Stephen Van TranLos Angeles, California

StephenVan Tran

FunctionDirector of Engineering, full-stack software engineer, standards absolutist.

TenureTwenty years of production web — from table layouts to islands architecture.

CurrentlyRed Bull Media House — engineering for a global video platform.

Form follows
function.

I build fast, accessible, maintainable web systems — and the teams that build them. Two decades in, the toolkit has changed completely and the principles haven't moved an inch.

At Red Bull Media House I direct the engineering behind a media platform serving millions: video packaging and delivery, APIs, consumer web, and the internal tools that keep a 24/7 content operation honest. Before that, ad tech at Amobee, where I learned what real traffic does to sloppy architecture.

I write The Weighted Average — a daily reading of the AI economy — because engineering leadership that stops reading stops leading.

Experience

Professional record, 2005 — present
PeriodRoleOrganizationScope
2021 —Director of EngineeringRed Bull Media HouseEngineering org ownership: video pipeline (HLS/DASH, FFmpeg), AWS microservices, consumer web, hiring & technical strategy.
2017 — 21Lead Software EngineerRed Bull Media HouseMonolith → microservices migration on AWS, scaling to 1M+ concurrent viewers during live events; testing & observability standards.
2013 — 17Senior Software EngineerRed Bull Media HouseFirst-generation streaming web apps: React, Node.js, Python, PostgreSQL, Couchbase; RTMP→HLS live workflows.
2009 — 13Senior Software EngineerAmobeeHigh-throughput ad serving; Java, Spring Boot, MySQL; latency budgets in single-digit milliseconds.
2005 — 09Web DeveloperStudios & AgenciesFoundations: semantic HTML, CSS, progressive enhancement, accessibility before it was mandated.

Capabilities

  1. AILLM APIs, RAG pipelines, agent orchestration, vector search, evals & observability, MCP/tool integration, onsite customer delivery
  2. LanguagesTypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Go, Java, SQL
  3. Front EndReact, Vue, Angular, Astro, modern CSS, Web Components
  4. Back EndNode.js, Express, Django, Spring Boot, REST, GraphQL
  5. DataPostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Couchbase, Redis
  6. InfrastructureAWS, Linux, NGINX, Docker, CI/CD, edge caching
  7. VideoHLS, DASH, RTMP, FFmpeg, live-event operations
  8. QualityWCAG 2.2 AA, Core Web Vitals, performance budgets
  9. LeadershipOrg design, RFC culture, mentorship, technical strategy

Figures

20+
Years in production
3
Startups founded
1
Startup exit
1M+
Concurrent viewers

Writing

Contact

Direct correspondence preferred. hello@stephenvantran.com