Nick Knipe, Developer in Los Angeles, CA, United States
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Nick Knipe

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Web Developer

Location
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Toptal Member Since
February 18, 2020

Nick is a back-end-focused web developer with high-level expertise in Ruby frameworks. Nick places emphasis on building understandable and maintainable systems with extremely high test coverage. He also has an unusual background for a computer science graduate: he subsequently went to law school. He practiced law for several years before becoming the principal developer at a very early stage legal software startup, which was later acquired.

HerokuRubyRuby on Rails (RoR)SidekiqAmazon S3 (AWS S3)RSpecPostgreSQLRedisAmazon Web Services (AWS)LinuxMacOSJestDockerJavaReact

Portfolio

Clio
MySQL, Elasticsearch, Docker, Sidekiq, React, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR)
Lexicata
PostgreSQL, Jest, RSpec, React, Heroku, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Experience

JavaScript - 8 yearsRuby on Rails (RoR) - 6 yearsRuby - 6 yearsHeroku - 6 yearsSidekiq - 5 yearsVue 2 - 2 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Docker, MacOS, Linux

The most amazing...

...outcome I've had was to turn around a startup's test-less technical debt into an acquisition.

Work Experience

Development Manager

2018 - 2019
Clio
  • Served as a manager and tech lead for a Los Angeles office's development team.
  • Oversaw and designed security features, massive data migrations, third-party integrations, and optimizations.
  • Managed and was responsible for multiple developer tools to accelerate team software development.
Technologies: MySQL, Elasticsearch, Docker, Sidekiq, React, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Principal Developer

2016 - 2018
Lexicata
  • Joined as the fifth employee to help resolve a large, buggy, completely untested codebase that needed to scale. Undertook a refactoring process that took years and tested suite build to transform it into a reliable app worthy of acquisition.
  • Implemented necessary and constant software optimizations, microservices, and deployment configuration changes to scale for an extremely fast-growing SaaS company.
  • Executed a sprint development cycle with constant adjustments to optimize the development team working on multiple projects.
  • Oversaw and developed robustly tested API for a React single-page app.
  • Developed scalable, detailed, and flexible reporting features for client data.
Technologies: PostgreSQL, Jest, RSpec, React, Heroku, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Hello, Drifter

https://www.hellodrifter.com
A long-running Ruby on Rails app that serves as a professional mapping platform for race events. It also supports casual use as a hub for designing and sharing routes and events. Race directors around the world use its unique course maps.

It features a rich API for customizing the look and feel of every map, automated web scraping to ensure that the site is up-to-date with the latest races, a one-of-a-kind in-map elevation profile, and map routing with advanced features for tricky courses.

It is built on Ruby on Rails, Vue.js, Sidekiq, Heroku, AWS, and PostgreSQL.

Languages

Ruby, JavaScript, Java

Frameworks

Ruby on Rails (RoR), Jest

Libraries/APIs

Sidekiq, Vue 2, Amazon Rekognition, Mapbox GL, React

Tools

RSpec, Docker Compose

Platforms

Heroku, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, MacOS, Docker

Storage

Amazon S3 (AWS S3), PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, MySQL

2004 - 2007

Juris Doctorate (JD) Degree in Law

Georgetown University - Washington, DC, USA

1999 - 2003

Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science

University of California, Santa Barbara - Santa Barbara, CA, USA

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