Taylor Clifton
Verified Expert in Engineering
Full-stack Web Developer
Texas City, TX, United States
Toptal member since July 26, 2022
Taylor is a senior full-stack web developer with over 10 years of experience developing various web applications and websites for multiple clients. He has begun his development career in the industry and has worked in diverse environments, from large teams with established products to smaller startups in the early stages of development. Taylor transitioned to working as a freelance web developer about eight years ago and now works with multiple clients and teams on various exciting projects.
Portfolio
Experience
- JavaScript - 12 years
- Git - 12 years
- Ruby on Rails (RoR) - 10 years
- Node.js - 10 years
- TypeScript - 3 years
- Docker - 3 years
- React - 2 years
- Tailwind CSS - 2 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
TypeScript, React, Node.js, Ruby on Rails (RoR), HTML, Java, PHP, Docker, Git, Linux
The most amazing...
...thing I've worked on as a developer is a tool that enabled a pastor to rapidly publish his doctrinal commentaries on the word of God as web pages.
Work Experience
Owner
Resolved Software
- Developed a Ruby on Rails website for a local sawmill with a custom pricing calculator that estimates the cost of lumber orders, which can be found here: https://customcutlumbermill.com/pricing/estimate_requests/new.
- Built multiple small websites for clients using React and a custom Storyblok React library using GraphQL.
- Created a Cloudflare worker that enables single-page applications (SPAs) on the Cloudflare platform to output different Open Graph meta tags for individual pages, allowing social media website crawlers to generate rich and unique previews.
- Developed a proprietary .docx to HTML transformer in Ruby that generates textually and stylistically responsive HTML pages from Microsoft Word documents.
- Built various custom React utility hooks for reuse over different projects to speed up development and reduce boilerplate.
- Developed reusable React Tailwind UI components to speed up the development of React SPAs and websites.
- Created a TypeScript and React audio player embedded in a Ruby on Rails website to allow users to add and play music from the website while browsing it.
- Developed various Ruby on Rails applications of differing complexity and scale for multiple clients.
Developer
Coffee Factory Ltd.
- Designed and developed a Shopify application that manages the client's bulk coffee inventory and product subscriptions, including automatic inventory synchronization/reconciliation, custom subscription fulfillment plans, and report generation.
- Designed a custom reconciliation algorithm between Shopify's discrete inventory and the client's inventory batches, taking into consideration changes via orders, draft orders, and custom manual adjustments.
- Developed a custom system for generating dynamic fulfillments for pre-paid Shopify subscriptions from a pre-defined set of specific products based on the client's specific stock selection priority guidelines.
- Designed and implemented all aspects of the application, including the deployment strategy, API, and front-end logic.
- Utilized modern web development frameworks and practices, such as deploying the application in an autoscaling, serverless edge environment with managed autoscaling databases, to enable more efficient scaling and reduce costs.
Ruby on Rails Developer
Narrative Nation Inc
- Implemented API versioning with backward compatibility for existing mobile clients for the Ruby on Rails API.
- Architected and implemented the V2 API that integrated Storyblok as a third-party CMS solution to manage survey questions, which enabled the client to support internationalization, A/B testing, and reliable management of their survey questions.
- Implemented dynamic translation of over 40k existing review questions and responses, including new ones, using various 3rd-party translation services, allowing clients to view others' reviews localized to their language.
- Implemented algorithms for supporting the creation and versioning of review questions from the third-party CMS, which required polymorphic handling/validation of various types of question responses (e.g., date, rating, free-text, yes/no responses).
- Managed the back-end operations of the project's API servers using Heroku with Heroku Pipelines and GitHub Workflows and moved the application towards more efficient CI/CD practices.
- Wrote comprehensive unit tests for a relatively untested codebase for new features/functionality using RSpec, Factorybot, and other testing frameworks.
Senior Full-stack Developer
Framework Labs
- Developed a Shopify application using Next.js and TypeScript, AWS, deployed on the Vercel Serverless platform, implementing both the application's API on the back end and the front-end React application using Shopify's Polaris component system.
- Utilized Shopify-compliant Polaris component and design system according to recommended best practices.
- Implemented functionality to access theme resources from GitHub Releases using the Octokit Github REST API.
Software Contractor
Optimize.Ad
- Refactored and rewrote the existing Node.js and Express.js API to use more modular and modern Express.js frameworks and TypeScript instead of JavaScript.
- Added new, complex functionality to the API that extended the current application's capabilities.
- Wrote multiple custom TypeScript utilities and decorators with type-safe implementations for permission checking or access control, data serialization, and more.
- Worked on their React front end to add new UI components that utilized the new API functionality.
- Deployed their application on the Google Cloud Platform using Docker, Cloud Build, Cloud Compute, Cloud SQL, and other services.
Software Contractor
Lucid
- Refactored an existing Shopify checkout extension that incorporated a shipping calendar into the checkout experience of a very popular online flower shop.
- Expanded their Shopify check-out shipping calendar extension to support multiple shipping services. This included designing a modular system using modern JavaScript practices and syntax to perform complex algorithmic checks for shipping availability.
- Worked directly with a project manager and clients to meet specific requirements and deadlines during high-traffic seasons and times for their Shopify stores.
- Wrote complex Liquid templates for different stores to support unique and challenging requirements.
- Worked on a Shopify app that enabled users to install custom themes. This involved working on a Ruby on Rails codebase that used the Shopify Ruby API integration and front-end work with vanilla JavaScript and jQuery.
Software Engineer
CloudMine
- Wrote a payment API for the platform that allowed users to run JavaScript snippets, i.e., functions, in a secure environment and accept or perform payments in a secure and provider-agnostic fashion.
- Worked alongside the CTO to develop a small AngularJS application for estimating healthcare costs for various government-sponsored healthcare plans.
- Collaborated with a small team to port a jQuery mobile application to AngularJS.
Software Engineering Intern
- Developed an internal testing tool for the Gmail team using Java Swing for a then-unreleased Google product that implemented innovative model–view–viewmodel (MVVM) principles.
- Wrote a custom search query lexer and parser for a new Gmail product that was under development.
- Received a full-time job offer from the Gmail team for my work this season.
Software Engineering Intern
- Developed an internal testing tool for the Gmail team using Java Swing a then-unreleased Google product that implemented MVVM principles before React existed!
- Wrote a custom search query lexer and parser for the new Gmail product that was under development.
- Received a full-time job offer from the Gmail team for my work in this season.
Software Engineering Intern
- Developed a small web component that would allow users of Google Translate's web application to highlight translated text and submit alternative translations.
- Built a small CSS lexer and parser to take existing CSS style sheets and add inline styles into DOM elements.
- Created a web component that is still used today on many websites around the world.
Software Engineering Intern
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Developed and enhanced an existing Python UI to model and simulate lunar rover dynamics.
- Created a new UI using C++ to allow the JPL DARTS laboratory to demonstrate their complex lunar rover simulation and modeling framework.
- Created a simple Python UI used during the Mars Spirit rover mission, which received a stream of data in real time and rendered UI components to display those data graphically.
Experience
Hymns of the Last Days
https://hymnsofthelastdays.comI have developed a TypeScript and React audio player that allows users to add songs from a website to a playlist to play in the browser. Also, I have integrated and set up an Elasticsearch instance and relevant libraries to support indexing and searching songs by title, lyrics, etc. Finally, I have developed and created the website's theme using Semantic UI.
Custom Cut Lumber Mill
https://customcutlumbermill.comHarvest Essentials
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Villanova University - Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States
Certifications
JavaScript Front-end Development
An Online Freelance Agency
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, jQuery, Liquid, Shopify API, Google Closure, Vue 2, Facebook Ads API, Ruby on Rails API, GitHub API, REST APIs
Tools
Git, Mocha, GitHub, Shopify Plus, Docker Compose, NGINX, Webpack, Photoshop CC, AWS IAM, Prisma, RSpec, Postman, JSX
Languages
TypeScript, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Sass, HTML5, Haml, ECMAScript (ES6), SCSS, Ruby, Java, PHP, GraphQL, SQL, Lisp, C, Python, C++, CoffeeScript
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (RoR), Tailwind CSS, Express.js, Slim, Yarn, Jest, Serverless Framework, Next.js, GWT, AngularJS, Material UI, Redux, Qwik
Paradigms
Agile, Compiler Design, Unit Testing
Platforms
Shopify, Docker, Linux, Heroku, Polaris Software Integrity Platform, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EC2, Vercel
Storage
PostgreSQL, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Google Cloud, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MongoDB
Other
Algorithms, APIs, Web Development, API Integration, Front-end, Full-stack, Back-end, Architecture, Software Design, Code Review, Full-stack Development, Parsers, Data Structures, Cloudflare, Shopify Theme, Software Architecture, OAuth, Webhooks, Code Auditing, Leadership, Estimations, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Graph Theory, Artificial Intelligence (AI), iOS App Design, Android App Design, Outbrain, Yahoo Ads, Responsive UI, Semantic UI, Shopify Customizations, RTL, Amazon RDS, i18n, Instant Messaging, Payment Gateways, Kysely, Vite, Custom Shopify Apps
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring