Tailwind Staff Software Engineer

Hi Team!

This station is my exertion for nan unfastened Staff Software Engineer position.

A Bit About Me

I'm a package technologist from Omaha, NE (USA) pinch BS degrees successful Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering from University of Nebraska and an MS successful Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon. For nan past 9 years, I've been self-employed moving a bootstrapped package company, Unstack Software. My extremity has been to build, acquire, and tally a portfolio of mini SaaS and contented businesses (more connected that later!).

I person 3 kids (ages 6, 4, and 2) and a 4th connected nan way. As a solo-founder of 9 years pinch a young and increasing family, I'm very utilized to (and enjoy) having a engaged manner pinch tons of moving parts. Our favourite point to do together is return agelong roadworthy trips to nan mountains to spell hiking. We've done trips of 37 days and 41 days, kids successful tow, and each while I managed my business and team.

Yes, my timezone (Central) is disconnected by 1 hr of your preferred timezone, but having managed a world squad (ranging anyplace from Brazil to Serbia to Japan) for nan past 9 years, I person nary problem accomodating for and moving pinch group from vastly different timezones.

I'm besides comfortable pinch nan contractor status, arsenic I already salary for my ain wellness security and status plans.

But Why Hire Me?

I've packed an full profession worthy of acquisition successful nan past 12 years aliases so. A fewer highlights:

• During my masters grade astatine Carnegie Mellon, I worked connected their lunar rover task for nan Google X Prize, which spun disconnected into Astrobotic and conscionable made their first motorboat effort to nan satellite a fewer weeks ago.
• Also successful my masters, I co-created Pixy and successfully raised almost $275k connected Kickstarter. Pixy is now sold astatine astir awesome online electronics retailers.
• During my clip astatine Sandia National Labs, I shifted much towards a package attraction and worked connected a assortment of projects, including satellites, connection systems, and more.
• After leaving Sandia successful 2015, I started and bootstrapped Unstack Software wherever I've been starting, acquiring, and moving package products, some solo and pinch a team.
• I started Stack Abuse (the tract you're connected now!) during nan motorboat of Pixy successful 2013 and person been actively increasing it since 2015. At our peak, SA had complete 1.5 cardinal monthly visitors, 5 afloat clip staff, and we managed dozens of statement writers.
• I acquired Block Sender, rewrote everything, and grew it from a fewer 100 users to complete 60,000 users today. It's 1 of nan astir technically challenging products I've worked connected and could beryllium a lawsuit study for learning really to woody pinch separator cases and conflicting customer needs.

The point I'm astir looking guardant to successful this domiciled is nan situation of learning caller skills and contributing to a merchandise that I really love. I genuinely judge that your champion activity is done erstwhile you're straddling nan statement of comfortableness and discomfort, which this domiciled would do for me. I whitethorn not cheque each nan boxes (i.e. deficiency of acquisition successful Rust and Accessibility), but my full profession has been astir learning immoderate accomplishment it is that I request to get things done - whether it's learning caller languages, frameworks, really to negociate a team, really to negociate customers, aliases thing successful between.

As I tweeted a fewer months ago, Tailwind has been an unthinkable school instrumentality for me. It has taught maine much astir CSS successful nan past fewer years than I learned successful nan first 10. I judge that I tin usage my unsocial skills and position to thief make Tailwind much accessible to a broader scope of developers.

Technical Skills

I see myself a full-stack developer and almost solely usage JavaScript for each of my projects. My preferred stack is AWS, Node.js, Next/React, Tailwind, and PostgreSQL. In a erstwhile life I wrote a batch of Python, Java, and C/C++, but I person chiefly utilized JavaScript for nan past 8 years. I've been desperately looking for an excuse to study Rust, but I committedness I'm applying to this occupation for much than conscionable that 😉

A fewer things I'm proud of:

• Stack Abuse's Course Platform: In summation to nan civilization CMS, I besides built a afloat people level for Stack Abuse that has been utilized by thousands of students. It's built pinch Next.js, Tailwind, and PostgreSQL. This is wherever I sewage my first sensation of Tailwind and person been migrating my projects to it ever since. At its peak, this level was serving complete 100,000 users per day.
• Block Sender's Backend: This was a mini app I acquired successful 2016 and wholly rewrote from scratch. To date, it's processed complete 750M emails, which taught maine a awesome woody astir moving connected systems that request to scale. I besides built a elemental dashboard and Chrome hold for our 60,000+ users.
• Camo, my first unfastened root project: What started arsenic a nosy task to study Node and Document DBs 9 years agone turned into a semi-popular ODM pinch complete 550 GitHub stars. While I can't opportunity I'm ace proud of nan method aspects (after all, it was my first Node project), it did thatch maine a batch astir managing unfastened root package and moving pinch users and contributors.
• Matrix, my individual bot platform: As a mini team, we needed to beryllium arsenic accelerated and businesslike arsenic possible, which meant automating arsenic overmuch arsenic we could. I built a bot level that made it easy to constitute and deploy devices that would grip time-consuming periodic tasks. For example:
  • Monitor Reddit and HN for mentions of immoderate of our products.
  • A instrumentality to cheque our 1500+ articles for surgery links, surgery images, pronunciation errors, mediocre formatting, etc.
  • Sync customer information to our maestro email list.
  • Make periodic backups of definite data.

Leadership

I've been starring teams for nan past 6 years, successful summation to nan codification I write. The roles ranged from virtual assistants to editors/writers to developers. Check retired Stack Abuse's About Us page to spot immoderate of nan astonishing group I sewage to activity with! Of nan 120 unit displayed connected that page, I personally hired complete half of them.

Writing

Since founding Stack Abuse, I've written/edited complete 450 articles and edited 6 books. Here are a fewer of my favorites:

• Practical Deep Learning for Computer Vision pinch Python (book)
• Git Essentials (book)
• Data Visualization successful Python pinch Pandas and Matplotlib (book)
• Behind nan Scenes: Never Trust User Input
• Manipulating CSS Pseudo-Elements ::before and ::after Using JavaScript/jQuery

Want to excavation deeper into immoderate of nan books listed above? Just fto maine cognize and I'll get you entree to nan course versions.

Fun and Useless Facts

• My woman and I person been avid CrossFitters for nan past 9 years. Fitness is my 3rd passion aft family and work.
• I stock Adam's emotion of metallic - each of my productivity tin beryllium attributed to bands for illustration Soilwork, Darkest Hour, Tool, and Korn.
• My agency is connected a farm. Like an existent farm. Our family has tally a institution successful nan ag abstraction for nan past 130+ years. I'm fortunate to beryllium capable to rent agency abstraction from them and flight nan sound astatine home.
• My individual champion Rubick's cube lick is 42 seconds 🤓