dancha.com: Website of Dan Charlson

Last Updated: 2025-12-15


Professionally | Personally | More info

 

Professionally...

#Nutshell
I work in software engineering and enterprise SaaS/PaaS (software/platform-as-a-service), both B2B and B2C, wearing two hats—Tech and Biz—as both a manager/leader/executive and as high-powered individual contributor

I cover four main areas:
  1. Tech PM
  2. Product/GTM
  3. Customer Success aka Account Management
  4. Business Development
And I have deep experience with: AI/ML/NLP, Data Science, International, Operations, and Strategy. I bring over 16 years' experience working with SaaS KPIs

I'm a "people person:" I’m consistently complimented for my high energy, genuinely positive mode of encouragement, and engaging curiosity. I foster healthy, happy, productive teams

#Presently
I am looking for work. I prefer full-time, and will consider part-time, "fractional," consulting, and/or contract work. There's a link below to my LinkedIn Profile, just above the Personal section

From October 2023 to May 2025, I provided management consulting to a very cool and innovative AI/ML startup in Vancouver, BC: Beatdapp, Inc. They combat music streaming fraud via the application of the latest in AI/ML techniques, and do so at scale: many tens of trillions of stream events and data points

It was part-advisory and part hands-on:
  • guiding leadership and teams on (1) software product and program management best practices, and (2) music tech industry business, operational, and technical elements
  • personally product managing, enhancing, and scaling a variety of data science, data engineering, MLOps and AI/ML projects, including public-facing APIs, internal and external visualization dashboards, and tools for the data scientists
Beatdapp was such a great experience! Check out their holistic and just-launched Trust & Safety Operating System (Dec 2025)

Okay, so Read On for More about my Experience and Skills—
OR click to skip to The Personal section...


#Tech-wise
I am a principal-level technical product and program manager “servant leader” with over 15 years' experience in:
  • APIs (design and integrations)
  • Full stack development: back end, middle tier, front end (mobile, web, desktop, smart speakers, big screen, automotive head units, and more)
  • International ecommerce
  • Multilingual Search (including Japanese!)
  • Truly enormous media catalogs and their management (150M+ tracks aka songs, ~1.5B end-user-facing output files)
  • XML feeds for inbound and outbound distribution of those catalogs
  • The Subscription Business Model, and...
  • The system design and production operation of high-availability B2B SaaS Platforms used by tens of millions, globally
And I bring over six years in AI/ML/NLP, not just using today's proliferation of LLMs and other AI or agentic tools, but actual data management and annotation, training/building models, evaluating and refining them, accounting for data drift, etc. and running models in production environments

#Biz-wise
I am also a seasoned technical account manager, customer success expert, and business development rep / account executive, having performed consultative sales for over 10 years, and owned a P&L representing over half of an employer’s annual revenue. (This fascinating and challenging work was at the intersection of music and technology in a two-sided marketplace, specifically copyrights, digital music fulfillment, usage reporting, and rights holder royalty calculation and payments.)

#Leadership
I bring 15 years' experience in managing teams and four PMOs (two I created), including five as a manager of managers/directors, and 12 years’ membership in senior/executive leadership teams, setting and driving strategy and direction, working with Boards of Directors, and supporting fund-raising and M&A efforts

In terms of domains or industries...

  • My first 10-11 years were in “language and computers:"
    • Software and Web Globalization (G11N): Internationalization (I18N) and Localization (L10N)
    • Natural Language Processing and Computational Linguistics
      This span of time includes seven years at Microsoft
  • I've worked the last 18+ in “music (and video) and computers:"

#Lastly
My entire career has been highly international in orientation, supporting or managing internal and external teams on every continent but Antarctica, plus I've studied over 10 human languages

Visit my LinkedIn Profile for more details.

Personally...

I am a Seattle native and resident—who has extensive international travel experience and outlook.

  • I enjoy parenting my children, reading books, watching films, listening to music, and cooking/eating good food (dessert!)
     
  • I am athletic (mostly Olympic Weightlifting, some CrossFit), study Aikido and BJJ, and commute by bicycle: Mens sana in corpore sano
    During the pandemic, I revived my passion for hiking and backpacking. 2021: two trips. 2022: three trips. 2023: 14 trips! 2024: two big, two small. 2025...?
     
  • I am musical. Since 2018, I've sung Tenor in Harmonia Orchestra & Chorus, fka Orchestra Seattle | Seattle Chamber Singers). I'm now Section Lead and also a Board Member. I was also in 2018 a founding member of Emerald Harmony, an a cappella quartet with friends, in which I sang for six years.
    And of course I enjoy listening to music: 50/50 modern (pop, rock, metal, jazz, alt/indie) and classical (mostly baroque period). See my Music page
     
  • I love languages! For example: I speak Japanese, used to speak French and Russian, and have additionally studied Arabic, Chinese, German, Korean, Latin, Spanish, Swedish, and Thai. I am seriously considering resuming my Duolingo-based pursuit of Mandarin...and boom! In Q4 2025 I did, and it's going great!
     
  • I value integrity, discipline, duty, loyalty, responsibility, and commitment.
    I am pro-feminist, aspire to be anti-racist, and work for social justice

    Great survey of feminist history and works | Super-great work about anti-racisim
     
  • I played role-playing games more when I was younger, amassed a huge collection I'm proud of, and still collect occasionally—mint condition not required. (Parenting small children required putting this on hold.)
    Starting in 2015 I resumed "DMing" as creative outlet: I ran D&D games with my kids and their friends in a detailed fantasy world I've crafted since 1986. (I prefer 3.5e, but play 5e.) Here ten years later (2025), I play bi-weekly with adult friends. One friend GMs a MERP game, and I DM my D&D game, alternating, so that we each play monthly as a player
     
  • I am a computer geek (one flavor of one, at least), and a passionate tool geek to boot: flashlights, mechanical pencils and fountain pens, knives, miscellaneous gadgets...
     
  • I love maps and charts, posters, graphs, and diagrams—visualizations. I indulge a passion for analysis, design, and the beautiful presentation of ideas and information. Anyway, I have a large and ever-growing collection of myriad physical maps...
    And huzzah: In Dec 2025 I started taking GIS courses; I'm psyched!

More about me...

Aikido & BJJ | Books | Contact Info | Exercise | Films | Gaming | Music | Music & Audio Collection | Résumé | Serial Art | Travel | Standards | What Color is the Sun?

Book Log | Super Blue-Green Smoothie | Maureen's Granola

(Perhaps someday I'll make a mobile-friendly version of this page. But gosh! I haven't done it yet!)

 


www.dancha.com © Dan Charlson 2000-2025—unbelievable: a quarter century!       Return to home.