Profile
A tech lead and generalist with over 8 years of experience turning business ideas into products, continuously bridging the gaps between the technical side and other teams involved in each project. I pride myself on my ability to both lead dev teams and mentor junior developers, and have a great interest in growing diverse, efficient teams. I’m seeking a role where I am able to support other developers as they clear the bar of their current capabilities, and together, deliver on projects that create a positive impact on its end users.
Experience
Co-Founder and CTO, Alpha Particle; Chicago, IL — 2017 - Present
- Expanded the business from its inception to nearly $250k in yearly revenue
- Managed, mentored, and continuously grew a dev team comprised of both full time hires and contractors to deliver client work
- Directed and completed projects for a diverse stable of clients, from large publishing clients such as RollingStone.com and Variety.com to a horse veterinarian in New Mexico looking to revitalize his online business
Writer, Draft.dev; Remote — 2020 - Present
- Completed over fifty 1500-word technical written pieces for clients across a variety of topics such as engineering management, DevOps and specific technical implementations.
- Asynchronously worked with editors to capture the voice of the client and emphasize key points prior to publishing
Writing Samples:- The Case for Granular Permissions
- Chef vs. Docker for Builds and Deployments
Lead Developer, How-To Geek; Remote — 2017 - 2018
- Modernized development processes by introducing a QA environment, pull request-based workflow, and standardized infrastructure with Ansible
- Refactored technical debt to achieve sub-second page loads across the site on 20-30 million page views per month
- Built an entirely new WordPress theme from the ground up and led development for new brand reviewgeek.com
- Facilitated all the necessary background work to lay a proper foundation for the migration of the entire infrastructure to AWS, as well as initiating its transfer
Technical Architect, doejo; Chicago, IL — 2016 – 2017
- Advised development teams on multiple projects across the entire agency on technical strategy and execution based on individual clients' needs
- Worked directly with the sales team to align sales goals, targets, and language with realistic capabilities of the agency’s technical team
- Frequently attended industry conferences to form agency-level partnerships and present our work more broadly
- Mentored junior developers and upskilled dev teams
Developer, doejo; Chicago, IL — 2013 - 2016
Specific projects include: Investors.com- Migrated ~100k pieces of content from a legacy .NET CMS onto WordPress
- Oversaw a launch that resulted in 25% faster site response, 15% increase in traffic and DevOps improvements that facilitated smoother deploys
- Managed a mix of local and remote developers across DevOps, front end, and backend teams
ScreenerTV.com- Led the development team that upgraded the branding and relaunched Tribune Media’s TV news site
- Worked with the WordPress.com VIP and Tribune Media teams to scale the new site to nearly 100k daily page views
Other Experience
Business acquisitions — 2021 - Present
Kanban for WordPress:- Led the acquisition process for our team of three business partners, including myself. Handled negotiations, diligence and all other relevant aspects of the deal.
- Detailed deal breakdown: https://emails.microsaasmonthly.com/issues/msm-1-from-0-to-buying-a-company-586537
WP Pusher and Branch CI:- Being an independent acquisition, I handled all aspects from sourcing to raising capital ($150k+) to corporate structure and due diligence
- Detailed deal breakdown: https://emails.microsaasmonthly.com/issues/msm-8-deal-breakdown-wp-pusher-and-branch-797853
Education
Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL — Economics Major, Computer Science Minor, 2014
Skills
HTML/CSS/JS, WordPress, PHP, Public Speaking, Project Management, Technical Sales, Technical Writing