Nathan Finch, Developer in Madison, WI, United States
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Nathan Finch

Verified Expert  in Engineering

WordPress Plugins Developer

Madison, WI, United States

Toptal member since October 25, 2016

Bio

Nate's been building websites since 2011. He loves development—it's the perfect mix of problem-solving, building, and lifelong learning. He's a full-stack developer specializing in custom JavaScript, React, Node.js, PHP, WordPress, Laravel, and AWS web, serverless, and cloud applications.

Portfolio

Finch Professional Services
jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, WooCommerce, WordPress, WordPress Plugins...
Elementor.com
JavaScript, PHP, PHP 7, Unit Testing, PHPUnit, CSS, CSS3, GitHub, Git, WP-CLI...
Strattic.com
Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Web Services (AWS), APIs, AWS Lambda, WordPress...

Experience

  • PHP - 11 years
  • WordPress - 11 years
  • WordPress Plugins - 10 years
  • JavaScript - 9 years
  • APIs - 8 years
  • React - 3 years
  • Laravel - 3 years
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 3 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

MacOS, WordPress, Terminal, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), React, Laravel, PHP, JavaScript, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The most amazing...

...work I've done was for Strattic, building out serverless integrations on AWS for static and headless WordPress sites.

Work Experience

Full Stack Engineer | Consultant

2011 - PRESENT
Finch Professional Services
  • Built custom and customized plugins, websites, and web applications with WordPress, Laravel, React, Amazon Web Services, and other technologies.
  • Studied and kept up to date with emerging tools and trends in web development, especially around WordPress and the front end.
  • Consulted with small and medium-sized businesses, non-profits, government organizations, and others about their online needs.
  • Managed teams of contractors for larger projects and interfaced with clients to manage expectations and relationships.
Technologies: jQuery, JavaScript, PHP, WooCommerce, WordPress, WordPress Plugins, Custom Themes, Theme Customization, React, Node.js, AWS Lambda, Lambda Functions, Lambda Architecture, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Web Services (AWS), WordPress Themes, WordPress Rescue, CSS, CSS3, GitHub, Git, WP-CLI, Full-stack, Integration, Headless Software, Business Administration

Full-stack Developer

2023 - 2023
Elementor.com
  • Maintained a legacy eCommerce sales platform which handles tens of millions of dollars annually.
  • Expanded platform features to include new products that result in increased sales revenue.
  • Created unit tests to bring the codebase up to an acceptable percentage of coverage.
  • Led research on temporal testing strategies to ensure consistent time-based functionality.
  • Started development and data migration to a new custom eCommerce platform with React and Node.js.
Technologies: JavaScript, PHP, PHP 7, Unit Testing, PHPUnit, CSS, CSS3, GitHub, Git, WP-CLI, Full-stack, Integration

Senior WordPress Engineer

2020 - 2022
Strattic.com
  • Developed a scalable, secure, and speedy platform that delivers static WordPress websites on AWS.
  • Used my knowledge of AWS, WordPress, PHP, and Node.js to build custom, serverless functionality.
  • Integrated 3rd party plugins and APIs into Strattic via serverless solutions like Lambda and DynamoDB.
  • Created documentation and education for developers using Strattic and serverless services.
Technologies: Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Web Services (AWS), APIs, AWS Lambda, WordPress, WordPress API, Node.js, React, Lambda Functions, WordPress Themes, WordPress Plugins, CSS, CSS3, GitHub, Git, WP-CLI, Full-stack, Integration, Headless Software

VP of Development

2018 - 2020
The Digital Ring
  • Led, mentored, and grow the development team via 1-on-1s, teaching, interviewing, and hiring new developers.
  • Gave direction to the development department, decided on goals, and influenced accepted projects.
  • Introduced modern development workflows such as Git version control, CI/CD, AWS, and other services.
  • Developed custom web applications and sites with Laravel, WordPress, React, and Node.js.
  • Built and integrated custom API solutions across a variety of platforms.
  • Maintained legacy applications, ran updates, and set up version control.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), MySQL, Vue, APIs, JavaScript, PHP, WordPress, Full-stack, Mobile First, React, WordPress Plugins, Technical Leadership, Custom Themes, Theme Customization, Headless Software, Laravel, eCommerce, WordPress Themes, WordPress Rescue, CSS, CSS3, GitHub, Git, WP-CLI, Integration, Business Administration

Web Engineer

2018 - 2018
10up
  • Built completely custom experiences using WordPress, PHP, and JavaScript.
  • Integrated services like Elasticsearch and the WordPress REST API.
  • Worked on a team of more senior level devs.
  • Performed code reviews and worked with Gitflow.
  • Worked in a fully remote/distributed environment.
Technologies: JavaScript, PHP, WordPress, WordPress Plugins, WordPress Themes, CSS, CSS3, GitHub, Git, WP-CLI, Full-stack, Integration

Custom Website Design and Functionality Including a Migration to WordPress

http://jungsik.kr
Live Site: Jungsik.kr
GitHub: https://github.com/n8finch/jungsik-theme, https://github.com/n8finch/jungsik-theme-seoul

• This site has neat grids, Sass and Grunt for styling; jQuery/JavaScript for some interactivity. The website is not my design, but I built the code for it. It is a custom child theme on the Genesis Framework, built from the ground up with my Genesis starter theme. ACF was used to build in a customized experience for loading menu Items (lunch and dinner), bar menu items, bios, and press releases.
• The previous site had the same front-end design but was all PHP—so there was no way for the client to change anything without FTP. After moving this to WordPress and training them on how to use the CMS, they breathed a sigh of relief: “Oh, this is MUCH easier!” they said.

It’s a multisite, as the New York and Seoul restaurants are slightly different with different needs. I developed it as a local site, pushed it to a development site, then migrated it to production, so single and multisite migrations are not a problem for me.

WordPress Quick Draft or Post WordPress REST API Plugin

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-quick-post-or-draft/
Have you ever wanted to stay on the front-end of your website and write a quick post or draft from there? This plugin will allow you to do just that!

Please note: this plugin currently requires the WordPress REST API (Version 2) plugin (which you can download here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/rest-api/).

The idea of this plugin is that it is quick to post from the front end and only gives you three fields to fill out: post title, post content, and category. From there, you can save it as a draft, or post it immediately. The plugin uses the WP REST API to post the data.

Please refer to installation and screenshots to see how to install, how to set this plugin up, and how to use it.

Instructions for use:
1. Click on the blue slide out button to pull up the popup.
2. Fill out the Title, Content, and Category (though you don't need a category filled out).
3. Click on the button to save as a draft or immediately post.
4. Upon successful posting, you'll see a confirmation box, then you can close the popup or it will close in five seconds.

Yet Another Social Share Plugin

Automatically display selected social network(s) sharing buttons in posts and/or on pages.

Support for the following social networks is required: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Whatsapp (for mobile browsers only).

The plugin options page include the following configurable items:
• There is a choice to display on posts, pages, and other registered custom post types.
• Options to activate or deactivate the buttons for different social networks.
• Three different button sizes to choose from small, medium, and large.
• The choice to display the icons in their original colors (default) or all in a selected color.
• An option to determine in which order the icons will appear (e.g., FB, TW, G+, or more).
• Opportunities to place the social share bar (one or more of these can be selected):
a) Below the post title.
b) Floating on the left side.
c) After the post content.
d) Inside the featured image.

The plugin also enables a shortcode to include a sharing bar inside a post.

Custom Author/Book Websites

I built this site to be consistent with WalterDanley.com branding.

Work Done:
• Migrated the site to the Genesis Framework.
• Built a custom widgetized homepage.
• Performed social media integration.
• Developed a layer slider.
• Installed SSL.
• Implemented a Gumroad Integration.

Artisan Kraft Genesis Child Theme and Customizations

Project details: eCommerce, home goods

This project was a redesign of the AKGoods website. They wanted to move to the Genesis Framework, and after heavily customizing the Jessica theme, including added extra functionality, wrapped this project up.

Notes:
• Built responsive multiple page layouts on the site.
• Developed custom categories, single product, and multi-column pages.
• Developed single product pages including custom features: accordion, pair with a query (you can also like a query), a custom cart, wishlist, and search layouts.
• Wrote custom Contact Form 7 layouts and actions.
2009 - 2012

Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Business, International Business, Finance

North Park University - Chicago, IL, USA

JUNE 2016 - PRESENT

Front End Web Developer (Nanodegree)

Udacity

Libraries/APIs

jQuery UI, jQuery, WordPress API, React, Node.js, jQuery Plugins, GitHub API, Vue

Tools

Grunt, GitHub, Git, Gulp, WP-CLI, Terminal

Languages

PHP, JavaScript, CSS, CSS3, HTML, Sass, HTML5, PHP 7

Frameworks

Genesis Framework, Laravel, PHPUnit

Platforms

WordPress, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, WooCommerce

Paradigms

Lambda Architecture, Agile, Unit Testing

Storage

MySQL, Amazon DynamoDB

Other

WordPress Rescue, WordPress Themes, WordPress Plugins, Full-stack, Custom Themes, Theme Customization, Headless Software, WordPress Multisite, APIs, Integration, Mobile First, Technical Leadership, Lambda Functions, eCommerce, Business Administration, International Trade, Finance

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