Alexander Quine (he/him)

Synopsis

I am a software engineer working with the web platform for almost two decades, specializing in front-end / user experience and comfortable with back-end, databases, testing, and system architecture.

I value quick feedback and testing, and prefer development cycles informed by Agile project concepts.

LLMs have shifted the possibilities of software development, and I've integrated AI into my development workflows and the ongoing software development lifecycle, using Claude Code with agentic and human-in-the-loop approaches.

Skills

• Software development

  • Very experienced with JavaScript: back-end (NodeJS) including server-side rendering, front-end (browser, HTML APIs), and "serverless"/event-driven (AWS Lambda)
  • Comfortable with a variety of server-side ecosystems: NodeJS/TypeScript (React, Redux, React Query, Svelte, NextJS, Gatsby, Express, hapi), Ruby (Rails), Elixir (Phoenix), Python (Django)
  • Experienced architecting software systems; designing and using GraphQL and REST APIs; and designing schemas for both relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite) and NoSQL / document databases (AWS DynamoDB, Redis, MongoDB)
  • Experienced with test-driven development at unit/component/integration levels (Cypress, Playwright, Vitest, React Testing Library, Jest, Jasmine, RSpec, ExUnit, node:test)
  • Comfortable with Docker/container-based architectures (microservices, monoliths/monorepos, etc) and cloud hosting (AWS, Google Cloud); opinionated on developer experience (Vite, Webpack, Babel, ESLint; tests on CI; component library / Storybook)
  • Experienced using observability, error-tracking, session analytics, and incident management tools (DataDog, Sentry, New Relic, LogRocket, PagerDuty)
  • Adept at shell scripting (Bash, ZSH, POSIX environment on MacOS/Linux)

• Web platform

  • Proficient in HTML5 (Canvas, SVG, storage, CSS3, etc); JavaScript (Web Components, Web Sockets, Web Workers, etc); CSS (media queries, animations, custom properties/variables, Sass/SCSS, Tailwind, etc)
  • Strong attention paid to user experience and accessibility; compatibility across browsers, devices, and screen sizes; resource efficiency; and code standards
  • Experienced with optimizing client-side performance and scaling concerns (Cloudflare, Fastly, CDNs)

• Project management

  • Experienced leading a team of engineers to build a fully-tested bespoke web application UX (from specs through launch and ongoing support), integrating with existing systems and processes, and achieving a seamless user transition to the new system
  • Comfortable drafting specifications and collaborating with UX designers and product stakeholders to explore customer requirements
  • Proud to have successfully established a durable cadence of maintenance and dependency updates to counter the pernicious effects of "feature-and-firefighting" development

Experience

• Staff Software Engineer (Jan–October 2025)

  @ Planted Solar (solar energy & construction)

  Joined a post-stealth Series A startup at a critical growth point, relieving the pressure on the existing two-person software team by tackling technical debt accumulated during the R&D process.

  • Collaborated on custom web-based GIS software incorporating DEM file data with visualizing/modifying 2D and 3D models at scale (NumPy, Pandas, GDAL, Python, NodeJS, PostgreSQL, MapBox, React, React Query, Svelte).
  • Created the company's first integration test suite of critical site-planning software and configured to run on existing continuous-integration system (Cypress, CircleCI).
  • Refactored database schema to address years-old tech debt affecting Python and NodeJS back-ends.
  • Conducted technical interviews of job applicants.

• Staff Software Engineer, Sports Architecture team (2022–2024)

  @ Warner Brothers Discovery (media & sports)

  Software architecture and specification of a multi-system event-driven software stack, comprising several independent systems communicating via events/messages, powering a variety of internal tools as well as public-facing apps and websites.

  • Authored architectural documentation capturing tradeoffs and decisions around integration with third-party SaaS platform, including Design Documents and UML/sequence diagrams where appropriate.
  • Collaborated on planning and coding a greenfield event-driven rebuild of an existing service (TypeScript, Apache Kafka, AWS DynamoDB).
  • Only engineer who experienced the full arc of an eight-year rebuild, from declaring tech-bankruptcy on Bleacher Report's entire tech stack through rebuilding all features and decommissioning the old stack.

• Lead Front-End Engineer (2015–2022)
  Senior Front-End Engineer (2014–2015)
  Front-End Engineer (2013–2014)

  @ WarnerMedia / Bleacher Report (media & sports)

  Agile-influenced web software planning, specification, team-leading, code development, and automated testing; across several projects; using modern JavaScript, Elixir, and Ruby on Rails; in a continuous-integration/deployment environment with multiple production releases per week.

  • Tech Lead and Individual Contributor with a four-engineer team rebuilding a key internal CMS with a custom realtime web app (WebSockets, NodeJS, React, Redux, REST APIs), including a full integration test suite (Cypress) and CI (GitHub Actions).
  • Built MVP-to-launch of a JavaScript SPA web application (WebSockets, NodeJS, Backbone), and onboarded other developers to continue development post-launch.
  • Collaborated with product owners and UX/UI designers to define specifications for new projects, tools, and systems.
  • Conducted technical interviews of job applicants with co-workers, both in person and via phone/video, and collaborated with department leaders to reform the interviewing and onboarding processes.
  • Mentored new employees and junior engineers.
  • Debugged API errors in an internal Elixir/Phoenix back-end service.
  • Built user-facing features, improved tests, and refactored internals of monolith stack (Ruby on Rails, JavaScript/CoffeeScript).

• Front-End Developer (2011–2013)

  @ Current TV (media & politics)

  Agile test-driven development with continuous testing and integration (Ruby on Rails, RSpec, JavaScript, Backbone.js, Jasmine, Travis CI); project management tools included Pivotal Tracker and FogBugz. (Note: Current TV was sold in 2013 and the site has since been shut down)

  • Major code contributions to a responsive redesign and test-driven rebuild of the main site.
  • Built TV-ready custom data visualizations in interactive graphs and maps (D3.js, SVG).
  • Collaborated on maintenance and custom feature development (WordPress, jQuery).

• Developer (2007–2011)

  @ Wolfgang's Vault (e-commerce & music)

  Lead developer and maintainer for sites built in WordPress, MediaWiki, and bespoke Perl and Python.

  • Implemented complete redesigns and new features based on low-fidelity mockups.
  • Migrated a brand presence from a proprietary CMS to a customized WordPress installation, versioned using Subversion.
  • Operations support for a production Linux web server.
  • Constructed all consumer-facing email and implemented several design changes to email templates using XSLTs.
  • Served as technical liaison to contracted email delivery service.

• Webmaster (2002–2003, 2005–2007)

  @ Oberlin College Library System (higher education)
  • Maintained and updated custom database-backed web applications and static-content pages as needed for the college's four libraries.
  • Maintained and debugged Ajax applications with MySQL backends.
  • Implemented a redesign of the Library System's main page.
  • Completed a virtual tour project started by the prior webmaster.

Education / Certification

• Bachelor of Arts, East Asian Studies

  2007: Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
  Concentrated in Mandarin Chinese language and literature.

• Certified ScrumMaster®

  2016
  Scrum Alliance® (#000530544)

Fun Facts

• I study languages for fun! In school I took classes in Mandarin Chinese, French, Italian, and Russian; lately I've been learning some Spanish and bits of Lojban and Toki Pona in my spare time.
• I'm an avid photographer, both film and digital, and particularly fond of long (multi-hour) exposures and piecing together wide panoramas in a real darkroom.
• I enjoy etymology, eagerly-hyphenated compound modifiers, and the serial comma.
• I write (code, this resume, etc.) with NeoVim, and have been using a Dvorak keyboard layout (e.g. non-QWERTY) since 2003.
• I listen to lots of music!