2019–2024 · Ottawa
Software Development Manager
Resident engagement software for longer, healthier lives
Visit welbi.com
Welbi helps senior living and long-term care communities keep their residents engaged and connected. Recreation staff use the platform to plan personalized programming, track attendance, and identify residents who may be drifting into isolation, so they can reach out before a quiet stretch becomes a real problem.
After a few years in other roles that matched higher salaries with hollow corporate cultures, I joined Welbi in 2019 as the product was just getting started. Welbi's mission and the real difference we made for residents and recreation staff alike made this the most rewarding stretch of my engineering career.
For most of my years with Welbi, I was something of a "player-coach," leading the team but also contributing to the tactical software development.
As an early member of the development team, I worked across the entire platform. But my proudest achievements were in resident intelligence and engagement: the recommendation systems, program calendar, and social matching tools that helped recreation teams do their best work for residents.
Built recommendation and behavioural prediction systems using Neo4j, powering AI activity recommendations and friend matching that help recreation teams plan successful programs, invite residents to the programs they want to attend, and connect peers with shared interests.
Designed the systems for intelligent calendar planning and attendance prediction, surfacing resident insights as teams build programming so gaps in engagement are caught early and saving program coordinators' time.
Helped deliver social matching that uses resident profiles (hobbies, language, culture, and life experience) to foster connections and make new residents feel right at home.
Shipped French-language support across the product, including infrastructure and translations, so that Welbi could serve Francophone and bilingual communities and operators across Canada.
Built administrative tools for the support team, reducing time on repetitive workflows and giving customer-facing staff better visibility into client accounts.
Leadership at Welbi meant growing the team and the product at the same time, keeping delivery moving as we expanded from a small startup to an enterprise platform.