Chris Delpire

Engineer @ NI


Chris Delpire

Software Engineer | Platform Builder | Systems Thinker

I build systems that make other systems work better.

Experience

11+ years

Scale

96+ centers

Impact

$438M

Creative Work

15+ game jams

Over the past decade, I’ve worked at the intersection of hardware, software, and operations — designing developer platforms, distributed services, and large-scale planning systems that power manufacturing and fulfillment networks.

I graduated from Kansas State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, where I learned to think about systems holistically — from transistors and timing diagrams to software architecture and abstraction boundaries.

National Instruments

From Hardware APIs to Platform Architecture

I started at National Instruments building .NET APIs for complex test and measurement hardware — oscilloscopes, function generators, digital instruments, and RF devices.

Early on, I focused on translating low-level C drivers into developer-friendly abstractions and automating painful, repetitive workflows — including a code generation tool that eliminated recurring manual interop work and saved months of engineering effort each year.

As responsibilities grew, I moved toward platform work: helping build maintenance software from scratch, leading frontend architecture and infrastructure decisions, and designing portable reporting systems for secure offline manufacturing environments.

I later helped architect MeasurementLink, a microservices platform enabling customers to write measurement code in Python, LabVIEW, or .NET and run it consistently across applications using gRPC services for discovery, hardware reservation, and monitoring.

Amazon

Scaling to Network-Level Systems

At Amazon Fulfillment Technology, I work on labor planning systems serving fulfillment centers across North America. The domain shifted from devices and measurements to network-level optimization and operational reliability.

  • Automated plan promotion across 90+ sites, eliminating the vast majority of manual reviews.
  • Re-architected ingestion pipelines, reducing plan generation time by over 80%.
  • Designed robust reporting-window logic that prevented peak-season failures during holiday operations.

Approach

Building for Leverage

A common thread in my career is leverage: finding recurring friction and replacing it with durable systems.

  • Automate what repeats.
  • Design reusable frameworks and clear abstractions.
  • Simplify operational workflows.
  • Prototype quickly to validate assumptions.
  • Improve observability so invisible failures become debuggable.

Outside Work

Creative Systems: Game Jams & Rapid Prototyping

I’ve participated in 15+ game jams, including 1st place in Godot Wild Jam #67 out of roughly 150 entries. Game jams are smaller and faster than enterprise systems, but they sharpen the same muscles: rapid decisions, scope control, and shipping under constraints.

How I Think

Principles I Build By

  • Prototype to reduce uncertainty.
  • Ship incrementally.
  • Build systems that fail gracefully.
  • Design for the person debugging at 2am.
  • Prefer durable solutions over clever ones.

I’m most energized by platform problems — the kind where one well-designed system makes dozens of other systems better.