Sarah Sexton

LinkedIn | Washington | email@SarahSays.dev | linktr.ee

Full Stack Developer

Accomplished Software Engineer of 10+ years at Microsoft with back- and front-end experience.
Professional public speaker, strong technical and communicative skills. Attention to detail and impact-driven.
Worked across multiple domains as SE II: Spatial Computing with HoloLens, Developer Experience in video games, Chatbots, Web, Mobile, Commercial Software Engineering, empowering Retail industries.
Strong attention to detail and a passion for ensuring software quality.
Experienced AI technologies: LLMs, orchestration patterns, RAG, and custom ML models.

Areas of Expertise

Artificial Intelligence
Cloud Accelerator
Engineering Fundamentals
Best Practices
Customer Relations
Documentation
Growth Mindset
Accessibility
Communication

Skills

Responsible OpenAI
Azure Cloud Architecture
Large Language Models (LLM)
DevOps Pipelines
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
ASP.NET
React
MaterialUI
Agile Methodologies
Data Science/Machine Learning (DSML)
Retrieve Augment Generate (RAG)
ML Model Lifecycle
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)
Kusto Query Language (KQL)
Python
C#
.NET
Test-driven development
Jira
Confluence
Microsoft Office
Dataset Evaluation Framework
ML Studio
Deployment Patterns
AI Foundry
Data Governance Frameworks
PyTorch
PromptFlow
Android
Kotlin
iOS
macOS
AWS
Firebase
Image processing
RESTful API
Redis
Ruby
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD)
Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)

Experience

Software Engineer II

- Microsoft, Redmond, WA July 2018 – July 2025

Spearheaded bleeding-edge technologies as they emerged: GenAI, ChatGPT, LLMs, RNNs, and more.
Overcame interoperability obstacles between Python & C# by exposing C# functions as DLLs, Dynamic Link Libraries, then invoking from Python via the pythonnet Python library.
34% satisfaction increase & value-add in customers overall by accelerating cloud workloads.
5+ years’ experience training data pipelines, fine-tuning models, and working across MLOps systems.
Utilized AI Foundry and Azure ML Studio to produce scores necessary to make data-driven decisions, such as relevancy, adherence, and groundedness.
Deployed LLMs at scale; architected ML models end-to-end.
Led 22 technical engagements hands-on with top 500 Microsoft Azure commercial & retail customers.
Streamlined code testing processes by automating pull request gate build pipelines to report code coverage.

Technical Evangelist

- Microsoft, Chicago, IL July 2014 – July 2018

Organized Game Jams and Hackathons for over 100 diverse meetup members.
Co-founded a non-profit organization called The Voxel Collective for Gender Diversity in Game Development; organized Game Jams and Hackathons for over 100 diverse meetup members.
Ran over 70 Azure and gaming evangelism events across Microsoft Developer Experience (DX) field.
Created and delivered over 20 presentations at conferences from 2014 – 2020, with live technical demos for audiences of hundreds.
Advocated for over 24 professional developers & studios around the world by collecting product feedback and escalating technical blockers with engineering.
Interviewed 12 diverse game developers, sharing thought-provoking stories to inspire the next generation.

Education

BS - Bachelor of Science – Computer Science | Communications Minor, summa cum laude
Central Washington University - Ellensburg, WA

Certifications & Awards

Microsoft Certified: Accessibility (2025), Privacy (2024), Security (2023), Azure Fundamentals (2019)
Microsoft Specialist: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions (2015)
Microsoft Circle of Excellence - FY16 Top Subsidiary Award (2015)
Microsoft Diversity and Inclusion Award - 2015 MS Developer Experience (2015)

Open-Source: github.com/SarahSexton | Thought Leadership: shebuildsgames.dev | Tech Blog: aka.ms/sarahsays

Additional Experience

Conference Associate

- UBM · Contract Jan 2019 – Mar 2019 · 3 mos- San Francisco, California, United States

Punctual performance as a Conference Associate (CA) at the Game Developers Conference.
Partook in morning organization meetings before the conference from Sunday through Friday.
Dedicated availability during all conference hours starting from Sunday through Friday.
Reliably on-time and in-place for work shifts throughout the week, and also on-site and enjoying the show while not on-duty.
Maintained the level of excellence associated with the CAs.

Community Support Specialist

- Kittitas Interactive Management Oct 2013 – Jun 2014 · 9 mos- Ellensburg, WA

Provide supervision and assistance for developmentally disabled adults in their own homes.

Publications Designer/Art Director

- Central Washington University 2013 – 2014 · 9 mos- Ellensburg, WA

Designed article layouts and created page art for the student-run organization, CWU Pulse Magazine.
Mastery of Google Slides, Apple Keynote, and Microsoft PowerPoint, along with proficiency in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop.

Game Designer

- Disrupted Gears Productions Apr 2013 – Sep 2013 · 6 mos- Ellensburg, WA

Developed new content and applied practical coding experience in the development of a LUA-based mobile game.
Organized, ran, and recorded the results of game playtesting. Created images and designed the user interface for the game.

Teaching Assistant

- Central Washington University 2012 – Mar 2012 · 3 mos- Ellensburg, WA

Assisted several professors in the math and computer science departments with grading assignments and answering student questions.

Researcher

- CWU Wellness Oct 2011 – Feb 2012 · 5 mos- Ellensburg, WA

Part-time photographer employed to research the student body’s opinion on the social consumption of alcohol. Lead to an official SOURCE presentation.

Rides Ambassador

- Worlds of Fun Jul 2011 – Sep 2011 · 3 mos- Kansas City, Missouri Area

Ensure the safety of the passengers, enforce the rules of the ride.

Cashier

- McDonald's Corporation May 2005 – Jun 2011 · 6 yrs 2 mos

Take orders to customer specifications, behind the counter and drive-thru window, always with a smile.
Periodically clean counters, wash dishes, sweep and mop floors, empty trashcans.
Manage flyers; cook, salt & mix French fries, then pack in cartons for customers.
Present bagged & packaged food for drive-thru customers with pleasant demeanor.
Provide customer service to average of 75 customers per shift.

Intern

- The Issaquah Press Jul 2010 – Sep 2010 · 3 mos- Issaquah, WA

Interned as a copy editor and reporter. Wrote articles and interviewed civilians for the newspaper.

Copy Editor

- Eastlake High School Newspaper 2009 – 2010 · 1 yr

Maintains a firm grasp on the grammatical rules of the English language.
Extremely thorough reader, proof-reader and writer.
Quick learner, eager to learn and unafraid of asking questions.
Responsible, reliable, and punctual.
Works well in groups and is self-motivated when working alone.