ABOUT
Factory Belt Productions is owned and managed by Aaron Starkey.
Why the name “Factory Belt”?
When I decided to start my own business, I wanted a reminder to myself that I did not, and would not ever again feel like I was working in a software factory. By calling it Factory Belt I am keeping close the idea that individual experiences are primary and the value of human interaction should guide my decision making and problem solving. It’s also a song by one of my favorite bands, Uncle Tupelo. I am also a parent, partner and musician.
Experience
Guitarist->Singer->Songwriter->Producer->Arranger: Musician.
I create and play music with people. it’s as simple as that. My current musical projects are: Gibraltar, Long Dark Moon and afew of my past projects are Spanish for 100 and DGH & The Trouble Starts.
Senior Program Manager – Zillow
January 2015 – June 2015
In this role I worked closely with engineering and design and collaborated with sales, marketing and the executive team to rapidly drive new features in the rich media and data space. This includes 3D modeling and visualizations, video, drones, and enhanced capture technologies. I also spearhead the development of new experiences and “first to market” datasets for the home buying consumer.
Senior Software Engineer – Substantial
October 2013 – October 2014
Process: Agile and TDD Core technologies used: Ruby/Rails, Sass, Spine MVC, Haml/Hamlbars, Socket IO, CoffeeScript, Git, JQuery. Products: Savage Lovecast, Teaching Channel, Drink Distiller Also: SEO strategy and client engagement support.
Online Director – KEXP.org
July 2007 – October 2013
I ensured the achievement of public service impact, product development design and execution, and the effective business execution and economic vitality of the KEXP Online Service. Further, I continued to have an active and hand-on role, in our technology and software development.
Program Manager – Microsoft
February 2001 – July 2007
Managed design, implementation and release of new Desktop Search “Start/Search” Pane for Windows XP.
Worked with Design, Usability, and Developers to ship on time and per design. Localized for 32 languages.
Managed design and implementation of Semantic Language based “Smart Search”. Owned security and privacy aspects of Desktop Search as well as other cross team/company features.
Drove full lifecycle development of new Windows Media Player feature that allows different downloadable music providers (MSN, Napster, etc) to integrate their service into the player. Included back end development design, front end UI, secure data management tool and cross team integration.
Developed Media Search for Windows Media Player 9 and windowsmedia.com.
Worked with designers, management, 3rd party vendors, and internal business partners to develop and release this new feature with the player.
Responsible for release and management of the music shopping experience across a variety of different windowsmedia.com and Windows XP and related properties. Managed the development and release of our internal tracking and reporting system supporting windowsmedia.com and other related web properties.
Director of Technology – Rollingstone.com \ Emusic.com
February 1998 – February 2001
Managed the Site Engineering and Sales Support Teams.
Web Developer – A5.com
August 1996 -February 1998
Learned everything internet from the ground up.
Organizations
The Recording Academy – Pacific Northwest Chapter
Vice-President of the Chapter Board June 2014 to 2015
Governor Member 2012-2014
Patents
Transparent search query processing United States Patent 7,685,116 Issued March 29, 2007
Metadata retrieval protocols and namespace identifiers United States Patent 10/623,235 Issued July 18, 2003
Education
Illinois State University BS, Physics