Brian Olsen
Experienced Full Stack Web Developer
JavaScript • Ruby/Ruby on Rails • HTML/CSS • PostgreSQL • MySQL

WORK EXPERIENCE

Technical Lead
November 2016-Present
Cxense ASA, Oslo, Norway
Cxense
  • Led team members to develop UI applications mainly with ES6+ and React.
  • Participated in strategic and tactical discussions with stakeholders in delivering UI applications.
  • Managed two developers and worked closely with a remote team in a major development project.
  • Ensured that my team and a remote team working on the same project worked together successfully.
  • Helped team members to build sprint and project plans.

Senior Software Engineer
September 2014-Present
Cxense ASA, Oslo, Norway
Cxense
  • Single-page application development with JavaScript/HTML/CSS
  • Adding new features and fixing issues with the UI frontends of Cxense applications.
  • Use of React, Flux methods, Backbone, Grunt, Sass

Chief Technology Officer
2013-2014
SkillTree AS, Kristiansand, Norway
SkillTree
  • Developed the SkillTree product using PHP, Laravel, Javascript, jQuery, Backbone and PostgreSQL. (http://www.skilltree.com)
  • Planned and designed future product features.
  • Designed and handle system operations, from server creation to deployment, using Amazon Web Services.
  • Planned development roadmaps with stakeholders.
  • Mentored team members in planning and writing new systems, assisting in best practices and technical challenges.

Freelance Web Development
Dec. 2013-Feb. 2014
Vice Media, Inc., Brooklyn, New York
Vice
  • Developed new features for a backend system in Node.JS
  • Evaluated and worked on feature plans for Vice's vertical site
  • Developed homepage features for their Vice News vertical in JavaScript and CSS.
  • Made email templates for their verticals.
  • Added new pages to the existing vice.com site.

Senior Programmer
2010-2013
BeenVerified Inc., New York, NY.
BeenVerified
  • Wrote new features and supported existing ones on the BeenVerified consumer background check application and website. The system is based on Ruby, Rails, MySQL and various other technologies and is located at http://www.beenverified.com.
  • Worked extensively with stakeholders in developing technical requirements to support their business needs.
  • Developed an email delivery and content management system to support BeenVerified's transactional and marketing email requirements. This system was written in Ruby, Rails 3 and PostgreSQL.
  • Created a Twilio-based IVR phone system and call plan library for customer service purposes using Ruby, Sinatra and PostgreSQL.
  • Led development and engineered a new version of the BeenVerified API, used for three mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, Mobile Web)
  • Developed the BeenVerified mobile site (located at https://m.beenverified.com) written JavaScript, jQuery, jQuery Mobile and Backbone.js, using the new version of the BeenVerified API.
  • Wrote back office applications to support BeenVerified functions and operations.
  • Managed cloud-based server systems on Rackspace, using CentOS.
  • Published open source software that is developed and used for various projects within BeenVerified.

Senior Developer, 2009-2010:
Ditech Networks, Inc. Mountain View, CA.
Software Developer, 2007-2009:
SimulScribe, LLC. New York, NY
  • Developed new and enhanced features for SimulScribe's voicemail-to-text product using Ruby and Rails.
  • Created and managed a reporting infrastructure and delivery system.
  • Wrote numerous reports using SQL to aid in operational analysis.
  • Wrote a Java/Google Web Toolkit based software to allow voicemail transcribers to transcribe voicemail messages, with tools to rapidly transcribe the data in provided audio files.
  • Assisted in maintenance of servers and the transition onto the AWS system.
  • Worked on aspects of the next generation voicemail-to-text product, using Ruby on Rails and employing MongoDB as a new database backend.

EDUCATION

Brooklyn College

Bachelor of Science: Computer and Information Science, May 2007
Brooklyn College/City University Of New York, Brooklyn, NY
Graduated with a GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale.

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Film Production, May 2002
Brooklyn College/City University Of New York, Brooklyn, NY
Graduated with a GPA of 3.3 on a 4.0 scale.

SKILLS

Proficient with Ruby, Ruby on Rails, RSpec, Relational Database Design, SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Nginx, HTML, XML, JavaScript, jQuery, jQuery Mobile, Backbone.js, React, Flux, NPM, Linux (Ubuntu and CentOS), Git, Test and Behavior Driven Development, Laravel, PHP

Primarily use EMACS (12+ years), but have experience in IDEA IDEs.

Have worked with (but not expert or not worked extensively in):

Clojure, Python, Android Development, AngularJS, Erlang, Java, MongoDB, Redis, Node.JS, Grunt and JS toolchains, Mocha (testing for JS), SASS, Compass, Yii, MailChimp and HTML email development, C# and .Net/Mono, Haskell, Scala

LANGUAGES

Fluent in English.

Some knowledge of Norwegian. (Current self-evaluation of skill: Level B1 Reading skill, A2 Listening)

INTERESTS

  • Researching and investing in the stock and options markets.
  • Religion and philosophy.
  • Programming languages, software development.