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WhaleHawk

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Backend Engineer · 2023 — Present · Visit Site
NestJS Prisma PostgreSQL Pinecone AWS S3 TypeScript

Challenge

Medical device sales is a grind. Reps spend hours researching prospects — digging through LinkedIn, news articles, conference panels — just to figure out if someone's worth calling. The good ones do this well. Most don't have the time.

Solution

WhaleHawk does the research for you. AI-powered sales intelligence that surfaces buying signals, prioritizes accounts, and gives reps talking points tailored to each prospect. I built the backend platform — data pipelines, vector search, and the APIs that power it all.

Outcome

The platform is live and growing. Reps are spending less time on research and more time on conversations that matter. The system processes thousands of signals daily and surfaces actionable intelligence in real time.

My Role

I own the backend engineering at WhaleHawk — a medical device sales intelligence platform that helps reps find and close deals faster.

  • Core API: NestJS services that power prospect intelligence, account prioritization, and signal processing.
  • Vector Search: Pinecone-backed semantic search for matching reps to relevant buying signals across thousands of data points.
  • Data Pipeline: Ingestion, enrichment, and scoring of prospect data from multiple sources.
  • Compliance: SOC 2 Type II compliance work, including audit logging, access controls, and data governance. HIPAA 6-year retention requirements for healthcare data handling.
  • Storage: AWS S3 for document and asset management with lifecycle policies aligned to retention requirements.

The Compliance Piece

Building for healthcare means regulation is a first-class concern, not an afterthought. SOC 2 Type II meant implementing comprehensive audit trails, encryption at rest and in transit, and access controls that satisfy auditors. HIPAA’s 6-year retention requirements shaped our entire data architecture — from how we store records to how we handle deletion requests.

Tech Stack

Backend: NestJS + TypeScript, Prisma ORM Database: PostgreSQL for relational data, Pinecone for vector search Infrastructure: AWS S3 for storage, structured for SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance Data: Signal processing, NLP, and AI orchestration pipelines

What I’ve Learned

Healthcare sales is its own world. The buying cycles are long, the stakeholders are many, and the regulations are real. Building for this space means understanding not just the tech, but the compliance landscape — and building systems that are auditable from day one.