Hew Wolff

Experience

        · Languages: Ruby, Java, TypeScript, Haskell, JavaScript, C/C++, HTML/CSS, Python.         · Platforms: web, desktop, embedded, mobile.         · Web: Ruby on Rails, Node.js, REST, HTTP, React, Spring, JEE.

Goals

        · Collegial team, good social mission, code quality, work-life balance (no on-call), remote-first. Pluses: tough interesting problems, back end, math and algorithms, functional languages.

Software Roles

    Senior Software Engineer
Lively (February 2020 - October 2023)San Francisco, CA
        In Node.js/TypeScript/React app:         · Rewrote and extended core money-movement modules transferring millions of dollars per day on the Automated Clearing House network.         · Added automatic daily account reconciliation, designing for maintenance of PostgreSQL queries.         · Added bank API call using OAuth protocol.         · Rewrote IRS tax file generation, adding automated tests.         · Added claim review flow using CSS Flexbox for layout.         · Helped create unit-testing culture with talks and examples.     Senior Software Engineer
Flow Cannabis Co. (Event Horizon Technologies) (August 2018 - November 2019)Oakland, CA
        In Ruby/Rails app:         · Designed and implemented back end for inventory audits.         · Tracked down and fixed inventory bugs using ORM audit tool.         · Added features to wholesale order flow.         · Started engineering practices document.     Software Engineer
Square (October 2017 - April 2018)San Francisco, CA
        In Java/Go service-oriented high-availability system:         · Designed new REST API feature touching several other teams, resolving conflicts.         · Served in on-call rotation covering several production services.     Software Engineer
Indeed (July 2015 - December 2016)San Francisco, CA
        In Java/Spring/React service-oriented system serving millions of pages per day:         · Created index for querying large distributed database to measure user behavior, using custom declarative language.         · Extended job-state tracking across multiple services.         · Made web app for testing several data-science models.         · Cowrote algorithm for tracking user activity in MongoDB.         · Documented internal tools.     Senior Software Engineer
Platphorm (May 2013 - March 2015)San Francisco, CA
        In Ruby/Rails app serving 500K pages per day:         · Rewrote credit-card user interface, adding card type detection.         · Redesigned home page, adding graphical JavaScript widget using jQuery.         · Designed fast algorithm for tracking recent customer behavior in MySQL database.         · Added email deliverability checking.     Senior Software Engineer
Art & Logic (July 1996 - April 2013)Pasadena, CA (full-time telecommuting)
        · Led 30 projects with teams of 1-4 developers, managing technical issues and client relations.         Web development:         · Designed and built a web interface for Motorola's wireless cable modems, extending the web server code with a parameter-management table, run-time display flexibility, run-time localization, an XML protocol for communicating with the device back end, and device simulation. Added scripts for validation (Python for testing hyperlink navigation, Java for UTF-8 encoding and unit testing, XSLT for schema), preparing localized code, and preparing releases.         · Added SOAP service to high-performance PHP application for processing photographic images.         · Maintained HTML 5 Canvas design application.         · Designed, built, and maintained the company's timesheet tracking system from 2000 to 2008, adding a web interface to the legacy FileMaker Pro database using Lasso middleware, and a Java client utility.         · Designed Flash application for creating modular furniture layouts, with flexible administrative interface, using PHP/MySQL for back end.         · Contributed to open-source GoAhead/AppWeb embedded web server, and ported to a new RTOS.         · Managed and contributed to J2EE web application for uploading and reporting on sales data for a large beverage company.         · Implemented web interface to an MPEG multiplexer, including a complex Java applet and an XML protocol for displaying hierarchical stream data in real time.         · Added Ruby navigation tests to major sports gear e-commerce site.         · Built and maintained web application to automate loans for mortgage brokers.         · Built Ajax prototype for smart thermostat interface, and supervised port to Google Web Toolkit.         Server-side development:         · Designed and implemented REST API for a large evolving data model, using JEE (Tomcat, Hibernate, and Oracle), for iPad sales support app.         · Built REST API for music-playlist management using Python and TurboGears.         Desktop development:         · Managed design and development of cross-platform JRuby tool for processing aerial photos.         · Maintained legacy ASP.NET application, and added Excel/VBA reporting tool for aggregating sales data, with custom configuration language.         · Implemented Windows user interfaces in Visual C++ for multimedia authoring tool, medical training package, and digital audio recorder.         · Wrote a utility to convert sound files to proprietary format, researching and implementing sample rate conversion algorithm.         · Conceived and designed C++ classes for real-time sample analysis module used by ultrasonic testing apparatus.         · Implemented proof-of-concept 3-D molecular simulation in Java and Python (using OpenGL), and Flash.         Other Responsibilities:         · Researched recommender system algorithms for news story propagation.         · Developed and closed new sales lead.         · Prepared estimates and technology recommendations for project proposals.         · Wrote technical articles for the company web site.

Education

    Ph.D. in Mathematics
University of California, Berkeley (1991-1996)Berkeley, CA
        · Thesis: “Fundamental groups of immersed spheres”.         · Conceived and developed 4,000-line computer program for dissertation research, to generate and study examples of a topological construction.     A.B. in Mathematics with Honors
Harvard University (1986-1991)Cambridge, MA
        · Wrote prize-winning undergraduate thesis, including computer program to solve a difficult 3-dimensional tiling problem by exhaustive search.

Published Work

    Articles        · “Reddish-Greenish-Refactor”, O'Reilly Programming blog, July 2014.         · “Function = Var + Return: A Functional Style of JavaScript Programming”, O'Reilly Programming blog, December 2013.         · “Confessions of a Git Skeptic”, Art & Logic blog (Hacker News front page), February 2013.         · “Good Code Tells the Truth”, PragPub magazine, October 2010.         · “XSLT As Pretty Printer”, xml.com, November 29, 2006.         · “Automating Localization”, Dr. Dobb's Journal, February 2005.         · “Space tilings and local isomorphism” (with Charles Radin), Geometriae Dedicata 42 (1992) n.3.