Chris Eckhout

Seattle area, Washington

I lead engineering teams, and I still build things myself.

I'm a software development manager at Amazon, where I lead engineering on internal AI-powered tooling and the shared integration layer that connects agents, tools, and internal systems. Before that, three years at AWS running control-plane teams for Amazon MSK and ECR. On the side, my wife and I run FamJet, and I do most of the development.

ceckhout@gmail.com LinkedIn Résumé FamJet.com

~75%

Reduction in operational load, Amazon MSK control plane

~70%

Less developer effort to launch a new AWS region

20

Engineers led across three teams at Savers

5

Engineers promoted under my management at Amazon

01Now

  • Amazon

    Software Development Manager

    Oct 2025 – Present

    My team builds internal AI tools at Amazon, plus a shared integration platform that other teams use to connect agents and tools to internal systems. Several teams depend on that layer, so a big part of my job is keeping its patterns consistent without slowing those teams down.

    Much of the work happens before any code. When people report a pain point, we look at the workflow causing it and try to redesign that, then test the idea with a small prototype before building it out. I'm also leading early work on autonomous agents, working with security, platform, and governance teams on how an agent gets an identity and what it's allowed to run.

  • FamJet

    Founder

    Nov 2025 – Present

    FamJet makes packing lists for family trips based on where you're going and how old your kids are. I do most of the development, using AI tools, and AI also generates the lists. It's live, and it's free.

    Read the case study →

02Selected work

  • Amazon Web Services

    Amazon MSK control plane

    2022 – 2025

    I owned the MSK control plane, first the APIs and then the workflows behind them. One project in that time was getting Express brokers to functional completion. The work I'm proudest of is operational. We cut the control plane's recurring operational load by about 75% by fixing repeat issues at the source, designing out failure modes we could see coming, and paying down the debt that kept paging us.

    ~75% less operational load on the MSK control plane

  • Amazon Web Services

    Amazon ECR archive storage tiers

    2022 – 2025

    Led the archive storage tiers project for Elastic Container Registry through functional completion and production readiness, up to its final deployment.

  • Amazon Web Services

    Automated region build

    2022 – 2025

    Designed and built an automated process for standing up new AWS regions. It cut the developer effort for each region launch by about 70%.

    ~70% less developer effort per region launch

  • Savers

    Cloud inventory tracking and IoT

    2016 – 2022

    Designed and built a cloud-based inventory tracking and IoT system, state of the art in thrift retail, that improved visibility and operational insight across the business. It was part of a bigger job: moving Savers from mostly on-premise systems to cloud-native architecture on Azure while keeping the older systems running and connected.

    20 engineers across three teams: custom development, QA, DevOps, and enterprise integrations

03How I work

I've spent nearly twenty years writing software and managing the teams that write it. That shapes how I manage. When the same tickets keep coming in, I go after whatever is causing them. And I'll cut scope if that's what it takes to get something into production.

Most of my career has been backend engineering, with some customer-facing work along the way: manufacturing systems at Emerson, cloud migration at Savers, control planes at AWS, and now AI tooling at Amazon.

At Amazon, five engineers on my teams have been promoted: three from mid-level to senior, and two from junior to mid-level.

04FamJet

“Family travel, packed and prepped.”

My wife and I kept hitting the same problem packing for family trips. Most lists online treat kids as one group, but a six-month-old and a six-year-old need very different things. FamJet builds a packing list from where you're going, what kind of trip it is, and how old each person is.

We come up with the ideas and make product decisions together. I do most of the development, using AI tools, and my wife owns the packing lists and the marketing. FamJet LLC is a Washington company, and the site is live and free. The case study goes through how we got from the idea to a working product.

The full case study →

05Career

Software Development ManagerAmazon2025 – Present
FounderFamJet2025 – Present
Software Development ManagerAmazon Web Services2022 – 2025
Principal Software Engineer, ConsultantStarbucks, via Sirrus7 (part-time)2020 – 2021
Associate Director, Software EngineeringSavers2016 – 2022
Software Engineering LeadiTrellis2015 – 2016
Engineering Supervisor, Senior Software EngineerEmerson Process Management2007 – 2015
B.S. Computer ScienceMichigan Technological University2007

Full résumé →

06Contact

Happy to talk about engineering leadership roles, platform and AI tooling work, or anything on this page. Email is the fastest way to reach me.

Email
ceckhout@gmail.com
LinkedIn
chris-eckhout
Based in
Seattle area, Washington
Side project
FamJet.com