The Ohio State University
B.S. in Finance
About
Business understanding.
Technical direction.
I’m Danielle McKee, and Arc Theory is my independent practice. I help teams understand what needs to change, translate it into a practical technical design, and lead the implementation.
Explore my backgroundThe idea behind the nameA simple shape.
A simple shape.
A way of thinking.
Graphic design is the art I’ve always felt most at home in. Geometry gives me a way in: simple shapes, arranged with intention, can become something entirely different.
An arc is such a simple shape, yet it does so much in architecture. I’m drawn to the idea that even something complex can be understood through simpler forms.
I approach systems the same way: thinking in modules, combining simple pieces, and borrowing ideas across tools and types of systems. The best solution doesn’t always need to be the most technically sophisticated. Sometimes it’s the simplest arrangement that works.
The person behind the practice
I’m Danielle.
My background spans finance, operations transformation, enterprise systems, and hands-on technical delivery. Working across these roles has taught me to look at the business need, the people doing the work, and the technical constraints together.
My role varies by engagement. I work as a solutions architect, technical lead, or fractional technology partner. I connect what the team needs with the workflows, requirements, and technical decisions that make it possible.
TangramsThe possibility
The possibility
is in the pieces.
I used to play tangrams with my dad. A small set of simple shapes could become something entirely different, just by changing how the pieces fit together.
That idea feels connected to the work I do now. The possibility is often already in the pieces we have. It takes a different arrangement to see it.
As humans, we tend toward complexity. We add a tool, another process, another workaround. My instinct is to step back: what are the essential pieces, and how could they work together more clearly?
The experience behind the perspective
Explore the background.
Different industries. Familiar patterns. Follow the roles, explore a skill, or look at the tools behind the work.
Independent Practice
I work with teams to define what needs to change, design the solution, and lead the implementation. My role varies by engagement. Most recent first.
Nov 2025 – presentAirbnbTechnical Lead & Consultant (Contract)
Led the technical and operational redesign of an internal product-testing platform supporting multiple pilots, including participant sign-ups, landing-page content, incentive distribution, and compliance workflows. Designed and implemented an integration with Airbnb’s internal API, partnering with data engineering and working through security and privacy reviews.
Helped the team launch pilots and generate reports faster while simplifying the system and reducing technical debt.
Skills in practice
- Solo solutions architecture
- Data normalization
- Compliance middleware
Tools
Airtable · GraphQL · Apache Hive · Google Cloud Run · React / TypeScript
2023 – presentFiscal-Sponsorship PlatformProduct Architect & Fractional Technology Partner
Principal architect and ongoing technical lead since 2023 for a platform that has processed more than $13M across 150+ organizations and 1,000+ vendors. Own the technical direction, product roadmap, sprint planning, and hands-on implementation, connecting vendor onboarding, expense and invoice capture, and multi-entity accounting across QuickBooks, Ramp, and GCP-hosted middleware.
Helped the team roughly double the number of clients supported each month, from an average of 22 to 43.
Skills in practice
- Fractional tech leadership — Set technical direction and the phased platform roadmap.
- Integration design — Built the middleware that keeps intake, spend, and accounting reconciled end to end.
Tools
Airtable · Google Cloud Run · Ramp · QuickBooks
See the highlighted results →Jun 2024 – Feb 2025AppleSolutions Consultant (Contract)
Embedded solutions consultant across Apple Music and Apple TV+. Designed and shipped seven internal operations systems — original-content tracking, audio QA, publishing dashboards, artist relations — and helped bridge two departments with a vendor-task automation microservice.
Standardized, visible workflows across content QA, publishing, and artist relations.
Skills in practice
- Systems design
- Requirements & best-practice advisory
Tools
Airtable · Internal integration services
2024 – 2025Development Slate PlatformProduct Architect & Strategic Product Oversight
A pre-production platform for a Los Angeles film & TV studio — a dual CRM and development-slate system that tracks incoming submissions and the projects moving through development. Re-architected and normalized the entire data model, built role-specific interfaces, and wired native contacts and calendar integration across iOS and Android.
20+ hours a week saved through scheduling automation; seven fragmented structures consolidated to one.
Skills in practice
- Re-architecture & normalization
- Fractional product oversight
Tools
Airtable · Google Calendar · Google Contacts · Zoom
2024Budget ManagementSystems Architect / Product Lead
A budget-management platform for a cancer research institution (SCHARP & VIDD divisions). Documented the end-to-end process across four personas, then rebuilt it to track budget periods, POs, invoices, and contracts — replacing a rigid single-step approval with a dynamic, multi-layer one.
Calculation errors at the budget, contract, and PO level — resolved.
Skills in practice
- Process documentation
- Approval-chain design
Tools
Airtable · BPMN 2.0 · DocuSign
2024Travel Approval & ExpenseSystems Architect / Product Lead
Replaced lost-in-SharePoint travel approvals with a BPMN-modeled system — dynamic, conference-aware request forms, sequenced approval chains, and a DocuSign automation that maps record data into the right PDF, routes for signature, and tracks completion.
Finance gained real-time visibility into requests against budget; auditable trails replaced lost paperwork.
Skills in practice
- Workflow modeling
- Integration design
Tools
Airtable · DocuSign · BPMN 2.0
Earlier Career
The strategy, finance, and process-transformation roles that built the foundation under the architecture work.
Dec 2021 – Dec 2023DeloitteOperations Transformation Consultant
Advised enterprise clients through large-scale operational and systems change — guided a major energy company through an SAP migration aligning 15 cross-functional teams, and led data-process work that strengthened HEDIS reporting compliance for a large healthcare provider.
The discovery-and-facilitation muscle I now apply to platform architecture.
Skills in practice
- Process design & facilitation
- Stakeholder management
- Scenario financial modeling
Tools
SAP · LucidChart · Signavio
Sep 2020 – Dec 2021Olive AIFinancial Analyst & Business Partner
Financial strategy at a high-growth healthcare-automation startup. Automated headcount expense forecasting and built my first production low-code integrations — connecting the HRIS to the financial model — which became the backbone of the practice.
Where the practice's low-code integration backbone began.
Skills in practice
- FP&A
- Low-code integration
Tools
Airtable · Financial modeling
Jan 2018 – May 2020The Ohio State UniversitySpreadsheet & Databases Teaching Assistant
Guided undergraduate finance students through in-class Excel modeling exercises, teaching core spreadsheet and database concepts alongside how they show up in real analyst work.
The analytical foundation the rest of the practice was built on.
Skills in practice
- Teaching & mentorship
- Spreadsheet modeling
Tools
Excel · Relational databases
Summer 2016 – Summer 2017Cincinnati Children's HospitalResearch Assistant
Neuroscience research in a temporal lobe epilepsy lab, studying how neurons responded to electrical activity — running the statistical analysis behind it. Where the curiosity about how things work got rigorous.
"If you can survive a neuroscience lab, you can survive anything."
Skills in practice
- Research design
- Quantitative analysis
- Working with ambiguity
Tools
Statistical analysis · Clinical data
Skills, connected.
Select a skill to explore the work behind it.
Tools & Tech
The full stack I design and build with — languages to infrastructure.Languages
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- Python
- SQL
Front-end
- Next.js / React
Back-end & data
- Node.js
- Postgres
- Supabase
- Apache Hive
AI & LLMs
- Anthropic / Claude
- Gemini
- LLM agents
- MCP
APIs & protocols
- GraphQL
- REST
- Webhooks
Auth & security
- OAuth
- Session auth
- RBAC
- Compliance middleware
Cloud & infra
- GCP Cloud Run
- Vercel
- GitHub
Low-codeiFor in-flux business logic — POCs, validation, or an admin UI over production middleware. Integrations live in GCP.
- Airtable
Platforms integratediThird-party systems I've built API & webhook integrations with.
- Ramp
- QuickBooks
- DocuSign
- Google Workspace
Modeling & docs
- BPMN 2.0
- Lucidchart
- Signavio