Michael R. Larson

VP of Engineering

Los Angeles, California, United States17 yrs 8 mos experience
AI EnabledAI ML Practitioner

Key Highlights

  • Led development of a $2.4B commercial sales platform.
  • Reduced critical failure rate by 45% through improved testing.
  • Expert in integrating AI into software engineering workflows.
Stackforce AI infers this person is a Fintech and Cybersecurity expert with a strong focus on software engineering and automation.

Contact

LinkedIn

Skills

Core Skills

Software EngineeringSystems ThinkingAi IntegrationProductivity ImprovementProcess ImprovementAutomationContinuous Integration

Other Skills

PythonAI workflowsdistributed systemstesting strategyrelease validationC#WPFAzure servicesSpecFlowGherkinxUnitGitHub CopilotSwiftUIMentoringRetrospectives

About

Technology leader and hands-on builder with 19+ years of experience across large-scale systems, developer platforms, and AI-augmented engineering. I’ve spent my career improving how software is built and operated, whether that’s scaling internal platforms, reducing production failures, or helping engineers move faster with better tooling. I’ve worked at companies like Symantec, Microsoft, and now GEICO, tackling complex systems with real-world impact. Most recently, I’ve been leading development of a commercial sales platform supporting $2.4B+ in premiums, handling 5K–10K quotes per day while maintaining high reliability in a regulated environment. Lately, my focus has shifted toward how AI is changing software engineering. Not just writing code faster, but fundamentally shifting where the bottlenecks are. In practice, AI amplifies whatever system you already have, strong foundations accelerate, weak ones break faster. That’s why I’m especially interested in systems thinking, developer experience, and how organizations evolve to actually benefit from AI. This includes building internal tools, experimenting with agent-based workflows, and using real production data to improve software quality and reliability. I also share what I’m learning along the way, the wins, the friction, and the trade-offs, because we are all still figuring out how high functioning engineering teams use AI effectively. The views and opinions expressed by me on LinkedIn are my own and do not reflect the views, opinions, or policies of my employer, GEICO.

Experience

17 yrs 8 mos
Total Experience
8 yrs 6 mos
Average Tenure
7 mos
Current Experience

Geico

Staff Software Engineering Manager

Oct 2025 – Present · 7 mos · Los Angeles Metropolitan Area · Remote

  • Lead team developing distributed commercial sales platform supporting $2.4B+ in annual premiums.
  • Own systems that handle 5k to 10k quotes per business day, maintaining <1% error rates in a highly regulated environment.
  • Partner with multiple external stakeholders (product, business, platform teams) to align on requirements, delivery, and system behavior across a complex domain.
  • Reduced Critical Failure Rate (CFR) by 45% by improving testing strategy, release validation, and identifying systemic quality gaps.
  • Built internal tools using Python and AI workflows to analyze production bugs, extract failure patterns, and improve pre-merge code reviews.
PythonAI workflowsdistributed systemstesting strategyrelease validationSoftware Engineering+1

Microsoft

3 roles

Senior Software Engineer

Aug 2023 – Jul 2025 · 1 yr 11 mos · Los Angeles Metropolitan Area · Remote

  • Visual Studio Connected Experience - Core AI Platform & Tools Group
  • Migrated legacy settings code to new settings API for JSON control in Visual Studio.
  • Secured SSL connections by preventing the use of revoked certificates and warning Developers of issues.
  • Led learning group to investigate how to integrate AI tools in day-to-day work.
  • Created an MCP Server to help engineers to automatically address pull request comments left on ADO PRs.
  • Advocated the use of GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Copilot to boost team productivity.
  • Utilized telemetry to track feature adoption and preemptively resolve issues.
  • Extended Azure DevOps build pipelines.
  • Mentored 6 Developers on a 1-on-1 basis across teams.
  • Developed end-to-end tests using SpecFlow, Gherkin, and XUnit.
  • Built and maintained features with C#, WPF, and Azure services.
C#WPFAzure servicesSpecFlowGherkinxUnit+3

Senior Software Engineer

Aug 2022 – Aug 2023 · 1 yr · Los Angeles Metropolitan Area · Remote

  • Visual Studio for Mac – Productivity Team
  • Improved satisfaction of test tools in Visual Studio for Mac, raising Net Promoter Score by 6 points.
  • Fixed complex localization issue in Visual Studio Editor for Mac affecting multi-Unicode characters in languages like Korean and Chinese.
  • Supported Visual Studio for Mac until end of life in August 2024.
  • Developed and maintained features using C# and Apple SwiftUI.
  • Monitored user feedback, bug reports, and product telemetry for issues.
  • Mentored 5 Developers on a 1-on-1 basis across teams.
  • Ran team retrospectives to identify areas to celebrate and improve.
C#SwiftUIMentoringRetrospectivesSoftware EngineeringProductivity Improvement

Senior Software Engineer

Mar 2020 – Aug 2022 · 2 yrs 5 mos · Los Angeles Metropolitan Area · Remote

  • Senior Software Engineer - Visual Studio - Acquisition & Retention Team
  • Acted as Lead Developer on DevInit for setting up a Windows Developer environment using a configuration file to automatically install various tools.
  • Created automation to set up end-to-end testing using SpecFlow Gherkin, XUnit and Vagrant, allowing team members to run tests locally on a clean Virtual Environment as part of the development workflow.
  • Led the development of Visual Studio Bulletins, enabling teams to promote new features directly within the Visual Studio installer. This increased adoption of features promoted through Visual Studio Bulletins.
  • Mentored 6 Developers individually across teams.
  • Improved team processes by advocating for weekly sprints instead of monthly sprints. Encouraged the adoption of best practices such as pair programming and Test Driven Development.
  • Conducted team retrospectives to identify areas for celebration and improvement.
  • Developed features using C#, Windows Presentation Foundation, Azure Services, Power Automate flows.
  • Prototyped new features for Visual Studio such as new installer service that allowed installing old packages into Visual Studio with Cosmos Db database and Azure Functions.
C#WPFAzure ServicesTest Driven DevelopmentSoftware EngineeringProcess Improvement

Symantec

4 roles

Principal Software Engineer

Promoted

Jun 2016 – Mar 2020 · 3 yrs 9 mos · On-site

  • Principal Software Engineer – Shared Services and Automation Team
  • Ran Test Driven Development workshop that taught hundreds of Developers inside Symantec through lecture and hands on labs.
  • Acted as Lead Developer on Harvest which managed the storage, promotion and deletion of all internal builds created each day, eliminating hundreds of hours of maintenance.
  • Migrating to event driven architecture using docker, dotnet core, MongoDb, and RabbitMQ.
  • Implemented telemetry using Splunk to monitor health of system and reduce downtime.
  • Supported various Developer tools built in C++, Python, Golang, Java, and C#.
  • Supported cross platform environments in Windows, Linux and MacOS.
  • Achieved over 90% code coverage on each PR produced by my team.
  • Frontline support for internal team services to all Developers inside Symantec.
C++PythonGolangJavaDockerSoftware Engineering+1

Senior Software Engineer

Promoted

Jun 2014 – Jun 2016 · 2 yrs · On-site

  • Senior Software Engineer in Shared Services and Automation Group.
  • Implemented Git and Atlassian Bitbucket to enhance Developer productivity.
  • Transitioned to Continuous Integration, reducing feature delivery time from weeks to 1 day.
  • Utilized Jenkins files for build pipeline automation.
  • Achieved over 90% code coverage on each PR produced by my team.
  • Mentored 8 Developers in Test Driven Development, SOLID principles, code smells, and refactoring.
  • Trained internal teams on how to use our team services.
  • Conducted user interviews to find pain points and new feature requests.
  • Frontline support for internal team services to all Developers inside Symantec.
  • Supported various Developer tools built in C++, Python, Golang, Java, and C#.
C#PythonGolangJavaSoftware EngineeringContinuous Integration

Software Engineer

Promoted

Jun 2011 – Jun 2014 · 3 yrs · On-site

  • Software Engineer in Shared Services and Automation Group.
  • Created end-to-end automation suite using Atrium.
  • Achieved over 90% code coverage on new features.
  • Developed and implemented Atrium for automated testing and state restoration post-system failure, used company-wide.
  • Trained internal teams on Atrium use, saving millions in manual QA costs.
  • Conducted user interviews to find pain points and new feature requests.
  • Created comprehensive documentation for team tools, with code samples.
  • Supported various Developer tools built in C++, Python, Java, and C#.
C++PythonJavaSoftware EngineeringAutomation

Associate Software Engineer

Jun 2008 – Jun 2011 · 3 yrs · On-site

  • Created automated end to end tests for Norton Security Product Suite.
  • Ran code reviews to find memory leaks and security issues.
  • Led Development of dashboard that allowed internal teams to fix top support issues resulting in reducing support calls by 25%.
  • Automated the entire performance testing process for Norton Security with report generation.
  • Debugged complex product crashes and memory leaks using WinDbg and Window Memory Diagnostic tool.
  • Maintained features using C++.
C++

Education

California State University, Long Beach

Incomplete (Completed 85% required classes for B.S. Degree) — Computer Science

Jan 2004 – Jan 2008