Benjamin T. Childs

benjamin.t.childs@gmail.com | 817-360-0163 | Austin, TX | github.com/bchilds

Professional Experience

ShipStation, Auctane | Senior Software Engineer | 2023 - present

  • Architected and built an automated, configurable usage-based billing solution using Kafka, Node, and PostgreSQL
  • Lead high-visibility effort to migrate our single-provider-specific billing implementation from a 9 year old SDK to an updated, platform-agnostic microservice with a seamless transition in production
  • Lead a focused team in designing and building a feature-gating system and add-ons marketplace for monetization of new application features
  • Decreased user churn by 8% by identifying and filling a UX gap that increased visibility to users when they were delinquent on payments

Big Health | Senior Frontend Software Engineer | 2022 - 2023

  • Primary engineer for research, technical planning and implementation of application theming
  • Integrated proxy for local development against remote data and services, saving hundreds of developer hours in slow local stack startup and management
  • Implemented and promoted widespread adoption of typescript testing patterns as well as new best practice unit testing processes with React Testing Library
  • Refactored large sections of core application logic and structure to unlock future development possibilities and achieve more consistent, reliable source of truth for application state

ShipStation/ShipEngine, Auctane | Software Engineer | 2017 - 2022

  • Primary developer of our internal release flow tooling, implementing new workflows which made the developer release process flow smoother by utilizing the Hubot framework in Node, Slack, GitHub’s Octokit API, and TeamCity/Octopus Deploy APIs
  • Jumpstarted multiple new, mission-critical projects for cross-org teams by rapidly context-switching and handling fullstack requirements
  • Helped institute pattern of small-scale, cross-team feature squads that facilitate better communication and planning, now being adopted more widely by the organization
  • Improved usability and maintainability of legacy Backbone client dashboard by rewriting in React, documenting all endpoints and workflows for a future rebuild
  • Overhauled org’s weekly billing process, recouping $100,000+ in previously-unbilled monthly

Technical Skills and Tools

Javascript/Typescript, ReactJS, Node, C#/Dotnet, Apache Kafka, API Development, Redux, Express, Vite, Jest, Git, JIRA, TeamCity, Octopus Deploy, Visual Studio/VS Code, AWS API, SQL, PostgreSQL

Education

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN | Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering
HackReactor | Advanced Software Engineering Immersive Program

About This Human

I go bouldering twice a week at one of the local rock climbing gyms, am starting to get into woodworking, and enjoy reading sci-fi and fantasy novels.