J. Scott Johnson / Indianapolis, IN / Software Engineer / fuzzygroup [at] gmail.com / 317 531 4853

Profile

An experienced Senior Software Engineer with a proven ability to innovate and deliver new products in a startup context. Heavy focus on testing applications (RSpec, Test Unit / Functional) and agile methodologies. Skilled in Ruby, Rails, API Development, Docker, DevOps, AWS, Ansible, Stripe API, ElasticSearch, Elixir, PHP, MySQL, Redis, Sidekiq, Apache Web Server. Extensive experience with both deploying and administering Rails applications using tools such as Phusion Passenger, Vlad, Capistrano, Anistrano, Git and Docker.

Experience

Author, Game Nanny.

Full stack author of www.gamenanny.io, a subscription service for alerting parents to their kid's Xbox gaming spending.

Consultant, Interana, Inc., Redwood, City, CA 2016 - Present

Implemented a SAML authorization system that offered Single Sign ON (SSO) across multiple customer facing applications. Accomplishments include:

  • Created a SAML authorization backend based on forking existing open source SAML software
  • Interfaces to Lithium and MindTouch documentation and customer service tools
  • Modified the Ruby Devise login engine to interface with SAML
  • Full logging of authentication workflow
  • AWS and Ansible for all deployment and DevOps

Consultant, Sigstr, Inc., Indianapolis, IN, 2016 - 2017

Senior Engineer focused on internal code sharing tools as well as a cloud based email transformation engine for expanding the core Sigstr email marketing service.

Architect, FI Navigator, Inc., Atlanta, GA 2015 - 2017

Led all development activities for FI Navigator, a leading provider of financial information for the banking industry. Accomplishments include:

  • Responsible for all DevOps including automated provisioning of all machines using Ansible
  • Developed a multithreaded data science pipeline for performing detailed analytical calculations
  • Developed a multithreaded crawler for dealing with data capture from a diverse community of websites spanning a range of technology standards from today back to the start of the web
  • Built categorization engine for dealing with html micro expressions and inferring relationships from them
  • Admin tools and work flow to support all of the above
  • Platform / Tools: AWS / Ruby / Rails / Ansible.

President / VP Engineering, AppData, LLC, Indianapolis, IN 2014 - 2015

Led all development activities for AppData, LLC including:

  • Ecommerce based on Braintree and PayPal APIs
  • Crawling based on internally developed multithreaded
  • Data center migration
  • Indexing of the all current mobile app stores capturing 3 million plus data points daily
  • Platform / Tools: AWS / Ruby / Rails / Chef.

Consulting Software Engineer, Assorted; Telecommute, 2010 - 2016

Remote software engineer for several different Ruby on Rails based web sites including:

  • AddApp. Key part of new products initiative culminating in MVP designed for next generation remote psychological tools for mental health professionals. (PHP / Laravel / Ruby / Rails)
  • MDDX. Built a prostate cancer diagnostic system from the ground up based on an evidence based medicine approach combined with mathematical analysis of input data. Full admin tools for creating medical knowledge bases in a hierarchical structure. Custom report writer allows medical professionals to generate new reports on the fly. (Backbone.js / Ruby / Rails)
  • Inside Network Store. Implemented a cross site store front and subscription service to provide authentication, authorization and recurring billing services across multiple web sites using a JSON api. Supported growth of multiple paid subscription products using a common API across platform (WordPress, PHP app, Ruby app). (Ruby / Rails)
  • Inside Network AppData. Ported an existing data analytics package from PHP to Ruby on Rails and extended its functionality with new graphing, data editing, large scale email delivery and spam blocking. Created custom multi threaded crawlers written in Ruby to handle millions of new objects per day from multiple data sources. (Ruby / Rails)
  • LinkedIn, Inc. Optimized the back end of the CardMunch application including database schema changes, index optimizations, using New Relic for bottle neck analysis, code restructuring and formal load testing and analysis using Trample. Implemented test coverage using RSpec and RCov. (Ruby / Rails)
  • EZ Publishing, Inc. Enhanced an email marketing system, www.streamsend.com, with additional features including extensive use of the Facebook API for content sharing, publishing and wall posting. Comprehensive test coverage using RSpec. (Ruby / Rails)
  • LiveText, Inc. Completed a large scale educational testing and scoring application for the state of Washington. Starting from zero test coverage, led implementation of an RSpec test suite to bring a 20,000 lines of code Rails app to 85% coverage over a one month period including models and controllers. (Ruby / Rails)
  • HowAboutWe. Helped transition a new code base from a consulting firm to an internal engineering team with a focus on optimizing back end database performance and adding full test coverage through RSpec to bring a 10,000 lines of code Rails app to 70% coverage in a two week period. (Ruby / Rails)
  • Trazzler. Implemented a Ruby on Rails and JavaScript based Smart Phone application (iPhone & Android) using the new Geo-positioning APIs to serve resources dynamically based on location. (Ruby / Rails)

Vice President of Engineering, eduFire, Inc.; San Francisco, CA - 2007-2010

Remote executive and software engineer for a live video learning website. Worked as part of a pair programming team in a test-driven development environment. Helped set overall strategy at corporate level, participated in fund raising and served on the eduFire board. (Ruby / Rails)

Founder, Vice President of Engineering, Ookles, Inc.; Indianapolis, In - 2006-2007

Founded Ookles, Inc., a next generation media-sharing site for family photos and videos. (Ruby / PHP)

Founder, Vice President of Engineering, Feedster, Inc.; San Francisco, CA - 2003-2006

Founded Feedster, Inc, the leading search engine for XML content including blogs, podcasts, news feeds and more. Built and scaled Feedster using a LAMP architecture from 50 initial indexed feeds to more than 18 million feeds. Responsible for all front-end coding, MySQL Schema and portions of back-end architecture. (PHP)

Principal / Senior Consultant, The FuzzyGroup, Inc.; Nahant, MA; Nahant, MA - 2001-2003

Worked with different clients on a variety of technical and strategic projects. Principal author of CMI TrackiT, a post 9/11 software application for providing email notifications for the movement of hazardous waste. Frequent presenter, blogger, trainer and author on PHP programming. Technical Editor for Sams Publishing.

Vice President of Engineering, Mascot Network; Cambridge, MA, 2000

Managed an engineering department of 35 – 45 employees including full-time and contract employees. Led implementation of a next generation Internet community platform for college students.

Founder, President, Net Services Corp; Lynn, MA - 1999

Founded Net Services Corp to create an Internet-based business-to-business exchange focused on sharing employees between companies.

Chief Technology Strategist, Dataware Technologies, Inc; Cambridge, MA - 1996-1999

Led all Product Management activities for Dataware Knowledge Management System (KMS), a web enabled application designed for enterprise organizations to optimize their productivity in knowledge-intensive areas.

Co-founder, Vice President of Marketing, NTERGAID, Inc.; Milford, CT - 1987-1996

Co-founded NTERGAID to create a suite of hypertext / hypermedia tools for online publishing. Led all Marketing and Product Management activities for the HyperWriter electronic publishing system.

Technologies / APIs

  • Ruby
  • Rails
  • Docker
  • AWS
  • Stripe API
  • Ansible
  • Elixir
  • MySQL including big data applications
  • NLP
  • Full Text Indexing and Crawling
  • Sphinx Search Engine
  • ElasticSearch
  • Capistrano / VLAD / Ansistrano
  • RSpec

Education

B.S., Cum Laude, 3.4 GPA, University of Bridgeport, May 1990. Major in Management. Selected as the year’s “Best Management Student” (1989/1990 academic year). Dean’s List for last two years of college.

Books Written and Other Things

  • Blogging Essentials by O'Reilly & Associates, 2002.
  • The Digital Publishing Construction Kit by John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
  • Blogging since 2002; Innumerable blog posts; Speaking engagements (including ApacheCon) and other public appearances.