Startup product development on a react native/typescript/graphql/node/azure functions stack

Achievements include

• Building a native app from nothing to prototype to initial release using the latest tools
• Built the first version of the app quickly enough that everyone assumed it was just a mockup

Startup product development on a react/amplify/AppSync/lambda stack

Achievements include

• Built the front end portion of the app from rough prototype to released product

Full stack fintech development on a react/Apollo/AppSync/lambda stack

Achievements include

• Streamlined the build / release process reducing the commit to deployment time from 10 minutes to 30 seconds
• Migrated an idiosyncratic and error prone codebase to standard react
• Improved rendering time of a key page by 3700%
• Introduced automated tests that didn’t crash if ever pointed at real code
• Developed code to seamlessly transition from redux saga to Apollo without back end cooperation
• Automated complex infrastructure deployment using terraform while transitioning to a microservices architecture
• Learned just how terribly a long string of job interviews can go

Since switching to React as my primary development platform, I have worked on a series of React Native apps, typically with a corresponding React web implementation.

Achievements include

• Contributing code to the core react native project, used on millions of devices
• Implementing the MongoDB API on top of Realm to simplify code reuse
• Designing a framework to apply git-based versioning and collaboration tools to non-code data
• Developing tools to rapidly prototype apps with shared code across web and native systems
• Learning way too much about the internals of SSH and certificate based authentication

For several years my main project was front end lead for a series of white label financial calculators for government agencies and super funds, along with a few smaller mobile app projects.

Achievements included:

• Implementing the git smart http protocol in pure javascript
• Applying modern JS build tools (Browserify/Webpack/Babel/ES6) to a system still based on Angular v1
• Designing and building a video-based hybrid iOS app
• Building a highly extensible framework for rapid development of single page apps
• Extending Cordova apps with native iOS code to achieve a more native feeling app than is normally achievable with webviews
• Setting up a full modern development environment, with continuous integration (Codeship/Mocha/ESLint) and automated deployment to AWS and Azure

Back in the enterprise world, I spent several years with my main project being working on the corporate intranet for a large HR consultancy. Although this involved producing a quarter million lines of intranet code which I would be quite happy to never see again, there was a reasonable amount of opportunity to work with modern tools.

Achievements included:

• Backporting parts of ASP.NET MVC to improve developer productivity on an older platform
• Developing tools to implement features of modern javascript webapps within a restrictive intranet environment
• Applying a modern js build and test system to a platform highly incompatible with that approach

Needing a change after spending 3 months on post-merger integration, then 3 months splitting up the same systems, I began working on a social media startup with something resembling a modern web app structure.

Achievements included:

• Managing a team of remote developers
• Designing and building a semantically aware web crawler

After another unexpected platform change, I found myself specializing in SharePoint based systems and moving from development to a consulting and enterprise architecture role.

Achievements included:

• Building a widely used visual studio plugin
• Learning to be productive despite many 8 hour meetings

Returning to the enterprise world, I worked for a series of consultancies with mostly government and financial services clients, switching my primary development platform from Java to .net after accidentally ending up in the wrong job interview.

Achievements included:

• Delivering a presentation on tablet UI concepts to Bill Gates
• Writing code handling over a billion dollars in transactions daily

After seeing a potential market in some of the large enterprise sites I had been working on, I founded my first startup, pivoting from enterprise to small business systems when the dotcom market became less reliable.

Achievements included:

• Turning an idea into a VC funded startup
• Developing a complex single page ajax application several years before that was a thing

While studying computer science (minimally relevant) and physics (even less relevant) I started doing freelance web development work, which soon expanded to working on some of the largest websites in Australia and New Zealand.

Achievements included

• Setting a project back a month by missing one day
• Building some quite terrible big ball of mud JS apps to take advantage of newly available dynamic html capabilities