About Dan
My background is in Web development, especially full-stack development using the Django and Ruby on Rails frameworks. I'm from Wayne, Pennsylvania and graduated Penn State in 2007. I previously lived in Philadelphia and the New Jersey shore. I moved to Silver Spring, Maryland in 2016.
I'm a husband to my wife Jen, a dad to our toddler daughter Lucy, and a pet dad to two cats and a rabbit. I enjoy playing in pinball leagues and competitions, riding e-scooters, going to baseball games, and watching the This Week in Google podcast, even though it's never actually about Google!
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at U.S. News & World Report, working on their Best Cars site. There I have created many public-facing features on a site that reaches millions of car shoppers monthly. I also frequently help improve backend load time and create partner data integrations. I work alongside eight developers and regularly participate in code reviews and mentoring with them.
Download Printable Resume
Technical Skills
Python
Ruby
JavaScript
HTML5 / CSS3
Django
Rails
MySQL
Postgres
Elasticsearch
Work Experience
Present
U.S. News & World Report
Senior Software Engineer • Washington, DC
- Developed backend Python/Django code for a high-traffic media Web site, U.S. News Best Cars.
- Created the backend portion of the “car finder” faceted search.
- Implemented revamped logic in car scoring used throughout the site.
- Completed dozens of partner integrations.
- Completed two major Django upgrades. Completed a Python 2.7 to 3.7 upgrade.
- Assisted devops team in migrating from our own hardware to AWS.
- Changed the inventory search from MySQL to Elasticsearch and made other code optimizations, reducing its load time by 88%.
- Completed a sitewide URL restructure and domain name change without hurting SEO.
- Created functionality for dealer-specific pages.
- Mentored six new developers on product, infrastructure and setting up environments.
- Regularly did code reviews, both as the reviewer and as the author.
- Actively participated in sprint plannings, daily standups, retros and product design meetings.
Jan 2016
WorkWave
Senior Software Engineer • Neptune, NJ
- Developed features on existing classic ASP application, an enterprise CRM for managing pest control and other field service companies.
- Overhauled internal documentation covering development environment setup, allowing new developers to get themselves up and running in hours rather than days.
- Trained three new developers on architecture of application, source control workflows, manipulating application data and completing other common maintenance tasks.
- Wrote complex SQL queries, optimized existing queries and performed one-time data updates.
April 2015
Bizyhood
Consultant • Remote
- Developed a Django application for start-up offering small business marketing tools.
- Completed projects requiring a variety of skills including consuming REST APIs, building a front-end with AJAX, designing a DB schema and authenticating users through oAuth.
