Austin Wood, Developer in Lancaster, PA, United States
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Austin Wood

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Product Management Developer

Location
Lancaster, PA, United States
Toptal Member Since
April 22, 2020

Austin has over seven years of experience developing mobile applications with tech startups in Silicon Valley. Before that, he worked as an experimental and theoretical physics researcher with the Joint Quantum Institute and The Center for String and Particle Theory. As an engineer, Austin loves creating products that deliver exquisite user experiences.

SwiftXcodeiOSMobile DevelopmentReactAlgorithmsGitSQLFirebaseAgile Software DevelopmentRubyCSSReduxJiraAndroid

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Node.js, CSS, HTML, React Native, React, JavaScript, Swift, iOS SDK

The most amazing...

...team I've worked with was when I was a CTO at JustHive, a social media startup valued at $10 million, which I grew from four to twelve engineers.

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer

2018 - 2019
7Cups: Anxiety and Stress Chat
  • Spearheaded the mobile app rewrite in React Native.
  • Used Redux and WebSockets to build real-time chat functionality.
  • Grew the mobile engineering team from one to five engineers.
Technologies: JavaScript, React Native

CTO

2017 - 2018
JustHive: Social, Data-Driven Forums for the Mobile Era
  • Grew the engineering team from 4 to 12 developers.
  • Managed all engineering teams: mobile, web, back end, DevOps, and Blockchain.
  • Oversaw non-engineering efforts: product development, marketing, and content creation.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Amazon DynamoDB, Flask, React, Swift

iOS and Android Developer

2016 - 2017
EExT Mobile Software Development
  • Developed multiple mobile apps, including a video game review network.
  • Worked directly with clients to distill their abstract vision into concrete objectives.
  • Conducted user interviews to improve the user experience of apps.
Technologies: Firebase, Java, Swift

Researcher

2010 - 2012
Joint Quantum Institute
  • Built a machine and wrote software for the construction of tapered nanofiber optic cables.
  • Co-authored multiple publications, including Atoms talking to SQUIDs.
  • Presented research at the 2012 Frontiers in Optics conference in San Jose, CA.
Technologies: Mathematica, Wolfram, MATLAB

7Cups: Anxiety and Stress Chat

A platform for connecting people in need with compassionate listeners. The product has helped over 39 million people cope with stress, anxiety, and depression, and the mobile app is the most used interface. I led the React Native rewrite of the app in order to provide a better user experience to the site's millions of mobile users.

Clava: Location-Based Chatrooms

Clava is a location-based chatroom app built in React Native. Anyone can create and join public chatrooms, and business owners can send real-time promotions to nearby users. I was the lead mobile engineer and also managed the back-end team.

Knnkt: Friend Finder

Knnkt is a mobile app built for meeting new friends with shared interests. Add interesting people to your "Keepers" and chat with them. I was the sole developer of this project and used React Native for the mobile client and Node.js for the back end.

SuccessMode: Goals Planner, Meditations, and Other Success Tools

The SuccessMode app contains a toolkit with proven techniques used by many successful people. It is easy to program the SuccessMode app with your goals and desired lifestyle. Then you can set up a simple 10-15 minute routine to review and incorporate positive thoughts into your day. I built this app using Swift and Firebase.

Languages

Swift, JavaScript, SQL, Python 3, Ruby, CSS, HTML, Python, Java, Wolfram, Dart, Objective-C

Frameworks

React Native, Redux, iOS SDK, Android SDK, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Flask, Ruby on Rails 5

Libraries/APIs

React, Node.js, Twilio API, Facebook API

Tools

Xcode, Git, Jira, Trello, Slack, MATLAB, Mathematica

Paradigms

Mobile Development, Agile Software Development

Platforms

iOS, Firebase, Android, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker

Other

Product Management, Algorithms, Data Structures, System Architecture, Physics

Storage

MongoDB, Amazon DynamoDB, NoSQL

2009 - 2012

Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics

University of Maryland - College Park, MD