Thomas Davis
Web Developer
About
I'm a full stack web developer who can build apps from the ground up. I've worked mostly at startups so I am used to wearing many hats. I am a very product focused developer who prioritizes user feedback first and foremost. I'm generally very flexible when investigating new roles. My publications and volunteer sections are bullshit for the purpose of showing the this theme.
Work Experience
Misc Companies
Melbourne
May 2020 – Present
Product Engineer
Over the past several years, I've worked at various roles and companies. Mostly early stage startups, doing full stack product development.
Highlights
- React / Next
- Node / Laravel
- LLM's
- Diagrams / Canvas
Tokenized
Melbourne
May 2020 – May 2021
Senior Javascript Developer
Tokenized is a Bitcoin wallet for issuing, managing and trading digital tokens. I built out the front end which was packaged as an electron app. It was a difficult frontend to build because we store the users keys locally and used them to sign transactions and contracts.
Highlights
- React
- Redux
- SCSS
- Product
Blockbid
Melbourne
March 2018 – January 2020
Senior Javascript Developer
Blockbid is an Australian crypto currency exchange. I started off on the frontend but eventually became lead tech and worked on every moving piece of the exchange. I really enjoyed working with liquidity providers and connecting their platforms to help us achieve liquid markets.
Highlights
- React, Apollo, Styled Components
- Node.js / Rails
- Docker / Heroku / GCP
- Used Figma for design and UX work
- Optimizing markets with tens of millions of rows using SQL.
Listium
January 2016 – January 2018
Developer
Built a very large and complex React / Redux application. It works on all platforms and has IOS/Android builds due to it being a PWA. (wrapped it in React Native though only implementing a WebView)
Highlights
- Worked with Postgres, Redis and Dynamodb for storage.
- Hosted on a mixture of Heroku Apps and EC2 servers.
- Caching by Fastly and Cloudflare
- Hybrid app supported on all platforms
Electronic Frontier Foundation
April 2014 – January 2016
Developer
Hired to take EFF's campaigning to the next level by building an action centre in Ruby on Rails. The action centre is built around some large open source tools that lower the barrier to entry when contacting congress.
Highlights
- Developed new tools for contacting congress
- Brainstormed campaign ideas to raise maximum awareness about issues
- Lots of social networking integration
Earbits
March 2013 – January 2015
CTO
Started off as a front end developer but took on the role of CTO in early 2013. The application frontend is built with Javascript and organized as a single page application that talks to a collection of Rails web servers which are connected to MongoDB.
Highlights
- Managed a small team of developers and designers
- Built the entire frontend application with Backbone.js
- Transferred all of the infrastructure from Heroku to AWS
JSON Resume
April 2014 – Present
Founder
JSON Resume is a community driven open source initiative to create a JSON based standard for resumes. There is no reason why there can't be a common standard for writing a resume that can be extended with an ecosystem of open source tools.
Highlights
- This resume is built with JSON Resume
- Over 3000 stars on Github
- Community developed themes
- Tens of thousands of users
Taskforce.is
June 2013 – January 2016
Developer
Worked on many politically charged campaigns against mass surveillance. Not only technically challenging work but also a lot of networking and getting my hands dirty with politics. Our biggest project was "TheDayWeFightBack"..
Highlights
- Generated 37,000,000 banner views
- 100, 000 phone calls to congress
- 500, 000 emails
- 250, 000 signatures
Drone Hire
January 2013 – Present
Co-Founder
An international directory of civilian drone / UAV operators for hire. Services include aerial photography, aerial video, mapping, surveying, precision agriculture, real estate photography, remote inspections and infrared imaging. Our plan is to be the place to go when looking for UAV/Drone services. The website is built in Backbone.js and API is built with Node.js and Postgres.
Highlights
- The site and blog combined have managed to receive over 200,000 visitors in 2014.
BackboneTutorials.com
January 2011 – January 2014
Founder
I write tutorials and blog post regarding the popular Javascript framework Backbone.js. The tutorials cover a range of topics regarding front end development aimed at beginners, experts and anyone in between.
Highlights
- Over two million unique visitors a year
- 25,000+ ebook downloads
- 300,000+ Youtube views
Ephox
January 2011 – June 2012
Front-end Developer
Ephox is a worldwide company who is heavily involved with the development of TinyMce and enterprise editors. My primary role included building front-end widgets and applications. Worked on a major product using Backbone.js as a base. Heavily involved in UI/UX design and wire-framing. Also spend a lot of time designing API specifications and documentation.
Awards
-
October 2014
Fight For The Future
Defender of the Internet
For my work against mass surveillance and building out civic tools for digital democracy.
Volunteer
Contributor
Contributing to open source projects to improve software quality.
Highlights
- Fixed critical bugs and added new features.
- Mentored new contributors.
Projects
- JSON Resume: JSON Resume is a community driven open source initiative to create a JSON based standard for resumes. There is no reason why there can't be a common standard for writing a resume that can be extended with an ecosystem of open source tools.
- Cdnjs: Following Google's CDN for jQuery, we decided to start a CDN for the less popular Javascript frameworks. The CDN is community moderated and open source on GitHub. We secured a partnership with Cloudflare who now supports the infrastructure.
Contact
Melbourne AU
0411021021
Education
-
2008 2009
The University of Queensland
Bachelors
Software Engineering (incomplete)
-
2010 2014
University of Technology
Bachelor
Computer Science
Grade: 3.8 GPA
Courses- CS101 - Introduction to Computer Science
- CS201 - Data Structures and Algorithms
- CS301 - Operating Systems
Skills
Frontend
Senior
HTML / JSX
SCSS / CSS / BEM / Styled Components
Javascript / Typescript
React / Next
Redux / Apollo
Backend
Senior
Node
Ruby
Python
Postgres
Redis
Serverless
Devops
Senior
AWS
G Cloud
Heroku
Caching
Publications
Advanced JavaScript Techniques
Tech Books Publishing
01 August 2019
A comprehensive guide to modern JavaScript development.
Interests
Gardening
Lazy Gardening
Music
Guitar
Singing
Dancing
Books
Reading
Writing
History
Open Source
All of it
References
Thomas was hired as a lead developer and, upon the leaving of our co-founder took over as CTO of Earbits. Thomas is, hands down, one of those A Players you hear of companies dying to hire. He is incredibly smart, not just at code but about everything from classical music to Chinese language and culture. Thomas is great to work with and, as a well established contributor to open source projects and several successful ventures, commands the respect of engineers at all levels. I would suggest doing anything you can to have him on your team.
I've had the great pleasure of working with Thomas for the past three years at Earbits, and on a few side projects. Two years ago our CTO left on a moment's notice, Thomas saved our company by quickly stepping up to fill this role. He has been with our company through thick and thin and made serious personal sacrifices in order to help the company during tough times. He is a phenomenal hacker and a true team player. Highly recommended!
Thomas is an extremely talented engineer with a very broad range of skills and experience. From being a thought leader in the front-end community via backbonetutorials.com and cdnjs.com, to designing and implementing the API for cdnjs.com, working with Thomas has been fantastic learning experience. Thomas is truly a full stack develop, and his work output is incredible. If there is any opportunity to work with Thomas, I take it. He is the definition of an A player.
On Thomas Davis... Hire this guy. Do not be fooled. Incredibly capable and fast. Plays well with others. Unbelievable at front-end work end programming but that is just the start. Visionary. Hire him before I do.