LeadershipImpactExperienceVisionLabsinfo@davidhorak.com

Director of Software Engineering · Tactable

Engineering Strategy.
People Growth.
Value Delivery.

I bridge the gap between complex business goals and technical execution, leading teams at Tactable toward ambitious goals.

Explore the philosophy

"Architecting systems that scale. Mentoring engineers who lead."

  • Tactable
  • Instawork
  • Briza
  • Evoke Solutions
  • Vectoro

01 / Philosophy

The Leadership Philosophy

Architecting systems that scale. Mentoring engineers who lead.

A seedling of amber light growing out of a dark geometric lattice
01

Building Trust & Scaling Excellence

The Talent Incubator

At Tactable, I am scaling the engineering practice to deliver best-in-class client solutions, rooted in the belief that trust is the bedrock of high performance. Across my leadership roles (including Instawork and Briza), I have focused on institutionalizing growth. By utilizing personalized OKRs and structured mentorship, I guide engineers through their career paths, transforming individual contributors into strategic leaders.

Interlocking dark rings with a single pulse of amber light gliding through them
02

Process serves the Product

Operational Excellence

I champion Agile methodologies not as a ritual, but as a framework for efficiency. Currently at Tactable, I refine operational structures to serve the team, building an engineering practice where process acts as a bridge for collaboration, not a barrier. Whether leading the Vancouver expansion at Instawork or founding the department at Evoke, I establish adaptive systems that enable rapid pivots and sustainable delivery without sacrificing team momentum.

A tangle of wires resolving into one clean amber line
03

Innovation with Intent

Technical Pragmatism

While I co-authored a patented solution for data model unification, I believe complexity is not a metric of success. I advocate for building solutions that matter, prioritizing tangible business value over technical novelty. Whether integrating enterprise APIs at Briza or pioneering AR at Vectoro, I steer teams away from honing engineering egos and toward delivering technology that solves real problems.

02 / Impact

Success Stories

The proof is in the process, the products, and the people.

01 / The Catalyst

Active Leadership

Moving beyond individual technical excellence to orchestrate collective growth. My current mission is building engineering cultures that scale both technically and relationally.

One glowing node lighting up the network around it

Scaling Excellence

From Code to Culture

I am currently architecting the next phase of Tactable's engineering maturity. My focus is moving the department from individual contribution to collective impact.

Organizational Design
Restructured the department into cross-functional Engineering Pods, breaking down silos and establishing regular knowledge-sharing events.
Strategic Mentorship
Guiding senior engineers to evolve beyond the IDE, coaching them to build client trust and identify business opportunities.
Operational Consistency
Defined the "Tactable Standard" for implementation, ensuring best-in-class delivery is repeatable and scalable.
The Growth Engine
Building trust with clients and psychological safety within the team to create an environment where engineers can showcase their highest potential.
Live Impact · Accelerating Growth

02 / The Leader

Strategic Impact

Championing people, process, and product to deliver rapid, reliable outcomes that scale organizations and catalyze market expansion.

Amber arcs connecting matching points across a vast grid of lights

Market Expansion

Instawork Pro Search

Visionary Engineering Team Leader and Manager of the Vancouver team, guiding innovative product creation and expansion into new business verticals. Focused on shaping value propositions that captivate customers and drive sustainable growth.

Pro Search
Strategically expanded a professional job-matching tool to serve both new and existing partners, connecting talented professionals with businesses.
Communities
Enhanced the worker mobile app to support individual and group communication, improving collaboration and information flow.
Work Experience Verification
Enabled workers to request verification via email and SMS links, strengthening profile credibility and unlocking more opportunities.
Marketplace Growth · New VerticalsView Pro Search

03 / The Transformer

Complete Evolution

Joined Evoke Solutions to build the development practice and onboard agile digital project management. Led strategy, estimation, planning, execution, monitoring, and delivery across all digital projects; recruited and mentored developers. Authored a proprietary component‑based WordPress theme/framework powering all internal WordPress projects.

Scattered stone blocks reassembling into a precise, glowing modular lattice

Agency Transformation

Building Modern Practice

Built the entire development practice from the ground up, transforming a traditional agency into a modern digital powerhouse through strategic process implementation and team development.

Leadership & Delivery
End‑to‑end ownership of strategy, estimates, planning, execution, monitoring, and delivery for all digital projects; built the development practice and onboarded agile PM methodologies.
Team Growth
Recruited new developers and mentored team members to elevate craft, collaboration, and delivery consistency.
Component‑Driven WordPress
Authored a proprietary component‑based WordPress theme/framework used across all internal projects for speed, reuse, and consistency.
Practices & Processes Onboarded
Specialized JIRA dev/QA workflows, migration to GSuite documents/templates, continuous deployment of web projects, common WordPress plugins repository, dockerized development environments.
Agency Transformation · Process, People, Platform

04 / The Architect

Architecting Consistency

I don't just build features; I build standards. Creating cross-platform ecosystems that ensure algorithmic consistency across distributed stacks while solving real architectural challenges.

One beam of light passing through seven glass prisms and exiting identically

Cross-Platform Standards

Open Source Ecosystems

I created Illogical, a conditional logic engine ported to seven programming languages (TypeScript, Go, C#, Python, Java, Zig, Odin) to ensure algorithmic consistency across distributed stacks. Beyond that, I maintain libraries for specific architectural challenges, from parsing EDI X12 legacy data to ensuring isomorphic data validation with WeGood.

7Programming Languages
Complete Ecosystem
Explore Labs

05 / The Builder

Built to Last

Creating intellectual property that shapes industries. This patent represents a fundamental shift in how insurance data is processed and unified.

Scattered streams of light converging into a single solid amber block

Patent Innovation

Data Model Amalgamation

Designed and patented the architecture for unifying distributed insurance underwriting data into a cohesive structure, revolutionizing how complex insurance data flows through systems.

US Patent 20220092700A1 · Co-InventorView Patent

03 / Toolkit

Competencies & Stack

Strategic leadership with deep technical execution. I review deeply, coach decisively, and ship outcomes.

  1. Layer 01

    Strategic Leadership

    Mentoring engineers who lead. Building cultures that deliver.

    • 01Organizational Design & Scaling
    • 02Talent Development & Mentorship
    • 03Operational Strategy & Consistency
    • 04Product Vision & Execution
    • 05Hiring & Culture Building
    • 06Cross-Functional Collaboration
    • 07Financial Acumen & Budgeting
  2. Layer 02

    Architecture & Systems

    Architecting systems that scale. Turning complexity into clarity.

    • 01Unified Data Modeling
    • 02API & Systems Integration
    • 03Cross-Platform Tooling (Open Source)
    • 04Scalable Cloud & Application Foundations
    • 05Proprietary Framework Development
  3. Layer 03

    The Tech I Speak

    Technical literacy to review code, architect, and mentor.

    • 01Polyglot Architecture & Development
    • 02Data-Driven Systems & Analytics
    • 03Cloud-Native Infrastructure & DevOps
    • 04Modern Application Frameworks & APIs
    • 05Code Review, Quality & Domain Modeling

Illogical, ported to seven languages

  • TypeScript
  • Go
  • C#
  • Python
  • Java
  • Zig
  • Odin

04 / Experience

Career Timeline

Strategic leadership built on a foundation of deep technical execution.

  1. 2024 – Now

    Director of Software Engineering

    Tactable

    Architecting Tactable’s next phase of engineering maturity: elevating the team from individual contribution to collective impact, with scalable, repeatable delivery.

    • Strategic Scaling: Orchestrating the growth of the engineering department while maintaining a culture of high trust and collaboration.
    • Operational Maturity: Evolving development workflows to be adaptive rather than rigid, ensuring the team can pivot rapidly to meet client needs.
    • Talent Development: Replacing generic performance reviews with personalized OKRs to align individual career ambitions with business impact.

  2. 2023 – 2024

    Software Engineering Manager

    Instawork

    Led Vancouver engineering; bridged product vision and execution; shipped market-impact features that expanded value and growth.

    • Market Expansion: Led the engineering efforts behind Pro Search, strategically expanding job-matching tools to new business verticals.
    • Hiring Standards: Overhauled the technical interviewing process to reduce bias and standardize evaluation criteria, resulting in a higher quality of hire.
    • Culture Building: Established the "Vancouver Culture" within a distributed org, prioritizing psychological safety and morale to drive rapid delivery.

  3. 2019 – 2023

    Software Engineering Manager

    Briza

    Managed engineers delivering carrier connectivity infrastructure while driving patent-backed data architecture and open-source standards.

    • Technical Innovation: Co-authored a US Patent (20220092700A1) for data model unification, enabling the amalgamation of distributed underwriting datasets.
    • Open Source Leadership: Kick-started libraries like @briza/illogical (a conditional logic engine) to solve complex parsing problems, now used in production.
    • Mentorship: Institutionalized career development through personalized coaching and SMART goal setting, helping individual contributors transition into senior roles.

  4. 2015 – 2019

    Sr. Technical Project Manager & Dev Lead

    Evoke Solutions

    Built the development practice and modernized delivery: onboarding Agile, CI/CD, and a proprietary component‑based WordPress framework.

    • Agile Transformation: Onboarded the agency to Agile methodologies and CI/CD workflows, moving away from waterfall to continuous delivery.
    • Infrastructure: Dockerized development environments and built a proprietary WordPress framework that powered all internal projects.
    • Delivery: Responsible for strategy, estimation, and execution for major clients including Transamerica and RioCan.

  5. 2012 – 2014

    Co-Founder & Lead Solution Architect

    Vectoro

    Pioneered early adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) on mobile platforms.

    • R&D: Architected a custom web pipeline for post-processing 3D data, converting raw models into mobile-optimized formats for real-time AR rendering.
    • Product: Delivered custom AR mobile applications and web solutions for a public audience.