Daniella Freese
About Daniella Freese
Daniella Freese is a Senior Software Engineer at Kong Inc., with a strong educational background in Plant and Environmental Sciences and Bioinformatics. She has held various research and engineering roles across multiple institutions and companies, contributing to advancements in technology and environmental science.
Work at Kong
Daniella Freese currently holds the position of Senior Software Engineer - Konnect at Kong Inc., a role she began in 2024. Prior to this, she served as a Senior Partner Developer at the same company from 2022 to 2024. In her roles at Kong, she has worked with key technology partners, cloud services, and independent software vendors (ISVs) to develop integrations with Kong's API Management and Mesh platforms. Her expertise includes consulting on Kubernetes, CI/CD, DevOps, and application development, contributing to the success of enterprises in the cloud-native ecosystem.
Education and Expertise
Daniella Freese earned her Master's Degree in Plant and Environmental Sciences from Clemson University, where she studied from 2010 to 2013. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Natural and Environmental Resources from Clemson University, completed between 2007 and 2010. Additionally, she pursued a Professional MS in Bioinformatics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 2015 to 2017. Her academic background is complemented by a brief pursuit of a PhD before shifting her focus to Bioinformatics and Computer Science.
Background
Daniella Freese has a diverse professional background that includes significant research and engineering experience. She worked as a Graduate Research Fellow at Clemson University from 2011 to 2013, focusing on plant ecophysiology. Following this, she served as a Graduate Research Assistant at Universität Bern from 2013 to 2014, contributing to research in both Bern, Switzerland, and Jena, Germany. She also held a position as a Bioinformatics Graduate Research Assistant at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte from 2014 to 2015.
Achievements
Daniella Freese was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her master's work in plant ecophysiology. This fellowship recognizes her contributions to research related to climate change and invasive species. Throughout her career, she has transitioned from plant sciences to technology, leveraging her research experience in her roles in software engineering and consulting.
Previous Work Experience
Before her current role at Kong Inc., Daniella Freese gained valuable experience in various positions. She worked as a Software Engineering Intern at UNC Charlotte in 2016 and as a Computational Biology Intern at Monsanto during the same year. Her experience also includes consulting with enterprises on cloud-native technologies and contributing to research initiatives in bioinformatics and software engineering.