Meet the Team: Dallin Christensen

Note: This is the first part of a new series highlighting the team building the future of identity here at Cognito.

What’s your role at Cognito?

I’m a Senior Software Engineer. I started about seven months ago, and I’ve been focused on both the frontend and backend of our Flow product. Flow launched in July, a few months after I started. Since then, we’ve been busy with weekly updates.

Right now, I’m working on behind-the-scenes improvements to make documentary verification and selfie verification even more robust. I’m also working on some UX changes that will make common tasks a little bit easier and more intuitive.

I enjoy solving challenging problems and have a strong sense of personal ownership over many aspects of our product. At Cognito I enjoy the freedom to pursue solutions that I come up with, but also the support of my teammates to collaboratively solve complex problems.

What did you do before Cognito?

Before Cognito, I worked at a company called Loveland Innovations, a startup focused on property inspections using drones. I heard about Cognito through a recruiter that reached out to me on LinkedIn.

What drew you to working at Cognito? What’s changed since you joined?

I really enjoy working at small startups tackling interesting problems. I love that I know all of my coworkers, even though we’re not in the same physical location. With a team of less than twenty people, everyone can have a huge impact on the future of the company -- the product, but also the culture. And such a small team also means that I’m working with other incredibly talented engineers.

I’ve only been at Cognito for seven months, so not much has changed yet. I am the most recent addition to the engineering team, so we have the same team we did when I joined.. But we’re all more skilled, more knowledgeable, and more informed on what we want Flow to be than we were when I joined.

Flow hadn’t been released yet when I started. It was in a functional state, but lacking many of the features that we use daily now. For example, selfie checks were recorded videos that we couldn’t validate until the entire video was recorded, uploaded, and processed. Now we process the selfie check in real time and the entire process is much quicker. Reflowing sessions, canceling sessions, and manually overriding failed steps didn’t exist back then.

Where’d you grow up? Where do you live now?

I grew up in Utah, about one hour south of Salt Lake City. I still live in Utah, just a little closer to SLC.

Are there any other places you’d like to live?

Japan, Korea, and anywhere on the West Coast of the US.

Do you have any trips planned?

Next February, I’ll be taking a cruise with my family in the Caribbean. I might also take a ski trip to northern Japan right before that. And after the cruise, the next big trip will be to Santorini and the rest of Greece in 2023. My parents are doing humanitarian work there, so my family and I are going to visit them and do some sightseeing.

How do you like to spend your free time?

Like you might expect from a lifelong Utahn, it’s a mix of sports and outdoor activities. I love watching BYU football and basketball, as well as the Utah Jazz. When the weather is right, I go mountain biking and snowboarding. And I really enjoy polishing my photography skills.

Finally, what’s your go-to recipe?

Japanese curry!

To learn more about Cognito, along with open roles on the team, click here