Jordan Webb, Developer in Skokie, IL, United States
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Jordan Webb

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Systems Engineer and Software Developer

Location
Skokie, IL, United States
Toptal Member Since
October 14, 2022

Jordan is a systems programmer, full-stack engineer, and writer. He specializes in designing and implementing processes and tools to help disparate systems work better together. Jordan can design and build back ends and API services, set up continuous integration (CI), package and publish software, write documentation and technical articles, or even build custom Linux distributions.

Portfolio

Seam
Linux, Yocto, Python, C, Docker, APIs, REST APIs, TypeScript, Next.js...
GitHub
Linux, Bash, Ruby, Docker, LXC, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure...
Cleversafe (now IBM Cloud Object Storage)
Linux, Python, VMware ESXi, Debian, Debian Linux, Debian Packaging...

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux, Docker, Python, C, Go, GitHub

The most amazing...

...thing I've worked on is GitHub Enterprise Server, which packages all of the services that make up GitHub into a single virtual machine.

Work Experience

Staff Software Engineer

2020 - 2022
Seam
  • Developed custom Linux distribution for a smart home hub and ported it to several different hardware platforms.
  • Worked with overseas original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to develop processes to flash firmware at the factory.
  • Designed and built a system to securely provision device and issue certificates to verify device identity.
  • Designed and built a delta update system for Docker containers.
  • Designed and built a system to provide transparent bi-directional encrypted connections to devices deployed behind network address translation (NAT).
Technologies: Linux, Yocto, Python, C, Docker, APIs, REST APIs, TypeScript, Next.js, Cloudflare, JSON, PostgreSQL, GitHub, Back-end, Scripting, Node.js, Embedded Software, Embedded Systems, Embedded Linux, Raspberry Pi, Low-level Programming, JavaScript

Senior Software Engineer

2015 - 2020
GitHub
  • Provided technical leadership to a team building GitHub Enterprise Server.
  • Built and maintained publishing pipelines for virtual machine images across seven different hypervisors and cloud platforms.
  • Packaged and containerized over twenty different internal GitHub services.
  • Established and maintained sponsorship of the Debian long-term support (LTS) project.
Technologies: Linux, Bash, Ruby, Docker, LXC, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, APIs, REST APIs, JSON, Python, Ansible, Jenkins, GitHub, Go, Back-end, Scripting, Node.js, Embedded Software, Embedded Linux, Low-level Programming, JavaScript

Senior Software Engineer

2010 - 2015
Cleversafe (now IBM Cloud Object Storage)
  • Assisted in creating custom Linux distribution for cloud storage appliances and ported it to a virtual appliance.
  • Migrated a company to Git and managed source code escrow requirements.
  • Created Python modules to expose low-level kernel and networking functionality to applications.
  • Assisted representatives with IBM during source code audit during acquisition.
Technologies: Linux, Python, VMware ESXi, Debian, Debian Linux, Debian Packaging, Red Hat Linux, Java, Jenkins, Back-end, Scripting, Embedded Software, Embedded Linux, Low-level Programming

Python-Starlark-Go

https://github.com/caketop/python-starlark-go/
A module that allows using Starlark from Python. Starlark is a dialect of Python, so essentially, this gives users a safe sandbox to evaluate arbitrary expressions. This is useful when users want to execute code they don't entirely trust. This was initially based on pystarlark, but I almost completely rewrote it. I learned a lot about Cgo and the CPython APIs while making this.

Python-renameat2

https://github.com/jordemort/python-renameat2/
This module allows using Linux's renameat2 system call from Python. Users might want to use renameat2 to swap two files automatically. One neat thing about this is that it calls the system call directly, so users can use it even if their GNU C Library (glibc) is too old to know about renameat2. Right now, it uses CFFI. I plan to remove that dependency by applying what I learned about the CPython API while working on Python-Starlark-Go.

Action Pyright

https://github.com/jordemort/action-pyright/
This is GitHub Actions to run a Pyright static type checker. It uses Reviewdog to report any problems it finds. I wrote this because I wanted the same Python type checking I had in Visual Studio Code as an action.

Gf-l100-lightcontrol

https://github.com/jordemort/gf-l100-lightcontrol/
I own a floodlight camera of questionable provenance, which runs questionable software that talks to a suspicious cloud service. I broke into the camera and disabled all of that, but it left me without a way to control the light. This is a tiny Go application that I wrote to allow controlling the light through Home Assistant.

Personal Website

I built my personal website because I wanted to get out of my back-end comfort zone and learn more about TypeScript and modern front-end things. Building it has been a lot of fun, and I am very proud of the client-side search I implemented.

Languages

Python, Bash, C, Ruby, JavaScript, Go, Assembly, TypeScript, Java

Tools

GitHub, Ansible, Jenkins, Hyper-V

Platforms

Linux, Docker, Debian, Debian Linux, Red Hat Linux, Embedded Linux, Raspberry Pi, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Storage

JSON, PostgreSQL

Other

APIs, Debian Packaging, Back-end, Scripting, Operating Systems, Networking, Yocto, Embedded Software, Embedded Systems, Low-level Programming, LXC, VMware ESXi, Astro, Cloudflare

Libraries/APIs

REST APIs, Vue, Node.js

Frameworks

Next.js

2005 - 2009

Master's Degree in Computer Science

Northern Illinois University - DeKalb, Illinois, United States

2002 - 2004

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Northern Illinois University - DeKalb, Illinois, United States

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