Nick Kuhn, Software Developer in Los Angeles, CA, United States
Nick Kuhn

Software Developer in Los Angeles, CA, United States

Member since March 10, 2017
Nick has over a decade of Drupal experience and has built some of the largest and most recognized Drupal websites such as Fox.com and AmericanIdol.com. With a very wide skillset, he fits in perfectly with any sized team, and in any role. He has worked with Acquia and developed several of the best practices the community uses today. With over 50 projects under his belt, he has the real-life experience needed to make applications successful.
Nick is now available for hire

Portfolio

  • FantasyAces
    Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB, Swift, Node.js, Amazon Aurora...
  • Fox
    Sass, PHP, Jenkins, Akamai, Drupal
  • BLITZ
    Git, Magento, WordPress, Sitecore, PHP, Python, HTML, Sass, MySQL, JavaScript...

Experience

Location

Los Angeles, CA, United States

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Git, Vagrant

The most amazing...

...thing I've coded was the rankedpicks.com sorting algorithm.

Employment

  • Chief Technology Officer

    2014 - 2017
    FantasyAces
    • Oversaw all technical matters at FantasyAces, a publicly traded company in the brand new Daily Fantasy Sports industry.
    • Developed several new performance upgrades that put the website on a scalable track.
    • Developed an iOS app with a local agency, managed several remote developers, and made strategic decisions.
    • Handled regulatory requests and developed cost saving solutions that kept us in line with new legislation.
    Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), MongoDB, Swift, Node.js, Amazon Aurora, Relational Database Services (RDS), Varnish, Memcached, Jenkins, Laravel, Sass, CSS, PHP
  • Sr. Manager, Web Development

    2014 - 2014
    Fox
    • Working under the Director of Technology, managed all development for the web properties under the umbrella of FOX Broadcast (www.fox.com).
    • Helped architect the 2014 redesign (Drupal 7) and managed the development of sponsorship pages as well as other internal projects.
    • While managing three separate development vendors, I still did hands on development (back and front-end).
    Technologies: Sass, PHP, Jenkins, Akamai, Drupal
  • Software Manager

    2012 - 2014
    BLITZ
    • Worked as the sole Drupal developer at a large digital agency.
    • Built www.aruba.com single-handedly.
    • Worked on various high traffic / visibility brand websites such as www.dole.com, www.vizio.com, www.saintsrow.com, and www.fxnetworks.com.
    • Launched the Saints Row IV community site upgrade.
    • Gained a lot of experience using Zend Framework.
    Technologies: Git, Magento, WordPress, Sitecore, PHP, Python, HTML, Sass, MySQL, JavaScript, Vagrant, Zend Framework, Drupal
  • Technical Director

    2012 - 2012
    TheWrap
    • Made all technical related decisions such as hosting, hiring contractors, integrating third party technologies, and leading any new projects. This work was done for an extremely high traffic website and in a high paced environment (over 1.6 million unique visitors per month).
    • Operated as the key developer in all projects, providing support in a 24/7 news environment.
    • Developed several new systems to simplify advertising and worked with Ad Ops to increase revenue.
    Technologies: Memcached, Varnish, Acquia, MySQL, HTML, CSS, PHP, Drupal
  • Sr. Drupal Developer

    2010 - 2012
    Causecast
    • Worked in a team that developed the Employee Engagement platform, as well as several other nonprofit based projects.
    • Helped to both mentor junior developers and architect daily solutions to the platform we were building.
    • Participated in various non-profit fundraisers and helped contribute to the Tycoon Drupal 7 module.
    Technologies: Git, JavaScript, MySQL, HTML, CSS, PHP, Drupal
  • Web Engineer

    2009 - 2010
    Achieve Internet
    • Worked on enterprise level Drupal development, including building several large / complex systems for high-end media outlets and corporations.
    • Participated in local Drupal community.
    Technologies: Git, JavaScript, Subversion (SVN), HTML, Drupal, MySQL, CSS, PHP

Experience

  • Aruba
    http://aruba.com

    Drupal 7, localized, Google Maps 3.0 (one of the first enterprise websites to implement this in Drupal if I am not mistaken). Handled front-end, back-end, and assisted in system architecture. Architected localization solution.

  • Fox
    http://fox.com

    Drupal 7 website, fully responsive redesign. I did everything from front and back-end coding to management and architecture.

  • Lysse
    http://lysse.com

    Drupal 7 Commerce website, serving thousands of costumers per day. The site has high traffic, and a very customized design. I primarily did back-end development on this project.

  • SaintsRow

    This was a refit for the Saints Row 4 release, which involved content, design, and functionality updates. This is a Zend application, connecting to several different services (mostly ONESite for CMS / user functionality), and it is also localized. The challenges of this website was dealing with the ONESite CMS, and handling localization.

  • American Idol
    http://americanidol.com

    Sub site of fox.com, American Idol is the show page handling voting and other related information. I helped architect the final solution, essentially creating a pseudo multi site installation and using voting applications built for classic fox to reduce cost / time. The site launched on time, and works very well within the new umbrella of fox.com Drupal since the content entry is along side any other show. The work was done in a way that any show can be utilized as a 'stand alone' website, to further add to the flexibility of our new ecosystem.

  • Berkshire Innovation Center

    Drupal 7 running on Platform.sh, this was the first time I had used Platform.sh and I think it might be the future of DevOps. Worked in small team to build phase 3 of the project

  • Causecast
    http://causecast.org

    This is the third version of the Causecast.org website, v2.0 and v3.0 I worked on personally. This version is unique due to its implementation of both nonprofit and corporate 'realms', which separate the functionality and experience based on the user's profession. They are essentially two completely different websites that combine into a seamless experience.

  • Dole.com (Peel the Love)

    Peel the Love was a marketing campaign for Dole.com, and essentially existed as a landing page within the Sitecore CMS based website. The main page was comprised of two separate pages: desktop and mobile. The mobile page was a separate experience, and was optimized for handheld devices. I built both pages in their entirety but did not design them.

  • Fantasy Aces

    The Fantasy Aces project worked around a purely custom PHP framework. I came in to the startup to move the company to the next level. My first task was to migrate servers, from a single Media Temple instance to a clustered system. After only 2 weeks I had built an 8 server cluster on AWS that incorporated a dedicated memcached server, Varnish load balancer, and Jenkins deployment server. I set up a baseline for project management in the small company, by setting up a JIRA instance and teaching the employees how to use the system. Leading the team of developers, my tasks transferred to a combined manager and hands on developer role.

  • MyELX

    This project combined MEAN and Drupal, one of the most complex systems I have ever worked in. Drupal was used (headless) as a CMS, and the entered content was fed to MongoDB and displayed via the Node.js app. I helped with maintenance and releasing the Fall Preview learning sections. This was my first enterprise level Node.js application

Skills

  • Languages

    Sass, CSS3, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, PHP, HTML5, Python, Swift
  • Frameworks

    Drupal Commerce, Zend Framework, Laravel
  • Libraries/APIs

    jQuery, Backbone.js, Drupal API, TensorFlow, SoundCloud API, Brightcove API, Node.js
  • Tools

    Gulp, NGINX, Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), NPM, Grunt, Subversion (SVN), Mailchimp, Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), Jenkins, Varnish, Vagrant, Git, OneSite
  • Paradigms

    HTML DOM
  • Platforms

    New Relic, Apache2, Acquia, Drupal 6, Drupal 7, Drupal 8, Drupal, WordPress, Magento, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Storage

    Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, Memcached, Amazon Aurora, MongoDB
  • Other

    Ajax, RSync, Front-end Development, AdJuggler, Sitecore, Akamai, Relational Database Services (RDS)

Education

  • Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering
    2004 - 2009
    University of California, Riverside - Riverside, CA

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