John Whiles

I trained to be a software engineer after studying philosophy and then working as a model. I’ve now been doing it for nine years, and I think I’m pretty good at it. Most of my experience has been in frontend development, TypeScript, functional programming, and API design.

I'm currently particularly interested in:

  • How LLM assisted coding impacts the productivity of engineering organisations. How we can maintain performance, delivery time and quality while adopting new ways of working.
  • Decentralized communication protocols like the AT Protocol, Microformats, and ActivityPub
  • What comes after React

Professional Experience

    Consensys

    Staff Software Engineer

    March 2024 - Present

    • TypeScript
    • AWS
    • Go
    • React
    • I led development on the Metamask developer dashboard.
    • I worked with a company acquired by Consensys to integrate their social login service into our platforms, and to combine our developer offerings into one coherent platform.
    • I am helping to build critical features related to stablecoins in the MetaMask extension and mobile app.

    Roost

    CTO

    September 2023 - December 2023

    • TypeScript
    • Node.js
    • Remix
    • As part of the founding team was accepted onto Techstar’s London 2023 cohort.
    • Was responsible for the initial technical direction of the company.
    • Built minimum viable verions of potential Roost products including services to help house sharers live harmoniously, and tools for identifying property investment opportunities.
    • Worked with the CEO and COO to define the company’s strategy and direction.

    Contentful

    Senior Software Engineer

    March 2020 - September 2023

    • TypeScript
    • Node.js
    • React
    • Go
    • PostgreSQL
    • Ruby on Rails
    • I Was a key member of Contentful’s App Framework team.
      • I built a hosting solution for Contentful Apps, enabling users to easily run their own code inside the Contentful web app.
      • Built a system that allowed users to share their Apps with other organisations. This was a key feature to support enterprise users and open source App developers.
      • I worked directly with enterprise customers who used the App Framework, both offering support with technical issues and gathering feedback to understand what new features we should build.
    • Managed Contentful’s fleet of PostgreSQL databases which support 30% of Fortune 500 companies.
      • Lead a project to perform major version upgrades across the entire fleet of hundreds of databases with zero downtime for customers.
      • Maintained a custom Kubernetes operator, which ensured databases and supporting infrastructure were always in the correct state.
    • Rebuilt the front-end technical interview, reducing the amount of time engineers spent in each interview by 40%.
    • Helped junior engineers on-board successfully into the Company by providing mentorship and guidance.

    Soundcloud

    Frontend Engineer

    June 2019 - March 2020

    • JavaScript
    • Backbone.js
    • Worked on Soundcloud’s music publishing product, allowing users to publish their music to other platforms.
    • Implemented a system that allowed users to tag each other in comments.
    • Improved page load times on an internal admin tool by multiple orders of magnitude, which made it possible for a moderation team to achieve their goals.

    Habito

    Senior Software Engineer

    July 2018 - June 2019

    • Haskell
    • PureScript
    • React
    • Built a design system which ensured accessibility and consistency across the entire product.
    • Implemented the dynamic mortgage interview, which is the core of Habito’s user journey.
    • As part of a two-person team, restyled Habito’s entire website in one month.

    Trainline

    Senior Software Engineer

    January 2018 - July 2018

    • TypeScript
    • React
    • Node.js
    • Moved one of The Trainline’s busiest services from C# to Node.js, improving performance and maintainability.
    • Improved The Trainline’s internal design system.

    Just Giving

    Senior Software Engineer

    March 2017 - January 2018

    • TypeScript
    • React
    • Built a rich UI for a new financial reporting service.
    • Built a component library for the design system.
    • Led a TypeScript migration, ensuring that builds continued to work, and helping the engineering team learn TypeScript.

Education

    Founders and Coders

    2016 - 2017

    Student developer

    Royal Holloway, University of London

    2010 - 2013

    BA Politics with Philosophy (2:1)