Brian Mason
Verified Expert in Engineering
Full-stack Developer
Folsom, CA, United States
Toptal member since September 19, 2022
Brian is an engineer always seeking to understand and foster improvements. He specializes in various technologies, including JavaScript, PHP, Vue, React, Node.js, and MySQL. He has a good facility with technology but cares more about people and considers programming as teaching machines to serve humans better. Brian offers a broad and deep experience, a strong intellect, a calm demeanor, and a focus on value creation.
Portfolio
Experience
- IT Project Management - 20 years
- JavaScript - 15 years
- MySQL - 15 years
- PHP - 15 years
- React - 6 years
- Node.js - 4 years
- Laravel - 3 years
- Vue - 3 years
Preferred Environment
Windows, Linux, Git, Node.js, Next.js
The most amazing...
...thing I've developed is a learning platform that helps people learn English the way people learn to program.
Work Experience
Architect
Sabai
- Developed several chatbots that deliver wellness advice via Line, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Maintained and leveraged past conversations to improve interactions.
- Architected and created systems that track and display client behavior, such as messages per day and the nature of queries.
- Architected and developed a system that triages client queries and coordinates LLMs (DeepSeek, Grok, and Gemini) to deliver cost-effective quality results.
- Integrated many medical research databases to improve the quality of responses.
- Architected and developed a system that simulates users: measures capacity and cost, probes boundaries, gauges improvements, and mostly uncovers errors before customers do.
Principal | IT Consultant
Information Technology Associates
- Developed multiple small to medium web apps, solo and in a group, implementing a front and back end on both, leveraging several stacks. The sites are function-heavy, including workflow, accounting, time management, and real estate management.
- Led developers in teams during the construction phase of large, complex software systems. Mentored junior members, wrote code, performed QA, and prototyped challenging parts of the systems for others to flesh out.
- Collaborated with clients like CalPERS, Brooklyn Union Gas, Capital Group, OOCL, Robertson Stephens, Credit Suisse, Florida Power & Light, and Yamaha during all phases of software development, including analysis, design, coding, and maintenance.
- Improved the performance of several mission-critical systems such as Hughes Aerospace, General Motors, and Brooklyn Union Gas by as much as a factor of seven.
- Managed a small software consultancy firm. Trained several individuals in object-oriented and web technologies. Vetted, placed, guided, and resolved issues concerning IT consultants.
- Bid, won, and executed multimillion-dollar projects at UniHealth, the United Nations, and California ISO.
Full-stack Developer (via Toptal)
Pledge Medical
- Created scripts that mostly automated manual update processes and documented data structures.
- Tracked and fixed bugs using Zoho Desk as a reporting tool.
- Implemented extensive tracking that shows application usage, serves as an audit trail, and can be used to undo harmful changes.
Laravel & JavaScript Developer (via Toptal)
Rent A Trailer
- Maintained a Laravel system, correcting errors and implementing improvements.
- Monitored 3rd-party SEO and security reports and corrected non-trivial problems.
- Fixed significant issues with the AWS production and development code pipelines. Improved code versioning and backup.
- Assured the system's quality by updating Laravel native testing with PHPUnit and Pest.
Founder
MyAlly
- Founded a startup in the learning space and developed a platform that facilitates learning skills more actively, in non-real-time, and in an iterative, visible, and discreet manner.
- Recruited and collaborated with technical, coaching, and business development associates.
- Managed four software developers, two business developers, and two language coaches remotely. Assigned tasks, facilitated collaboration, tracked progress, controlled budget, and ensured efforts, contributing to the overall improvement.
- Led the development of an MVP. Architected and implemented many custom Drupal modules that tracked learner activity, provided low-level feedback on the quality of the learner's work, and clearly demonstrated feedback for improvement.
- Created bots that employed AI and machine learning techniques to determine the efficiency of the learning material, feedback, and leaner efforts.
Experience
MyAlly
Education
Jurist Doctor in Law and Justice Administration
Concord Law School - Alameda, CA, USA
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering
University of Texas at Arlington - Arlington, TX, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Texas Tech - Lubbock, TX, USA
Certifications
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Vue, Node.js, jQuery, REST APIs, Stripe API, OpenAI API, Stripe
Tools
Git, GitHub, Apache, Jenkins, IBM Cognos, Jira, Webpack, Figma, NGINX, n8n
Languages
JavaScript, PHP, Smalltalk, TypeScript, CSS, HTML5, HTML, C++, SQL, XML, GraphQL, Python
Frameworks
Laravel, Nuxt.js, Symfony, Next.js, Redux, Material UI, Tailwind CSS, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Express.js, Bootstrap, Symfony 3, Symfony 4, React Native, Twig, Jest, OAuth 2, Django
Paradigms
Agile, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), REST, Testing, UI Design, Jamstack, Model View ViewModel (MVVM), DevOps, HIPAA Compliance
Storage
JSON, Databases, MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, MySQLi, MongoDB, Elasticsearch
Platforms
Drupal 7, Drupal, Firebase, LAMP, Amazon EC2, Apache2, cPanel, Oracle, Vercel, DigitalOcean, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, WordPress, Mobile, Android, iOS, Netlify
Other
IT Project Management, Full-stack, Web Development, APIs, Application Engineering, Computer Science, Data Structures, Reporting, Full-stack Development, Leadership, Web Project Management, Front-end, Back-end, Content Management Systems (CMS), Project Review, Chakra UI, Electrical Engineering, Business Law, Civil Law, Responsive Web Apps, JavaScript Libraries, API Integration, User Interface (UI), Reverse Engineering, Wamp, Web Security, Security, Styled-components, Blade Templates, Screen Scraping, QA Automation, QA Testing, Large Language Models (LLMs), Machine Learning, Blade, SMTP, Strapi, eCommerce, Responsive UI, User Experience (UX), Local SEO, SEO Tools, CSS5, OpenAI, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Supabase
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