Javascript
Ruby
Rails
React
BDD/TDD
UI/UX
RDBM
NoSQL
Node
React Native
Mobile Dev
Python
Java
PHP
Vim
Heroku
Firebase
Dev Ops
Education
- MAEd - Second Language Acquisition & Curriculum Design, Virginia Tech, 2003
- BA English with Linguistics Concentration, Virginia Tech, 1997
- BA French Language, Virginia Tech, 1997
Spoken Languages
Interpersonal
Management
Mentorship
NVC
Collaborator
Team Leadership
Pair Programming
Benjamin lieb
engineer · manager · designer · educator · linguist
Summary
- Software Engineer, Manager, Application Developer, Mentor
- Passionate about UI, UX, and design
- Happy on the whole stack, happiest on the front end
- Entrepreneur with active & profitable web products
- Years of experience in private consultancy, & on corporate teams
- Owner of Pixel Earth web development
Experience
Engineering Manager, Founding Engineer,
Threadable Books
2023-
- Transitioned applications developed by an outside agency, to in-house, and build an internal team
- Changed a inflexible waterfall SOW planning to Agile methods
Engineering Manager, Staff Software Engineer,
Wilderness Travel
2021-22
- Oversaw all technical aspects of engineering
- On-premises databases, data syncing, accounting systems
- 4 web applications, SEO, staging servers
- Continuous Integration CCI, roadmap management
- feature architecture, bug management
Engineering Team Lead, Staff Software Engineer,
Wilderness Travel
2020-21
- Led standup and team meetings
- 3 direct reports, Senior, Junior, Designer
- Primary point of contact with management to architect new features and chart roadmap
- Designed and built extensive features for two additional Rails apps: an internal custom CRM and wildernesstravel.com
- Built payment processing into our CRM
- Undertook large database reorg and refactored data model and UI to suit
- Built custom image CRUD with S3, custom slideshows, improved caching strategy, stale submission data strategy
- Modernized an old invoicing system
- Require our team to start writing tests
Lead Software Engineer,
Wilderness Travel
2018-19
- Built (sole engineer) a greenfield Web Portal (Rails/React) to connect clients, trip leaders, outfitters, and staff. All back end, front end, design, dev ops.
- Portal managed documents, images, post-trip questionaires, surveys, and automated email reminders, invitations, applications, etc
Senior Software Engineer, Lead French Language Curriculum Developer, Chatterbug Language Learning,
2017-2018
- A small new startup by the founders of Github
- Contributed to inflected word variations modeling
- Hybrid role of software engineer, linguist, curriculum developer
- Built tools and visualizations that improved curriculum developers' ability to grow and chart curriculum progress
- Created interactive language exercises, spaced repetition content,
- Collected and integrated multimedia content for curriculum
Senior Full Stack Engineer, Public Library of Science,
2015-2016
- Built web software to manage the submission, peer review, versioning, and publication of scientific papers
- Rails, EmberJS, Javascript, SCSS, Rspec
- Ported live authentication, user management, and search systems into separate micro-services
CTO, Lead Software Engineer, Designer, Owner iDance.net,
2008-now
- Rails application, DB and server admin, UI, testing, payment processing (Authorize.net/Stripe)
- Search, discovery, data model, educational interfaces, audio recording, extensive CLI video editing
- In 2014 I bought out my co-founders and assumed their roles
- Videography, filming, video editing, lighting, instructor relations, contract writer
- Added payroll functionality, subscription service, marketing, data analytics, tax preparation, LLC management
Freelance Web Developer for 15+ years for diverse clients, PixelEarth.net,
2002-now
- Developed bespoke web applications for private clients
- Assessed need, estimated project costs and timelines, drafted and negotiated contracts
- Project management, RFPs, project bidding interviews, SEO, marketing, spec writing
- e-commerce, invoicing, tax preparation, customer relations campaigns
- Examples of projects include - the medical language interpreter network for western NC, an Android application for Tango Instruction,
- Exs: Online store for gem sculptors, a calendar-based city event list, Flash AS3 animations
Developer of Online Courses, Institute for Distance & Distributed Learning, Virginia Tech,
2001-02
- Preserved the lectures and classes of retiring professors
- Recorded audio, video, transcripts
- Developed web applications and Flash modules for the University
- One of the first of its kind, IDDL (now TLOS) offered online courses for credit
Manager ATECH Computer Integrated Classrooms, Virginia Tech,
1998
- Integrated costly emerging technologies into specialized classrooms for faculty and students
- As manager I guided users in how to get the most educational benefit from emerging web and software technologies
- Evaluated & installed new software, monitored systems, built the ATECH website, manage distribution of borrowed equipment
Technology Lab in the Humanities Internship, Virginia Tech,
1997
- I worked with humanities students 1-on-1 to learn and apply emerging technologies to their work
- The emerging tech of the time were scanners, digital cameras, digital graphic design
- web sites, discovering internet resources, burning CDs/DVDs, accessing CD-ROM based resources, "hypertext" literature, laptops, security, etc