Oracle NetSuite
Business Software, Business Management Software used by over 43 000 companies
Delivered a new Tax API version that improved tax calculation performance by 20–100% while modernizing legacy tax engine architecture
Key Contributions
- Led Tax API Plugin upgrade achieving 20-100% performance improvements
- Became Migrate Reviewer for Tax team, conducting code reviews and sharing knowledge
- Defined org-wide engineering standards, upskilling the team to reduce code review turnaround from days to hours
- Became Migrate Reviewer, conducting code reviews and sharing knowledge across the team
Tax API Plugin Upgrade
Senior Software Engineer, Technical Lead
Challenge
NetSuite supports custom tax engines through a JavaScript-based API, which is also used internally by its native tax engine. The platform team released a new version of the internal JavaScript engine, requiring a comprehensive upgrade of the Tax API plugin to ensure compatibility and unlock performance improvements for the Tax domain.
- Several tax-related operations suffered from slow performance, impacting user experience
- Legacy ECMAScript syntax made the codebase difficult to maintain and extend
- The outdated API patterns created barriers to adopting modern platform capabilities
Solution
I took ownership of the Tax API plugin upgrade, driving it from ambiguous requirements to successful delivery. I started by auditing the sparse documentation, then systematically filled knowledge gaps by analyzing implementations from other teams and conducting targeted discussions with PMs, senior engineers in the Tax domain, and platform teams. After synthesizing this information, I finalized the specification and aligned stakeholders on the approach.
- Conducted thorough analysis of existing implementations and cross-team patterns
- Defined and documented the API specification through stakeholder collaboration
- Partnered closely with QA engineers to develop a comprehensive test plan
Results
20–100% performance improvement in tax calculation operations
Successfully modernized legacy tax engine code for long-term maintainability
Delivered on schedule despite unclear initial requirements
Established clear documentation for future API iterations
Enabled the Tax team to leverage new platform capabilities
Engineering Approach
The primary challenge was operating effectively with incomplete information. Instead of waiting for perfect documentation, I proactively synthesized requirements from multiple sources, including existing implementations, cross-functional discussions, and guidance from the platform team. I worked closely with QA from the outset to ensure technical changes were clearly understood and thoroughly validated. This project demonstrated my ability to deliver high-impact results in ambiguous environments while rapidly building domain expertise.