Nick Babcock
[email protected] | github.com/nickbabcock | nickb.dev | Chicago, IL / Remote
Software engineer with 10+ years of fullstack and tech lead experience. Principal developer of flagship products from startups to big tech. Passionate about upleveling myself and my teams.
Employment
- Aligned direction on styling, optimizations, and state mental model via company conference talks
- Coordinated XFN growth / payment campaigns and streaming web file upload engine overhaul
- Led modernization initiative on React frontend and perf improvements for Python backend
- Architected resilient, serverless product flows for 500,000+ subscriptions in GCP and Node.js
- Compiled site speed audit. Results: perfect CLS from failure, and 2x improvement in other vitals
- Championed error monitoring, CI/CD, code review, and Docker development environment
- Enacted accessibility standards in defense against drive-by lawsuits and $100k’s in expenses
- Initiated adoption of server side Hydrogen React and headless components for LCP performance
- Fostered team’s growth with frequent code deep dives, mentorship, and shared accountability
- Built flagship High Performance Computing (HPC) web portal in Python and React
- Optimized cluster analytic engine 10,000x for world’s biggest customers with Rust
- Cut REST API server costs by 96% in rewrite with Java’s Dropwizard web framework and Postgres
- Wired a suite of application monitoring, alerts, and dashboards with Grafana and Graphite
- Leveraged Postgres for double-entry bookkeeping solution in hybrid cloud accounting
- Grew dev team 5x who iterated on bespoke partner problems within hours
- Implemented reliable ETL pipeline and webhook publisher with RabbitMQ message queues
Projects and Open Source Highlights
- Authored open source libraries with over 2 million downloads in Rust, C#, JS, and F#
- Over 140 technical articles written with several featured on Hacker News and widely circulated
- Dropwizard (8.4k stars): Java web framework core contributor alumnus with 100’s of commits
- Provided consultation services for companies on adopting Rust with Wasm
Education
Bachelor of Science Engineering from the University of Michigan. Graduated Magna Cum Laude in 3½ years while professionally coding near full time. Hand selected by professor for AI competition.