John Kropka Resume

Professional Ruby on Rails Developer with Team Lead and Remote Experience

Summary: 

Skilled Ruby on Rails developer with experience contributing to and leading local and remote teams. Effective upgrading projects from Rails 2.x to 7.x and ruby 1.9 to 3.2. Experience working in both front-end (HTML, CSS HAML, ERB, jQuery) and back-end (mysql and Postgres databases; asynchronous jobs using delayed job, sidekiq, and resque) technologies. Authorized to work in the US for any employer. 

LinkedIn Profile

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kropka/

Technical Expertise: 

Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Postgres, GitHub, HAML/SASS, ERB/CSS, jQuery, Heroku application management, REST API's , Test frameworks (RSPEC, Test/unit), Capistrano deployments


Professional Experience: 


Self-Employed April 2024 to Present

Contract Ruby on Rails consultant.


AuthentechIT February 2024 - March 2023

Ruby on Rails consultant.

Enhancing existing Ruby on Rails application,  adding new features.


Scrum Alliance February 2020 - Nov 2023

Web developer. 

Ruby on Rails New Feature Development  in support of ongoing company initiatives and company growth goals.


Quantix Consulting February 2018 - February 2020

Remote Contract Web developer for Scrum Alliance. 


Nothing Up My Sleeve Web Design, Aiken, SC (numsweb.com)  October 2009- February 2018

Business owner, CTO

Small web development firm taking on contracts from various companies. Managed a team of 3 developers.


SRB Systems, Austin, TX (www.srbsystems.com) November 2017 - March 2018

Remote Contract Web Developer at Austin convention Center

Lead web developer for the Austin Convention Center and Palmer Events Center websites. 


Pipeline Success, Austin, TX (careinhomes.com) September 2015 – May 2017 (employee),

June 2017 - October 2017 (remote contractor)

Senior Software Developer

Ruby on Rails site maintenance and new feature development in support of ongoing company initiatives and company growth goals. Worked on a team of three developers maintaining and enhancing the company's rails application used by 500K visitors each month. Mentored junior developers and interns. Lead the effort to upgrade the web application from Rails 2.3.5 to Rails 4.2.8 and Ruby 1.9.2 to Ruby 2.2.3


CabForward, Austin, TX (www.cabforward.com ) June 2014 – September 2015

Ruby on Rails Engineer 

CabForward builds Ruby on Rails applications employing lean and agile methodologies. Using short design sprints to ensure products were developed to specs, built applications including: a reservation booking system with payment processing using Zooz payments API, and maintained and enhanced a website for managing incoming image uploads from monitors that are geographically diverse. Built a document publishing/distribution system for Texas DPS (Texas Amber Alert system internal website).


Insight Global (www.insightglobal.net) Feb 2014 – April 2014 

Senior Ruby on Rails Contractor

Contract position at ERCOT (Electrical Reliability Council of Texas) in Taylor, TX. ERCOT manages the flow of electric power to 23 million Texas customers. Built components for the content management system that controls the content for the public-facing website Ercot.com website. 


CabForward, Austin, TX (www.cabforward.com ) July 2013 – Feb 2014

Ruby on Rails Contractor 

Assigned tasks on numerous projects including: A booking system for reserving rooms with payment processing using Braintree, an application for tracking construction equipment location and usage, and a system for managing file uploads. 


MojoWare, Austin ,TX (www.mojoware.com) Oct 2010 – July 2013

Senior Consulting Engineer 

Lead Developer for several projects and responsible for leading projects to completion. Enhanced and maintained applications for an order fulfillment system that used REST API's to integrate partner orders, it also managed incoming images, resizing them to meet product production needs. For emergency response organizations: Enhanced and maintained Real-Time Two-Way group messaging applications, and integrated payment and recurring billing into the system using Recurly. Designed, enhanced and maintained a document management and publishing system for private and public consumption.


Nothing Up My Sleeve, Austin, TX (www.numsweb.com) Sept 2009 - Oct 2010

CEO and Lead Developer 

Owner of a successful Ruby on Rails web design firm in Austin, TX. Managed a team of three. Designed and implemented a social networking Ruby on Rails web application and additional interfaces as required for specific projects. 


CBCI Web, Kansas City, KS (remote from Austin, TX) Feb 2008 – Sep 2009

Principal Engineer, Project Lead, Project Manager

Lead Developer and project manager, managing a team of 10 developers, Designed and implemented a municipal business licensure system. Enhanced and maintained a non-profit on-line donation site.


Master Web Design, Austin, TX Jan 2005 – Feb 2008

Software Engineer 

Worked within a team of 4 to design and implement a service site using a proprietary matching algorithm and an on-line social site that used light-box and JS interactions to enhance the visitor's experience. Designed functionality, user experience and database implementations for these systems. 


Education: 

Texas State University, San Marcos, TX

MS Thesis: Assessing Modification Risk Using Software Metrics


University of Texas, Austin, TX

Coursework in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science


DeVry Tech, Dallas, TX 

BS Electrical Engineering Technology