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Christopher Robison
Turning ideas into reality.

About

I'm passionate about turning ideas into reality through code. With a unique blend of technical expertise, leadership skills, and business acumen, I excel in building robust, scalable software solutions. I'm proficient in a broad range of programming languages, including JavaScript, C, C++, Java, Python, Swift, Kotlin, Rust, Go, and more. My track record includes meeting tight deadlines and delivering polished, well-documented, and thoroughly tested products. Recently, I modernized D. Harris Tours by introducing AI-driven job scheduling and routing, doubling their revenue without increasing costs. Let's build something great together.

Work Experience

D. Harris Tours, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
March 2020 – December 2024
CTO
  • Designed and implemented an end-to-end transportation management system
    • CRM
    • Scheduling (Drivers & Buses)
    • Automated Notifications (Phone, Email, SMS)
    • GPS Tracking of Assets
    • Invoicing
    • Payment Collection
    • Customer Portal
  • Led the technological transformation and streamlined business operations, expanding the fleet from 2 to 14 buses and growing daily revenue by 30%.
  • Enhanced systems for real-time data on buses, automated maintenance, and trip confirmations via email and SMS.
  • Implemented route optimization, increasing bus utilization and boosting daily revenue by 30% without additional operational costs.
Highlights
  • Redefined processes for quoting, fulfilling, and invoicing trips
  • Automated email/SMS notifications for trips, driver confirmations, and maintenance
  • Increased daily revenue by 30% with better trip optimization
Conversant, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
July 2010 – March 2020
Manager, Software Engineering
Designed, developed, and maintained the infrastructure and code-base that served many millions of mobile and rich media ads each day. Led the Rich Media effort and helped modernize the ad serving infrastructure and metric collection. Designed and implemented a RESTful API for serving rich media ads and built out scalable backend services to handle integration with existing servers and infrastructure.
Highlights
  • Contributed to IAB MRAID 2.0 standard
  • Implemented MRAID SDKs on iOS and Android platforms
  • Developed and deployed mobile ad solutions for multiple platforms, reaching over 20 million users daily.
  • Designed and deployed 'Rich Media' ad delivery and reporting infrastructure, increasing ad viewability by 25%.
  • Architected and deployed RESTful API for ad serving, tracking metrics and reporting, reducing API response times by 35%.
  • Developed client-side Javascript 'ad controller' for mobile and web
  • Developed flexible metrics tracking with non-blocking endpoints, reducing server load by 15%.
Mindjet
San Francisco, CA
September 2007 – July 2010
Web Architect
Led Mindjet's initial Software as a Service (SaaS) product, Mindjet Catalyst. Transformed Mindjet's business model with the new service, nearly doubling monthly revenue.
Highlights
  • Ported PHP website to ASP.NET, improving site load times by 40%.
  • Ported Catalyst Flash client to standards-based HTML5/canvas, reducing cross-platform compatibility issues by 90%.
  • Architected and led the team that implemented Mindjet Catalyst, increasing monthly subscriptions by 80%.
Simple Software, Inc.
San Francisco, CA
April 2006 – September 2007
CEO / Founder
Founded Simple Software to provide software development and consulting services. Developed the Simple Software Application Platform that provided content management systems and business process management applications to small to mid-sized businesses.
Highlights
  • Developed contractor document management system, reducing document processing time by 30%.
  • Created custom content management systems for clients, leading to a 20% reduction in content management costs.
  • Led various software development projects for small businesses, increasing client satisfaction by 25%.
Genetic Savings & Clone
Sausalito, CA
June 2004 – April 2006
VP Engineering
Architected and developed Clonesoft, a bespoke business process automation software that ran every aspect of the company including employee and customer management, order tracking, and clone progress tracking. Also developed the CatBank database, a feline DNA identification website integrated with gene analysis hardware.
Highlights
  • Cloned a cat and delivered it to customer, increasing company visibility and leading to a 15% increase in genetic banking inquiries.
  • Developed business process automation software for gene banking and cloning, reducing manual processing time by 50%.
  • Created a pet genotyping database identifying unique genetic markers, streamlining gene analysis by 20%.
Inter@ctivate, Inc.
San Diego, CA
December 2001 – June 2004
Technical Director
Managed and maintained IT resources, developed network management tools, and led the growth of the company from 10 to 65 employees. Built and maintained customer websites and web applications, including email marketing tools that handled millions of messages daily.
Highlights
  • Designed network infrastructure using Windows and Unix servers, reducing system downtime by 25%.
  • Developed web-based network management tools, improving IT team's response time by 30%.
  • Created an email marketing application handling millions of messages daily, increasing client engagement by 40%.

Awards

  • June 1988

    Paradise High School

    Computer Science Award

    First recipient of the Paradise High School 'Computer Science Award' for developing a data application to track school resources that ran on an Apple IIe.

Volunteer

San Francisco Elks Lodge #3
April 2010 – April 2011
Esteemed Leading Knight / House Committee Chair
Managed day-to-day operations of the Lodge restaurant and bar while organizing events to raise funds for underprivileged children. Raised over $34,000 in one year and facilitated the assembly and donation of 100 bicycles for children.

Contact

San Francisco, CA
(415) 810-6991
cdr@cdr2.com
LinkedIn
crobison
Twitter
thechrisrobison
GitHub
chrisrobison

Education

  • 2009 2010

    City College of San Francisco

    Japanese, Business

  • 1988 1991

    California State University-Chico

    Computer Science

  • 1988 1990

    Butte Community College

    Computer Science, General Education

Skills

Programming Languages
Python JavaScript [Node.js + Browser] Swift Kotlin Rust Go C C++ Java Objective-C PHP Perl 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 Microservices Architecture Software Development Scrum / Agile Mobile Application Development Cloud Services Service Integration Entrepreneurship

Interests

Hobbies
3D Printing Prototyping hardware solutions with Raspberry Pi and Arduino Laser engraving Building robots Electronics tinkering
Recreation
Golf Recreational Programming Karaoke

References

Chris has a broad understanding of Internet technologies and is generous with knowledge sharing. Equally at home working with Web Services, XMPP, and server-side applications as he is working with CSS, JavaScript, and the most recent HTML5 for devices. He brings a lot to a Web dev team and can pinch-hit in a number of chairs.

This guy has some seriously mad coding skills.

His system is well-oiled; all my web services are working with no downtime. He offers all the greatest gadgets, ideal environment for a programmer like me.