Eric Ray

Director of Infinia Engineering

DDN's Infinia platform is a software-defined, AI-native data storage infrastructure supporting large-scale AI/ML and enterprise customers. Joined to lead Data Plane R&D, then about six months in moved to lead Data Services R&D (POSIX, S3, and other protocols) to fill a critical organizational gap. Now leads a ~60-engineer, globally distributed Data Services team across the US, Shanghai, Beijing, and Pune.

• Faced with a strategic customer delivery behind commitment and technically unready to meet contract terms just one month into the role, assembled a focused five-person team and drove disciplined three-week execution against exactly what the contract required — delivering on time at full quality, preserving a decade-long relationship and a $1M contract, and unlocking 7-figure-plus follow-on business since.
• Tasked with bringing structure and a more proactive operating model to a large-scale, hands-on-intensive customer deployment, built a dedicated team with near-daily cadence and tight scope control over a 3-month engagement — strengthening the relationship, reopening the account for additional purchases, and establishing a small-team support model since extended to several other high-profile customers supporting a 9-figure contract.
• Stepping into the release manager role six months into the job after a prior 8-month cycle closed without clearly defined ship criteria, established criteria and aligned management on scope, then drove a focused team through a 3-month cycle — delivering the organization's first on-time, quality-complete release in 7–8 years.
• Asked by executive management to repeat the release manager role as the only person with sufficient product depth, applied a more standardized process over a second 3-month cycle — converging on a quality release despite scope and scaling challenges, and establishing the quarterly release train and bi-weekly preview cadence the Data Services team now runs on.

Consultant / Fractional CTO

Technology consulting firm specializing in clarifying product roadmaps, accelerating execution, and guiding early-stage teams from concept to delivery — serving startups and existing companies across multiple domains.

• Embedded with a stealth-mode AI/ML startup at inception, helped shape company structure, defined MVP and roadmap, and continue supporting delivery and strategic execution as the team scales. Built a toolchain for refinable and repeatable LLM model usage, resulting in 2x founder productivity.
• Consulted for a SaaS startup to assess growth readiness, uncovered underleveraged Salesforce strengths, and proposed a leaner, FOSS-focused roadmap — cutting operational costs by 50% while simplifying architecture and improving the customer experience.

Senior Director of Global Engineering

Global technology company specializing in data storage and archive solutions, founded in 1979, shipping over five million products to corporations and governments in more than 100 countries. Owned global new product engineering and sustaining engineering.

• Inherited a long-stalled software org, mapped business and technical bottlenecks, killed a costly dead-end project, and aligned leadership on a new roadmap — resulting in focused delivery of a new internal product within 6 months, preserving a $20M line of business.
• Faced with overwhelming support needs and delivery challenges, restructured focus on high-ROI fixes and clear communication, cutting wasted engineering time by 50% and restoring stakeholder trust.
• When internal politics clouded product quality perception, connected sales and engineering through regular forums, clarified technical blockers, and aligned executives — eliminating noise, accelerating delivery of meaningful fixes, and resulting in a 90% reduction in escalations and a 4-fold increase in cadence.

Senior Director of Platform Engineering (01/2016–12/2019) · Director of Engineering (01/2014–12/2015)

Open-source, software-defined storage solutions for enterprise environments. Owned and managed platform, API, and UI development on the flagship product.

• Faced with nonstop support escalations blocking product progress, built a trusted partnership with support leadership, aligned priorities, and focused on fundamental structural issues in the code — cutting executive escalations by 50%, saving $500K annually, and earning a President's Award for collaboration.
• Hired and onboarded 6 engineers, launched a local office and lab, and restructured priorities to reduce engineering context-switching delays — boosting delivery efficiency, accelerating roadmap execution, and contributing to multi-million-dollar revenue growth ahead of plan.

Director of Product Development

Startup focused on legal software in a B2C market. Managed the successful expansion of engineering from just the founders to a team of 10, driving SDLC process and maturity through CI/CD pipelines, build and test automation, and clear development practices.

• Faced with complex customer demands in a niche legal market, partnered deeply with key clients to shape product direction — ultimately driving a strategic relationship that helped position the company for acquisition by its largest customer at about 15x ARR.
• Inherited a codebase with no automation or formal deployment flow; implemented formalized SDLC, CI/CD, test automation, and onboarding tools — boosting release velocity and saving $250K-plus annually through improved quality, developer efficiency, and reduced downtime.

Senior Engineering Manager (07/2007–03/2011) · Engineering Manager (01/2003–07/2007)

Best known for Solaris, Java, and network computing innovation. Contributed to Solaris engineering, leading development of system installer components and core platform software used across Sun's hardware product lines.

• Managed $2M annual capital planning and acquisitions across a 180-person organization, reducing waste and inefficiencies through strategic resource sharing and consistently delivering on time, under budget, and at high quality.
• Tasked with modernizing Solaris installation, drove end-to-end redesign and global team coordination — launching a user-friendly installer with ZFS integration and establishing sustained contributions to OpenSolaris through effective open-source engagement.
• Recognizing legacy maintenance drag, negotiated early transfer to sustaining five years ahead of plan — boosting development velocity by reallocating six engineers and accelerating major roadmap delivery by half a year.
• Within 30 days of stepping into global lab leadership, built cross-org support and launched restructuring — eliminating 4 redundant systems and improving operational and financial efficiency through shared tooling and worldwide test resource coordination.
• Took over a QA/test automation org, streamlined processes, and aligned resources — driving a robust automation strategy that improved test coverage, reduced cycle times, and positioned the team for scalable growth.