Alexander Quine (he/him)

Synopsis

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

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

LLMs have shifted the possibilities of software development; 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, Next.JS, Gatsby, Express, Vue, 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, Capybara, 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; feature flags)
  • Familiar with secure coding practices: auth token handling, CORS configuration, input sanitization, dependency vulnerability scanning (Dependabot, Snyk)
  • Experienced using observability, monitoring, error-tracking, session analytics, and incident management tools (DataDog, BugSnag, 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)
  • Experienced optimizing client-side performance and building scalable architectures (Cloudflare, Fastly, CDNs)
  • Strong attention paid to user experience and accessibility; compatibility across browsers, devices, and screen sizes; resource efficiency; and code standards

• 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)

  • 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.

  • Led technical decisions and design, and authored architectural documentation capturing tradeoffs around integration with third-party SaaS platform (ADRs, UML, sequence diagrams).
  • 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 planning, specification, team-leading, code development, and testing of a high-traffic customer-facing site (250M+ MAU, 1B+ pageviews/month) and supporting content/admin tools in a continuous-integration/deployment environment (JavaScript, Elixir, Ruby on Rails).

  • 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, Marionette), and onboarded other developers to continue development post-launch.
  • Collaborated with product owners, stakeholders, and 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, emphasizing code review and testing.
  • 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.
  • Operations support for a production Linux web server.
  • Constructed all customer-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!