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John Ballon
Verified Expert in Engineering
Full-stack Developer
Morristown, NJ, United States
Toptal member since October 1, 2020
Bio
John is a highly motivated, team-oriented, full-stack software engineer who has delivered an impressive range and number of projects since 2017. He has used cutting-edge technologies, including React, Redux, Gatsby, ES6+, TypeScript, Node.js, Express.js, and AWS, to build impactful projects in spaces ranging from behavioral health to social media. John is passionate about collaborating with other positive, enthusiastic people who are as excited to improve the world with software as he is.
Portfolio
Calm.com
JavaScript, Node.js, Express.js, PostgreSQL, Mocha, Chai, Sass, Cron
Ark Behavioral Health
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Gatsby, Redux, React, Jest, Next.js, NGINX...
WeCampaign
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Redux, React...
Experience
- RESTful Development - 3 years
- REST APIs - 3 years
- JavaScript - 3 years
- React - 3 years
- Redux - 3 years
- Express.js - 3 years
- Node.js - 3 years
- Gatsby - 2 years
Work Experience
Full-stack Engineer
2020 - PRESENT
Calm.com
- Built an email scheduler that runs as a cron job to ensure pertinent emails are received without duplication, using Node.js and PostgreSQL.
- Used Gulp.js with PostCSS and Sass plugins to build pixel-perfect stylesheets, written in SCSS and overlaid on intake forms.
- Wrote unit and integration tests, using Mocha and Chai to prevent regression.
Technologies: JavaScript, Node.js, Express.js, PostgreSQL, Mocha, Chai, Sass, Cron
Software Engineer
2020 - 2020
Ark Behavioral Health
- Authored an AWS service orchestration script using TypeScript to parallelize the generation of the static data required by our statically built web applications and improved build time by an exponential factor.
- Migrated back-end Express.js and front-end React applications from JavaScript to TypeScript to provide static typing to the codebases.
- Wrote unit, integration, and end-to-end (E2E) tests for the Express.js back end and React components on the front end, using Cypress and Jest to improve test coverage.
- Collaborated with the design team to implement pixel-perfect responsive designs using CSS3, media queries, flexbox, CSS Modules, and a Sass preprocessor.
- Performed cross-browser testing to ensure that React, Gatsby, or Next.js application code was properly polyfilled and working as expected on various browsers and operating systems.
- Utilized the Google DevTools Lighthouse feature to gather information related to performance, SEO, best practices, and accessibility, and implemented suggestions to improve the search engine position.
- Maintained the infrastructure on AWS that consisted of various Elastic Beanstalk environments, CI/CD pipelines, and supporting services.
- Used the React DevTools Performance Profiler to gain a finer-grain understanding of component rendering lifecycles and implemented performance optimizations where possible.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Gatsby, Redux, React, Jest, Next.js, NGINX, Google SEO, Express.js, Node.js, JavaScript, TypeScript
Software Engineer
2018 - 2020
WeCampaign
- Developed a 27,000-page, full-stack directory application with geospatial search capabilities using React, Redux, Express.js, PostgreSQL, Docker, and AWS.
- Improved performance of web applications by identifying rendering bottlenecks through the use of the React DevTools Performance Profiler.
- Increased accessibility of React components that lacked semantic HTML5 tags by applying ARIA labels and WAI-ARIA roles, properties, and states.
- Styled React components with pixel-perfect accuracy and added a responsive layout with CSS3, Sass, and CSS Modules.
- Performed single page application-based SEO research and implemented best practices using React-based static site generators, Next.js, and Gatsby.
- Implemented various data collection scripts, using Selenium to automate the gathering of actionable data.
- Constructed continuous delivery pipelines on AWS using CodePipeline and CodeDeploy to automatically deploy changes made to application code.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Redux, React, Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), Docker, PostgreSQL, Python, Node.js, Express.js, JavaScript, TypeScript
Software Engineer/Systems Engineer
2018 - 2019
JustHive
- Collaborated with the development and design teams to build a React/Redux-based user portal that interfaced with RESTful APIs to perform changes to user content.
- Migrated HTML4 to HTML5 by replacing divs with semantic tags wherever possible.
- Worked directly with the CEO and CTO to deconstruct complex features into actionable, prioritized tasks with estimated timelines.
- Built and maintained 10+ microservices that exposed REST APIs written with Express.js to support various aspects of the application.
- Managed and expanded cloud infrastructure on AWS, which included Elastic Beanstalk, CloudFormation, DynamoDB, Lambda, S3, Elastic Container Registry, Simple Queue Service, Simple Notification Service, Cognito, and X-Ray.
- Developed a cryptocurrency for the company's initial coin offering (ICO) on Ethereum's blockchain.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Express.js, Node.js, CSS3, HTML5, Flask, Python, Redux, React, JavaScript
Hacker-in-Residence
2017 - 2017
App Academy
- Led a team that implemented an improved UI and better logic, using React/Redux for the App Academy admissions dashboard, which created an intuitive user experience.
- Refactored portions of the codebase from Embedded Ruby to React/Redux.
- Guided web developer student applicants through technical interviews while assessing algorithmic thinking and providing constructive feedback.
Technologies: Redux, React
10x Club Teaching Assistant
2017 - 2017
App Academy
- Assisted an instructor with teaching algorithms, data structures, and interview skills to experienced software engineers.
- Oversaw whiteboarding to ensure students learned proper form and implemented optimal solutions.
- Provided graduates with ongoing resume and portfolio support as they applied to and interviewed with various companies.
Technologies: Algorithms
Project History
Full-stack SEO-friendly Directory
A directory for drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers equipped with geospatial search capabilities, containing 20,000+ unique locations in the US and close to 3,000 facilities. The application was built using Gatsby on the front end, which allows components to be written in React. Redux was used for state management based on the reliance that various discrete components have on the same information. RESTful APIs, written using Express.js, were used to provide a uniform interface to resources that could not be represented statically. AWS was used to parallelize the build of data required during the front-end build process, which reduced the build time by an exponential factor.
Real Estate Management App
A Gatsby, React, and Redux-based application that was written using TypeScript. The app enables real estate companies to organize, retain, and display their portfolios, along with any images and information they may contain, for themselves and for clients.
Education
2012 - 2016
Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance
The College of New Jersey - Ewing, NJ, USA
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, REST APIs, Chai
Tools
NGINX, Mocha, Cron
Languages
JavaScript, CSS3, HTML5, TypeScript, Python, Sass
Frameworks
Redux, Express.js, Next.js, Jest, Flask
Paradigms
RESTful Development
Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Docker, WordPress
Storage
PostgreSQL
Other
Gatsby, Algorithms, Google SEO, Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), Data Structures
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