Matt Harris

Application and workflow platform design for higher ed, philanthropy, and mission-driven organizations.

Nashville, TN · Remote · 202.550.4485 · mattharris@gmail.com · linkedin.com/in/mattharris7

Summary

Product Director and platform designer with 22 years shaping Orchestrate, a custom SaaS platform for application, review, and workflow management. Took over platform design in the late 2000s and have directed its workflow architecture, features, and UI across higher ed, fellowships, scholarships, and corporate philanthropy. Now leading platform design, technical strategy, and new development.

Platform impact

5M+applications, lifetime

$100M+awarded

100+client implementations

36active engagements

8 yraverage client tenure

99.9%uptime SLA

Experience

Product Director, Orchestrate · Tectonic

May 2024 – present

Lead product direction for Orchestrate, Tectonic’s primary SaaS platform for application, review, and workflow management, setting feature design and technical strategy across engineering and PM teams.
Led product direction for Orchestrate 5.0, the platform’s shift from custom-heavy to configuration-first delivery, including a new executive dashboard, workflow builder, and setup wizard.
Onboarded four new client engagements: Rutgers Summer/Winter Programs, Rutgers Learning Centers, CSCAU, and UC Davis Young Scholars Program.
Direct platform and workflow design across long-running engagements spanning fellowships, scholarships, postdoctoral programs, and corporate philanthropy.
Joined Tectonic’s AI leadership team to shape platform AI integration strategy.

Solution Architect · Tectonic

September 2013 – May 2024

Designed Orchestrate’s platform architecture, feature set, and UI across 100+ client implementations spanning higher ed, fellowships, scholarships, and corporate philanthropy, including the underlying structure Orchestrate AMS was built on.
Designed multi-tier review and approval processes: z-score normalization for reviewer bias, batch scoring, intelligent advance scoring to forecast candidate volume, multi-level ranking and approval workflows, and per-program eligibility profiles.
Designed end-to-end program workflows, from application and eligibility through review, awarding, funding, and disbursement, including logic engines for multi-criteria field dependencies, divergent workflow and awarding paths, and fund management with full audit trails.
Designed platform integrations: SSO and Shibboleth authentication, PeopleSoft and Banner student records, CyberSource and Stripe payments, and REST, SOAP, and GraphQL APIs.
Designed platform features used by five Google philanthropic programs (Ed, Giving, Research, RISE, Scholarships); led day-to-day account work on Giving and Scholarships.

Project Manager · Tectonic (formerly eResources)

September 2003 – September 2013

Joined eResources running full client implementations across fellowships, scholarships, higher ed administration, and corporate philanthropy.
Took on platform design and feature direction in the late 2000s, expanding from delivery into architecture.
Built HTML/CSS and responsive front-end designs in early implementations, later retired as the team and platform grew.

Selected client engagements

AAAS (21 years). Application, multi-tier review, liaison, and placement management for the Science and Technology Policy Fellowships, with z-score review normalization and interview and position-management tools.
Stanford VPUE (15 years). Application and program management for undergraduate programs across Stanford, run as a dedicated platform instance in parallel with the graduate engagement.
SME Education Foundation (15 years). End-to-end scholarship management: applications, eligibility filtering, references, review, fund management, check requests, and disbursement, with intelligent scoring and full audit trails.
AWS Foundation (13 years). Application, eligibility, reference, review, and awarding management, with custom per-scholarship eligibility profiles, ZIP-code location rules, and intelligent advance scoring.
Stanford VPGE (12 years). Event and application management for graduate programs across Stanford: custom program mini-sites, Reference and Advisor portals, Shibboleth and PeopleSoft integration, divergent workflow and awarding paths, multi-level approval and ranking review, and funding request and expense processing with an integrated financial portal.
Stanford Bio-X (11 years). Fellowship and grant application management for the Bio-X PhD fellowship and related grant programs.
Google philanthropic programs (10+ years, historical). Platform features for five philanthropic programs (Ed, Giving, Research, RISE, Scholarships); programs since ramped down.
Stanford PostDoc (9 years). Event and application management for postdoctoral programs: program mini-sites, course application with references, course approval review, a mobile attendance tracker, and advanced search integrated with the graduate program instance.
National University (5 years). Complex application management with a logic engine for multi-criteria field visibility, a three-tier automated review workflow, and per-program applicant portals.

Skills

Platform and product. SaaS architecture, workflow and process design, feature and UI/UX design, roadmap and release direction, solution architecture, system and scalability design, custom platform tailoring per client.
Account and delivery. Client relationships and strategic planning, sales engineering and demos, full project lifecycle across requirements, specifications, developer coordination, QA, delivery, and training.
Integrations. SSO, Shibboleth, OAuth; REST, SOAP, GraphQL, RPC APIs; PeopleSoft and Banner; Salesforce; CyberSource, Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal, TouchNet.
Compliance and security. SOC 2 Type II, PCI-DSS, FERPA.
Domain. Higher education administration, fellowships, scholarships, foundations and grantmaking, corporate philanthropy, nonprofits, associations and member networks.

Education

Tennessee Technological University — BS, Management Information Systems, 2003