Alexander Quine (he/him)

Synopsis

I am a software engineer and system architect working with the web platform for almost two decades, specializing in front-end and user experience.

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

I'm excited to collaborate as an individual contributor, and have also lead teams of local and remote engineers.

Skills

• Web platform

  • Experienced with web delivery best practices for high-traffic websites (Cloudflare, Fastly, CDNs)
  • Strong attention paid to user experience and accessibility; compatibility across browsers, devices, and screen sizes; resource efficiency; and code standards
  • Proficient in HTML5 (Canvas, CSS3, SVG, Web Workers, Web Sockets, storage, etc); JavaScript (Web Components, React, Svelte, NextJS, Gatsby, Express, hapi, D3, MERN stack, etc); CSS (media queries, animations, custom properties/variables, Sass/SCSS, etc)

• 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 regular cadence of maintenance and dependency updates to counter the pernicious effects of "feature-and-firefighting" development

• Software development

  • Very experienced with JavaScript, both client-side (desktop and mobile browsers) and server-side (NodeJS)
  • Comfortable with a variety of back-end stacks: Ruby on Rails, Elixir/Phoenix, Python, etc
  • Experienced architecting software systems using SOLID principles; designing and using GraphQL and REST APIs; and designing schemas for both relational databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite) and NoSQL/document databases (DynamoDB, Redis, MongoDB)
  • Experienced with test-driven development, at both the integration level (Cypress, Playwright) and unit level (Jest, Vitest, React Testing Library, Jasmine, RSpec, ExUnit)
  • Adept at shell scripting in Bash and ZSH; experienced with Docker/container-based architecture

Related 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 GIS software incorporating DEM file data with visualizing/modifying 2D and 3D models at scale (NumPy, Pandas, GDAL, Python, NodeJS, PostgreSQL, MapBox, React, 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 intertwined Python and NodeJS back-ends.

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

  @ Warner Brothers Discovery (entertainment & sports)

  • Instrumental contributor to the planning and execution of an eight-year project to retire and replace a 15-year-old 'monolith' web/mobile tech stack with no downtime.
  • Collaborated on planning and coding a green-field worker-based rebuild of an existing service, built in TypeScript using Apache Kafka and AWS DynamoDB.
  • Authored architectural documentation capturing tradeoffs and decisions around integration with third-party SaaS platform, including Design Documents and UML/sequence diagrams where appropriate.

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

  @ WarnerMedia / Bleacher Report (entertainment & 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.

  • Individual Contributor and Tech Lead of a team of remote full-time employees and contractors, rebuilding a key internal CMS with a custom realtime web app using React and NodeJS, including a full integration test suite using Cypress, and CI/CD using GitHub Actions.
  • Built the MVP of a JavaScript-based CMS web application using WebSockets, React, and NodeJS, and onboarded other developers to continue development through launch.
  • Collaborated with product owners and UX/UI designers to define features and architecture of new projects, tools, and systems.
  • Debugged errors in an Elixir/Phoenix service-oriented back-end.
  • 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.

• Front-End Developer (2011–2013)

  @ Current TV (entertainment & politics)

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

  • Collaborated on TV-ready custom D3.js-based visualizations of data on interactive maps and graphs in SVG, using Git.
  • Collaborated on maintenance of and custom feature development on WordPress-based sites, using Subversion.
  • Major code contributions to a test-driven responsive-design rebuild of the main site in Ruby on Rails.

• Developer (2007–2011)

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

  Lead developer for several WordPress and MediaWiki sites, as well as a custom legacy site built in 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

• Certified ScrumMaster®

  2016
  Scrum Alliance® (#000530544)

• Bachelor of Arts, East Asian Studies

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

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!