workflows.

  5. –

    AppDirect (AppInsights) Head of AppInsights (Product & Engineering)

    Founded and ran the SaaS and PaaS analytics arm end to end, from inception through scale.

Earlier

  1. SurveyMonkey Principal Software Architect

    One of the first developers. Helped rebuild the SurveyMonkey product and platform from the ground up, and set standards for the engineering and product org.

  2. Yahoo Senior Staff Software Engineer

    Built and scaled advertising platforms for high-traffic consumer products. Led an international proof-of-concept team and helped launch a front-end engineering training program.

Writing

Notes on teams, metrics, hiring and planning.

Contact

Start with a message.

Tell me what you need. I reply by email.

Or find me here