Chris Connar
Who I am
I am a software engineer with over 20 years experience building scalable enterprise web applications. I focus on user experience and business processes.
I also build side projects and make music on Youtube and Twitch.
Notable Engagements
Insurance · 2022–2026
New Business & Payment Application Platform
Led backend engineering teams building real-time ETL between a major insurance carrier's digital application and core underwriting systems. Later owned the frontend team delivering the carrier's end-to-end digital payment experience.
Insurance · 2019
Life Insurance Underwriting Automation
Architected the straight-through processing engine for a life insurance underwriting platform, designing the STP flows end-to-end in Flowable and leading the backend Java team through BPM/BRM delivery.
Pharma · 2017
Pharmaceutical Pricing Automation
Automated daily pricing operations for a major pharmaceutical distributor, building a rules-driven batch system that calculated prices across the full product catalog with configurable, auditable business logic.
Aviation · 2016
Gate-to-Gate Operations Platform
Led the business rules implementation for a gate-to-gate flight operations system at a major aerospace navigation firm, delivering a production-ready solution and building client-side capability through hands-on technical training.
FinTech · 2009–2015
Managed Account Advisory Platform
Delivered the integration between an in-house managed account advisory platform and an external portfolio management vendor, engineering a reusable REST library and re-architecting the underlying workflow application.
Things I've built
hihelloquotes.com
A fan quote voting site with 1000 quotes and a global leaderboard. Built with optimistic UI updates, IP-based rate limiting, Postgres RLS, and a weekly automated sync that pulls new quotes from the stream's quote log.
Pi E-Ink Display
A Raspberry Pi 4 dashboard on a 7.5" tricolor e-ink display showing live weather, a 5-day forecast, and Google Calendar events. Includes a Flask web UI for configuration, a button that displays cats, and a custom rendering workaround for the UC8179 display driver's OTP waveform quirks.