EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT: Alex Brombal

Alex Brombal is a Senior Software Engineer for CancerLinQ, and his primary focus is on the SmartLinQ web application and related products. He is responsible for architecting and developing the client application, API services code, and its supporting databases and infrastructure.

Alex has worked professionally as a software engineer for 15 years for start-ups, advertising agencies, B2B & B2C corporations, freelance/contract work, and non-profit organizations.

He has also worked as a contract engineer, usually providing staff augmentation to companies needing to fill a role for the short term.

One of the companies Alex contracted with was CancerLinQ and he joined the team after his contract was completed. He has been with CancerLinQ for nearly three years as both a contractor and employee.

How has your experience been with CancerLinQ?

CancerLinQ has been a unique opportunity for me to work in a cross-section of the medical and technology industries. My professional background, expertise, and passion have always been in technology—but combining that with the oncology space is allowing me to help create software that is helping to save people’s lives. I also work with some of the smartest, friendliest, and most diverse group of people I have met in my career.

In addition, I have been particularly impressed by CancerLinQ’s commitment and consistent attention to the inclusion and promotion of minority group support in all aspects of our company’s culture. Personally, as part of the LGBT+ community, I don’t think I’ve ever worked somewhere that I felt so naturally comfortable, welcomed, and supported.

What has your biggest achievement(s) been at CancerLinQ? 

From a technology perspective, I think the work I am most proud of at CancerLinQ is all the improvements we have made to the underlying infrastructure and software that powers our platform. Although it’s hard for customers to see it directly, we have made huge improvements to the quality of the code in the time I’ve been here, reducing complexity by orders of magnitude and improving the speed and stability of the product.

From a product perspective, the Patient Journey application has given me the biggest sense of satisfaction in my work at CancerLinQ. Making it easier to visualize trends and potential solutions is inspiring to know that these tools will be used to help people going through one of the most difficult experiences of their lives.

What are you/your team’s short and long-term goals?

Our short-term goals are primarily focused on working with our customers directly to find incremental ways to improve the usefulness and the quality of experience using CancerLinQ. I have found that the real value to customers comes from the ideas we get directly from them and have been impressed by what we develop when we get actionable feedback.

In the long term, we have several large projects in the works, and my goal is simply to bring everything I have to the table in order to design, architect, and develop them into a reality.

From your perspective, what would you like to see CancerLinQ accomplish in the coming years?

I would like to see CancerLinQ continue to grow into an industry leader in advancing cancer care and research, and I believe we will do that by also being an industry leader in technology. From my perspective, I would like to see us not just achieve our goals in what we offer to the oncology community, but to grow, adapt, and push the boundaries in our use of the technology that we employ to accomplish those goals.

What you like to do for fun when you’re not at work.

As a software developer, I am primarily self-taught and was introduced to the world of computers and programming at a young age by my dad, who was also an engineer. I actually remember creating my first computer game in BASIC when I was only eight. So not surprisingly, I spend time outside of work continuing to research and dabble with technology and programming. I love to travel and have been to every continent except. I am also a classically trained concert pianist and have been playing since I was six. And yes, I still practice scales every day.