Seth McLaughlin, Developer in Mountain View, CA, United States
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Seth McLaughlin

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Chrome Extensions Developer

Location
Mountain View, CA, United States
Toptal Member Since
December 13, 2018

Seth has 10+ years working in senior engineering and management leadership roles. His industry experience spans both small startups and technology leaders such as Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Dropbox. Seth specializes in web application development, specializing in JavaScript/front-end stacks, RESTful APIs, and developer tooling.

Portfolio

DiDi Global
Java, NestJS, Node.js, RxJS, Webpack, Redux, React, TypeScript, JavaScript
Stealth startup (Biotech)
Flask, Python, TypeScript, React
Stealth startup (Security)
TypeScript, Angular

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux, MacOS, Node.js, Git

The most amazing...

...web management console I've created was used to manage over 40,000 connected devices.

Work Experience

Senior Staff Software Engineer

2017 - 2019
DiDi Global
  • Built out UI engineering team from scratch, responsible for all phases of the hiring process.
  • Architected and built application technology stack based on React/Redux/TypeScript, including support for multiple user languages (i18n) in the UI.
  • Created supporting development tools, including proxies and tools for automating pieces of internationalization.
  • Created project roadmaps and lead requirements gathering efforts and communication across multiple teams of stake-holders.
Technologies: Java, NestJS, Node.js, RxJS, Webpack, Redux, React, TypeScript, JavaScript

Consultant

2018 - 2018
Stealth startup (Biotech)
  • Implemented data service using Python and Flask framework.
  • Migrated client React application from vanilla JavaScript to TypeScript.
Technologies: Flask, Python, TypeScript, React

Consultant

2017 - 2017
Stealth startup (Security)
  • Refactored Angular application to increase code quality and maintainability.
  • Implemented new features in Angular application based on customer requirements.
  • Converted code base to TypeScript for improved maintainability and scalability.
Technologies: TypeScript, Angular

Corporate training consultant

2016 - 2017
TenX
  • Created customized training materials on writing test automation for web applications.
  • Content aimed at internal manual QA team which was transitioning to writing automation.
  • Delivered content through a series of training workshops (weekly, spanning several months).
Technologies: Selenium, Nightwatch.js, JavaScript

Technical Lead

2015 - 2017
Dropbox
  • Developed modern dashboarding solution to drive big-data decision making across the company.
  • Architected and lead development for systems built with TypeScript (Angular 1.x), Go, MySQL, and the hadoop ecosystem.
  • Designed and implemented Frosty, an open source tool which reduced build times by up to 30x for Node.js based projects.
Technologies: Go, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript

Consultant

2016 - 2016
Stealth startup (Analytics)
  • Advised company on technology stack choices for web application client (React).
  • Implemented initial React application.
  • Improved development environment by "Dockerizing" dependencies, to make it much easier for other developers to get all services running locally.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, React, Docker

Freelance

2014 - 2015
Minhash (acquired by Salesforce)
  • Created proxy application in Node.js to inject custom content into web pages.
  • Designed administration portal application using JS/React.
Technologies: React, Node.js

Technical Lead

2014 - 2015
Shape Security
  • Lead multiple teams focused on building product features and improving developer experience.
  • Partnered with peers in product management and quality assurance to define product features, milestones, and quality goals.
  • Defined and implemented technical infrastructure improvements, including build systems and developer tooling.
Technologies: PhantomJS, Selenium, Python, Java, JavaScript

Senior Software Engineer

2013 - 2014
Hall (acquired by Atlassian)
  • Implemented client-side code (web/desktop) for an enterprise chat application.
  • Contributed to server components written with Rails framework.
  • Optimized performance of real-time messaging layer written in CoffeeScript and Node.js, utilizing redis for distributed message caching.
Technologies: Redis, Node.js, Adobe AIR, Backbone.js, CoffeeScript, JavaScript

Senior Software Engineer

2011 - 2013
LinkedIn
  • Shipped features on Linkedin.com aimed at higher education institutions and students.
  • Developed and open-sourced Venus.js while driving adoption of JS unit testing across LinkedIn product teams.
  • Delivered tech talks and training workshops on using Venus.js and unit testing best practices for JavaScript development.
Technologies: CSS, HTML, JavaScript

Program Manager

2008 - 2011
Microsoft
  • Owned features for the Internet Explorer version 8, 9, and 10 development cycles.
  • Lead feature crews on the user experience and performance teams.
  • Designed and implemented several platform technology demos for www.ietestdrive.com.
Technologies: UX Design, Profiling, Performance, Engines, JavaScript

Venus.js

https://github.com/linkedin/venus.js
Venus is a testing tool for JavaScript (JS), which simplifies running unit tests. When you are developing a browser-based project in JS, you'll want to create unit tests and run them frequently. Typically, you'll write a unit test using some library, such as Mocha or Jasmine. These libraries let you define test cases (or "specs" if you are following a BDD style), and provide APIs for writing assertions.

chrome-mock

https://github.com/sethmcl/chrome-mock
Chrome API mocking library to aid in unit testing Chrome extensions.

HTML5 Dev Conf Talk on Nightwatch.js

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=794uaoenv_M
There are many libraries and tools available for writing Selenium tests. Unfortunately, until recently there have not been good options available if you want to implement your tests using JavaScript. Nightwatch.js aims to solve that problem, by providing a robust solution for writing and running Selenium test automation. This tool runs on Node.js and is growing quickly in popularity, with over 1,500 stars on GitHub and an active development community. In this talk, we will explore the capabilities of Nightwatch, and specifically answer key questions around debugging, abstraction using the page object model, reporting options, and more. An in-depth demo will also be shown to give attendees an introduction to setting up and using the tool.

LinkedIn Tech Talk on Venus.js

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvHk7KWa25o
This talk begins with a brief overview of different ways to test code written for the web, including black-box vs. white-box testing techniques. From here, we focus on white-box unit testing and how to write unit tests for JavaScript code using Venus.js. By the end of the session, you will understand why unit testing is important, the challenges involved in unit testing JavaScript code, and the tools and techniques which are available to overcome these challenges.

Frosty

https://github.com/sethmcl/frosty
Aggressive caching for NPM based builds.

Languages

JavaScript, TypeScript, CoffeeScript, Ruby, Python, HTML, CSS, Java, Python 2, Go

Other

Front-end Development, Shell Scripting, Engines, Performance, Profiling, Chrome Extensions

Frameworks

Redux, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Flask, NestJS, Angular, Selenium

Libraries/APIs

React, Node.js, Backbone.js, Nightwatch.js, RxJS, PhantomJS

Tools

Sketch, Git, Vim Text Editor, Adobe AIR, Webpack

Paradigms

Unit Testing, UX Design, Photoshop Design

Platforms

Linux, Docker, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS

Storage

Redis, MySQL

2002 - 2008

Bachelor's Degree in Software Engineering

Rochester Institute of Technology - Rochester, NY (USA)

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