Resume

My name is Brian and I’m a senior software engineer and team lead. I enjoy coding at all levels of the web stack, and I’m passionate about shipping products people love.

Skills

  • Expert understanding of Javascript, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Knockout, HTML, CSS, CoffeeScript, and HAML.
  • Experience with Java, node.js, Python, Bash, SVG, and Scala.
  • Extensive backend knowledge including Postgres, Heroku, Apache, mod_rails, relational databases, non-relational databases, distributed systems, load balancing, and mischievous server troubleshooting.
  • Deep understanding of the web and its design patterns. Has been making web pages since 5th grade. Disciple of “least surprise” mantra. Makes clean, intuitive interfaces.
  • Computer science background from Berkeley. Self-starter. Likes teaching others and learning new ways of doing things.
  • Team leadership. Collaborates with product managers to find easier approaches that still achieve goals.

Work Experience

  • Software Engineer and Team Lead at Handle – January 2012 to present
    Back-end, front-end, and team lead for a fully-featured, web-based email client.
  • Software Engineer at Meraki – August 2008 to January 2012
    Tenth engineering hire at a successful startup which grew to hundreds of employees and sold to Cisco for $1.2B. Back-end, front-end, and user experience development for web-based monitoring and configuration tools. Lead developer on many of Meraki’s marque features, including traffic analysis to show the components of bandwidth use, a “demo mode” which mimicked the product without physical devices, and tools to synchronize collections of settings across thousands of devices. I contributed to backend efforts including shard-ification of the servers, quickly and efficiently synchronizing data between machines, and optimizing for performance. I also helped with management duties including recruiting, mentoring new engineers, and code reviews.
  • Freelance consulting – May 2006 to August 2008
    Built online applications for several San Francisco companies. Projects included Facebook apps, a consumer preferences database, and a group-messaging platform built on SMS. I was the sole technical person, so I wore many hats.
  • Campus Representative at Apple – December 2004 to July 2005
    Helped faculty use Apple products in their research, organized contests, and designed promotional websites.

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts, Cognitive Science, UC Berkeley

Goals

  • Find a small company where I can be a key contributor.
  • Wear many hats and build features from the ground up.
  • Leverage my experience by leading projects and/or teams of engineers. I enjoy management, but at this time I’m only interested in roles where I code daily.

Contact

brian at tobinindustries.com. No recruiters, please.