Skills

NodeJS, ReactJS/NextJS, Prisma, Express, Mongo DB, MariaDB/MySQL, CI/CD, Github Actions, AWS CodePipelines, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Docker / Docker Compose, DevOps, Linux Systems Administration, Nginx/Apache,

Programming: NodeJS, ExpressJS, Bree, PHP 7/8, SQL, MongoDB Frameworks: NodeJS, Express, Prisma, ReactJS, NextJS, Laravel 8 with LiveWire, TailwindCSS Soft Skills: A team leader, that has been known to deliver results. Capable of working alone, or with a team of in house or outsourced developers.

Experience

DevOps Engineer, Hoyack Agency

2021 - Present, Remote, WFH

Working with various clients on projects ranging from simple React websites, to complex backends powered by Express, talking to APIs in the Fintech industry like Plaid, Sivo, Sila, Stripe and vacation rental software, specifically StreamlineVRS. Load and Smoke testing with TestKit and Blazemeter.

Technologies Used: NodeJS, Prisma, MongoDB, MySQL, React,NextJS, Github Actions, AWS Code Deploy, Azure Pipelines, Azure App Service, Django,

Senior Programmer, PearAnalytics

2020-2021, San Antonio, TX and remote

Building and maintaining apps written in Laravel that talk to third party APIs like SEMrush, Google, and WP Engine, the apps are hosted on Amazon Lightsail, and try to attain CI/CD using Github Actions. Working with clients to understand their needs and then working with a team of developers to deliver code/solutions to match their expectations.

Write and manage Github Actions/Workflows to automatically deploy code to Linux servers running on AWS Lightsail or anywhere.
Manage teams of developers in Pakistan and Mexico, set expectations and perform code reviews to ensure deliverables are meeting the standards and expectations set internally and with the client.

Technologies used: PHP 7.4 and 8.1, Laravel 8, MongoDB, MariaDB, Nginx, Git, Redis, Linux, WordPress, WP Engine.

Senior Systems Administrator, Pressable

2010-2016, San Antonio TX

Pioneered the WordPress specific hosting business(Managed WordPress hosting), the model has since been copied by all the major hosting providers on the market.
Raised private equity funding from Angels, and institutional investors over the course of 5 years, totaling close to 2.5 million dollars.
Built and hired around a mentality of being helpful first, which gave us extremely loyal followers, customers, and recommendations.
Built and trained a sales and service organization that was able to acquire customers like Whirlpool, Edelman, and The Denver Broncos.
Actively contributed to the WordPress ecosystem by sponsoring events, submitting code, patches, and test beds.
Built a development team that practiced continuous integration and delivery, to handle provisioning and fulfillment of servers and websites. The entire system was a collection of microservices working independently and asynchronously to avoid bottlenecks for very long.
Handled DevOps / Infrastructure Automation using Chef and Enterprise Chef, built the ability to stand up a private cluster of our infrastructure at AWS, Rackspace Cloud, or customer owned bare metal

Technologies used: PHP 5.4 through 5.6, WordPress, Git, Chef, Ruby on Rails, Beanstalkd, Redis, Nginx, MySQL, MariaDB, Linux.

Senior Programmer/Lead, PearAnalytics

2007 - 2010, San Antonio TX

Developed a system to analyze a website and recommend changes to help a website rank better on search engines. The system was a pre-cursor to tools like moz.com and raventools. Built a suite of web apps that allow digital marketing departments to access, analyze and modify relevant data and settings for their marketing campaigns across various providers like Google Analytics, Adwords, Webmaster Tools, and other indexes.

Technologies used: PHP 5.4, Git, Ruby on Rails, Symfony, Python, Linux.

Engineer IV, Network Solutions

Mar 2004 - Nov 2006, Herndon VA

Worked on the MyComputer.com and Network Solutions online marketing product. Designed and implemented a tool to interface with the Pay Per Click advertising programs of Yahoo, and Google. Utilizing SOAP and internal business logic, the tool enables product specialists to manage their Search Engine Marketing campaigns at both companies using one simple interface.

Independant Consultant, Various Companies

1997 - 2004, Various Companies

I’ve been working in the Internet space since I dropped out of college in 1997, I’ve been fortunate enough to have lived in NJ during the dotcom boom and bust, where I got to learn from some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, working on all sorts of projects and companies, some of whom have been absorbed into larger companies and platforms like Apple Music, Doubleclick/Google, etc.

Awards and Achievements

Awarded the 40 under 40 award by the San Antonio Business Journal in 2012.
One of the founding members of Geekdom San Antonio.
Mentor to Techstars Cloud Accelerator.

Personal Projects

Texas WFC

This is a website that lists all the eligible training providers for the Texas Workforce Commission WIOA program, this allows individuals to find classes that the TWC has already set aside funds to pay for, if they qualify.

Markdown Resume

A project that allows one to write their resume in Markdown, and then convert to HTML and PDF, uses Github Actions to build the HTML and PDF artifacts after every push. If you’re looking at this resume, it was built using the same project.

Workflow Shenanigans

Experiments and examples of how to perform certain tasks with Github Actions and Workflows.

Webhooks.Node

An attempt to build something like webhooks.site , but in NodeJS.

Personal Blog (2021-present)

Authored a series of articles covering a wide variety of topics and tools related to technology like PHP, WordPress, Ruby, Linux, Docker, and Privacy.