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
OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
XJoy Star
A C++ driver I wrote that allows disabled users or those who prefer Nintendo Joycons as an input device to use Joycons as a virtual Xbox controller in Microsoft Windows.
gcf.cr Star
A framework I wrote that allows for the deployment of crystal language code to Google Cloud Functions.
mongo_orm Star
A crystal shard I wrote that provides an ActiveRecord-like adapter to MongoDB.
DSeg Star
DSeg comes from a novel feature extractor I devised in grad school for object detection. It is based on the idea that unique superpixel shapes arise for different classes of objects.
conduit Star
Conduit is a frontend JavaScript framework I wrote as a lightweight alternative to React that is optimized for effortless deployment to S3/Cloudfront.