INTRODUCING
The art of programming has spanned across my entire life. At age 6/7, I got a Commodore 64 for my birthday and with it was a book on how to program in Basic. I spent a lot of time learning that language and doing silly things like prompting the computer to chat with me. A year later, a friend of my Dad's gave him 12 floppy disks filled with games. I was in heaven, until I found out that in order to play those games, I had to figure out the code to execute them. I spent, what felt at the time to be years, researching and learning how to "crack" these games so I could play them. Eventually, I figured it out and experienced that sense of satisfaction of solving a "complex" problem. From then on, I've been hooked to problem solving and have generally used programming as a way to do that.
Later on in life, when I got serious about getting a college degree. I started off majoring in computer science. I spent about a year pursing that, until I had seen multiple news sources about the decline of the tech industry (the bubble burst in the 2000's). I knew I could learn any programming language, if I really wanted to, and programming in and of itself came easy to me. So, I decided to switch my major to Business Administration, concentrating on Finance. I felt this would better round out my skills so I could leave college with a technical background as well as a business one.
That proved to be true and I'm very thankful that I pursued a Business degree. Today, I not only help solve problems via programming, but I've helped many companies with their business strategies. I've been able to play on both sides of the fence (business & technical), which I feel is critical in being able to execute software solutions.
I own and run a small web & mobile application development consultancy, called Code Wranglers.
AAA through Blue Rocket
June 2017 - Current
I have been working on the AAA project for the last year or so and then previously on another project for AAA for about a year. During both of these times, I've mentored, trained, and led a small team of developers building multiple backend api applications. I have also provided code rescue support.
Blue Rocket - San Francisco, CA
January 2013 - Current
During my time contracting for Blue Rocket, I've filled and continue to fill multiple roles. These roles include: 1) Api Architect, 2) Lead software developer, 3) Mentor for Junior developers, 4) define technical roles wihtin the company, and 5) train other developers within the company.
TaylorMade Golf - Carlsbad, CA
January 2011 - March 2017
I worked closely with TaylorMade Golf's new Customer Division and Business Department to develop new customer facing web applications to enhance golf.
During this time, I created a custom golf course mapping solution, golf round tracking, and golf statistic analysis tools.
Pixlwise - Carlsbad, CA
January 2012 - March 2013
When I was brought on by Pixlwise to build a 2d game that would teach internet marketing, I shared a vision with Pixlwise of creating a game platform used for teaching people valuable skills. The client was so thrilled with the idea, that we changed the 2d game into a game that would teach not only internet marketing, but also built a platform where other games could be built upon to teach people.
I was instrumental in the creation of the idea that formed this company, as well as the chief architect who built the solutions. My ideas lead to meetings with very high level investors in Silicon Valley who took a keen interest in watching the platform being built.
Fidelity Life Insurance - Chicago, IL
August 2011 - February 2012
I was hired on by an outsourced development team to help architect and build Fidelity Life's new backend software for insurance quotes. I worked closely with Fidelity Life's Business team and CTO to design architectural solutions. I lead a team of 12+ developers of different levels (jrs and seniors) to build a micro-service architecture in Rails, with custom RubyGems, AMQP for message queuing, and more.
Hotel Huddle - Carlsbad, CA
March 2009 - March 2011
I was again reunited with my collegues from TwitterFeed and chi.mp to come together and build a custom web application for the insurance industry.
People who lose their homes due to some sort of disaster and have insurance, get placed in temporary housing (hotels) for a period of time. Customer service agents from insurance companies would use GDS solutions to find hotels with availability for their customers. The GDS (Global Distribution System) is so old with a horrible user interface, that it is painful to use. So, we basically built a whole new interface for the GDS, specifically for these insurance companies to use.
My job was to interface with the GDS Api and provide a better unified Api that could work with multiple GDS systems. (Travelport, Sabre, etc) Beside the GDS Api being cumbersome, it was also extremely slow. So that was something I had to take into account. In the end, I built a whole new custom api interface to the GDS that allowed new GDS's to be plugged in.
Legacy Locker - San Francisco, CA
October 2008 - March 2009
I joined this startup when it was still in its idea phase. Jeremy Toeman and Adam Burg has this idea of being able to store all of your important digital information, securely, online with a mechanism that would alert a beneficiary if the owner of the account died. The content would then be released to this beneficiary.
I architected and built the web application that stored this information and released it to a beneficiary. This was a challenging piece of software to build because security was everything. In the end, I built the web application, and we built the product that was eventually sold to Password Box. This was my first web application that was successful enough to be sought out and sold to another company. It was a fantastic experience!
chi.mp - Hawaii
June 2008 - December 2008
After TwitterFeed, the same team started working on chi.mp and joined to help build out features for the platform. Thinking back, I can't quite remember what I specifically worked on, other than just help everywhere I could.
TwitterFeed - Carlsbad, CA
February 2008 - June 2008
A friend of mine was working on TwitterFeed when Hire a Hero was shutdown and was kind enough to ask me to help the team complete the remaining features before their launch.
I was able to work with some really great people, albiet for a short about of time.
Hire a Hero - Carlsbad, CA
September 2007 - February 2008
While I was at Einstein Industries, I had met Dan Caulfield who was in need of a developer to help build out his idea of having a social network for Military people. After we had talked, I loved his idea and left Einstein Industries to join him and begin work on this social web application.
Dan was/is really good and being able to help others see his vision and soon after joining him, we were getting press about what we were doing. Dan asked me to become the CTO and start hiring a couple of people to speed up the development.
This was my first time stepping into a manager role as a developer. I had been a long manager before, but not within this industry. I really enjoyed this opportunity to grow and learn.
We hired a couple of developers and we built a prototype that served as our MVP that Dan used to go raise money. Things didn't necessarily go as planned, as investors seemed reluctant, so develoment slowed down until it was completely shutdown. While it didn't end up as we had hoped, I was and am grateful to Dan for how much I learned while working with him.
Einstein Industries - San Diego, CA
September 2006 - September 2007
After leaving Gamble Industries (I moved), I joined Einstein Industries as a PHP developer. I continued to learn more about Ruby on Rails and play around with it in my free time. One day I showed my manager at work about Ruby on Rails and convinced him to let me try using it to build a tool we needed. He agreed, and the rest was history. From that point forward, I was instrumental in converting their PHP team to a Ruby on Rails team, which they are still using to this day.
One of the bigger projects we did with Ruby on Rails was to build a website generator to server their customers and their needs to have custom websites. This was a fun an interesting challenge at the time - it was well before the whole website builder thing became popular.
Gamble Industries - Long Beach, CA
June 2004 - April 2006
I was hired to build a web application for Realtors that would help show/share their home inventory, build their client lists, and hook into the MLS directory.
It was during this time that I heard and learned about Ruby and then Rails, which was pre v1. (0.13) This was such a unique time in my career as a developer because there was so much freedom in what my employer allowed me to do and be creative with. I had initially started building the Realtor web application with PHP, but switched to using Ruby on Rails. That freedom to be creative and choose a technology that spurred creativity made for a wonderful time.
In-n-Out Burger - All over CA
March 1993 - January 2001
I started working at In-N-Out while in high school and worked my way to what they call a "3rd person" manager. I was groomed to be a store manager, but decided to join In-N-Out's "Allstar Team" which travels from new store to new store, opening each new store, training the new Associates, and filling managerial roles until the store became self-succifient. We'd then move on to the next new store and do it all over again.
Being apart of the AllStar Team was probably one of the best opportunities I've had to learn a lot of things, in a short amount of time. My duties included being able to act as a store manager, mentor newer managers, manage employees, inventory tracking and ordering, employee scheduling, managing store finances, and most importantly, maintain a high level of customer satisfaction.
I also had to be able to fill any role within the store as well as be able to teach any role, during the busiest of times (while being able to manage the store, employees, and ensure the customer is always taken care of). This is where I learned and excelled at being able to multitask multiple roles and be successful at every role.
Ruby95%
Rails95%
Sinatra / Rack / Padrino80%
JavaScript70%
PHP60%
PostgreSQL / MySQL / MongoDB80%
Redis / Memecached80%
Git / Github80%
HTML100%
CSS / SASS / SCSS80%
Committed100%
Punctual90%
Leadership95%
Communicative90%
Analytical Skill80%
Videography50%
Photography50%
Wood Working60%
Guitar85%
Bass50%
Banjo25%
Mandolin25%
Cooking70%
Open Source Work95%
Cal State Dominguez Hills - United States
August 2003 - December 2005
August 1993 - June 1994
After High School, I completed the majority of classes required to obtain an AA degree. During that time, I was paying for college while working at In-N-Out Burger and had the opportunity to become a manager. I took the opportunity and put school on hold for seven years. Upon my return to school, I completed a year of Computer Science education and decided to change my major to Business since I had a long history of programming already.
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I have many interests in both the technical world and the non-technical world. Sometimes I fill in a 2nd photographer for a wedding that my wife is shooting. I play the guitar and bass in our Church's band. I record family-style vlogs so my kids will have documented memories of their childhood when they grow up. I'm a mentor and teacher for a handful of beginning & Junior Developers. I like to the occasional woodworking project and build something physical with my hands. These are just of my interests and hobbies.