Web Application Architect and Developer with a passion for helping businesses make sense of web-based technology and its numerous applications.
Summary
I am a self-taught programmer with a skill set enhanced by over 20+ years of real-world experience building large-scale, high-performance web applications. Wholly proficient in all aspects of web design and development from frontend/backend programming to deployment and administration.
I'm passionate about development processes, coding standards, product development, and open-source technology. I enjoy working with Agile processes (especially iterative, test-driven development) but am not attached to any single methodology or tool. I focus on working effectively with others and getting things done.
I am in a continual process of learning, experimenting, and growing my craft. As someone who cares deeply about doing amazing work -- I have developed a love for clean, standards-compliant, well-tested, well patterned, code.
Here is what I currently ❤️…
Projects
Take a look at a few of my favorite projects I’ve started or been a part of during my career.
Experience
Explore my professional history and get to know the companies I worked at and the roles and responsibilities I've been assigned.
US SERVICE ANIMALS
Senior Software Engineer
2022-2024
Full-stack web application and e-commerce development utilizing Yii2 and Laravel. Worked with a diverse team of talented engineers maintaining legacy architecture while simultaneously crafting its replacement.
Maintained legacy Yii2 application and improved local Docker configuration.
Helped create unified administration infrastructure utilizing Laravel and Filament PHP in addition to developing a modular code structure to facilitate code encapsulation.
Authored a full set of coding standards that were agreed upon and are now used amongst the team.
Set up downtime tracking for real-time notifications into Slack when sites were down, deployments failed, SSL certificates expired, and more.
Created GitOps automated release and deployment process using GitHub Actions.
Found, pitched, and helped implement various third party tools:
Implemented various automation to ease project management life cycle in Jira, Confluence, GitHub, and Slack.
Participated in various Agile/Scrum ceremonies: poker planning, daily stand-ups, retrospectives and reviews
“Chris was a power-house when it came to integrating and implementing technologies to solve complex problems in the work we faced.”
HAWKEYE
Senior Interactive Developer
2016-2022
Full-stack web developer with a focus on building backend web applications using whatever technology or stack that best fits our clients' needs. I frequently assist our Technology Director with solution architecture, technical design, security compliance, code review, and mentoring.
Assisted with development of large scale WordPress site and worked closely with client to ensure all deliverables met client's requirements.
Lead development of a 16 site Magento redesign; including selecting plugins, creating reusable VM containers, and teaching others how to use Magento.
Helped direct team with extensive Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration project.
Created single page static generated site using Gulp (and ES6) which interacted with Twilio API to send text messages to customers.
POTENTIA
Senior Developer
2015-2016
Full-stack web application development for up-and-coming e-learning platform. Responsibilities include: system and database architecture (MySQL), front-end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), and backend development (PHP).
Employed latest of available technologies and libraries; Laravel 5.x, PHP7, AngularJS, Vue.js, and Twitter Bootstrap v4
Participated in new product design and development.
Test-driven approach to development using PHPUnit and Mockery.
Created and executed automated software test plans, cases and scripts to uncover, identify and document software problems and their causes.
Leveraged responsive web frameworks to consistently complete product deliverables ahead of schedule.
UNION
Technology Director
2012-2015
Lead development teams in the creation of cutting edge, PHP-based digital platforms. Developed technical strategies for multiple, concurrent client projects. Created unique user experiences that drove interaction.
Hands-on back-end development with a broad range of technologies and frameworks; including CodeIgniter, Kohana, Symfony2, Laravel, Magento and WordPress.
Mobile First, responsive frontend development utilizing Sass, LESS, Grunt, Gulp.js, Yeoman, Twitter Bootstrap, Zurb Foundation, and jQuery.
Developed fully functional responsive prototypes based on Business Requirements using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.
Participated in sales presentations in a technical capacity.
SPARKREBEL
Chief Technology Officer
2011-2012
Promoted internally from Sr. Back End Developer position. Recommended architectural improvements, design and integration solutions. Maintained keen awareness of issues affecting performance, scalability, maintainability, or security.
Utilized a cutting-edge stack of development tools including: Symfony2, MongoDB, Redis, ElasticSearch, and Node.js
Assessed costs and risks associated with developing new features and products.
Identified and suggested new technologies and tools for enhancing product value and increasing team productivity.
Streamlined the deployment process by utilizing continuous integration tools.
BRONTO
Software Engineer (Contract)
2011-2013
Worked directly with Bronto clients identifying and implementing integrations and automations within e-commerce applications. Had a direct impact on the design and implementation of solutions that facilitated the building of strong relationships between Bronto and its clients.
Proactively developed innovative solutions that were proven to be scalable and repeatable.
Submitted open-source contributions to the Symfony2 project; which were later accepted.
Created internal object-oriented ActiveRecord-inspired PHP SDK for interacting with the Bronto SOAP API; code was later open-sourced for client use.
INTERACTONE
Magento Architect (Contract)
2011-2012
Led complex software development for a broad range of functions including invoice management systems, e-commerce, and sales systems.
Worked with development resources to produce project plans, estimation and work breakdown for agile development (Scrum).
Responsible for the creation, maintenance and delivery of new Magento development including integrations, extensions, and custom modules.
Implemented bug tracking and source control systems.
CHESS.COM
Software Developer
2010-2011
Provided backend LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) development for the
main Chess.com site and its sister site, ChessKid. Additional responsibilities
included user experience testing, feature wire framing, and funnel analysis.
Advisement on technical issues related to architecture, mobile development, API integration, and analytics.
Responded to user needs by spec'ing, designing, building, testing, and deploying new features.
Deployed code to 15 web servers, 4 databases, 4 Memcached servers, and Akamai and Amazon CDN’s.
Increased sign up rate by 15% by implementing A/B testing to help improve user experience and ROI.