Bernie Durfee

VP of Engineering

Amira Learning

Mar 2025 - Current (1 year 8 months)

Lead software engineering capability and organizational development for K-12 education technology company. Responsible for engineering growth, standards, and technical excellence across product portfolio. In 2025, I led engineering for two major products: Amira Assessments and Story of America. For Amira Assessments, launched flagship AI-powered reading assessment platform serving K-8 students across multiple states. Platform uses speech recognition and AI to assess reading skills in real-time during oral reading sessions, delivering immediate results to educators. Led engineering team through product launch, managing cross-functional collaboration across engineering, data science, QA, and DevOps. For Story of America (social studies curric

Senior Director of Engineering

Renaissance Learning

Oct 2021 - Mar 2025 (3 years 6 months)

In my role at Renaissance Learning, I directed the engineering strategy for eduCLIMBER, a leading K-12 analytics platform. I successfully drove revenue growth by 4X and transformed platform reliability, which significantly enhanced customer satisfaction. My leadership during the post-acquisition integration maintained team momentum and product delivery while establishing a specialized data engineering capability.

Head of Learning

Lambda School

Jul 2019 - Jul 2021 (2 years 1 month)

Architected project delivery platform and technical standards for experiential learning programs serving hundreds of students on real-world software projects.

Head of Experential Learning

Lambda School

Jul 2019 - Jul 2021 (2 years 1 month)

At Lambda School, I led the creation and execution of innovative project-based learning programs, guiding hundreds of students through real-world software projects for non-profits. My role involved managing cross-functional teams and establishing technical standards that significantly improved project delivery and operational efficiency.

Senior Director of Software Architecture

GE

Apr 2011 - Jul 2019 (8 years 4 months)

Led enterprise-wide software engineering excellence and cloud transformation initiatives across GE's industrial divisions. Established and led the Software Engineering Competency Center (SECC), driving technical standards and cloud adoption across the organization. Held roles including Enterprise Architect, Senior Team Leader, Cloud Services Leader, Chief Software Engineer, and Senior Director of Software Architecture.
• Built and led teams of architects and engineers establishing cloud practices across multiple GE businesses
• Architected and implemented enterprise-wide migration of 200+ applications to AWS
• Established DevOps practices and enterprise CI/CD pipelines, enabling rapid and consistent cloud-native development

E

Enterprise Architect

Aug 2009 - Apr 2011 (1 year 9 months)

Led enterprise architecture initiatives for state university campus, developing strategic roadmap for technical services modernization.
• Architected campus-wide identity management and single sign-on solutions
• Developed enterprise data analytics and business intelligence capabilities
• Created technical strategy improving service availability and security
• Established integration standards ensuring system interoperability

Senior Technical Consultant

Curam Software

Sep 2006 - Aug 2009 (3 years)

Led architecture and development of large-scale social services platforms for government agencies across North America.
• Architected and delivered mission-critical solutions for major public sector organizations
• Led technical teams across multiple concurrent enterprise projects
• Designed scalable solutions for social services case management
• Established implementation standards for government service delivery platforms

S

Senior Software Engineer

SUNY System Administration

Aug 2004 - Aug 2006 (2 years 1 month)

Designed SOA for SUNY’s statewide learning management system, replacing legacy Lotus Domino platform.

S

Senior Programmer

SUNY System Administration

Aug 2004 - Aug 2006 (2 years 1 month)

Designed and developed Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for SUNY's statewide learning management system.
• Architected modern SOA platform replacing legacy Lotus Domino system
• Led technical modernization of SUNY Learning Network
• Developed integration standards for cross-campus services
• Established architectural patterns for scalable education platform

C

Technical Consultant

Currier McCabe Associates

Jan 2003 - Aug 2004 (1 year 8 months)

Developed analysis systems for engineering models at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL).
• Architected and implemented engineering analysis platform
• Designed solutions for complex engineering model validation
• Developed software tools for nuclear engineering applications
• Established technical standards for engineering analysis systems

I

Senior Software Consultant

Interactive Business Solutions

Dec 2000 - Dec 2002 (2 years 1 month)

Led development of uPortal framework components and provided technical consulting for university implementations.
• Architected core components of enterprise portal framework
• Delivered technical consulting services to university clients
• Developed implementation standards and best practices
• Conducted technical training for client engineering teams

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Bernie Durfee

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