Kiley Dorton | Resume

Senior Software Engineer, Front End at Slack
Based in Atlanta, GA (prefer fully remote)
linkedin.com/in/kileydorton
github.com/kiley
youtube.com/kileydorton

Overview

Hi, I'm Kiley. I'm a senior front-end engineer and I've been building web applications and delivering software projects since 2011. In that time, I've designed and built over 15 SaaS, web, and mobile applications, from recruiting software to healthcare products to subscription-based services. I'm engaged most when I get to work with a close-knit team building products that people use to solve important problems, while ensuring the code we write is secure, maintainable, performant, easy to read, and easy to delete (when the time comes, as it always does).

Over the years, I have built a deep expertise in the following:

HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (of course!)
Building production-grade web applications with React, TypeScript, and Next.js
Building and using REST and GraphQL APIs
Full-stack, cloud-based applications using Node.js, TypeScript, and serverless architectures
Database design, especially PostgreSQL and DynamoDB (NoSQL)
User Experience (UX) design, from user journeys to wireframes
User Interface (UI) design, from hand-drawn sketches to Figma prototypes
Product strategy, from shaping individual features to 3-year roadmaps

But more important than the code, I care deeply about helping early-career developers through pair programming, mentoring, tech talks, and community building. I've held leadership positions including technical team lead, engineering manager of both junior and senior engineers, product lead, and a mentor for 6 engineers (and counting!).

Work History

2023-present	Senior Software Engineer, Front End Slack, Purchase Experience The Purchase Experience team works on all-things billing at Slack, including self-serve billing, integrations with payment processors, invoicing, plans and fair billing calculations, add-ons, renewals, guided trials, and generally helping teams get the most value from paid Slack.
2022-2023	Senior Front-End Engineer AWS, Developer Experience, Low-Code AWS Developer Experience includes AWS services like AWS Amplify and Amazon CodeCatalyst. I worked on a team creating a brand new AWS service in the low-code space.
2020-2022	Front-End Developer AWS, ProServe Application Development ProServe is the professional services arm of Amazon Web Services serving customers like Philips, BMW, and F1. In my time there, I built cloud-based applications on AWS for 3 large, Fortune 50 customers.
2018-2020	Chief Technology Officer (leading a 4-person engineering team) DentalPost DentalPost is a tech company building an online job board for dental offices and dental professionals that was acquired in 2022. In my time there, we had 130,000 active job seekers, 16,000 active employers, and about ~$3-4 million in annual revenue.
2017-2018	Interface Engineer II SOLTECH SOLTECH is a ~50-person software consulting firm serving clients like Aveanna Healthcare, DHL, and NCR. In my time there, I built a React Native application for a medical translation company, an Angular web app for service techs at a home products company, and a commerical construction project cost estimation tool for a construction company.
2015-2017	Front-End Developer, UI & UX Designer TORQworks TORQworks is small tech company with a career guidance product. I redesigned the product and rebuilt the front end using AngularJS, with a great deal of help from our CTO and back-end engineer. While I worked there, we had about 50,000 active users and ~$250k annual revenue. It was acquired in 2018-2019.
2011-2015	Head of Technology and Product Lead ACT Bridge ACT Bridge was an HR tech and consulting startup with ~$3M in funding from ACT (the college testing company). While it was alive, we worked with customers including Old Navy, Southwest Airlines, and Trinity Health. I handled the tech side of the consulting services, I envisioned and designed the SaaS product, and I helped launch the product at a large healthcare provider in Michigan.

Education & Certifications

2021	AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate (Verification) Valid through March 2024
2009	A.B. Cognitive Science University of Georgia
2008	New Media Interdisciplinary Certification UGA New Media Institute

Speaking & Videos

2023	The Smart Way To Practice Coding Interview with a Lyft software engineer YouTube \| 52 min
2023	The Most Asked Tech Interview Question: Two Sum with JavaScript Pair Programming with an Amazon software engineer YouTube \| 52 min
2023	Live Coding with Godot and How A Web Developer Got Into Game Dev Interview with an indie game developer YouTube \| 1 hour 43 min
2023	How to get a job at a science-based company Interview with a PhD Recruiter YouTube \| 37 min
2020	Code With Me / TailwindCSS, Next.js, and React Live-coding practice (just me) YouTube \| 26 min
2019	Ditch the Backlog — Stop Sprinting and Start Shaping Tech Conference Talk at React Boston 2019 Live Presentation \| 16 min
2018	Let's Build A Serverless Web App With Firebase (recording not available) Tech Conference Talk at Connect.Tech 2018 Live Presentation \| 1 hour
2017	Google Firebase with Kiley Dorton Internal lunch & learn at SOLTECH Live Presentation \| 48 min
2017	How To Create A Business Model With The Lean Canvas Business/Product strategy tutorial YouTube \| 13 min
2010	ALPS — The Assisted Living Picture Service A university group project demo YouTube \| 2 min

Extras

2014-present	Advisory Council Member UGA New Media Institute
2012-2014	Singer, Beatboxer in a semi-pro a cappella group The Graduates
2010	Founding organizer of TEDxUGA TEDxUGA
2004-2010	Singer, Business Manager, Arranger in a collegiate a cappella group UGA Accidentals
2008	Composer of soundtracks for several student films IMDB - Kiley Dorton

Career Highlights

I've had the opportunity to work on some big and complex projects over the years, as well as some brand new build-from-scratch startups. Here are a few highlights that stand out:

Highlights from my time at AWS

I was the tech lead for a multi-million dollar engagement building ML-powered data forecasting tools for the Amazon packaging innovation organization. I led a team of 5-6 engineers and cloud application architects.
I built 2 full-stack, consumer-facing SaaS products for a Fortune 500 tire company using Next.js and Amplify.
I worked on a project with a multi-lingual team called "Gas Stations of the Future" for the largest energy company in Argentina, and I built a back-office web-based tool that ran locally in the gas stations (to be resilient to internet outages).
Working on an AWS service team, I made tooling improvements that reduced our monorepo build time by 28%, resulting in saving 80 engineers about 40 seconds per build. 40 seconds seems small, but with 80 engineers running 3-4 builds per day, it equates to almost 3 hours of engineering time saved per day.

Highlights from my time as CTO of DentalPost

DentalPost is a job board software company based in Atlanta where I led the 4-person engineering team as the CTO.
I led a project to ship a rebuild of the product from Java Server Pages to a Java REST API with a React front end.
I shifted engineering from scrum 2-week sprints to 6-week cycles using the "Shape Up" method. I designed and pitched product features to the CEO, managed the team to deliver them, and wrote a good portion of the front end code as well.
The product management changes I implemented helped the team ship monthly releases of a half-dozen long-awaited, big features.

Highlights from my time at SOLTECH

SOLTECH is a ~50-person software consulting firm based in Atlanta, GA.
I built a React Native front end of an iPad application that was used by doctors with patients who speak a different language. The app connected a live translator via video chat to translate between patient and doctor in realtime.

Highlights from my time at TORQworks

TORQworks is a software company that helps long-term unemlpoyed individuals find new careers and jobs. It was acquired in 2018-2019.
I acted as the only front-end developer, UX designer, and UI designer. I redesigned what was an outdated web application using the (then) modern visual design system from Google called Material Design.
I built the front-end of the new version using AngularJS, working closely with and learning a great deal from the CTO who was a former Microsoft software engineer (forever grateful for your mentorship and faith in me, JM!).

Highlights from my time at ACT Bridge

In my first job out of college, I worked at ACT Bridge, an HR technology startup funded by ACT (the college testing company). I started as the team's one-and-only "tech person" and handled everything from setting up the company website to buying team laptops to analyzing data in Excel and Tableau.
Eventually, I became the tech product lead as the company transformed from a pure consulting to a SaaS-based technology business.
I envisioned and designed the SaaS product, called TRUE Talent, and oversaw its development. I helped launch it at a major healthcare provider.