Professional Role and Company Context
Tamara Barum currently serves as a Senior Software Engineering Manager at Optimizely, a leading digital experience platform company headquartered in the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area. Although her role is managerial and she does not write code directly, she is positioned in a key leadership capacity within the software engineering team, overseeing development efforts and likely influencing technical direction and project execution.
Responsibilities and Technical Engagement
Tamara’s role involves managing complex engineering workflows within Optimizely’s product ecosystem. She has been active in coordinating development efforts related to the company’s SDK (Software Development Kit) initiatives, including contributions and communications regarding software updates such as the uuid package update in the JavaScript SDK, which indicates involvement with engineering teams responsible for core platform functionalities.
Her LinkedIn activity highlights her engagement with significant innovations, such as the release of a new Flutter SDK for Feature Experimentation (formerly Full Stack), underscoring her leadership in product feature expansion and platform enhancement. These SDK developments directly support Optimizely’s experimentation framework crucial for A/B testing and feature rollouts.
Strategic Impact and Public Thought Leadership
Tamara Barum publicly communicates and supports Optimizely’s strategic partnerships and business growth efforts. She notably commented on the strengthened collaboration between Optimizely and Google (February 2023), emphasizing the value this partnership brings to the experimentation ecosystem. Her visibility on this topic suggests a role that intersects between technical leadership and external stakeholder engagement.
Location and Educational Background
- Location: Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area
- Education: Attended Minnesota State University, Mankato
Professional Network and Influence
Tamara maintains a substantial professional network on LinkedIn with over 945 followers and 500+ connections, indicating a well-established presence within the technology and software engineering community. This network size suggests she is an influential figure internally and externally, potential for advocacy and influence on professional communities.
Additional Activities and Community Involvement
Outside her professional pursuits at Optimizely, Tamara is actively involved in youth sports organizations based in Farmington, where she serves in leadership and volunteer roles such as Fundraising, Concessions Coordinator, and Assistant Coach for local hockey and fastpitch associations. These extracurricular commitments suggest strong organizational, leadership, and community engagement skills.
Relevant Technical & Project Management Skills
- Software Engineering Management: Leading development teams, orchestration of engineering tasks.
- SDK Development Oversight: Specifically involved with core experimentation and feature rollout SDKs including JavaScript and Flutter platforms.
- Cross-team Coordination: Evidenced by managing priority updates and internal tickets within Optimizely.
- Strategic Partnership Awareness: Publicly supports business/technical alliances, e.g., with Google.
Summary
Tamara Barum holds a critical managerial position at Optimizely, overseeing software engineering activities primarily linked to experimentation platform SDKs. She bridges technical leadership, project management, and external collaboration spheres, as demonstrated by her involvement in software releases and strategic partnership communication. Her location in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and education background position her well within the regional tech ecosystem. Her community engagement with youth sports also reflects organizational and leadership abilities beyond her core professional scope, potentially translating to strong team leadership and stakeholder management capabilities at Optimizely.
This profile indicates that Tamara is well-versed in managing innovation-driven software initiatives at high-growth SaaS companies focused on digital experimentation, and is likely a key influencer in prioritizing technology development and integration with partners such as Google.
