My Story

I'm a technical problem-solver with broad experience in mobile and web software development at Disney (and elsewhere), seasoned with a background in system administration and tech support for companies such as Apple and Netscape. I write documentation in code comments and wiki articles for every problem I figure out. What can I do for your team?

Technical Skills

• Mobile development: Swift, SwiftUI, Objective C, Xcode, CocoaPods, Carthage, JSON, RESTful HTTP web services, MVC, MVVM, VIPER, Swiftlint, CMS, unit testing, New Relic, Git, Charles Proxy.
• Web development: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, XML, PHP, LAMP stack, Apache web server, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Edge.
• Technologies: iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows (client and server), Android, Linux, Unix, Docker, SQL, Perl, C, shell scripting.

Recent Experience

Senior Software Engineer, Disney Parks and Resorts Technology (Orlando, FL), August 2016-present

Developed and launched major Disney park features: Mobile Dine lets guests order food and uses Bluetooth to find out when tbey reach the restaurant. MagicBand+ lets guests link wearable devices via NFT. Genie+ lets guests purchase ride reservations (management says my Apple Pay code brings in enormous revenues).

• Write Swift front-end and service integration code for the Walt Disney World and Disneyland park apps and internal Cast-specific apps on iOS.
• Coordinate efforts with hundreds of developers on dozens of teams to handle breaking changes.
• Review code for my team and others, encouraging people to code clearly, consistently, and concisely.
• Approve code to be merged, make sure it gets into a build, and let QA know which build to test.
• Create detailed documentation in code comments and in wiki articles.
• Act as DevOps to troubleshoot CI/CD pipeline problems in building, testing, and deploying our code.
• As the SME for our internal dependency management tool, help devs across the organization use it.
• Run daily Agile scrums; delegate tasks when the team lead isn't available.
• Train and assist new hires who are often in remote locations and different time zones.

Senior Web Developer, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online (Orlando, FL), January 2011-August 2016

Developed and launched the My Disney Experience web site, a major company effort which added significant new ways in which Disneyland and Walt Disney World vacations can be planned and enjoyed.

• Wrote PHP and JavaScript code for MagicBand shipments, user profiles, entitlements, reservations, and other parts of the guest experience, on Zend Framework using jQuery and AngularJS against back-end web services.
• Wrote guest itinerary code for the Disney Cruise Line site.
• Coordinated work with teams around the globe; as a senior code reviewer, reviewed their code and helped them improve it.
• Worked with the developers of open-source tools to help the tools work better with our project (and vice-versa).

Web developer, Lightmaker USA (Orlando, FL), January 2008-October 2010

• Was the lead developer on a project which attempted to combine Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube.
• Used cloud services to convert videos and store them on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Created mobile e-commerce sites for high-profile clients (such as Janet Evanovich and M. Night Shyamalan) using C# code on Microsoft .NET.
• Wrote SQL and set up Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL databases for client sites.

And two previous jobs of which I'm especially proud

Apple Computer Inc., Senior System Administrator, Redwood R&D (Cupertino, CA): Set up the Unix environments for the iTools (now iCloud) launch. Wrote the user account provisioning system. (1999-2000)

Netscape Communications Corp., Webmaster and Senior Technical Support Analyst (Mountain View, CA): Led the team developing the Netscape Technical Support site and its CMS, and wrote many technical articles for it. Was primary contact for phone/email support to major accounts (including Sun Microsystems, Prudential Financial, and the United Nations) deploying client, server, and ecommerce products in production environments. (1995-1999)

Other Activities

• Participant since 2020 in Disney's annual internal information security capture-the-flag competitions, using tools such as Kali Linux, Wireshark, and John the Ripper to solve cryptography, steganography, OSINT, and reverse engineering challenges. Most recently my team placed 4th of 139.
• Run my own PC repair business, fixing Windows and Mac hardware and software problems in offices and homes, and explaining technology and concepts in terms that people can understand.
• Participant in the Disney Technology Mentorship Program as a mentor and a mentee.
• Run a Linux server at home and maintain my own WordPress, email, and game servers.
• Wikipedia administrator since 2005.
• Trained brainstormer; came up with product concepts for Ideas To Go (Orlando) for a few years.

Education

Princeton University, BSE in Computer Engineering.