Before MongoDB, Runkel was a Principal Technologist at MarkLogic where he worked with Financial Service, Medical, and Media organizations to develop operational systems for analytics and custom publishing. Runkel has also recently been a Sales Engineering Manager at Venafi where he he assisted large financial institutions, retailers, health care and insurance organizations improve security by securing, protecting, and managing their encryption assets. Runkel has also held various positions developing automated underwriting, product information management, and CRM solutions. Runkel has a BS in Applied Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon and a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Michigan.