Hi, I'm
Tim Woodruff
Engineering Leader, Principal Architect, Author, Builder, Standard Nerd.
Sr. Director of Cloud Engineering at Lumen Technologies.
Author of 7 books. Builder of things that skip podcast ads and things that catalog tech disasters.
About Me
I'm an engineering leader, published author, and chronic builder of things. I've spent 17+ years writing code, leading teams, and occasionally convincing executives that yes, we really do need to refactor that.
My career started by teaching myself to code and then stubbornly refusing to stop. From individual contributor to principal architect to Sr. Director of Cloud Engineering at Lumen Technologies, I've picked up a few things along the way. I've worked at companies big and small, including places like Symantec, Expedia, The Home Depot, GoDaddy, and Lumen Technologies; usually doing something involving technical architecture, cloud engineering leadership, or bending ITSM platforms to my will.
I've written 7 books on software development, including all four editions of the Best-Selling ServiceNow Development Handbook, which some generous reviewers have called "the definitive guide for developers". I also run SN Pro Tips, one of the most popular ServiceNow platform developer blogs on the web.
When I'm not writing books or leading engineering organizations, I have a few side projects. My latest indulgence is STFUAI Podcasts: the world's first ad-skipping podcast app. I also built The Vibe Graveyard: a collection of real-world vibe-coding and AI failure stories in the news, which serve as a cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they don't need real developers, information security, or anyone who actually knows what they're doing.
I've also founded two non-profit charities focused on social good because technology is awesome, but humans are pretty cool too.
📍 Vancouver, Washington, USA · Remote Only
Engineering Leader
Sr. Director of Cloud Engineering driving technical strategy, scaling organizations and technologies, and delivering at the executive level.
Published Author
A popular dev blog, 7 books, and enough objectively correct opinions on software development to fill several more.
Builder of Things
Side projects, startups, non-profits, an AI-powered podcast ad blocker, and a graveyard for vibe-coding failures.
Projects
Things I build when nobody's paying me to. Sometimes they even work.
STFUAI Podcasts
The world's first ad-skipping podcast app
Uses AI-driven semantic diarization and transcription to detect and automatically skip ads, sponsor reads, self-promotional bits, closing credits, and other skippable content. Because life's too short for podcast ads.
Vibe Graveyard
Real tech failures and cautionary tales from the world of rushed shipping and bad decisions
A curated collection of real-world AI and tech failures, cautionary tales, and disasters. From hallucinated legal citations to chatbots gone rogue to critical security vulnerabilities.
Career
17+ years of building, breaking, fixing, and occasionally revolutionizing things.
Career Highlights
Led and mentored teams of up to 100 engineers, building enterprise-scale tools and applications
Oversaw and led large-scale engineering modernization & simplification initiatives, saving hundreds of millions of dollars annually
Directed, architected, and led decommissioning of legacy enterprise systems including mainframes and home-grown applications, while building out modern platforms to replace them
Architected and built new applications and integrations responsible for over $100M/yr in revenue
Architected and developed many enterprise applications including Integration Core SDK, Live CI UI, JIT Discovery, and dozens more
Inducted into the SN Information Security Hall of Fame, won multiple hackathons, presented with Symantec Innovator Award, received Top Talent recognition, and many more
Lumen Technologies
Sr. Director of Cloud Engineering
- Responsible for $60-80M/year in revenue from applications built and promoted
- Built Tanium Integration Core SDK and Live CI Introspect applications
- Led and mentored teams of up to 100 developers
MariaDB
Sr. Princ. ServiceNow Architect & Developer
GoDaddy
Sr. Princ. ServiceNow ITSM Architect & Developer
USPS
Sr. Princ. ServiceNow ITSM Architect & Developer
KPMG
Sr. ServiceNow Architect & Developer
SNG & SN Pro Tips
Owner & Founder, Lead Architect
- Founded snprotips.com - one of the most popular ServiceNow dev blogs
The Home Depot
Sr. ServiceNow Architect & Developer
Expedia
Sr. ServiceNow Developer
Symantec Corp
Sr. ServiceNow Developer
- Won the Symantec Innovator Award
- Recognized as Top Talent
Skills & Credentials
Languages
Platforms & Frameworks
Domains
Tools & Integrations
Security & Networking
Certifications
- ServiceNow CSA
- ITIL
- Advanced White-Hat Hacking & Penetration Testing
- C# .NET Programming
- JavaScript Programming
- TCP-IP Programming
- Advanced Microsoft Excel
- Certified Trainer
Awards
- SN Information Security Hall of Fame
- Symantec Innovator
- Symantec Top Talent
- Tanium Top Talent
- CreatorCon Hackathon Winner
Books
7 books across 3 series, including multiple Best-Sellers.
ServiceNow Development Handbook - 4th Edition
A compendium of pro-tips, guidelines, gotchas, and best-practices that every ServiceNow developer will wish they knew on day one. Click here to see a list of excerpted sections of the Handbook.
Learning ServiceNow - 2nd Edition
Learn administration and development on the ServiceNow platform. Meant for those with less experience, who want to learn the platform from the ground up.
Writing
I write and maintain the ServiceNow Pro-Tips blog, where I share articles and publish loads of free tools and resources for the ServiceNow developer community.
Featured Articles
Flow Designer vs. Scripting - REST Message Performance
A real performance comparison between Flow Designer and scripted REST integrations. The results might surprise you. (Or they won't, if you've been paying attention.)
Read article →Find Inefficient Queries in ServiceNow, FAST
A dead-simple way to hunt down single-record queries that are quietly tanking your instance performance.
Read article →5 Lessons About Programming From Richard Feynman
What a Nobel Prize-winning physicist can teach us about writing better code. Spoiler: it starts with understanding.
Read article →5 Ways to Check your ServiceNow Instance for DANGEROUS code, in <5 minutes
Quick security checks every admin should run. If you're not doing these, you're probably one setInterval away from disaster.
Read article →Developers: BE THE GUIDE!
Stop being the hero and start being the mentor. A framework for leadership that actually scales.
Read article →Free Tools
EfficientGlideRecord
A drastically more performant client-side implementation of the GlideRecord class.
Learn more →Include in Update Set
Force any record into your current update set - one at a time, or in bulk.
Learn more →Journal Redactor
Easily redact or delete journal entries (comments, work notes) in ServiceNow.
Learn more →Smarter Update Sets
Catches common update set pitfalls - mixed scopes, duplicate names, checked-out workflows, and more.
Learn more →WTEH: Was This Email Helpful?
Embed thumbs-up/thumbs-down feedback buttons in ServiceNow notification emails, with built-in analytics.
Learn more →One-Click Approval
Easily approve or reject records with a single click, without relying on `mailto:` functionality that doesn't work in some email clients.
Learn more →Media & Appearances
Podcasts, interviews, and the occasional video where I try to explain what I do for a living.
Titans of ServiceNow: Tim Woodruff
Listen / Watch →Podcast - CJ & The DukePerspectives with Tim Woodruff
Listen / Watch →Podcast - Break PointA conversation with Tim Woodruff
Listen / Watch →Video Interview & DemoTanium/ServiceNow SDK & CI Introspect UI Demo
Listen / Watch →Video DemoCI Introspect UI Demo
Listen / Watch →Video DemoCI Introspect UI Demo 2
Listen / Watch →Giving Back
If I'm going to spend my career building technology, I want to try to do some good with it.
The Precipice Foundation
Founded Nov 2017Founder
As someone who grew up in poverty, I know firsthand the devastating impact that homelessness can have on individuals and families. That's why I founded Precipice Foundation. Preventing homelessness more efficiently - before it happens - for the 44% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck.
Virtual Retirement Foundation
Founded Nov 2018Founder
Providing the 11,000,000 Americans who suffer from age-related macular degeneration with meaningful, engaging, social experiences. Macular degeneration symptoms are drastically diminished in VR, allowing users to experience the world in full fidelity.
Camelot Society
Founded Aug 2015IT & Network Security Lead
Supporting education through technology, with Camelot Society: a non-profit charity dedicated to providing opportunities for and empowering individuals with disabilities, and those who support them.
Get in Touch
Got a question, opportunity, or just want to say hi? I'm always happy to hear from fellow builders.