Work With Me

After 15 years in software, I primarily think of myself as a bridge for the gap between complex backend systems and intuitive, beautiful user interfaces. I love to focus on program correctness, efficiency, stability, and exceptional UX.

Highlights

• Full stack expertise with a focus on TypeScript, React, and Go
• Excellent track record in designing scalable architecture and optimizing performance of existing software
• Passionate about mentoring and elevating teams
• Diverse experience ranging from UI/UX on the web to robotics and firmware
• Consistently praised for reliability, attention to detail, and positivity
• Articulate and adept communicator

Interested in working together? Get in touch: steve@steve-adams.me

Key areas of expertise

My career has allowed me to work with a lot of different people, problems, contexts, and technologies. My roots are actually in graphic design; the start of my software career was very frontend heavy, so I've got a great eye for details and I work seamlessly with designers.

• Full Stack Development
• Scalable, Maintainable Architecture Design
• API Development and Integration
• Testing, Reliability, and Stability
• User Experience and Interface Development
• Collaborating with Designers
• Mentorship

Preferred technologies

My strongest stacks are TypeScript, the DOM, Web APIs, and Go. I've also worked with Python, Ruby, and Rust more than enough to be productive with them, and Rust is by far one of my favourites. Whatever you're working with, it's a good bet that I'll get up to speed quickly.

In terms of libraries and tools I've used very often:

• React, Redux, Zustand
• XState
• Node.js, Express, Koa, Hono
• Gin
• Postgres
• Rest, GraphQL, RPC
• Docker

Testimonials

These excerpts are from my LinkedIn recommendations.

Brad Melanson, Backend Programmer:

Steve is one of the strongest developers I’ve had the pleasure of working with, a remarkably capable full-stacker with a great eye for design and usability, and a deep understanding of software architecture. He’s great to work with on both greenfield projects, where his suggestions on application structure and project milestones were invaluable, and on legacy projects where he knew just the right balance to strike between refactoring and new development. He was also a great mentor to new hires and co-op students, and was consistently a pleasure to have as a colleague.

Jon Taylor, Owner, Arm Automotive:

I worked with Steve for two and a half years at RBM. During that time the company went from five people to thirty five. Up until the last few months, when they hired a second developer, Steve was the sole developer on the web front end. The site is a very large and sophisticated application that operates an ad network that is at the core of the business.

Steve’s work was reliable and of high quality with exceptional attention to detail. Personally he was great to work with, always friendly and constructive.

Scott Small, Software Development Team Lead, Semaphore Solutions:

Steve has a keen eye for detail, and will always take the time to plan out the architecture of a project before its' implementation. He builds components in a modular, reusable way that other developers can easily interface with - and it's easy to see that he cares deeply about the quality of his work.

Not only that, but Steve works hard to grow and elevate the skills of those around him. He wrote a set of code and style guidelines that continue to be used within the organization, and acts as a mentor to the junior developers and co-op students.

Steve functions well on both solo projects and as part of a larger team. Always showing up at the office with a positive attitude, he will be an asset to any organization, and I look forward to the day when I can collaborate with him again.

Amee Longpré, Creative Director, Red Brick:

Steve is one of the most positive and hard-working people I know. When I started at Red Brick, he was my go-to, always willing to provide some knowledge or give me a laugh. I've always admired Steve for the thoroughness of his work. He takes the time to build a solid framework before jumping into a project, which is always apparent in the end result. When working on projects together, Steve's intelligence has always blown me away. Most recently, when I was tasked to work on an application Steve had built, his patience and willingness to teach was astounding. Steve always has something nice to say about your work which, on a bad day, can really turn things around.

Cecia Poders

Working with Steve was an absolute pleasure on a daily basis. He has an attention to detail in his work a and finesse for fine tuning projects that is incomparable. He's able to see the broader spectrum of an idea, and follow each corresponding link until the end, preventing future problems and creating solutions before you even realize you need one. He's creative and always honing his skills and learning new ones.

In regards to Steve on a team, he's knowledgeable, supportive, always willing to help and teach, and generally just a great person. He can make an excellent partner on individual projects, or can be a great team player. I look forward to one day working again with Steve!

Ways of working together

• Consulting. I love having a clear objective and agency to achieve it. Given a task and a timeline, I'm very intrinsically motivated to see things through and get the best results that I can. I've worked on many odd, difficult, and demanding projects over the years and managed to have great success; I can do the same for you.
• Building your team. The teams I've worked on see me as a very talented, competent, and pleasant person to work with. My extensive experience and strong skill set are a compliment to any team. I genuinely enjoy mentoring, collaborating with people of all skill levels, and I'm great at communicating with non-technical people and stakeholders. If this sounds like something your team needs, I'd love to hear from you.

Ideal Work Setting

• Location. I live in Victoria, British Columbia and I'm interested in local hybrid roles or remote work.
• Time zones. I can work with you anywhere if we're mostly asynchronous, but otherwise tend to stick within 6+- hours of PST.
• Working hours. I typically work from 5:30am until 2:30pm PST. I prefer 4 day work weeks, but for the right role or project I'll happily do 5.
• Family. I always prefer roles which allow me to put family first. This means running out for a school drop off or pick up isn't an issue, or the odd spontaneous sick day is essentially a given.

Want to chat?

If you made it this far, you should email me to discuss a possible collaboration. I’m looking forward to it!