Blake Bowling.
Engineer first. Leader second.
About
I've spent fifteen years building and fixing engineering systems in places where a bad deploy is a real problem: FinTech, aviation, and government work. These days I run Prime Directive Consulting and take fractional VP of Engineering work. The through line is friction. I find where work stops moving, whether that's a deploy pipeline, a review queue, or a data-entry loop, and I fix it at the system level.
Off the clock Im a climber, develop climbing routes, and served in search and rescue. Different terrain, same job: find the risk before it finds you.
Selected Work
Scaling a global team
Grew a FinTech risk platform's engineering org 200% across five time zones while productivity went up. Async workflows, clear ownership seams, and fewer meetings that only existed because nobody trusted the handoffs.
Pulling revenue out of a monolith
Extracted risk algorithms buried in legacy code and turned them into standalone revenue features, without taking the system that was earning money offline to do it.
Killing invisible friction
For a small manufacturing client: automated email triage by actual content, and eliminated a loop where a sixteen-digit SKU was hand-typed into seven screens. Neither fix was glamorous. Both changed how the office runs.
SOC 2 evidence automation
Currently designing a multi-agent system that automates SOC 2 evidence response work, with a hash-chained audit trail so every output is traceable. Early-stage, built governance first.
Writing
Engineering leadership, why shipping slows down, and where AI actually earns its place. Long-form on Substack, shorter takes on LinkedIn.
Bridge the Gap from Startup to Enterprise
Scaling past product-market fit is a specific kind of chaos. Releases slow down, tech debt piles up, and enterprise prospects start asking for SOC 2. With 15+ years as a hands-on engineering leader, I fix this at the system level: modernizing legacy systems, building compliance into the pipeline, and scaling global teams without giving up velocity.
Team Scaling Across Time Zones
Compliance Without Velocity Loss
Engineering Leadership in Regulated Industries
Let's Talk
Ready to discuss your engineering challenges?
For consulting and fractional engagements, see Prime Directive Consulting.