John Baker

Software Developer

Skills

Languages: Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, C#, PHP, HTML/CSS
Frameworks & Engines: Django, Flask, FastAPI, React, Next.js, Express.js, Unity, GameMaker
DevOps & Tools: Git, Docker, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, webpack, Ansible, Jenkins, Vagrant, nginx
Databases & Caching: PostgreSQL, PostGIS, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Firestore, Memcached, Varnish
Messaging & Queues: RabbitMQ, Celery, gRPC, AWS SNS, AWS SQS, GCP Pub/Sub, GCP Scheduler, GCP Cloud Tasks

Experience

Freelance Software Developer Sep 2007 - Present: Developed sites, services, games, and applications for clients around the world.
Integrate and collaborate with client teams by becoming a member myself.
Technical Director The Young Astronauts Apr 2019 - Jul 2022: Oversaw and directly contributed to the success of our development team.
Shipped numerous products for our clients; Storyplace, Dalia Empower Academy, MusiCounts, SURF and more.
Developed several in house products used in our projects including an image management service.
Lead Software Developer Secret Location Jul 2016 - Apr 2019: My initial role was in the Innovation Lab where we prototyped and developed many AR & VR applications. My favorite was a 3D animated short film with synced elements outside the screen using AR.
Lead development on Blasters of the Universe & Transpose; project architecture, editor tools, enemy behavior, gameplay programming, cross platform integration, PlayStation VR port, real time audio mixing, animation programming, UI, pipeline engineering, and more.
Lead Software Developer The Young Astronauts Aug 2014 - Jul 2015: Developed an unreleased geolocation based customer engagement platform.
Mentored junior developers and contributed to various client projects.
Senior Software Developer Playground Oct 2012 - Feb 2014: Shipped client product and platform sites; Kobo Glo, Canada Goose, YTV, W Network, and Random House.
Developed a prototype of a geolocation monster catching/battling game with a procedurally generated 3D representation of the Earth using OpenStreetMap data.
Senior Software Developer Pilot Interactive Sep 2011 - Apr 2012: Lead small team of developers where we shipped; Toronto Standard, NayaMed, and a inventory management system for Lastman's Bad Boy Superstore.
Developed a custom PHP MVC framework using ActiveRecord that was used in many of our projects.
Software Developer Playground Sep 2008 - Sep 2011: Joined during Playground's infancy and helped build a strong technology foundation.
Developed many great products for our clients; DealLocator, TeamBuy, Aisle50, and Design Republic.

Education

Automotive Engineering Ontario Tech University Sep 2007 - Apr 2009: Teacher assistant for Introduction to Programming for Engineers.
Ontario Secondary School Diploma Anderson CVI Sep 2002 - Jun 2006: Ontario Scholar
Student IT ambassador