Ballpointcarrot.net

Vision

Find and enhance a solid team of developers to release great software. I bring a healthy curiousity, a drive to improve the life of the engineers around me, and a high bar for quality to any team I work with.

Skills and Projects

  • Programming Languages:
    • Java: Reporting, Data Load/ETL Processing, Servlets/JSP, Ant and Maven project management and build automation
    • Ruby: Rails/Sinatra web applications, Rake build scripting
    • Javascript: Node and NPM, Browser automation/GreaseMonkey, Vue.js frontend development, light React work
    • Clojure/CLJS: Personal projects, parallel processing
  • Cloud Services:
    • AWS: Elastic Beanstalk, CloudFormation, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, S3, EC2, AutoScaling, Step Functions, CloudWatch, Lambda, Kinesis
    • Certified Solutions Architect/SysOps Administrator
  • Software Tools/Libraries:
    • Web Frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Sinatra, Ring/Compojure, Laravel, Django
    • Utility libraries: jQuery, underscore/lodash, AWS SDK
    • Build Tools: Rake, Ant, Maven, Boot, Leiningen, NPM, bower, Grunt, webpack
    • CI/CD tools: CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, Hudson/Jenkins
    • Configuration Management: Chef, Ansible, Docker
    • Databases: MySQL, MongoDB, DynamoDB
    • Source Control: git, subversion
  • Projects:

Work History

Systems Development Engineer - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
December 2017 - Present

  • Design and create a web portal for tracking Support Agent metrics and performance over time
  • Develop internal applications to improve the AWS Support experience
  • Maintain and improve existing Support Engineer-created scripts and applications
  • Mentor junior members of the team as tech lead

Solutions Architect - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
August 2016 - December 2017

  • Worked with external customers to design application architectures to fit the AWS Cloud
  • Built internal tooling for the Solutions Architecture team
  • Created demo applications providing demonstrations of specific technologies
  • Ran overviews and deep dive presentations of AWS Services
  • Lead group hands-on training sessions for AWS Services
  • Provided in-depth architecture review for customers; focused on security, performance, reliability and cost optimization

Systems Development Engineer, Elastic Beanstalk - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
December 2014 - August 2016

  • Designed and implemented a CI/CD system for building Elastic Beanstalk software stacks, supporting Java/Tomcat, Python, PHP, Ruby, Docker and Node.js
  • Managed software deployment and testing lifecycle operations, including parallel deployments to multiple geographic regions
  • Requested, set up and administered backend hosts for service extensions
  • Instituted regular quality reviews and internal tooling updates
  • Provided assistance to the Customer Support team for in-depth questions regarding the service
  • Routed and assisted in resolving service-level issues, creating workarounds for customers and eliminating bugs found in the service
  • Participated in in-depth code reviews with members of the service team

Developer Support Engineer - Amazon Web Services, Seattle, WA
February 2013 - December 2014

  • Provided phone, email and chat-based support to customers of AWS Services
  • Created training materials for and internal classes for coworkers on CloudFormation and Elastic Beanstalk services
  • Created Subject Matter Expert (SME) programs for CloudFormation, Elastic Beanstalk, OpsWorks and Simple Workflow services
  • Selected as an SME for CloudFormation, Elastic Beanstalk and Simple Workflow
  • Worked with service teams to reduce contact escalation rates, and to provide improvements to customers of the services
  • Developed and maintained utilities used by the Support organization, to make the day-to-day work easier
  • Worked with the Customer Support Development team to provide long-lasting improvements to the Support organization

Web Developer - SR Education Group, Kirkland, WA
June 2011 - January 2013

  • Created features for a set of websites built for online college lead generation using Ruby on Rails
  • Led impromptu code reviews with coworkers; helped streamline and improve team members' code
  • Managed a fleet of micro-websites on EC2/Nginx as proxy-caching servers
  • Provided reporting data via third-party APIs to help influence the project's direction

Software Engineer - RelayHealth, Dubuque, IA
March 2010 - May 2011

  • Implement and customized the Payer Connectivity Services medical claims processing SaaS platform
  • Developed custom applications in Java, Python and C#/.NET to enhance the claims processing workflow for individual customers
  • Organized and educated coworkers on Agile methodologies towards software implementation
  • Installed and maintained a Hudson bulid server for automated build and deployment
  • Created an analytics reporting system in Java with JasperReports for a daily clam count audit, including claims aging and routing logic

Software Engineer - Sysorex Federal, Inc., Rock Island, IL
August 2009 - November 2010

  • Supported and upgraded the Munitions Transport Management System (MTMS), a Java-based tracking database frontend designed to maintain the chain of custody for munitions shipments
  • Performed usability and performance upgrades to the existing system; redesigned a major portion of the UI on the desktop client, and rewrote old existing Servlets to data-fed JSP pages
  • Refactored old Java 1.1-era code to Java 5+ Standards (including adding support for Generics)

Education and Certifications

  • AWS Solutions Architect - Associate

  • AWS SysOps Administrator - Associate

  • Bachelor of Science (Cum Laude), Computer Science
    Clarke University, Dubuque, IA
    May 2009

    • Cumulative GPA 3.63 (on a 4.00 scale)
    • Minor in music performance

  • Nagasaki University of Foreign Studies (長崎外国語大学)
    Nagasaki, Japan
    April 2007 - August 2007

    • Study abroad experience via University of Wisconsin - Platteville