Ed is the Director of Engineering and Head of Security at Smile ID. With a career spanning multinational enterprises, Bay Area unicorns, and early-stage startups, he has built and secured systems across industries including e-commerce, telecoms, customer service, education, developer platforms, and identity.
Ed holds a software patent in AI — one that, like much of the field, has been reshaped by the rapid rise of large language models. Known for his ability to solve complex technical challenges (and for being the unofficial team therapist), he believes the only constant in technology—and life—is change. Ed Fricker is currently the Director of Platform Engineering at Smile ID and has experience as a Director at Software Communications. Previously, Ed held positions such as Principal Software Engineer at Convox and Senior DevOps Engineer at Creatubbles™. With a background in agile development processes and architecture design, Ed has successfully led teams on multiple deliverables and managed various high-performance projects. Throughout their career, Ed has focused on optimizing backend infrastructure and transitioning systems to improve efficiency and effectiveness.