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About Steven

About Steven

Hi, I'm Steve.

Lead / Staff .NET engineer. St. Louis area, Central time, fully remote for seven years.

I have spent twelve years building full stack software in C#, SQL Server, React and Azure. I have been the only engineer on a live financial platform, where I shipped more than 200 releases with no downtime, and I have been the lead who built a team of four. I am happy in either seat.

Read my resumeLinkedInGitHub

Steve and Katie smiling in sunglasses at a table on a vineyard terrace, autumn trees and a hillside behind them

How I lead

A team drawn in teal, formed into an arrow, with one gold figure out in front

I build the systems that make delivery boring in the best way, then coach people inside them.

Decisions written down

Every architectural choice in TheYard has a decision record, served from inside the running app. A new engineer reads why, not just what.

Tests that guard the business

Every version passes one gate before it ships: the .NET tests on both databases and the front end's unit and browser suites. The test record shows the last run.

Tradeoffs in the open

When the roadmap is bigger than the team, I put scope and date on the table, with the cost of each, and leadership chooses. Adding a second database was one of those calls, priced in writing before it shipped.

Coaching inside the system

Good systems give engineers a safe place to learn fast. My favorite part of leading is helping each person on the team become the best version of themselves.

Away from the keyboard

The lake, and no boat

I grew up at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, and neither my parents nor I have ever owned a boat. My dad always said BOAT stands for "Break Out Another Thousand." Ha ha.

Ha Ha Tonka from the air in autumn: the castle ruins on a limestone bluff over the turquoise water of Lake of the Ozarks
Ha Ha Tonka photograph from 417mag.com.

History

I read a lot about Ancient Rome and European history, which had more to do with the American Revolution and the Louisiana Purchase than you might expect. Fun fact: Lewis and Clark set out from St. Charles, Missouri, which is my part of the world.

The Pantheon in Rome at dusk, its columned portico lit gold beside the obelisk fountain of the Piazza della Rotonda
Pantheon photograph from fullsuitcase.com.
Steve holding Katie's hand as she steps across a small stream in a garden

Games

Mass Effect, Hades and Star Wars: Republic Commando. I will defend all three.

The Mass Effect crew in front of a glowing blue planet, with ships streaking past
Mass Effect Legendary Edition key art © Electronic Arts.
Steve and Katie standing together on a wooden footbridge over a pond

Modding

Republic Commando, brought up to date with Claude: a crash fix, 4K textures and a controller layout. The Witcher 3 is next.

Delta Squad from Republic Commando: the lead commando, all in white, points the way, two of his squad behind him with their visor lights cutting the dark
Star Wars: Republic Commando key art © Lucasfilm, remastered to 8K by a fan on r/StarWars.
Geralt with his sword drawn in front of Ciri, Yennefer and Triss, a dead tree and a pale sun behind them
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt key art © CD PROJEKT RED, from ign.com.

Food

I am a soft foodie, always looking for a new place to try. Steak, sushi or Mexican and I am in. Recommendations are welcome.

A charcoal grill on a driveway with flames rising off the coals, its lid and a chimney starter beside it

The doors

My most ambitious home project so far was replacing every interior door in the house, with a lot of help from my father-in-law. We went two months without bathroom doors. Katie was very happy when they went back on.

A white six-panel interior door hung in its new frame, the trim not yet on and the wall around it still rough
Steve in a navy suit and Katie in a white dress smiling at each other under a weeping willow, sunlight through the leaves

Freya and Vincent

Katie and I have two rabbits, Freya and Vincent, our little white snowballs. Think vegetarian cats more than hamsters: they are litter box trained, they can live ten years or more, and they need room to run.

My one PSA: rabbits do not make good Easter presents.

Two white rabbits asleep side by side on a grey rug
Fun fact: a rabbit in deep sleep looks alarmingly like this. They are fine.
A white lop-eared rabbit sitting on a blue rug, a white rabbit with upright ears behind
Rabbits see almost all the way around them, with one small blind spot right in front of the nose.

Too many house plants

I have too many house plants. I try to con my wife into watering them, and my rabbit into not nibbling them.

A peace lily and two pothos in white pots on wooden stands, leaning toward a clip-on grow light in a corner
A pothos in a blue and white pot trailing from the top kitchen shelf past the canisters, a cross-stitched fox on the wall beside it

St. Charles

I live in St. Charles, Missouri. It was the first state capital of Missouri and is now a glorified suburb of St. Louis. Main Street is still brick, and from the day after Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve it turns into Christmas Traditions: carolers in Victorian dress and Santas from around the world. In 2024 the Today Show called it the Merriest Main Street in America. I have no plans to argue.

Main Street in St. Charles at night at Christmas: a brick building hung with wreaths and garlands, bicycles with red bows, and trees wrapped in white lights along a brick walk
St. Charles photograph from midwestliving.com.
Two white rabbits, one lop-eared and one with upright ears, on a wooden board under a hay rack, on a green and white rug

If any of this sounds like someone you would want on your team, I would enjoy the conversation.

Message me on LinkedInRead my resume

Photos of Steve and Katie at the stream, on the bridge and under the willow by McKinley Griggs.

Store

The Yard, home

Welcome to The Yard

Steven Stout’s showcase: a used-vehicle auction on .NET and React, built and run by one engineer, live on Azure, with its decisions written down.

Answering in

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0255075100

server time at p95, the usual five minutes of the last day.

Azure this month

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the bill, by resource, read from Azure. The Admin tab shows every line.

Since the last roll

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rolled blue and green, with no downtime.

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How it is built

How it is run

Who and why