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Dustin Cass
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Irvine, CA, United States
Toptal member since September 26, 2018
Bio
Dustin has been a professional full-stack engineer for over 15 years and has worked at companies and agencies, large and small. He's passionate and dedicated to his craft and always goes the extra mile for his employers and clients. Dustin is well-versed in handling both startup and enterprise-level architecture and will tailor his solutions to the requirements of any given project.
Portfolio
Amazon
Redux, React, JavaScript, Spring, Java, Swift, React Native, TypeScript, CSS3...
Blizzard Entertainment
Git, Subversion (SVN), PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle SQL, C#, Sinatra, Ruby, Sass...
Oakley, Inc.
PHP, WordPress, Melissa Data, Quality Assurance (QA), Bazaar, Google Maps...
Experience
- CSS - 15 years
- JavaScript - 13 years
- Git - 10 years
- React - 5 years
- Node.js - 5 years
- Angular - 3 years
- React Native - 2 years
- TypeScript - 2 years
Work Experience
Front-end Engineer III, L6
2018 - PRESENT
Amazon
- Architected and implemented the redesign of the Skills & Games section of the Alexa app, which provides a highly personalized and dynamic discovery experience for customers to improve their daily experience with Alexa.
- Served as the primary team member of the Alexa companion app's Skill Store re-platform from web views to React Native TypeScript.
- Instituted style guides, linting rules, and best practices for the team and evangelized those standards across the organization.
- Drove initiatives for performant, well-tested code and an architecture that reduced redundancy and provided more freedom to update the customer experience independent of scheduled app releases.
- Led the operational management of the front end of the Skills & Games section of the Alexa app, including bi-weekly release oversight, pipeline and deployment management, and significant performance improvements.
- Designed the front-end architecture for and led the development of the Wedding Registry Alexa Skill Blueprint Editor for the Amazon Retail Website. This package was built in React and has integrations with a Spring-based back end.
- Developed proprietary tooling in TypeScript for a React Native package to emit metrics to monitoring dashboards and alarms to improve the operational visibility of a live experience.
Technologies: Redux, React, JavaScript, Spring, Java, Swift, React Native, TypeScript, CSS3, Git, XML, CSS, HTML5, Agile, Node.js, Express.js, Sass, CSS4, Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), Bash, SQL, Oracle SQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Front-end Development, Gulp, ECMAScript (ES6), ES7, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Sublime Text 3, Regular Expressions, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, MacOS, Kanban, AWS ELB, AWS IAM, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), Amazon CloudFront CDN, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), CI/CD Pipelines, Jest, REST APIs, Vanilla JS
Senior Web Front-end Engineer I
2014 - 2017
Blizzard Entertainment
- Architected, created, and maintained several internal tools used by the engineering and design departments of the World of Warcraft team, ranging from full-stack projects to front-end single-page applications driven by APIs.
- Created a performance report tool for technical artists backed by the World of Warcraft Oracle database. Users could query and sort the data in the report to surface information most relevant to them.
- Developed a database viewer single-page application using Angular 1, jQuery, and LESS that was used extensively to navigate and query data from the various World of Warcraft database schemas.
- Architected and implemented the 2nd evolution of our tools build system, which was split into two separate applications: a service to handle the build queue and listen for new builds and a website to display live information to users.
- Created an interactive map viewer for users and automation tools to plot data such as spawn density, node changes between builds, point lights, zone lights, quest givers, and much more on game maps.
- Collaborated with other internal teams to update and maintain a web-based pipeline management tool for moving builds, data, and assets to and from internal and external CDNs. Built with C#.NET, Python, jQuery, HTML, and LESS.
- Handled the full-stack maintenance of the website for creating builds of the World of Warcraft client and server.
Technologies: Git, Subversion (SVN), PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle SQL, C#, Sinatra, Ruby, Sass, Less, CSS, HTML, jQuery, Leaflet, Aurelia, Angular, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, Agile, Node.js, Express.js, CSS4, TypeScript, Bash, SQL, MySQL, Front-end Development, Gulp, ECMAScript (ES6), ES7, Sublime Text 3, Regular Expressions, Adobe Photoshop, Waterfall Development, Polymer, REST APIs, Vanilla JS
Lead Web Front-end Engineer
2011 - 2014
Oakley, Inc.
- Served as the architect and technical lead for the front-end development of the Oakley.com website launched in early 2014, which used a custom, highly modular architecture for reusable front-end components and integrated with a Spring back end.
- Managed code reviews, standards, and expectations for an external agency that augmented our internal team for the front-end development of the new website and managed communications and planning with their lead developer.
- Developed numerous custom components for the Hybris CMS using JSP, JSTL, XML, and Impex files.
- Forked and maintained an internal version of Less.js to enforce a stricter structure for our LESS files.
- Managed a team of three internal developers, assisted BSAs in documentation work, and collaborated with the back-end Hybris developers to implement new features.
- Developed the first Oakley mobile experience using responsive design via CSS3 and JavaScript-based media queries targeting specific resolutions for delivering a unique experience to supported devices.
- Developed the Holiday Interactive Guide campaign, which led customers through an animated, interactive holiday shopping experience and highlighted promotions and deals. The application was powered with JavaScript and CSS3 animations and transitions.
- Developed a JavaScript and Rails-powered interactive LookBook—a single-page application for marketing complete winter outfits.
- Created the WordPress theme for the site of the Infinite Hero Foundation, including working with PHP, HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript.
Technologies: PHP, WordPress, Melissa Data, Quality Assurance (QA), Bazaar, Google Maps, Subversion (SVN), Git, Ruby on Rails (RoR), ImpEx, XML, JSTL, Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), CSS, Less, HTML, Grunt, Modernizr, Dust.js, RequireJS, jQuery, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, Agile, Bash, MySQL, SQL, Spring, Front-end Development, Gulp, ECMAScript (ES6), Sublime Text 3, Regular Expressions, Adobe Photoshop, MacOS, Kanban, REST APIs, Vanilla JS
Web Developer
2009 - 2011
Sports Warehouse
- Maintained multiple live websites using Panic Coda, including hand coding in XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, Ruby, and a proprietary server-side scripting language specific to the company's POS system.
- Managed databases, files, and moderate use of Git version control through SSH in Terminal.
- Converted mock-ups provided by graphic designers to fully functional eCommerce websites.
- Ensured that all development was cross-browser compatible.
- Developed and maintained web systems for managing product information and employee efficiency, comparing product specifications, advanced product searching, and customer contests.
- Organized a team to coordinate new site designs and deal with any problems that arose in a high-volume eCommerce environment.
- Worked with graphic designers to ensure new designs adhere to many accessibility and user experience best practices.
- Collaborated with the web server engineers to improve stability and speed on all sites.
Technologies: Git, Ruby, PHP, CSS, HTML, jQuery, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, Front-end Development, Regular Expressions, MacOS, Waterfall Development, Vanilla JS
Web Development Intern
2008 - 2009
Etna Interactive
- Maintained multiple live websites using Adobe Dreamweaver, including hand coding in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and ColdFusion.
- Designed various buttons and feature blocks with Adobe Photoshop to match the appearance of a site's current design.
- Built sites out from a single template page and mockup.
- Cropped photos for before and after photo galleries and uploaded them using a back-end photo gallery management system.
- Used SourceControl Vault to manage file versioning and history and prevent conflicts between users.
- Developed a Microsoft Word macro written in VBScript to easily convert Word Documents for press releases into standards-compliant XHTML.
Technologies: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ColdFusion, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, Front-end Development, Vanilla JS
Webmaster and Systems Administrator
2007 - 2008
The Music Factory
- Maintained a live eCommerce website and a local administration/CMS website, including programming in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP VBScript, XML, XSLT, and MS SQL.
- Maintained, built, and managed computers for 10 desktop systems running Windows NT/2000.
- Maintained one server running MS Server 2003, IIS, Exchange Server 2003, and MS SQL Server 2000.
Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, XSLT, XML, Active Server Pages (ASP), VBScript, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, MySQL, SQL, Front-end Development, Vanilla JS
Project History
Alexa Mobile App
Within the Alexa app, the redesigned Skills & Games section allows customers to find and use new features that are both built-in or created by third-party developers. The content presented in this section of the app is personalized for each user. As the senior front-end engineer in the organization, I was tasked with the system design and implementation for the client-side implementation and service integration. I coordinated with UX designers, project managers, and other engineers to define the scope of work and timeline for project deliverables. I also worked with back-end engineers to update API definitions and consulted on technical system design documents. This project included four new back-end services, several new user interfaces, and numerous new reusable components, all built within the constraints of the existing Alexa app ecosystem.
Oakley.com
I led the front-end development effort in an entire site and platform overhaul, from a basic Ruby stack to the omnichannel commerce platform Hybris. This involved the management of two other engineers, defining project scope and timelines for deliverables, architecting the modular framework for reusable front-end components, and defining the pattern for integrating that front-end with the Spring-based service layer.
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, jQuery, RequireJS, Modernizr, Leaflet, REST APIs, Google Maps, JSTL, Polymer, Redux-Saga
Tools
Sublime Text 3, Gulp, Git, Subversion (SVN), Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Grunt, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), AWS IAM, AWS ELB, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK), AWS CloudFormation, Amazon CloudFront CDN, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Fargate, Jira, Redux Thunk
Languages
TypeScript, XML, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, ES7, ECMAScript (ES6), Less, CSS4, Sass, Swift, VBScript, Active Server Pages (ASP), XSLT, Bash, Java, PHP, Ruby, C#, SQL, GraphQL
Frameworks
Redux, React Native, Jest, Vanilla JS, Express.js, Angular, Aurelia, Dust.js, Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), Spring, Sinatra, Ruby on Rails (RoR), CakePHP, Spring MVC, Android SDK
Platforms
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, Adobe ColdFusion, Firebase, WordPress, AWS IoT
Paradigms
Agile, Kanban, Waterfall Development, Microservices Architecture
Storage
Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)
Other
Front-end Development, Regular Expressions, ImpEx, Bazaar, Quality Assurance (QA), Melissa Data, Software Architecture, ESLint, Distributed Systems, AWS AppConfig, AWS Certificate Manager, Paging, CI/CD Pipelines
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