Jacob Schweitzer

Senior Software Developer

20+ years of experience in Information Technology including computer programming, networking systems, marketing, and customer support.

Education

B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2007)

 Cisco Networking Academy Graduate

Languages

English

(native)

Portuguese

10+ years

2011-2021 living in Brazil and 2011-2014 studying at UFSC

Russian

3 years

2007-2010: one semester at UW-Madison and 3 years living in Russia

Spanish

4 years

2 years at South Milwaukee High School, 2 years at UW-Madison

Achievements

 Moz published post about an SEO tool I developed for their API.

 BuddyPress Profile Tabs published December 2012, has 500+ downloads.

 Code Canyon published my plugin:  Toolbar Remixed Pro in September 2013.

Personal Projects

BP Profile Tabs

A custom WordPress plugin I created for RusKey Biz to show jQuery UI tabs using BuddyPress profile groups for the BuddyPress profile pages.

Toolbar Remixed

A premium WordPress plugin I made to customize and control the WordPress toolbar.

Toolbar Remixed – Free (free version on wordpress.org)

Work History

Alley

Senior Software Developer
February 2019-Present
  • Architecting and building performant enterprise-grade solutions for REST API integrations, Gutenberg blocks, homepage story curation, site migration, and redesign
  • Coaching developers by providing feedback, offering advice, and supporting their professional development efforts
  • Optimizing developer experience through code abstraction, testing, improving CI pipelines, and refactoring legacy code
  • Led effort to encourage a more collaborative development environment through office hours and scheduled swarms including writing an article about it
  • Notable partners: NewsCorp (New York Post, Page Six, Decider)

XWP

Senior WordPress Engineer
January 2016-January 2019
  • Architecting solutions for clients with enterprise scale WordPress websites.
  • Developing extensible WordPress themes and plugins for Gutenberg, dynamic AMP, content personalization, WordPress VIP, API integrations, code performance enhancements, and advertising systems.
  • Contributing to open source projects including the official AMP for WordPress plugin and Stream
  • Notable partners: Google, Penske Media, Chive Media Group, BigCommerce, Heavy Inc

Theme Fusion

Web development
May 2015-September 2015
  • Fusion Gallery (image and video gallery plugin for WordPress)
    • Developed several different layout types including masonry (Pinterest) style layout
    • Made plugin extendable by adding WordPress filters and actions so add-ons could be developed
    • Created videos add-on to allow self-hosted, Youtube, and Vimeo videos in a gallery
    • Created layouts add-on for adding extra layouts
    • Converted plugin CSS to LESS and re-organized stylesheet structure
    • Added build automation using Gulp for minimizing files, auto-prefixing CSS, etc
    • Re-factored large class files from previous developer using class extensions
    • Implemented PhotoSwipe popup gallery integrating all its options and custom slideshow functionality

 

Abeo

Web development
January 2014-January 2016
  • Surveys WordPress Plugins – Frontend and Database plugins
    • Custom surveys plugin with JavaScript (jQuery + jQuery UI) frontend and PHP / MySQL backend
    • Custom database tables to hold survey questions and results
    • Custom algorithm to determine survey results including archetype calculation
    • Custom algorithm to determine a centroid for a multiple user spider graph
    • PDF reporting of survey results with Google Charts created into images by using PhantomJS
    • WP Image Editor usage to crop images for usage in PDF
    • Pseudo cron events for creation of PDFs in background
    • Cron job for automatic cleanup of old PDFs
  • Modifications to the WordPress LMS Plugin by LearnDash
    • Including additional WordPress and BuddyPress fields in Course and Quiz exports
    • Fixing incorrect quiz titles issue
    • Force export of all users
    • Force export of all instances of quizzes taken (if they take quiz more than once)
  • Aloha Users Sync – Custom WordPress plugin
    • Monitoring folder for changes via WordPress Cron and WordPress option with MD5 of file list
    • Import and Update Users from a CSV file into WordPress
    • Updating log file on server with changes, updating specific email addresses if a problem arises
    • Import info from the CSV file into BuddyPress xprofile fields and BuddyPress groups
    • Creating Windows command line script to schedule a task, convert DBF file to CSV file, and FTP the file to a server

EventsWork

Web development
November 2013-July 2014

Proactive Accountant

Web development
September 2013-December 2013
  • DirectoryPress responsive theme migration
  • DirectoryPress theme customizations

Creative Round

Web development
February 2013-September 2013
  • Customizing WordPress Petitions Plugin and Theme
  • BuddyPress custom emails and notifications plugin
  • Parallax Signup Page
  • Social Widget Plugin
  • Subscribe to column plugin
  • Gravity Forms – WYSIJA integration plugin
  • Disqus Multisite plugin
  • BuddyPress to WordPress profile transfer plugin

Worlds Factory

Web development
January 2013-April 2013
  • Creating Levels / Rankings with progress bar for Achievements for WordPress plugin
  • Customized achievements for Achievements for WordPress plugin
  • BBPress report reply functionality
  • BuddyPress custom notifications
  • BuddyPress profile customizations

Dancing Bear Tours

Web development and SEO
2011-2017 St.Petersburg, Russia
  • Custom WordPress theme
  • Online booking form plugin
  • WordPress message board plugin
  • SEO and customer support on-going

Hotel Vera

Web development and Digital marketing
10/2010-Present St.Petersburg, Russia
  • Developed responsive, mobile ready, custom WordPress theme
  • Utilized WordPress custom post types for hotel rooms and prices pages
  • Designed new SEO friendly website
  • Increased organic search traffic by over 30%

TJ Travel

WordPress development and SEO
2010-2016 St.Petersburg, Russia
  • Setup on dedicated server
  • Created custom contact form plugin
  • Custom WordPress plugin for the message board
  • SEO and customer support on-going