my resume

tl;dr

• 13 years experience as a software engineer
  • ~7 years as a tech lead
  • ~2 years as an eng manager
  • ~1 year as a CS teacher
• Technical skills
  • Expert: TypeScript, JavaScript, Node, HTML/CSS, full-stack web architecture, generally good at making stuff
  • Respectable: NextJS, React, Firebase, C/C++ (I forgot a lot though)
  • Competent: AWS, GCP, Swift & MacOS development, VR & three.js, Java

my professional history

Browser Co, 2021 - present, Engineer

I’m an engineer at a startup called the Browser Company. I’ve been at Browser for almost 2 years, hired in as one of the most senior engineers on the team with 13+ years experience. I’ve worn a lot of hats since I started: I’ve been involved with leadership, eng processes, recruiting and onboarding, I own and maintain our web stack and infrastructure, I own and maintain our release process, and I've also several shipped features in our Swift frontend and Chromium API.

Glitch, 2019 - 2021, VP of Engineering

Prior to Browser, I was VP of Engineering at a startup called Glitch, with a total of 15-20 people reporting to me. I had 2 eng manager-led teams under me, Product Eng and Platform/Infra, as well as product, design, and support. I was VPE for about a year, and prior to that I was Head of Platform.

Google, 2010 - 2016; 2017 - 2019, Senior Software Engineer

Before Glitch, I was Senior Eng at Google for a total of 8 years, 6 years as a tech lead across 4 major products, including Chrome, Maps, and VR.

Recurse Center, Summer 2017, Student

Had an absolutely wonderful summer at the Recurse Center in Summer 2017.

Stanford, 2016 - 2017, Lecturer

Another passion of mine is teaching: I taught for a year at Stanford, created a web programming class for them, and I occasionally still volunteer teach.

University of Washington, 2006-2010, Student and Intro TA

I went to UW and I have a BS and MS in Computer Science. I was a teaching assistant for intro to computer science for each quarter I attended UW, give or take a quarter or two.

me as an engineer

• I value clean and readable code. I believe the code bases that are easiest (and most fun!) to build upon, debug, and maintain are ones that are well-organized and well-understood. It is worth the investment to make your code base as easy to understand as possible, by as many people as possible.
• I strive to build simple solutions for the problems that exist today. My vote is ~almost always, “do the simplest thing possible“ and then continuously refactor as new challenges arise.
• I err on the side of shipping quickly and iterating. In principle, I do not think this is at odds with maintaining clean APIs and sensible architecture. In situations where these are at odds, that’s the sign of a problem somewhere else.
• I thrive in a collaborative culture where knowledge-sharing is a priority and teamwork is valued over individual “heroes.”
• I work best in environments where the value of DEI is deeply understood by leadership and prioritized throughout the organization.

awards & things

Patents

• Evangelos Kokkevis and Victoria Kirst. "Displaying video on a browser" 2014, U.S. Patent No. 8,913,068.

Talks and Publications

• Panelist at Grace Hopper 2017: Tech and Education: Building a Career Around Your Passions
• Co-authored A "CS 1.5" introduction to web programming, along with Marty Stepp and Jessica Miller. Proceedings of the 40th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, March 2009.
• Co-authored Web Programming Step by Step, 2nd Edition (ISBN 978-1-105-57878-6), along with Marty Stepp and Jessica Miller. 2009/2012.

Awards and Scholarships

• 7 Google Spot Bonuses
  • Tour Creator public launch, May 2018
  • Google Maps Questions and Answers launch, July 2016
  • Grace Hopper Conference interviewer, November 2015
  • Computer Science Summer Institute lead instructor, September 2015
  • Google Maps Subjective Aspects launch, August 2015
  • WebRTC Hangouts launch, September 2014
  • ChromeOS ARM hardware acceleration, January 2012
• 17 Google Peer Bonuses, 2011-2016; 2017-2018
• Bob Bandes Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching, Winner, 2007-2008
• Bob Bandes Memorial Award for Excellence in Teaching, Honorable Mention, 2008-2009
• 2006 Washington Scholars Grant, full tuition / 2006-2010
• UW Undergraduate Scholarship, 2006-2008
• Glerum Family Scholarship, 2006-2007

Activities and Service

• Volunteer Section Leader for Stanford Code In Place 2021
• Curriculum Advisor (2017 - 2018) for All Star Code
• Lead instructor for CSSI 2015
• Hosted 2 Google interns in 2011 and 2014 respectively.
• Conducted 80+ total interviews at Google.
• Webkit and Chromium committer.