Chesley Brown

Founder of RentChek. Lead Software Engineer at InVision. Coding enthusiast. Husband & Father.

chesleybrown.ca / me@chesleybrown.ca / 709-697-5407

Skills

• Proficient in Golang, Javascript (TypeScript, React, Angular), HTML, CSS (Tailwind, Sass, Responsive Web Design), Git, Bash, Docker, Kubernetes, Continuous Integration, Debuggers (Browser, IDE), and E2E / Unit / Functional Testing
• Competent in PHP, Python, MySQL, Postgres, DynamoDB, Redis, SQS, Kafka and MongoDB
• Other skills & traits include Remote Work (8+ years), Project Management, Self-Initiative, Team Collaboration, Team Management, Project Planning, Forward Thinking, Knowledge Transfer, Documenting, Technical Scoping, and Research & Development

Experience

• InVision - invisionapp.com

  Lead Software Engineer - Oct 2018 to Aug 2023

  • Acted as Interim Engineering Manager from Feb 2019 to May 2020
    • Conducted regular 1-on-1's, guided career paths and performance reviews
    • Worked with Directors, Managers and Staff Engineers to plan and prioritize work
    • Coordinated sprint planning, retrospectives, effort estimations and other team meetings
  • Planned and coordinated large scale projects across multiple teams
  • Led upgrades of large scale, integral services with minimal or zero downtime accomplished by adding e2e test coverage coupled with careful rollout strategies that included rollback plans
  • Focused on improving developer velocity by custom building a local development environment with clear documentation that orchestrated over 100 micro-services using tools such as AWS, Docker, continuous integration, and custom built CLIs
  • Worked on internal assets API service that managed the over 300 million assets used by the InVision platform and helped with migrating all data seamlessly (zero down time and zero data loss) from MySQL to DynamoDB
  • Focus on writing well tested, documented and maintainable distributed services with runbooks, monitoring, alerts, logs, and tracing
  • Improved Freehand stability by resolving critical UX bugs in the expansive and complex codebase using debugger tools
  • Assisted with sunsetting services and cost monitoring and reduction efforts
  • Conducted interviews and onboarding for new software engineers
  • Collaborated with and provided support and mentorship to other software engineers
  • Handled support and on-call duties for production issues
  • All work and communication was conducted remotely
  • Extensive use of Go, NodeJS, TypeScript, Docker, React, MySQL, DynamoDB and more

  Senior Software Engineer - Aug 2015 to Oct 2018

  • Worked remotely and in rapid development cycles
  • Managed build & deploy processes for over 100 services using tools such as Github Actions, Docker, and Kubernetes running on AWS
  • Built custom Slack bot for managing deployments and releases
  • Designed and built internal platform dashboard for monitoring and managing deployed services with interface powered by React
  • Advocated for high code quality, test coverage, automation and improved processes
  • Utilized technologies such as NodeJS, ExpressJS, npm, GulpJS, AngularJS, Docker, Vagrant, and MySQL

• Bluedrop Performance Learning - bluedrop.com

  Lead Programmer & Release Engineer - Oct 2008 to Aug 2015

  • Involved in problem solving and architecting solutions
  • Provide leadership and ensure the quality of code produced by the development team through pull requests and code reviews
  • Involved in writing specifications, solution scoping, evaluating risks, time estimations, assessing resources and designing technical architectures
  • Perform DevOp duties including implementing and maintaining an agile development process, test & behaviour driven development, 12 Factor app design and continuous deployment
  • Utilize technologies such as PHP, Zend Framework, NodeJS, AngularJS, Docker, Vagrant, Puppet, Git, Sass, Postgres, npm, bower, GruntJS, jQuery, phpunit, JasmineBD, Mocha, SCORM Engine, SCORM 1.2/2004, AICC and TinCan API

• Statusfirm

  Web Application Developer - Jul 2007 to Aug 2008

  • Contributed to media websites that served 1000's of simultaneous viewers
  • Developed live comment system
  • Website optimization
  • Integrated a third-party ticket purchasing system using a provided API
  • Built parsers for provided government files
  • Developed website graphics using GIMP, Photoshop and Illustrator
  • Provided leadership within the development team
  • Utilized technologies such as PHP, jQuery, CVS, SVN, Apache, MySql and Smarty Template Engine

Projects

• InVision Freehand & Prototyping - invisionapp.com

  A prototyping, workflow, and collaboration platform for designers. Powered by React, Go, NodeJS, Docker, Kubernetes and more. I worked on portions of the frontend, but mainly worked on backend services, infrastructure, and internal developer tools. I also contributed to InVision Freehand; an all-in-one collaborative online whiteboard, which was powered by much of the same technology stack. All of my work at InVision was done remotely.

• RentChek - rentchek.com

  Responsive web app I built for managing rental properties. Powered by Sass, AngularJS, MongoDB, NodeJS, JasmineBD, Mocha and 12 Factor app design.

• Synapsie - synapsie.com

  Web app I created for recording life memories. Powered by Python, Django, Apache and jQuery.

• CoursePark - coursepark.com

  I was a Lead Developer for this eLearning platform at Bluedrop. Powered by technologies such as PHP, Zend Framework, phpunit, jQuery, Postgres, SCORM Engine, Git and nginx.

• Bluedrop Learning Networks Platform - Work in Progress

  Was a new platform led by myself and my team of developers at Bluedrop. A custom built eLearning platform consisting of apps following 12 Factor design. Using technologies such as NodeJS, AngularJS, Sass, GruntJS, JasmineBD, Mocha, Docker, Postgres, Redis. Although this was a work in progress, you can preview the API documentation online. I've since left the company, and no longer know the status of this project.

• Story Point Commander - github.com/chesleybrown/story-point-commander

  Very opinionated story point poker I built as a side project. Allows collaboratively estimating stories by thinking about the solution effort + additional testing effort + risk level. Easily deploy the application yourself for free using Vercel. Powered by TypeScript, Firebase, Next.js, React, and hosted on Vercel.

• Portfolio - chesleybrown.ca

  My custom built portfolio. Source code can be seen at github.com/chesleybrown/portfolio. Powered by NodeJS and AngularJS, and hosted on Vercel.

• Open Source Contributions - github.com/chesleybrown

  The following are just a few examples of my contributions to the open source community: go-health, node-jira-client, kit, kit-overwatch, angular-add-to-home-screen, pongular, grunt-aglio, knex, allmighty-autocomplete, autofill-directive, uservoice-trigger-directive, bitbucket-codeship-status

Education

• College of the North Atlantic - cna.nl.ca

  Website Administrator - Class of 2007

  Graduated with a 4.0 GPA

Hobbies

• Snowboarding - Moderately skilled
• Casual Gamer - Starcraft, Counter-Strike and misc VR games
• Juggling - Intermediate
• Programming - Yes, it's also a hobby
• Shovelling Snow - Mandatory hobby in Nova Scotia

References

• Github - github.com/chesleybrown
• LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/chesleybrown
• Professional references available on request.