Daniel Leeks

My team is transforming how Microsoft delivers cloud computing resources around the world. We operate at the center of Microsoft’s business transformation to ensure compute capacity is available when and where it is needed. We work with multiple engineering and business teams to connect data and systems that enable critical business decision-making. Microsoft Cloud Operations & Innovation (CO+I) is the engine that powers Microsoft cloud services through the operation of our unified global datacenters enabling ~30% of Microsoft revenue thru Azure ($6.9 billion in FY18 Q1). My team is focused on improving the productivity of Cloud operations and engineering teams, particularly by inverting how business decisions are made – accelerating Microsoft's move to automated, data-driven decisions made by intelligent software that can present decision-makers with pre-optimized options.

Happay, Inc. was founded to develop new e-commerce applications for attended/unattended retail and mobile retail experiences. I along with the other co-founder grew the company to several million dollars in revenue by ensuring the processing of 90+ million credit card transactions and 35+ million cash transactions in our first year. I was involved in all aspects of planning and execution of our business strategy.

The Somex application is a Microsoft Research project to examine new concepts in group based communication. I was a key contributor in fixing scalability and flexibility issues that hampered the projects research goals. I also supported all active research studies for the project through adding new features as requested.

The Microsoft online store is an ecommerce website which sells Microsoft products, related hardware and services. My team was responsible for designing and implementing multiple projects aimed at process improvement. We were an agile team practicing Dev Ops and utilizing test driven development, automated builds and deployment.

For Microsoft I helped lead development of Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU), contributed to the Microsoft Online Store, and was a major contributor to the point of sale system for the Microsoft Retail Stores. I was a key contributor in designing and implementing multiple projects aimed at process improvement from code review processes to automated builds and deployment for the Microsoft Retail Stores.

Currently working on the team responsible for integrating Verdiem's Surveyor software with desktop management systems.

I am currently working in the MSN Mobile team. I am responsible for the development and maintenance of PC and Pocket PC portal features, mobile device issues and sql database design. My feature responsibilities required me to become proficient in C#, XML and ASP.Net. I am also responsible for providing development design documents and working with Program Management to develop scenarios of new features.

I worked on the tools team that was primarily responsible for the WorkBench tool. I was responsible for the development and unit testing of new features for the WorkBench which is the proprietary MSNBC visual news article editing and formatting tool. My product feature responsibilities required me to work with both PMs and developers to determine the best way to integrate new features into the tool. I was also responsible for the design, implementation and maintenance of the custom Win32 installation program for the Personal Update tool. This tool required me to learn about Microsoft’s digital signature policies and procedures. The installation program especially challenging since it was necessary that it only be 30KB in size which is suitable for download over a modem connection to the internet.