Mark HazletonSolutions Architect & Developer

About Mark

I'm Mark Hazleton, a solutions architect and hands-on application developer with decades of experience across consulting, enterprise and healthcare. I turn ambiguous business intent into systems that keep working, and I still build them myself.

Currently the Engineering Lead at Baylor Scott & White Health, since August 2020. I'm the solutions architect and a hands-on developer for a digital front-door program that helps visitors find the right type of care. I set the vision, design the solution and build it, leading a squad of developers across API, web, mobile, CRM and engagement, and analytics.

How I work

I solve the problem, then get out of the way. Getting out of the way means the business can run, change and own what I built without depending on me. The relationship keeps going; the dependency doesn't.

I care less about frameworks than about whether a system still works at 2 a.m. when something breaks. Two methods keep me honest about that: Project Mechanics for managing the work and DevSpark for building the software. I write to capture what actually works, what doesn't, and how to build systems that are easier to run, easier to change and harder to break.

Career

The chapters, not every job. Each one says what I was actually responsible for.

  1. –

    Enterprise consulting foundations

    EDS (1991–1994) · Price Waterhouse, now PwC (1994–1998)

    Learned enterprise delivery the structured way at EDS, then worked as technical architect and developer on petroleum marketing applications.

  2. –

    Early web and delivery leadership

    Luminant Worldwide (1998–2000) · Springbow (2000–2001) · Project Mechanics, independent consulting (2002–2005)

    Ran early-web programs for enterprise clients, then consulted independently, partly overseas. I earned a PMP and turned how I ran projects into Project Mechanics, and then chose to go back to building.

  3. –

    Document management and SharePoint

    Imagine Solutions (2005–2006) · Agency.com (2006) · REm2 (2008–2009) · SMBology (2009–2010) · Gimmal Group (2010–2013)

    Moved toward the technical side of enterprise content: FileNet and then SharePoint, ending as director of a SharePoint practice delivering document-management solutions across departments.

  4. –

    Multi-location web marketing

    Advice Interactive Group (2013–2014) · Project Mechanics, independent consulting (2014–2015)

    Ran delivery as VP for an agency doing local-business optimization for hundreds of clients, including an enterprise brand that needed local search and web presence for many independent distributors.

  5. – Present

    Enterprise and healthcare architecture

    CEC Entertainment, Digital Solutions Architect (2015–2020) · Baylor Scott & White Health, Engineering Lead (2020–present)

    Architect and hands-on builder for digital systems, first in consumer entertainment and now in healthcare, where I lead a squad across API, web, mobile, CRM and analytics.

Selected outcomes

  • Led enterprise web programs for clients during the early web, and built the program-management methodology I presented nationally.

    Luminant Worldwide, 1998–2000

  • Directed Gimmal's SharePoint services practice for three and a half years, owning document-management engagements across client departments from plan to close.

    Gimmal Group, 2010–2013

  • As VP of Delivery Management, ran delivery for local-business optimization across hundreds of clients, including an enterprise brand with many independent distributors.

    Advice Interactive Group, 2013–2014

  • Lead a developer squad across API, web, mobile, CRM and analytics on a digital front door that helps people find the right type of care.

    2020 – present

For the systems I build in public, see the work.

Focus areas

  • Cloud architecture: Azure infrastructure, .NET solutions, databases and API design
  • System reliability: designing for load, failure, security and the 2 a.m. incident
  • Integration: data flow, event-driven architecture, microservices and distributed systems
  • Healthcare and enterprise: compliance-aware systems in regulated industries
  • AI-assisted delivery: practical AI inside governed engineering workflows and the DevOps pipelines that ship it

Speaking and teaching

Explaining technology to people who don't build it is part of the job.

Affiliations

My wife Lesley and I co-founded Make Bold Solutions, her fractional CFO practice. I'm her biggest supporter and her on-call tech help. My open-source Sparks are published under its Make Bold Spark label, kept apart from my day job.