Justin A. Bretting, Developer in Denver, CO, United States
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Justin A. Bretting

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
Denver, CO, United States
Toptal Member Since
April 7, 2017

Justin is a passionate technologist who has been building web and iOS apps for over ten years. With experience in all roles of the software development lifecycle, he doesn't just write code; he builds the right solution for the problem at hand. His passion is building products that surprise and delight, and he has expertise in React, Node, and JavaScript. He takes pride in clear communication, a sense of urgency, and a focus on client success.

CSSAgileGitLessReactNode.jsjQueryBashMySQLAmazon EC2Instagram APILodashExpress.jsEmber.jsReact Redux

Portfolio

Digabit
Amazon Web Services (AWS), JSON API, Solr, MySQL, Node.js, Java, Ember.js
Wayin
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Elasticsearch, Cassandra, Backbone.js, Java, React
Local Matters
jQuery, Bash, CSS, HTML, JavaScript

Experience

CSS - 9 yearsJavaScript - 9 yearsHTML - 9 yearsReact - 3 yearsNode.js - 2 yearsExpress.js - 2 yearsECMAScript (ES6) - 2 yearsEmber.js - 1 year

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Ember.js, OS X, Bash, Less, Git, Atom, React, Node.js

The most amazing...

...project I've coded enabled our client to display social media on a billboard in Times Square on NYE; built in less than a week and enabled on-the-fly CSS edits.

Work Experience

Software Development Manager

2016 - 2017
Digabit
  • Led a team of six developers to rebuild a Flash UI in Ember.js.
  • Procured management support for a project to overhaul engineering tools, processes, and architecture.
  • Automated process to import/export localization strings.
  • Architected migration process from legacy Flex UI to Ember.
  • Wrote several key Ember modules including related items, user preferences, and contact media owner.
  • Added appropriate automation using Phantom and Mocha.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), JSON API, Solr, MySQL, Node.js, Java, Ember.js

Lead Engineer

2012 - 2016
Wayin
  • Personally developed many critical product features, including geo-search capability for social media posts, Drag-n-drop interface for CMS-like page management, and responsive cross-origin iFrame embeds.
  • Served as technical lead on many high-profile engagements including Best Buy, Bank of America, Chevrolet, and the Denver Broncos.
  • Managed build and deployment pipelines across 6+ AWS server groups using Jenkins, Gulp, and Grunt.
  • Implemented web-driver automation testing using PhantomJS and CasperJS.
  • Worked closely with the Director of Quality to implement unit testing strategy resulting in improved visibility to code coverage, thereby adding hundreds of unit tests to the codebase in a matter of weeks.
  • Implemented Agile practices, an on-call schedule, and support guidelines that led to a 90%+ retention rate for a SaaS product.
  • Assisted in recruiting, hiring, and onboarding fourteen developer, QA, and operations team members as the team grew and needs evolved.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Elasticsearch, Cassandra, Backbone.js, Java, React

User Interface Engineer

2011 - 2012
Local Matters
  • Maintained rich web applications using proprietary JS libraries and JSP as the lead UI engineer on a directory search application.
  • Acted as a leader on the engineering team by spearheading initiatives to remove redundancy, coaching teammates on Agile best practices, implementing code reviews, encouraging collaboration, and automating common engineering tasks using shell scripts and Atlassian APIs.
Technologies: jQuery, Bash, CSS, HTML, JavaScript

Homrr

Homrr is a project that I conceived and built from the ground up. Unsatisfied with commercially available options for an in-home weather display, I built my own and included other information as well.

Built using Node and React-Redux, it's deployed on Heroku. It includes integrations with Open Weather Map, Facebook, Google Calendar, and Google Maps. The project also showcases my ability to create responsive web applications.

Reloadable React Giphy Component

This React component displays a Giphy for a given tag and rating. I built this component for Homrr, and it's used in scenarios where the user may encounter an edge case. For instance, if an unexpected error happens or the user is trying to view a photo widget but hasn't selected any albums.

WordPress Gift Registry Plugin

https://wordpress.org/plugins/gift-registry/
When my wife and I were getting married, we wanted an online registry where guests could give us money for gifts. I couldn't find anything that suited our needs, so I took the opportunity to create this plugin. It's been downloaded almost 5,000 times and is still active on more than 300 sites worldwide. Built using jQuery, HTML, CSS, PHP, and MySQL, it features an integration with PayPal.

Bank of America New Year's Eve Social Media Billboard #TSQ14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1GYrKL8YY
While at Wayin, I worked with our clients on behalf of BoA to bring social media directly to the heart of Times Square on NYE '14. Using a hashtag, Twitter users had the chance to get their picture featured on a 60ft billboard in midtown Manhattan. I was technical lead on this project and was responsible for making sure the experience worked end to end. Built on top of a custom CMS written in Backbone.js, it included CSS3 keyframe animations and required on-the-fly CSS adjustments. We built the entire experience in less than a week to meet a tight client deadline.

Consumer Portal for Online Conferencing Platform

I integrated the customer’s proprietary billing and provisioning system with BigBlueButton---an open source conferencing platform---handling overall application design, architecture, security, technology, design, and operations. The system was built in ES6, Node, Express, React, Browserify, and Gulp, deployed in a proprietary cloud infrastructure; and secured using JWT.

Languages

CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Less, Bash, ECMAScript (ES6), Java, Objective-C

Libraries/APIs

React, Node.js, Lodash, React Redux, Facebook SDK, Twitter API, Instagram API, jQuery, JSON API, Backbone.js, Google Maps API

Tools

Git, Atom, Solr, Grunt, Xcode, Jenkins, NPM, Karma, Gulp, Mocha

Paradigms

Agile

Other

Front-end Development, Software Development

Frameworks

Ember.js, Express.js

Platforms

Amazon EC2, OS X, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Heroku, iOS

Storage

MySQL, Elasticsearch, JSON, Cassandra, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)

2000 - 2004

Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and Engineering

Bucknell University - Lewisburg, PA

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