The chief aim of any web technologist is to make a particular part of the web more awesome for people. Or at least, it should be. The web was built for people. For the past several years I have worked as a devops engineer. Now I'm going back to my roots as a full-stack developer.
Specialties: Infrastructure, back-end development (esp. Go), front-end development (esp. Svelte+TypeScript), performance, observability
Preferred Programming Languages: TypeScript, Go, PHP, Python
Ancillary Skills: Team leadership, mentoring, architectural design, tailoring communication of important information to different audiences
This work history only includes my professional career and does not include my role at Silver Gryphon Games.
July 2021 to present
I help build and design the platform that underlies Apiture's services. I abstract away the AWS and Docker infrastructure so app developers can build for the platform and not need to understand infrastructure themselves. As a tech lead, I lead a team of platform engineers of varying skill levels and personalities towards this end. Often I wear multiple hats - architect, coder, mentor, troubleshooter, sounding board, and others.
May 2018 to July 2021
I worked as a senior DevOps consultant to enable enterprise clients to meet their cloud infrastructure, automation, and containerization needs. In this capacity, I managed Docker Swarm and Kubernetes, architected infrastructure on AWS and Azure, converted legacy VMs into containerized workloads, and coached clients on best practices. I also ran the internal devops and tabletop games communities and volunteered for additional ad hoc community leadership roles occasionally.
November 2017 to May 2018
I helped build and automate systems to keep Spok at the forefront of secure communications technology. My focus was on monitoring and alerting systems, but I also worked extensively with AWS and Jenkins CI/CD. I discovered, helped mitigate, and recovered from an AWS breach.
September 2015 to November 2017
I managed the operations team for the digital department at the Star Tribune. I oversaw and guided the implementation and maintenance of their digital infrastructure, as well as lead initiatives to improve performance, reliability, cost effectiveness, and general awesomeness of the same. As a technical manager, roughly half of my time was spent doing the technical work alongside my direct reports.
September 2013 to September 2015
I worked on a variety of systems to keep the Twin Cities' best newspaper on the front edge of the digital frontier. Foremost, I was the lead operations engineer responsible for architecting the infrastructure for the Star Tribune's newly-rebuilt 2015 web platform. I built out AWS infrastructure using Ansible and designed the system to be scalable enough that it was able to weather the onslaught of traffic in the wake of Prince's death.
May 2013 to September 2013
For the most part, I worked on back end systems using PHP and MySQL, with a heavy dose of Symfony2 and Doctrine. I was also the core developer of a versatile survey platform, the front end of which I built in AngularJS.
August 2011 to May 2013
In addition to my duties as a lead developer, I managed the IT and development staff at G3M. In this capacity, I reduced IT infrastructure costs by 60% by migrating to the cloud, increased developer efficiency through the introduction of new processes like digital time tracking, and built client-tailored marketing databases and applications. I migrated legacy applications built on Visual Foxpro to PHP and lead development of a web-based loyalty rewards system built on Symfony2.
June 2011 to June 2011
I worked on telecommunications back end software using C# and C++.
April 2008 to May 2011
I aided in the development and design of several geospatial data delivery web applications using Java and PHP. I reimagined, redesigned and took ownership of the LPDAAC internal message board and other internal web-based communications projects.
August 2007 to April 2008
I developed web applications for internal use. Primarily, I used Oracle Application Express, PHP, Oracle 10g, MySQL, and Java.
June 2002 to August 2007
Over these six years I did freelance web design work on a sporadic basis.
August 2006 to May 2007
Repaired and built computers, provided extensive customer support, designed and maintained company website, designed and implemented public relations and marketing campaigns, designed and produced all internal artwork, logos, and stationary.
January 2004 to June 2004
I designed user interfaces and level layouts using proprietary software, Adobe Photoshop, 3D Studio MAX, and other tools. I also acted as liaison between the coding and artwork teams.
August 2002 to November 2002
I designed and maintained two company websites, built a Flash-based virtual company lobby using 3D Studio MAX, and redesigned company branding.
B.A., History, 2004 - 2007 (Degree Received)
B.A., Japanese, 2002 - 2003 (Incomplete)
B.F.A., Digital Media, 2000 - 2002 (Incomplete)
B.S., Digital Media, 1999 - 2000 (Incomplete)