In the News:

My volunteer organzization was featured on the Fox 28 news program "Good Day Columbus"

About Me:

Hello, my name is Max. Welcome to my personal portfolio.

I am currently an aspiring educator who worked most recently as a software developer with Capital One. I grauduated from The Ohio State University with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Business in 2021.

I am a dedicated technologist and mentor with experience teaching coding and STEM concepts to children and adults. I am committed to leveraging my practical experience to make technology more approachable and empowering through hands-on learning experiences. This includes everything from executing dedicated lesson plans, to guiding programming projects, to assembling hardware.

I have been recognized for my clear communication style, patience, and the ability to connect with learners of all skill levels. I strive to be a leader in everything I do, bring a determined and positive attitude to all my projects, and improve myself and my team every day. I am especially adept at working with a diverse team in a challenging and fast paced environment. I find the projects with the biggest impact are often those who value diversity and inclusion above all.

Certifications:
  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (2023)
  • Adult First Aid/AED/CPR (2024)
  • NOLS Wilderness First Aid (2024)

    • Languages:
  • Java - Proficient
  • Python - Proficient
  • C - Familiar
  • JavaScript - Familiar
  • HTML/CSS - Familiar
  • C# - Familiar
  • Interested and willing to learn more

    • Resume

    Professional Experience

    Senior Associate Software Developer -
    Capital One Financial

       August 2024 - March 2025

    Engineered and optimized APIs handling hundreds of thousands of daily requests, improving resilience, scalability, and uptime. Led team initiatives in vulnerability management and codebase maintenance, ensuring compliance and long-term system stability. Spearheaded a major overhaul of a legacy AWS Lambda data publishing service, cutting latency and boosting data accessibility across dependent applications. Modernized infrastructure by migrating legacy workloads from AWS EC2 to AWS Fargate, reducing operational overhead and improving deployment efficiency.

    Associate Software Developer -
    Capital One Financial

       August 2022 - August 2024

    Responsible for developing resilient services and infrastructure supporting multiple critical business functions in the Customer Resiliency space. Developed infrastructure and rollout of a new micro-container to enable call center agents to service additional customers. Directed a cross-team initiative to improve application resilience, driving communication, documentation, and implementation of infrastructure enhancements to strengthen system reliability.

    Software Development Intern -
    Capital One Financial

       June 2021 - August 2021

    As a member of a cross functional intern team, helped deliver a full stack dashboard to display valuable business metrics. Wrote a Spring Java API hosted on AWS EC2 instance to pull data from multiple Snowflake warehouses. Developed ReactJS front-end hosted on AWS S3 to intuitively display metrics.

    STEM Educator -
    Americorp

       May 2020 - August 2020

    Responsible for STEM education of youths aged 7-12 at the Boys and Girls Club of Fairbanks. Designed and delivered interactive lessons in biology, computer science, and math to promote conceptual understanding and student engagement. Supported students from diverse, underserved communities by tailoring lessons and teaching approaches to different learning levels and abilities.

    Involvement and Interests

    3.68

    Undergraduate GPA

    Too Many

    Cups of Coffee

    Continental Divide Trail Thru Hiker
    2025

    Successfully thru hiked the Continental Divide Trail northbound (2,500mi).

    Mentor and Facilitator
    Capital One CODERS, 2023 - 2025

    Responsible for teaching and mentoring secondary students in the basics of web development as well as managing communication and coordination with partner schools to ensure smooth program delivery and engagement.. Guided students through programming lessons and gave insight into software development. Invited to speak on a conference panel about experience.

    Appalachian Trail Thru Hiker
    2022

    Successfully thru hiked the Appalachian Trail northbound (2,195mi).

    Project Lead and Coordinator
    Engineers for Community Service, 2018 - 2022

    Developed and delivered technology workshops for a retirement community, combining accessible instruction with hands-on support. Designed original presentations on relevant tools like Google Drive and Uber, and guided participants through live demonstrations and troubleshooting. The initiative was featured on Columbus Fox 28 News.

    Outreach Coordinator, Mentor, Developer
    Code for Community, 2018 - 2022

    Organization focused on bringing the benefits of code to everyone. Developed a JavaScript game application and corresponding presentation to teach secondary students programming fundamentals. Assisted with teaching and mentoring the curriculum at many Columbus area secondary schools.

    High Altitude Near Space Balloon
    Personal Project, 2019

    Successful preparation, launch and recovery of homemade payload designed to photograph the Earth. Payload reached an altitude of ~75,000ft. Some photos can be found here.

    Educator/Construction Worker in Africa
    GIVE Volunteers, 2018

    Worked in conjunction with other volunteers and local government to develop and improve primary and secondary school infrastructure for the children of Kairo, Tanzania. Taught English lessons to local children. Climbed the tallest free-standing mountain in the world, Kilimanjaro.

    Media

    Contact Me

    mherz1717@gmail.com

    LinkedIn

    Github