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Christopher Robison

Turning ideas into reality.

About

I love to code. There I've said it. Sure, I have a unique blend of technical know-how, leadership skills, and business acumen but my lifelong love is for coding. A little background about me: I have extensive experience in software engineering plus I've learned that I have a special skill: leading groups of unruly programmers. I am also skilled in a wide range of programming languages, including JavaScript, C, C++, Java, Python, Swift, Kotlin, Rust, Go and others. I have a proven track record of successfully meeting deadlines and delivering code that is robust and well tested. Most recently, I brought D. Harris Tours, a small transportation company, into the 21st century by modernizing their operations, resulting in a fleet expansion from 2 to 12 buses and a corresponding 10X increase in revenue. I could go on but I'm afraid I've said too much already 😁

WORK EXPERIENCE

CTO at D. Harris Tours, Inc., San Francisco, CA

February 2020 – June 2024

  • (Re)defined processes and procedures for quoting, fulfilling and invoicing trips
  • Automated email/SMS notifications for trips, driver confirmations, bus maintenance
  • Automated billing and invoicing
  • Implemented USDOT required digital format driver logs
  • Increased daily revenue with better trip optimization

Manager, Software Engineering at Conversant, Inc., San Francisco, CA

July 2010 – February 2020

  • Contributed to IAB MRAID 2.0 standard
  • Implemented MRAID SDK's on iOS and Android platforms
  • Developed and deployed mobile ad solutions for multiple platforms.
  • Designed and deployed 'Rich Media' ad delivery and reporting infrastructure.
  • Architected and deployed RESTful API for ad serving, tracking metrics and reporting.
  • Developed client-side Javascript 'ad controller' for mobile and web
  • Developed flexible metrics tracking with non-blocking endpoints
  • 10 years

Web Architect at Mindjet, San Francisco, CA

September 2007 – July 2010

  • Ported PHP website to ASP.NET
  • Ported Catalyst Flash client to standards based HTML5/canvas
  • Architected and led the team that implemented Mindjet Catalyst

CEO / Founder at Simple Software, Inc., San Francisco, CA

April 2006 – September 2007

  • GC Homes - Contractor documents and blueprints online.
  • Bay Docs - Document preparation services and tools for generating documentation for reverse mortgages
  • HUD Calculator - calculates potential reverse mortgage values
  • Tzero Technology - Custom content management system
  • Metrika - Custom content management system

VP Engineering at Genetic Savings & Clone, Sausalito, CA

June 2004 – April 2006

  • Cloned a cat and delivered it to customer
  • Clonesoft - Architected and implemented web-based business process application that was used to manage the animal gene banking and feline cloning business and automated many processes.
  • CatBank - http://www.catbank.org/ Designed and developed database driven feline DNA identification website. Back-end requirements included integration with specialized gene analysis hardware which included the Applied Biosystem Genetic Analyser 3130.
  • Created and analized pet genotyping database, identifying 7 unique markers for traits such as Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD), fur color, and polydactylism (6-toed cat).
  • Integration with gene analysis and sequencing hardware.
  • Retro vs. Metro - http://www.retrovsmetro.org/ Implemented all backend code for this online companion website to the New York Time's bestseller: Retro vs. Metro - The Great Political Divide in America. Required access and aggregation of various data items scattered across the Internet (such as the Iraq war dead count and real-time government deficit counter)

Technical Director at Inter@ctivate, Inc., San Diego, CA

December 2001 – June 2004

  • Designed and architected network infrastructure using both Windows servers and various legacy Unix boxes. Built out server clusters and managed a farm of over 60 machines including a SAN.
  • Designed and implemented web-based network management, monitoring & systems analysis tools
  • Developed web-based tools for creation and maintenance of customer websites, DNS, and email services.
  • Designed and developed email marketing application using 3 tier architecture and XML and XSLT for transporting and rendering email messages and associated web pages. As of December, 2003, the Activatemail system sends and tracks over 1,000,000 requested messages per day between 89 clients including Sunkist Growers, The California Avocado Commission, San Diego Zoo and many more.
  • Setup automated development environment which allows Interactivate developers to create their own dedicated web sandboxes via a web interface. Automated CVS checkouts and local network mounts to development sandboxes rounded out this implementation.
  • Installation & administration of Solaris, FreeBSD & Windows NT in a heterogeneous environment
  • Design, implementation, migration and maintenance for Interactivate's internal and external network infrastructure.
  • Working with vendors, developers & 3rd party integrators.
  • Maintain and monitor over 50 hosted client web sites and dozens of web applications
  • Identifying & resolving network related problems
  • Responsible for backup implementation and recovery strategy & procedures
  • Required to support high volume access & availability characteristics as well as identifying & resolving system hardware & software problems
  • Responsible for the full availability of DNS, SMTP, HTTP, POP & IMAP servers
  • Maintaining security for all Interactivate networks


CERTIFICATIONS


PROJECTS


SKILLS


Programming Languages

python JavaScript [node+browser] Swift Kotlin Rust C C++ Java Objective-C PHP Python Perl Go C# Bash and more...

Leadership

Strategic Planning Team Building Team Leadership Procedure Development Process Improvement Product Development Entrepreneurship Budgeting / Financial Planning

Software Engineering

Best Practices Entrepreneurship Software Development Microservices Architecture Scrum / Agile Mobile Application Development Cloud Services Service Integration

EDUCATION

City College of San Francisco

2009 - 2010


California State University-Chico

1988 - 1991


Butte Community College

1988 - 1990