Andrew Farmer
Sofware generalist with 18 years professional experience.
Programming since 1997, UC Berkeley EECS, Microsoft & multiple successful startups.
Recently focused on machine learning and frontend.
Built a custom chatbot that provides citations for its responses with RAG (Resource-assisted generation).
Hiatus
2022-2023
Work break after successful startup liquidation
Founding member on team of 6. Built initial app versions (iOS/web/Android/tvOS), hired & managed frontend team.
- Rhombus Systems as of 2021 had 50+ employees and was profitable
- Maximized code sharing across platforms with Typescript, React, and React Native
- Set up continuous deployment with automated testing: both CLI & in-browser
- Identified and fixed the most difficult issues: memory leaks, React performance issues, and issues originating in dependencies, like this memory leak in Dash.js
- Unblocked other developers when they became stuck
- Coordinated the team effort on git, unit tests, & tooling
Architect, Consultant
Moov
2013-2016
Designed and built *MoovCheckout*, a JavaScript library that improved the user experience during checkout on mobile, increasing conversions. Led a team of 4.
*MoovCheckout* was used by macys.com. Moov sold to Limelight Networks in 2021 for $55 million.
💡 During this time I also had 1000s of subscribers on my side newsletter: javascriptstuff.com. I wrote articles on how to use JavaScript and React.
iOS App Contractor
2011-2013
Built iOS & Android apps independently & for other companies.
Independently-produced "Ultratext" had over a million downloads.
My own creation "Photo Cut-Out" had a custom ML image segmentation algorithm that I adapted from research papers and optimized for mobile in C. In its prime "Photo Cut-Out" earned $2k/month in download revenue.
Senior Software Engineer
Moov
2008-2011
3rd employee. Ruby/backend development, managed 100s of EC2 instances on AWS.
Filed & received a patent on XML transformations.
Built the first iOS Craigslist app (without Craigslist's permission).
Web Engineer
Asurion
2007-2008
Built the JavaScript web interface for *CellBackup*, a product that backed up cell phone numbers on flip phones.
Without a VDOM-style library, it was a hassle updating the frontend table data to match the backend updates.
Software Engineer
Microsoft
2005-2006
Built Customer Relationship Management software in C#. Joined as an intern, asked back the following year.
Wrote code that bridged CRM, Internet Explorer, and Outlook.
Built a logging tool for performant log viewing and filtering.
EECS
UC Berkeley
2002-2006
Studied Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Honors Linear Algebra, Advanced Formal Logic
Hobbyist
1997-2002
Self-Taught at Age 13
With nothing but a book and a CD (internet was just AOL dial-up) I taught myself to program in C.
I created a game with claymation graphics and won 9th place in 'uDevGames'.