Sam is available for hire
Hire SamSam Watkinson
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Toptal member since August 13, 2019
Bio
Sam has played a critical role in both early-stage startup projects and multi-million-user applications with has a passion for projects that far exceed the conventional powers of the web. While primarily an expert web engineer, Sam's experience covers design, management, and technical communication. He thrives on long sessions of focused engineering along with rapid ideation and collaborative decision-making.
Portfolio
Collage.com
Karma, Mocha, Docker, PHP, MobX, Backbone.js, TypeScript, React
iHeartRadio
Jenkins, Web Audio API, Chromecast, Backbone.js, FlowType.JS, Redux, React
Outro
Socket.IO, PostgreSQL, Express.js, WebGL, Web Audio API, TypeScript, Redux...
Experience
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), GitHub, MacOS
The most amazing...
...app I've built used a WebGL audio waveform display system, letting users explore and visualize gigabytes of audio, via websockets, at 60fps.
Work Experience
Senior Software Engineer/Project Lead/Scrum Master
2018 - 2019
Collage.com
- Assigned project lead/scrum master responsibilities by the CEO after three months. Contributed extensively to planning, team management, and engineering for the startup’s first profitable year.
- Refactored numerous Handlebars/Backbone views to React to improve performance, testability, and extensibility.
- Developed numerous features in a complex canvas/webGL visual editor to improve performance and UI for millions of users.
- Made extensive updates to the legacy state management system to improve testability and site reliability.
- Manged a remote agile team of five senior- and lead-level engineers.
Technologies: Karma, Mocha, Docker, PHP, MobX, Backbone.js, TypeScript, React
Senior Software Engineer
2016 - 2018
iHeartRadio
- Led technical projects for the web app’s Canada launch, ensuring a smooth transition into multi-language support, and adding numerous accessibility upgrades.
- Developed the UI and back end for diverse audio/video features, increasing revenue via advertisements and playback analytics and improving the user experience of our core product.
- Optimized and re-architected the full-stack performance of a large legacy codebase, improving speed, usability, testability, and type coverage.
- Refactored mountains of legacy CSS to a modern solution using Emotion, dramatically improving extensibility and code organization.
Technologies: Jenkins, Web Audio API, Chromecast, Backbone.js, FlowType.JS, Redux, React
Co-founder/Lead Developer
2014 - 2016
Outro
- Developed numerous cutting-edge in-browser audio features, making full use of the Web Audio API to enable concurrent multi-user editing, signal processing, and high-performance streaming waveform display.
- Designed an API for complex musical content database navigation, allowing clients to query for musically compatible loops and recordings while working on a piece of music.
- Developed numerous musical analysis processes, extracting musical qualities like key, tempo, and groove from recorded audio.
- Developed numerous musical content generation tools, allowing for mass-production of usable audio recordings with minimal creative input.
- Provided extensive visual and UI design, creating numerous first-of-their-kind browsing and editing features in the browser.
Technologies: Socket.IO, PostgreSQL, Express.js, WebGL, Web Audio API, TypeScript, Redux, React
Freelance Web Developer
2013 - 2015
International Air Transport Association
- Built dozens of HTML marketing and communication email templates, sent by IATA to their network of aviation businesses.
- Built several small single-page websites with IE6 compatibility.
- Built a full-stack IE6-compatible document management system for pilots, enabling offline storage of flight-critical documents.
Technologies: Python, CSS, HTML, JavaScript
Senior Developer
2012 - 2014
Wildcard Montreal
- Developed and maintained WordPress themes and company websites.
- Mentored junior engineers and interns in a small company.
- Developed and maintained custom Shopify store themes for startup businesses.
- Developed and maintained database tracking and sharing on social media about real-world engagement with Montreal nightclubs.
Technologies: iOS, PhoneGap, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Node.js, MySQL, Java, PHP, WordPress, Shopify, AngularJS
Experience
iHeartRadio
https://www.iheart.com/Web app for the biggest owner of radio stations in the USA. I worked on the front end as a senior engineer from 2016 to 2018.
The core challenge of this project was refactoring a troubled legacy codebase into an ultra-high-quality React/Redux front end. We approached the challenge incrementally, improving the representation of individual pieces of state one at a time.
We saw substantially improved performance, developer happiness, and test coverage as a result, all while adding numerous user-facing features and deepening the site's analytics infrastructure.
Later, I was tech lead for the site's launch in Canada, which involved site-wide internationalization (allowing us to present the site in any of a number of languages) and broad improvements to accessibility to meet Canadian media standards.
The core challenge of this project was refactoring a troubled legacy codebase into an ultra-high-quality React/Redux front end. We approached the challenge incrementally, improving the representation of individual pieces of state one at a time.
We saw substantially improved performance, developer happiness, and test coverage as a result, all while adding numerous user-facing features and deepening the site's analytics infrastructure.
Later, I was tech lead for the site's launch in Canada, which involved site-wide internationalization (allowing us to present the site in any of a number of languages) and broad improvements to accessibility to meet Canadian media standards.
Collage.com Builder
From 2018 to 2019, I worked on Collage.com's Builder UI, as well as much of the state management and infrastructure upon which the site is built.
The heart of my technical input was applied to the integration of TypeScript and React to the site's tech-debt-laden codebase. We saw marked improvements in performance, developer velocity, and test coverage as a result.
In addition to substantial contributions to the modernization of the site's aging codebase, I was responsible for improving the all-remote Builder team's efficiency and productivity.
We examined and improved work processes, modifying our implementation of Scrum, changing the structure of meetings, and simplifying and automating repetitive communication tasks to free up developer time.
The heart of my technical input was applied to the integration of TypeScript and React to the site's tech-debt-laden codebase. We saw marked improvements in performance, developer velocity, and test coverage as a result.
In addition to substantial contributions to the modernization of the site's aging codebase, I was responsible for improving the all-remote Builder team's efficiency and productivity.
We examined and improved work processes, modifying our implementation of Scrum, changing the structure of meetings, and simplifying and automating repetitive communication tasks to free up developer time.
Education
2012 - 2013
Diploma in Audio Engineering
Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology - London, Ontario, Canada
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, Web Audio API, Three.js, Socket.IO, Emotion Library, Backbone.js, MobX, FlowType.JS, WebGL, WebVR
Tools
Sketch, Autodesk Fusion 360, 3ds Max, Mocha, GitHub, Karma, Jenkins
Languages
TypeScript, TypeScript 3, TypeScript 2, HTML, HTML5, CSS, PHP, Java, JavaScript, Python, SQL
Frameworks
Redux, Express.js, AngularJS, PhoneGap, Unreal Engine 4
Platforms
MacOS, Docker, Shopify, WordPress, iOS, Linux, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Storage
PostgreSQL, MySQL
Other
Music Composition, Music Production, Autodesk Maya, Chromecast
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