Brendan Avery Baldwin

http://brendanbaldwin.com
bb@brendanbaldwin.com
773.875.7489 :mobile
312.243.0979 :home

Mission Objective

• Seek out and join forces with other ultimate code ninjas to form Web 2.0 Voltron
• Deliver devastatingly elegant JavaScript, Ruby, and XHTML/CSS scripting attacks with lazer-focused intensity
• Generate bleeding-edge dynamic web products to usher in a golden age of total planetary happiness

Summary Of Qualifications

• 12 years of professional software development experience, with 24 years of total programming experience (online since 1994)
• Writes code for fun as well as for profit
• Has been doing “AJAX” since Netscape 3 when it meant serializing data in cookies using javascript Image objects to pipe asynchronous requests. (Ask me how!)

Weapons of Choice

• Ruby for mixins, method_missing(), to_proc(), and ActiveRecord
• Rails for Migration, ActiveRecord, and routes.rb
• JavaScript for Prototype.js, [], {}, JSON, and being ubiquitous
• CSS for Descendant Selectors
• XHTML for XML + XSLT, and the DOM
• Mac OS X for Quicksilver, FreeBSD, and the Reality Distortion Field™
• Firefox for javascript: error console
• TextMate for getting out of the way, and being the best Subversion client for the Mac
• Subversion for keeping iterations tight and blame
• MySQL for simplicity and because I don’t like too much logic in the storage layer
• SQL for those times where the default ORM is not sufficiently performant
• Photoshop for gradient-fills, rounded corners, and drop-shadows

Backup Super-Powers

• PHP for the __set() and __get() magic methods
• Apache for mod_rewrite and reliability
• Java for when Threads really matter (no EJB, J2EE, or JSP)
• ColdFusion for allowing function Struct(){return arguments} and custom events
• ASP for supporting Server-Side JavaScript
• Visual Basic for building 20th century business applications
• Windows for Cygwin
• Oracle 10g for recursive PL/SQL
• SQL Server for being prettier than Oracle
• CVS for being better than ClearCase
• ClearCase for being better than Visual SourceSafe
• Visual SourceSafe for being better than nothing
• Flash for ActionScript, tweening, and polygonal collision detection

Pattern Fluency

• Object-Oriented Development
• Model-Driven Development
• Test-Driven Development
• Flow-Based Programming
• Model-View-Controller
• Aspect Oriented Programming
• Declarative Programming
• DRY Programming
• Functional Programming
• Unobtrusive Scripting

Employment History

Lead Technology Developer
January 2007 to Present
The Point, Chicago

• Lead Developer on a team of 5, responsible for the architecture, coding, and delivery of public-facing web product thepoint.com. Developed from the ground up in Ruby on Rails, running Mongrel, MySQL, memcached, and nginx.
• Produced internal DSLs for application definition and model descriptions, enforcing DRY principles and leveraging the metaprogramming capabilities of Ruby.
• Created several extensions and plugins to Rails as a formal product of the application development process, several of which are being released as open-source: available at http://github.com/brendan/entrails

Web Software Engineer
July 2006 to January 2007
CashNetUSA, Chicago

• Developed several subsystems to optimize performance for a large pre-existing Rails application. This included fragment caching, asset packaging, and dynamic document restructuring.
• Designed and supported several libraries for use within the application and by the team as a whole. Some of these have since or are in process of being open-sourced: cnuregexp.

Senior Web Applications Consultant
August 2005 to May 2006
Fitch Ratings, Chicago

• Designed and implemented a complete MVC application framework, “FitchCore,” incorporating ColdFusion, XSL, XHTML/CSS, Oracle 10g, JavaScript, and Apache.
• Implemented a data-feed subscription management and production scheduling application using FitchCore Framework. Successful completion of the application well before scheduled launch date demonstrated the agile benefits of the framework as well as the viability of delivering 100% of content to the browser as pure XML, leveraging fast client-side XSL Transformation capabilities of Firefox and Internet Explorer. Extremely large reporting data-sets are transmitted at less than 5% the bandwidth and time of the same data using Server-Side HTML production.
• Built reusable components for visualization, reporting, and data management. By providing components for common operations, was able to transform several existing legacy ColdFusion applications into modular and maintainable products.
• Gave presentations on web-standards, unobtrusive scripting, programming methodologies, and software architectures to an internal team of 10 developers.
• Supported a team of developers by coding solutions for the really tricky JavaScript, ColdFusion, and PL/SQL problems.

Senior Web Applications Developer
Citadel Investment Group, Chicago
April 2004 to June 2005

• Designed and coded multiple internal and external applications for use by over 700 employees in 4 countries using ColdFusion, PHP, XHTML/CSS, JavaScript, SQL-Server, PeopleSoft, and Apache.
• Provided formal architectural analysis and security audits on existing applications to support IT strategy decisions.
• Produced specifications, use case scenarios, flow-charts and process diagrams, mockups, end-user documentation, and deployment/integration-plans for all new applications.
• Transformed existing high-cost outsourced development and maintenance of large leased-code recruiting system into an internally supported solution with lower total cost of ownership and faster development turnaround.
• Updated and maintained customizations to supporting applications for project management, code-generation, and knowledge management using Java and PHP.

Senior Web Applications Developer
Deluxe Media Management, Los Angeles
November 1999 to November 2003

• Designed, coded, and supported several customer front-end and administrative back-ends to successful media/asset-heavy B2B website projects using ColdFusion, ASP, and SQL Server on Windows NT/2000 for several clients including Sony Pictures, Columbia TriStar, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Warner Brothers, Buena Vista, Universal, CBS Television International, Paramount Pictures, and CableLabs.
• Application features produced included advanced search engines with boolean expression parsers and context-highlighting of results, personalization of site experience by user, shopping-cart systems with web-based delivery of protected video and multimedia assets via custom Java Applets, multiple-file-upload and image-manipulation automations, content production workflow management systems, and custom reporting systems.
• Developed reusable ActiveX and CFX components using Visual Basic and Java, including encryption/signature implementations for Digital Rights Management, PDF generation, and video/image post-processing.
• Created system for CableLabs clients to communicate with cable-internet service providers for service availability information as part of their Go2Broadband campaign. System was built using using simplified federated web service approach of HTTP POST operations and WDDX responses.
• Played leadership role in the development of client internet strategies, providing education and direction in technical/logistic issues ranging from digital asset security, system performance and scalability, mixed-platform integration, as well as user-interface and accessibility issues.
• Trained developers in programming methodologies including CFObjects, FuseBox, and MVC architectures. Established team standards for application architecture.

Applications Developer/Systems Administrator
PC Pros Information Staffing, Los Angeles
August 1995 to November 1999

• Developed several complete systems and applications for use by staff to manage recruiting operations using Visual Basic, SQL Server, Access, ASP, and ColdFusion.
• Applications and features included full-text search engine of resumes, client/contact database, employment history/lead-generating system, electronic candidate registration and skill-assessment systems, job-posting system, and public website.
• Migrated Access database application to Visual Basic Client/Server architecture with automated nightly software deployment to keep workstations up to date with fixes and new features.
• Public website designed in ASP and ColdFusion doubled as a secure extranet for remote recruiters and managers to access files and job/candidate information.
• Managed interns and trainees to build their programming skills while developing systems and applications for internal company use. Trained programming interns in Visual Basic, ASP, and Transact-SQL.
• Deployed and maintained office’s Windows NT network (about 20 workstations and 5 servers) including all software and hardware installations, upgrades, and troubleshooting.
• Provided training, support, and custom software solutions for several clients including Banque Paribas, EMC2, Warner Brothers, Digital Domain, and Microsoft. Custom solutions ranged from business applications in Microsoft Access and Excel to promotional items like games and screen-savers written in Visual Basic.

References furnished on request. Contact me at bb@brendanbaldwin.com. Please note that while the word “enterprise” no longer appears anywhere in this resume, this is entirely intentional.