Hey There đź‘‹ I am Alex Smith
Full Stack Software Engineer
A former Wall Street suit turned Full Stack Software Engineer for the past 8+ years. I manage and build creative solutions to complex problems.
A former Wall Street suit turned Full Stack Software Engineer for the past 8+ years. I manage and build creative solutions to complex problems.
I have been called many things...
but you can call me
A borderline cold brew coffee addict and a Florida native currently residing in Tampa, Florida, my name is Alexander Smith (Alex). If I had to describe a 'personal mission statement' , I'd say that mine is to provide others with opportunities - especially if it helps them move up the so-called socio-economic ladder.
While I call Tampa home, I was born in Baltimore, MD and I've been to Germany more times than my fingers permit me to count (I'm Black and German).
How I went from flipping burgers at the neighborhood DQ to Wall Street.
How I retired from being a corporate mercenary and became a Full-Stack Developer at a startup.
What I'm working towards next.
And while we're still talking about me, you can hire me to help you!
You don't know where you're going until you know where you've been.
TicketFire | Columbus, OH
2016 - 2018Engineered a template recommendation engine to recommend to users the correct template for 93% of tickets digitized or sold.
Designed and developed data analytics to track consumer behavior during the checkout process that resulted in a 21% increase in customer conversion.
Intrinio | Remote
2018 - 2019Developed a real time integration using Elixir/Phoenix to stream ~10,000 messages per second for more than 1,000 Cryptocurrency pairs across 20+ exchanges.
Created the technical-analysis gem. It is an open-sourced Ruby library for performing technical analysis on stock prices and other data sets.
Built an embeddable script for clients to include on their webpages to render real-time data in-line.
Forem/DEV | Remote
2020 - 2022Forem(DEV) is open-source so you can see some of my work by checking out the repo.
Implemented edge caching with NGINX and OpenResty to reduce server loads by 80%+ allowing us to notably scale down server resources saving thousands of dollars in infrastructure costs.
Developed a greenfield application to monitor and analyze data from cloud instances of the Forem software.
GiveCampus | Remote
2021 - 2022Improved the response time of the most popular action (donation processing) by 50% (120ms to 60 ms) using caching and re-factoring.
Engineered an “abandoned donation” flow follow-up flow to boost conversion by 3% for users who started and abandoned a donation.
Kasheesh | Remote
2022 - 2023Led the development and design of a new integration to allow users to create virtual multi-use credit cards that they could then use to split a single purchase across multiple other cards that they own.
Re-designed the entire UX to be mobile first using Tailwind CSS.
Developed an algorithm to recommend users with splits for purchases in order to best improve their credit score over time and maximize reward points.
Calendly | Remote
2023 - presentLed the development and design of a new company priority in a service-oriented architecture to build a service to process millions of messages a day resulting in hundreds of millions of records - approaching a billion.
Built a REST API for other internal squads to consume for user-facing feature development (Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, PubSub, Kubernetes, etc.).
These are people I've worked with and/or for professionally.
Alex is an articulate communicator and excellent at developing solutions for complex problems. He delivers top quality code. Always. The degree of emotional intelligence possessed by Alex makes him such a well rounded individual and an absolute pleasure to work alongside.
Senior Software Engineer @ Boundless Immigration
Alex, without question, is what you would call a 10x engineer. His ability to crank out quality code and present technical accomplishments to the business is next to none. However, all of that pales in comparison to his dedication to creating a safe and inclusive workspace for all.
Senior Software Engineer @ GiveCampus
Alex has an innate ability to see beyond the code. He's able to have high level conversations typically reserved for product managers unlike any other engineer I've ever seen. He understands how to translate things into layman's terms that is also tailored to a specific audience.
Senior Business Operations & Strategy Manager @ Pinterest
Alex helped me automate painstakingly manual and repetitive tasks that I had no idea could even be automated. He saves me several hours a week now. Throughout the process he was communicative, prompt, and professional. I'd absolutely work with him again.
CEO @ A Creative Co.
As an engineer, Alex is thoughtful, efficient, and has a keen eye for pitfalls and problem areas. As a teammate, he's considerate, conscientious, and deeply engaged. I'm lucky to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from him - couldn't have asked for a better coworker.
Senior Software Engineer @ Calendly