Mike is available for hire
Hire MikeMike Davis
Verified Expert in Engineering
WordPress Developer
Erie, CO, United States
Toptal member since April 8, 2020
Bio
Mike is a full-stack web developer with 20+ years of experience. Along with an expertise in designing and implementing dynamic web apps, he's adept at utilizing Ajax programming and implementing responsive design principles. Mike's built and integrated front- and back-end tiers, consuming REST APIs and database design. He excels at creating highly customized sites on WordPress, including making custom themes, plugins, and post types. At his core, Mike is a problem solver and solution finder.
Portfolio
Duck & Beaver, Inc.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Salesforce, Microsoft SQL Server, C#, MySQL...
Yahoo!
CSS, Node.js, JavaScript
DreamWorks Animation
Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), CSS, JavaScript
Experience
- Microsoft SQL Server - 20 years
- CSS - 15 years
- JavaScript - 15 years
- PHP - 13 years
- WordPress - 12 years
- MySQL - 10 years
- jQuery - 10 years
- Animation - 2 years
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Adobe Photoshop, GitLab, MySQL Workbench, Chrome Developer Tools, Chrome, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS
The most amazing...
...app that I've built was a tool for organizing, finding, and comparing media at a major animation studio. It was a major productivity boost for the artists.
Work Experience
Head Software Developer
2015 - PRESENT
Duck & Beaver, Inc.
- Built a new site for Blockdaemon on WordPress, Blockdaemon.com along with creating a custom theme and custom animations with JavaScript and refining my own plugin for allowing content authors to edit custom metadata.
- Created a new suite of intranet sites on WordPress for Lionsgate Entertainment including company blog, HR info, and Helpdesk; including building custom plugins, a custom search across all sites, and integration with MS SQL Server for custom features.
- Built a graphic and animation-intensive site as a video game teaser for Ascent Games, Mannheim.duckandbeaver.com.
- Developed a custom blog theme for health and wellness expert Shawna Bigby Davis including a custom infinite scroll mechanism and dynamic loading of additional content; Blog.shawnabigbydavis.com.
- Constructed, for Lionsgate Entertainment, a series of web-based reports which pulled data from Salesforce and converted it to PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Salesforce, Microsoft SQL Server, C#, MySQL, WordPress, PHP, CSS, JavaScript
Senior Software Engineer
2014 - 2015
Yahoo!
- Led a team of developers to implement new features on movies and TV sites.
- Spearheaded experimental projects such as a meme generator that extracts a frame from a video.
- Mentored junior developers and helped them to develop good programming practices.
Technologies: CSS, Node.js, JavaScript
Software Engineer
2009 - 2014
DreamWorks Animation
- Built the front end of an ambitious media management application. Artists and staffers use the app to catalog, find and compare media files used for film production. It was built using JavaScript, jQuery, Backbone.js, and JSP.
- Developed a custom JavaScript widget that enabled efficient and performant scrolling of very large datasets which included high-resolution images.
- Implemented dynamic modular code loading, so that sections of an application would not be loaded into memory until the user needed them.
- Created a method for users to customize their view of an application. Used JavaScript to dynamically rewrite CSS rules according to user preferences. Preferences were persisted in the browser's local storage.
- Founded a web developer interest group, made regular presentations, and coordinated presentations by other speakers.
- Constructed a tablet-based mobile app that employees could use to check lunch schedules and menus at the studio.
Technologies: Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), CSS, JavaScript
Senior Software Engineer
2009 - 2009
Ticketmaster | Echo Music
- Built and maintained a number of official websites for the top 40 recording artists such as Kanye West, Alicia Keys, Rob Zombie, and so on. Sites were authored using a proprietary CMS and used JavaScript, CSS, and PHP.
- Added additional features to the proprietary CMS used for building custom websites; used PHP for the back end.
- Developed rich user experiences using Flash on websites for the top 40 recording artists.
Technologies: Flash, PHP, CSS, JavaScript
Senior Software Engineer
2008 - 2009
Topspin Media
- Served as the lead developer for the Artist Services team—integrating the company's proprietary technology on client websites for recording artists such as Beastie Boys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Metric. Used PHP, JavaScript, and CSS.
- Designed and built a custom installation of WordPress to be used as an “instant website” option by client artists; installation included our custom theme as well as built-in integration with the company's proprietary tech. Used PHP and MySQL.
- Built highly customized profiles on MySpace for official reissues of Beastie Boys' classic albums, using only CSS.
Technologies: WordPress, PHP, CSS, JavaScript
Senior Software Engineer
2005 - 2008
Yahoo! Music
- Led a team of developers to build an audio player widget that finds links to media files on a page and adds them to a playlist, which is playable on the page. Implemented entirely with JavaScript and CSS. Built before HTML5 audio existed.
- Built a web service to scrape a web page and extract all links to playable media. Used PHP.
- Served as the engineering lead for the music property—building pages to create and edit playlists using the company's subscription music service. Used PHP, JavaScript, and CSS.
- Developed a custom CMS system for authoring and publishing data for promotional sites. Used JavaScript, CSS, ASP, and XML/XSL.
- Used the above-mentioned custom CMS to build the front ends for several promotional sites, including an official site for the Grammys, which received over 100,000 hits/second the morning after the awards broadcast. Used CSS and JavaScript.
Technologies: Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP, CSS, JavaScript
Software Engineer
2004 - 2005
Genex
- Developed a site for Honda dealers to create coupons in a WYSISYG environment and then publish the finished coupons to PDF documents. Used ASP.NET, JavaScript, CSS, and MS SQL Server.
- Constructed a back end for movie promotional site which allowed users to submit fan art and displayed their submissions in a gallery.
- Built back ends for various additional websites using ASP.NET and MS SQL Server.
Technologies: CSS, JavaScript, Microsoft SQL Server, Active Server Pages (ASP), ASP.NET
Training Instructor
2001 - 2004
Learning Tree International
- Instructed week-long training sessions for IT professionals.
- Led week-long training sessions for MS SQL Server.
- Oversaw week-long training sessions for relational database design principles.
Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server
Software Engineer
2000 - 2004
Independent Consultant
- Built a network-connected point-of-sale system for a nationwide retail chain. Stores often had only intermittent low-speed connectivity, so the system was designed to store changes locally and update to the network when available.
- Created a proof of concept for customer support decision-tree software. Support agents would ask customers a question, enter the response, and then get presented with a follow-up question which was dynamically determined based on the response.
- Developed various websites for clients using ASP.NET, JavaScript, and CSS.
Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, VB.NET, Visual Basic
Software Engineer
1997 - 2000
Coded Solutions, Inc.
- Developed a type of scheduling software for a gas utility company. Used MS Access.
- Created a client-server desktop application for a medical services company. Used Visual Basic and MS SQL Server.
- Built a desktop application for American University to download and import data from handheld PDA devices into a local database, then generate reports from that data.
- Constructed a desktop application to assist staffers at a passport/visa company to manage their client information. Used Visual Basic and MS SQL Server.
- Made a widget to automatically log back into a company's local network when the connection would occasionally get dropped. Used Visual Basic and Windows API.
Technologies: Active Server Pages (ASP), Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Basic
Experience
Blockdaemon Website
http://blockdaemon.com/Project Brief: A custom WordPress site.
Project Details:
I built a custom theme that includes JavaScript animations. The site uses a custom plugin that enables content authors to edit page content in a structured way that is tailored to the needs of the site. It uses responsive styles to display well and remain usable on all devices.
Here is an archived version of the site with a previous design iteration which includes more animation than the current live version: • http://blockdaemon.duckandbeaver.com/
Project Details:
I built a custom theme that includes JavaScript animations. The site uses a custom plugin that enables content authors to edit page content in a structured way that is tailored to the needs of the site. It uses responsive styles to display well and remain usable on all devices.
Here is an archived version of the site with a previous design iteration which includes more animation than the current live version: • http://blockdaemon.duckandbeaver.com/
Shawna Bigby Davis Blog
https://blog.shawnabigbydavis.com/Project Brief: A custom WordPress site.
Project Details:
The custom theme uses Ajax and a home-grown infinite scrolling library to load additional content. The site uses a custom plugin to allow content authors to add content in a specified structure that is tailored to the design of the site. It also uses responsive styles to display well and remain usable on all devices.
Project Details:
The custom theme uses Ajax and a home-grown infinite scrolling library to load additional content. The site uses a custom plugin to allow content authors to add content in a specified structure that is tailored to the design of the site. It also uses responsive styles to display well and remain usable on all devices.
Mannheim Teaser Site
https://mannheim.duckandbeaver.com/Project Brief: A teaser site for a forthcoming video game.
Project Details:
This site has no back end. All the action takes place on the front end. It makes heavy use of JavaScript, CSS, and CSS animation to provide an immersive experience for users. All of the Javascript code except the jQuery part is homegrown—it uses no other libraries.
The original site is no longer online, so the URL provided is an archived copy.
Project Details:
This site has no back end. All the action takes place on the front end. It makes heavy use of JavaScript, CSS, and CSS animation to provide an immersive experience for users. All of the Javascript code except the jQuery part is homegrown—it uses no other libraries.
The original site is no longer online, so the URL provided is an archived copy.
Education
1986 - 1990
Completed Credits Towards a Bachelor's Degree in Economics, English, and Engineering
George Mason University - Fairfax, VA, USA
Skills
Libraries/APIs
jQuery, jQuery UI, Node.js, HTML5 Canvas
Tools
Chrome Developer Tools, MySQL Workbench, Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Microsoft Access, GitLab CI/CD, GitLab, GitHub, Microsoft Team Foundation Server, Subversion (SVN), Photoshop 2018
Languages
JavaScript, CSS, PHP, SQL, ECMAScript (ES6), HTML5, Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic, VB.NET, C#.NET, C#, XSLT, XML
Platforms
WordPress, MacOS, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Salesforce, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Storage
Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL
Frameworks
Chrome, ASP.NET, Jakarta Server Pages (JSP)
Other
Ajax, Animation, CSS3 Animation, DNS, Amazon Route 53, HTML5 Video, Engineering
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