Ryan Stenhouse

Engineering leader; expert in SaaS, DevOps, and Compliance
Shibuya, Tokyo
linkedin.com/in/ryanstenhouse
Engineering leader with 20+ years scaling SaaS companies from startups to post-IPO organizations. Built high-performing multinational teams through technical mentorship and strategic alignment. Deep expertise in compliance, security, and modern, cloud-native infrastructure.

Work Experience

Engineering Manager

Beatrust Corp.

Jan 2025 - Current
  • Leadership: Led and mentored SRE, infrastructure, security, and QA teams, cultivating a culture of innovation and collaboration.
  • Security & QA: Implemented security strategies, conducted audits, and established and scaled automated testing frameworks, improving software quality and release reliability
  • Collaboration: Aligned engineering efforts with business objectives by working closely with stakeholders.
  • Process Optimization: Introduced best practices for development, deployment, and maintenance, driving continuous improvement.

Platform Leader

Feb 2022 - Dec 2024

After Tripla’s IPO and the acquisition of several overseas companies, responsibilities were expanded to include oversight of all platforms across Tripla’s Group in Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Korea.

  • Standard procedure normalization across all group companies for compliance, SLO, SLA, Security, Privacy, escalation procedures and maintenance process.
  • Platform migrations from on-premises to AWS, enhancing reliability and availability to ensure 99.999% uptime.
  • Security improvements, with focus on PCI DSS, OWASP and securing remote network access for our distributed teams.
  • Management and leadership of the Platform Team (5) with emphasis on creating a “one platform team” principle across all group companies.

Initiatives on Cost Management, PII Detection, and Compliance have increased business confidence in our services and platform.

Senior System Architect

Dec 2019 - Feb 2022

Led the overall platform and infrastructure strategy, focusing on designing and implementing architecture for new features and projects.

  • Managed and grew the Platform Team (0 - 5), overseeing a diverse group of SREs and engineers to ensure alignment with business objectives. Conducting evaluations, 1:1 meetings, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
  • Played a critical role in Tripla’s IPO, managing and completing compliance and security audit processes.
  • Monitored and provisioned infrastructure on AWS/GCP, ensuring scalability and reliability.
  • Oversaw task management and prioritization, driving efficient execution of projects and timely resolution of technical issues.

Senior Software Engineer

Feb 2018 - Dec 2019

Tripla specializes in AI chatbots, hotel booking systems and CRM tools, for the hospitality industry. All services are delivered as B2B SaaS offerings. Full input on the entire development stack as one of the first direct engineering hires. Coding in Ruby and VueJS.

  • Built integration for large hotel booking platform.
  • Developed the internal prototype of the CRM service.
  • Managing AWS infrastructure and addressing security/compliance needs.
  • Leading and mentoring a team of junior engineers (3 - 10).
  • Providing high-level input on application design and infrastructure strategy, including coming up with the idea for Tripla’s pivot to Booking Engine.

Senior Software Engineer

Sep 2014 - Feb 2018

Led the development and technical strategy for a global B2B SaaS retail analytics product used by thousands of retail stores worldwide.

  • Managed day-to-day development, including setting goals, coordinating with international teams (Japan, Korea, Chile), and conducting code reviews on GitLab
  • Mentored and guided junior developers (5), fostering growth and ensuring high performance within the team.
  • Improved API endpoint micro-services using Go and Ruby, backed by Amazon RDS and RethinkDB, optimizing performance for high-load environments.
  • Developed and maintained resilient front-end applications with Rails and AngularJS, ensuring seamless operation under heavy traffic.
  • Designed and built internal tools for managing application infrastructure, including instance creation, complex data migrations, and real-time monitoring of thousands of connected sensors.

Improvements for deployment, data management, and monitoring reduced cost-per-customer by up to 90%.

Founder (CTO / CEO)

Apr 2022 - Current

Founded to incubate side projects and explore new product ideas; currently transitioning responsibilities. ~10 hours/week commitment.

  • Develops SaaS and Desktop applications for SMEs globally, with operations in Japan and Scotland.
  • Leading the development of an AI-powered hosting platform for Bars and Clubs, focusing on Post-COVID recovery and online presence management.
  • Leveraging AI technologies, including LLMs (Large Language Models) and Sentiment Analysis.
  • Integrating with SNS (Social Media) services to attract new customers to venues.

Founder (Managing Director)

Dec 2010 - Oct 2014

Delivered SaaS products and managed global client projects across five countries while founding Converge, Scotland's first all-of-industry technology conference.

Ruby Engineer

Jan 2011 - Mar 2013

Led the Accounting Engineering Team on a globally used online accountancy platform. Delivered high-quality, compliant features and led a major codebase upgrade and bank integration to expand product capabilities.

Senior Software Engineer

Led development of secure SaaS systems for UK Government and Visa Europe. Delivered PCI DSS Level 1 compliance and optimized a high-availability platform for national payment tracking.

Leadership Successes

Strategic Planning
Pitched successful pivot to booking engine system at Tripla, transforming the company’s core revenue stream and accelerating growth.
Team Development
Scaled engineering organization from 3 to 40+ engineers through strategic hiring, mentoring, and promotion pathways. Established onboarding program for engineers from acquired companies, ensuring consistent infrastructure practices across all subsidiaries.
Executive Communication
Aligned technical roadmaps with business objectives, translating complex concepts for C-suite stakeholders and securing executive buy-in for critical infrastructure investments.
Budget Management
Oversaw ¥53M annual platform budget with consistent 9% month-on-month cost optimization. Led vendor evaluation process for security tools and negotiated enterprise-level contracts, reducing per-seat costs by up to 55%.

Projects

Design, Architecture, and Implementation

  • Designed and led the implementation of a cost tracking and monitoring tool across Tripla Group companies, in partnership with engineering and business stakeholders.
  • Aggregated costs from all cloud platforms and auxiliary tools, creating a single source of truth for accurate reporting, modeling, and prediction.
  • Tracked resource utilization using data from Prometheus, providing a clear metric for assessing value versus spend.
  • Enabled strategic resource allocation, offering insights that led to more efficient spending, cost savings, and waste reduction across the organization. Up to 9% month-on-month reduction in AWS costs.

Design, Architecture, and Implementation

  • Designed and implemented the initial version of an in-house PII detection tool tailored for Japanese and East Asian languages, after evaluating third-party solutions that lacked necessary language support.
  • Developed an API to scan content for potential PII leaks, providing actionable alerts to responsible teams to ensure timely and effective responses.
  • Enabled teams to identify PII in Data Dictionaries, allowing for targeted resource allocation to secure access and enhance data protection.
  • Led improvements and collaborated with the team to expand the tool’s applicability across all APAC companies within the Tripla Group.
  • This initiative has been critical in ensuring compliance with Privacy Mark standards and achieving overall security goals, particularly addressing the specific needs of the Japan/APAC region by building the tool in-house.

Engineer / Technical Lead

Jan 2009 - Jan 2010
  • Led the technical team to achieve Level 1 PCI DSS compliance, a crucial requirement for maintaining our partnership with Visa Europe.
  • Ensured software and technological compliance for our Management Information platform and data feeds from banks and payment institutions.
  • Developed secure, cost-efficient methods for file transfer and in-memory service usage, effectively reducing the PCI DSS scope and associated costs.

Founder / Product & Technical Lead

Sep 2014 - Current
  • Built and currently operate a full-stack e-commerce platform for LGBTQ+ communities across Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand (Rails, Vue.js, React, MySQL, MongoDB).
  • Scaled product and operations from a domestic novelty store into a pan-Asian lifestyle brand.
  • Delivered digital services (web design, hosting) to LGBT-owned businesses as part of broader inclusion strategy.
  • Led SEO, direct marketing, and customer acquisition initiatives—resulting in sustained organic growth.
  • Coordinated regional sales partnerships, pop-up events, and co-branded retail initiatives.
  • Responsible for product design, technical architecture, and stakeholder relationships.

Education

BSc (Distinction) Computing

University of Abertay Dundee

Sep 2002 - Nov 2004

HND Software Engineering

Sep 2000 - Aug 2002

Skills

Software Engineering
BDD, TDD, Ruby, Rails, Agile, OWASP, OOP, Python, Golang, JavaScript, VueJS, CoffeeScript, ES6, SQL, Git, RSpec, SAML, SCRUM, GitOps
Infra, DevOps and DevSecOps
AWS, DNS, GCP, ELK, Prometheus,Teleport, Grafana, OpenSearch, Caddy, ACME, Docker, Capacity Planning, CI / CD, Terraform / IaC, Kubernetes, Docker, MySQL, RethinkDB, InfluxDB, MongoDB
AI, ML and Data
LLM, RAG, BERT, Computer Vision, Clustering, Data Lakes, Data Warehousing
General
Startups, System Architecture and Design, SEO, Direct Marketing, Retail Sales, Relationship Management, Partner Management, Product Development, Solutions Architecture, Basic Conversational Japanese, Native English, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, Privacy Mark, IPO Due Diligence