Jim Montgomery
I build systems that solve business problems. This approach has generated millions in revenue (REI), eliminated hundreds of thousands in costs while lowering risk (healthcare automation), and shipped features used by millions (Adobe Photoshop, MSNBC).
Technical background spanning visual design, software engineering, system administration and product strategy. I identify what matters, ignore what doesn't, and focus on solutions that work in practice.
Experience Excerpt
- Responsible for Photoshop new feature development including UX/UI design contributions
- Built the recently shipped Adjustments Presets feature where collections of adjustment layers provide a predictable outcome in the current document - a user and scenario oriented actions playback feature
- Managed the Web Component UI system consumed across the whole application.
- Transitioned middleware from Nodejs+npm to Deno and ES modules, reducing dev and infrastructure costs
- Expanded UI component catalog examples (Lit/LitElement, Web Components, Shadow DOM, etc)
- Expand end-to-end and unit test coverage (Deno, Puppeteer)
- Implemented lightweight agile process and practices, code reviews, and ways to address technical debt
- Coordinated with international team members across time zones
- Collaborated with Stanford’s Clinical Director on healthcare automation opportunities
- Built a SAAS platform for compatibility analysis in transplant medicine (Web stack, GAE, NWjs, and native Web Components)
- Beta testing with Seedfund SBIR applicant (single lab cost reductions of $400,000/yr)
- Responsible for improving application reliability and usability, and the development workflow (Angularjs, karma, protractor, webdriver)
- Created multivariate testing implementation in existing stack (10x’d audience over several months)
- Created their mobile website. Zero issues at launch, strong SEO (Schema.org), and good test coverage and performance (Varnish, C, RoR, Jenkins, TestSwarm, QUnit, Pavlov, FQL, PostgreSQL)
- Identified performance opportunities and delivered site-wide performance improvements. ($7-14 million in new revenue attributed to improvements in 2011)
- Rewrote product image-zoom feature for improved user experience.
- Develop innovative web interactive content seen by millions of users (award winning Rising from Ruin story)
- Created best in class theme implementations for content management systems and additional special projects (Nielsen, ABC Cable Networks Group, Fox Cable, Gold's Gym and The Weather Channel).
- System administration supporting 50,000 clients (170,000 accounts) in a distributed computing, UNIX-cluster environment. Credentials for University wide systems, asset, and user management.
- Lead development of internal and customer facing communication tools.
Education
Visual Communication Design BFA, University of Washington 2002 Professional program emphasizing typography and design problem solving. View samples here.
Recommendations
"Jim is a motivated and insightful developer who's an absolute blast to work with. I was consistently impressed with his focus on directing engineering and design towards addressing specific customer needs. In addition, he is an excellent communicator, not afraid to ask challenging questions, but able to do so in a professional and clear way. On the less serious side, Jim is witty, humorous, and is a great lunch-time running partner. I highly recommend Jim as a commendable developer and human-being." David Mather, Software Engineer at Nodeprime 5/27/2015
"Jim has been an excellent resource for me during my time at Wetpaint. He is very willing to show the ins and outs of his coding endeavors, walk one through the implemented features, etc. Often he has gone above and beyond his role as Developer by writing tools for me that made my job as an SDET easier. Exactly the kind of relationship you want on your team! Additionally, he has taken it on himself to institute a testing framework for the Dev group to utilize to ensure quality code. He has a firm grasp of the Agile/Scrum process and is a advocate for wielding them productively. Jim is the kind of Developer that often steps out of his role as the Developer and helps with any tasks that need addressing from process, feature ideas, etc. It's been a great pleasure to have him on my team." Bryan Kindley, SDET, Wetpaint 1/2012
"Jim is a one-man army of excellence and efficiency. He can code, design, write, analyze results, and translate his ideas, experience, and expertise to suit many diverse audiences. Jim was instrumental in developing strong business cases and technical enhancements that have greatly moved my organization forward and driven great results.
On top of all that (and much more), Jim is a pleasure to work with, a great communicator, and would make an effective leader within your company."
Jonathon D. Colman, Internet Marketing Program Manager, Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO), REI 3/2011
"I recommend Jim for the depth of his understanding of client-side technologies including Javascript and CSS, and his ability to apply this knowledge to large and complex sites. Jim combines this technical know how with a strong internal drive for continuous improvement and efficient use of computers to push businesses forward and deliver large results quickly. Specialties: Client-Side performance improvement." Dan DiCamillo, Software Engineer, REI 2/2011
"At least three times a week, I tell other department heads that we need a "Jim type person". Jim is one of the quickest studies I've come across. He consistently demonstrated an experienced understanding of design and user interface principles. I find it increasing difficult to find dependable, intelligent, and hard-working developers like Jim. He sets the benchmark of my expectations." Robert Reinhardt, VP, Multimedia Platforms Group, Schematic 2/2005