Resume
Chris Ballance · CISSP · CTO at Dexterity Legal
Summary
Chris is a senior engineering leader with over 20 years of experience building software and leading high-performing teams across industries including public safety, healthcare, finance, legal tech, govtech, and SaaS. He is equally at home in Fortune 100 companies and fast-moving seed-stage startups, bringing a rare blend of enterprise-scale discipline and early-stage agility.
Chris is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Dexterity Legal, where he owns engineering, architecture, and technical strategy for a legal-technology platform. Alongside the CTO role, he holds advisory and board positions with SovereignKey, Artificial Compute, and RevMAC.
Earlier in 2026, Chris was Head of Realtime Engineering at GovWorx, the first Engineering Manager hire, building the team and the realtime platform for a govtech space where compliance is the floor, not a feature. Before that he served as the first Staff Engineer at Old Well Labs: a deliberate, time-bounded pivot to staff-level IC at an AI-native fintech, where he helped define the technical foundation for a platform focused on capital deployment and financial data at scale. He returned to engineering leadership more effective and AI-fluent.
Previously, he served as Head of Engineering at BetterPet, where he built the internal engineering organization from scratch, transitioned away from legacy vendors, and led a full re-platforming. The work improved reliability roughly threefold, saved the business more than $4 million annually. During the 2.5-year tenure the business grew revenue 200%.
Before that, Chris spent five years at Mark43, rising from Senior Engineer to Director of Engineering. He led the development of mission-critical software for law enforcement agencies, including real-time emergency dispatch, near-real-time GPS vehicle and officer tracking, geospatial infrastructure, and modern custody and police records systems.
Earlier, Chris held senior engineering roles at Microsoft and Volvo, each for roughly five years. His technical strengths include Java, .NET, SQL, Python, AWS, Azure, and domain-driven design. He is a CISSP-certified security professional and a servant leader who believes in leading by example, investing in people, and setting a high bar for both quality and culture.
Experience
- September 2026 – Present
Dexterity Legal
Chief Technology Officer
Legal-tech platform. Ownership of engineering, architecture, and technical strategy.
- May 2025 – Present
SovereignKey
Co-Founder· Dallas, TX
Seed-stage fintech. Co-founder of a financial-infrastructure platform.
- September 2024 – Present
Senturel
Founder· Charlotte, NC
- July 2024 – Present
RevMAC
Advisor
Medical billing platform. Advisor for the regulated-RCM domain.
- 2026
GovWorx
Head of Realtime Engineering· Denver, CO
First Engineering Manager. Built the team and the realtime platform for govtech, where compliance is the floor.
- June 2023 – Present
Artificial Compute
Board Member· Austin, TX
- October 2018 – Present
Ballance Properties
Partner· Charlotte, NC
Real estate investment and property management.
- July 2025 – January 2026
Old Well Labs
Staff Engineer· Charlotte, NC
A deliberate, time-bounded pivot to staff-level IC at an AI-native fintech. Returned to engineering leadership more effective and AI-fluent.
- February 2023 – July 2025
BetterPet
Head of Engineering / VP· Charlotte, NC
Built the internal engineering organization from 0 to 60. Replatformed the core product. MTBF roughly tripled, $4M+ annual savings. During the 2.5-year tenure the business grew revenue 200%.
- January 2018 – January 2023
Mark43
Senior Engineer → Director of Engineering· New York, NY
Real-time CAD, custody, geospatial systems used by ~200 public-safety agencies. Senior Engineer → Task Force Lead → Engineering Manager → Senior Engineering Manager → Director of Engineering over 5 years.
- July 2017 – January 2018
AvidXchange
Application Security Architect· Charlotte, NC
- June 2016 – July 2017
Red Ventures
Security Architect· Charlotte, NC
- December 2014 – May 2016
Diligent Corporation
Senior Software Engineer· Charlotte, NC
Web API, XAML, C#, Windows RT, SaaS, PubSub, RabbitMQ.
- November 2013 – October 2014
Triumph Research Intelligence
Lead Product Developer· Stansted, UK
ASP.NET MVC, Data Modeling, Data Visualization, Azure, SQL, Big Data, Pharma, Clinical Trials.
- September 2009 – November 2013
Microsoft
Software Development Engineer II
ASP.NET development on the authoring system that published to support.microsoft.com.
- May 2005 – September 2009
Volvo IT
Technical Lead· Greensboro, NC
Common Web Platform for Volvo's internal and external web presences.
- 2004 – 2005
Ventech Solutions
Consultant
Oracle consulting.
- October 2002 – October 2003
SimTek
Software Engineer· Greensboro–Winston-Salem, NC
Mathematical modeling of industrial processes.
- 2000 – 2001
Dixon Hughes Goodman LLP
Programmer· High Point, NC
SQL, ASP.NET.
Certifications
- (ISC)² CISSP: Certified Information Systems Security Professional
- Radio Operator
Languages
- English · Native
- Spanish · Professional Working
- Swedish · Elementary
- German · Elementary