Sam Johnson
github.com/sam0x17

ROLES

Tech Lead

Since 2017

Specialize in managing remote teams, providing constructive code reviews, leveling up junior developers through mentoring, and balancing quality and performance with stakeholder needs and deadlines.

Software Engineer

Since 2009

Have architected, developed, and shipped software products for web, desktop, and mobile professionally for a decade.

Full Stack Developer

Since 2004

I was your typical webmaster/script-kiddie editing live sites over FTP in the late 90s and early 00s before devops was a concept. Along the way I wrote a number of frontend and backend tools and frameworks and explored dozens of languages, with lasting affection for Ruby and Crystal.

Research Computer Scientist

2013-2020

Was involved in numerous DoD and DoE-funded research projects involving artificial neural networks, computer vision, distributed systems, and static analysis.

TECH SKILLS

Ruby
Rust
Crystal
C/C++
Python
JavaScript
NodeJS
PostgreSQL
PHP
Java
HTML
CSS
SQL
Rails
AWS
GCP
Deep Learning
Algorithms
Data Structures
Computer Vision
Compilers

CONTACT INFO

Maryland, USA
https://sam0x17.dev
github.com/sam0x17
sam@durosoft.com

EDUCATION

Brown University

2017 | Master of Science in Computer Science

Dickinson College

2014 | Bachelor of Science in Computer Science

2014 | Bachelor of Science in Philosophy

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

Arist (YC 'S20)

Sep 2020 – July 2022 | CTO

Ruby on Jets, Lambda/Serverless, PostgreSQL, NodeJS, AWS

Led & architected ground-up rebuild of core platform and obtained SOC-2 Type II within first 12 months

Scaled up processes and systems to handle exponential growth and web-scale messaging traffic

Built world-class engineering team from the ground up

Guided Airst through seed round a $24m combo Series A+B round led by Peakspan Capital

Completed tech due-diligence for two funding rounds

Platform is now used at 15% of the Fortune 500

Kagi

Feb 2020 – Sep 2020 | Tech Lead

Crystal, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, GCP

Hired and managed small team of software engineers

Architected web-scale, global, low-latency infrastructure for a privacy oriented search engine

Deployed infrastructure, wrote algorithms, and designed systems to circumvent Bing and Google anti-scraping measures with low latency and at scale

BlockVue Inc.

May 2017 – November 2019 | CTO

Crystal, Ruby/Rails, PostgreSQL, NodeJS, AWS

Managed and mentored a team of junior developers across three web and one mobile product

Designed serverless Rails app and frontend that drives 360 degree CRE virtual tour platform

Leveraged artificial neural networks to automatically generate and furnish 3D scenes from floorplans

Starburst Labs Inc.

Sep 2015 – Apr 2017 | Software Engineer

Ruby/Rails, CoffeeScript, Lambda, NodeJS, PostgreSQL, C++

Major contributor to Rails-based CRM for financial advisors (WealthBox)

Triaged bugs, mitigated bottlenecks, built features

Wrote high performance PostgreSQL queries and indexing schemes

Developed high-speed database anonymizer in C++

Applications Online, LLC

Aug 2014 – May 2015 | Software Engineer

Ruby/Rails, SASS, CoffeeScript, JQuery, PostgreSQL, Heroku

Major contributor to Rails-based college application platform used by Harvard, JHU, Princeton, etc.

Mentored junior developers and made architecture decisions across a suite of high-traffic products

Developed an analytics product that provided in-depth multi-tenant traffic analysis for college applications

Created an internal DevOps gem enabling encrypted, event-based command-and-control communication between web servers

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport

Jul 2017 – Feb 2020 | Scientist | SMART Recipient

C/C++, Java, Python, Crystal, Rust, Cafe, AlexNet, R-CNN

deep learning • computer vision • machine learning • automated target recognition • algorithms development

Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

2014 - 2015 | NREIP Recipient

C/C++, Java, Python, Ruby, SciRuby, JRuby

Founded the RAPTOR computer vision project, which trains neural networks on synthetic high quality 3D renderings for object detection and 3D pose estimation

Assisted AI research team in dissecting Pedro Domingos' infamous Sum Product Networks paper

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)

2014 - 2015 | DHS HS-STEM Recipient

Rose Compiler Framework, C/C++, Java

Worked with ROSE compiler team to add static analysis code security "checkers" to Compass

Devised a novel technique for efficient memory leak detection in C/C++ code

Received medal for placing in top 10% at the LLNL 2013 Summer Research Symposium

PUBLICATIONS

Johnson, Samuel, "Fast Type-based Indexing and Querying of Dynamic Hierarchical Data" (2017). Brown University Computer Science Master's Theses. https://cs.brown.edu/research/pubs/theses/masters/2017/kelly.samuel.pdf
Kelly, Samuel, "Toward Decentralized Code Signing: A Legal Framework for Ensuring Software Integrity" (2017). DuroSoft Technical Reports. Paper 001. https://github.com/DuroSoft/PeerSign/blob/master/paper.pdf
Kelly, Samuel, Jeff Byers, and David W Aha, "RAPTOR Technical Report" (2014). AIC-15-031. https://www.nrl.navy.mil/itd/aic/content/raptor-technical-report
Kelly, Samuel, "AST Indexing: A Near-Constant Time Solution to the Get-Descendants-by-Type Problem" (2014). Dickinson College Honors Theses. Paper 147. https://scholar.dickinson.edu/student_honors/147