Curtis Belt sitting at his desk, turned around, with computer monitors in the background
Hey!

I'm Curtis, a "T-shaped" Developer, specializing in Front-end Development (8 yrs).

With additional experience in:

  • Back-end Development (4 yrs)
  • AWS Cloud Architecture (3 yrs)
  • Linux Server Administration (2 yrs)
  • DevOps (2 yrs)

Technologies

Advanced Production: In-depth experience and/or extensive usage in a production environment.
Production: Professional experience in a production environment.
Recreational Familiar, have a good baseline experience; have taken a course and/or used on a personal project.
  • Front-end
    • HTML / CSS / SASS
    • WordPress Themes/Plugins
    • PHP 7
    • Vue.js (inc. Vuex, Router)
    • Nuxt.js
    • TailwindCSS
    • React.js
    • React Native
    • JavaScript ES7
    • PostCSS
    • jQuery (Core, UI)
    • Regex
    • Bootstrap
    • Next.js
  • Back-end
    • NGINX / PHP-FPM
    • MySQL
    • PM2
    • PHP 7
    • Laravel Eloquent ORM
    • Node.js / NVM
    • Bash Scripting
    • Regex
    • Laravel
  • Deployment & Automation
    • Git Hooks
    • AWS Elastic Beanstalk
    • Bash Scripting
    • rsync
    • Ansible
    • Docker
    • Docker Compose
  • Monitoring / Performance
    • AWS CloudWatch
    • Loggly
    • Papertrail
    • tail -f error.log
    • New Relic
    • Blackfire.io
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
    • S3
    • EC2
    • Custom AMIs
    • Security Groups
    • RDS
    • CloudWatch
    • EFS
    • IAM Permissions
    • Load Balancing
    • Auto Scaling
    • Lambda
    • ECS
    • AWS Organizations
    • AWS Auto Scaling
    • Router 53
    • API Gateway
    • CloudFront
    • CodeCommit
  • Platforms
    • AWS: Elastic Beanstalk
    • WordPress VIP Classic
    • WordPress VIP Go
    • WP Engine
    • Shared Hosting
    • Heroku
    • Digital Ocean
    • Netlify
  • CMS & Generators
    • WordPress
    • Nuxt.js
    • Contentful
    • Ghost
  • API / CLI
    • RESTful JSON APIs
    • Google Maps / OpenStreetMap
    • INRIX Traffic Data
    • RETS / RESO Data Dictionary (Real Estate)
    • Cloudflare Developer API
    • GraphQL
  • Databases
    • MySQL
    • Amazon Aurora MySQL
    • MariaDB
    • Amazon Aurora Serverless MySQL
    • Redis
    • PHPMyAdmin
    • FaunaDB
    • PostgreSQL
  • Versioning
    • Git
    • GitHub
    • SVN
    • BitBucket
    • GitLab
  • Build Tools / CLI
    • WP-CLI (WordPress)
    • Babel
    • Webpack
    • Yarn
    • npm
    • AWS CLI
    • Composer
    • Grunt
    • Gulp
  • Design
    • Zeplin
    • InVision
    • Figma
    • PhotoShop
    • GIMP
  • Text Editors
    • VSCode
    • Sublime Text
    • nano
    • Atom
    • PHPStorm
  • Testing & Linting
    • ESLint
    • Browserstack
  • Operating Systems
    • Fedora / Redhat / CentOS
    • Windows
    • Ubuntu
    • Antergos (discontinued)
    • MacOS X
    • Arch
  • Management / Productivity
    • Methodologies: Kanban, Agile, Waterfall
    • GitHub Issues & Projects Board
    • Teamwork Projects
    • Pivotal Tracker
    • Google Suite (Gmail, Drive, Docs, Sheets, Hangouts, etc)
    • Discord
    • Dynalist
    • JIRA
    • Confluence
    • Trello
    • Lync
    • Notion.so
    • Slack
    • Skype
  • Misc. Applications
    • Gitkraken
    • DBeaver
    • Insomnia
    • Tilix Terminal (/w Oh My Zsh)
    • Flameshot
    • Dropbox
    • Postman
    • Fsearch
    • Peek
    • Vagrant
    • VirtualBox

Work

Software Engineer
Nov 2019 - Current (10 months)
Penske Media Corporation, Chicago, IL (Remote)
PMC is the parent corporation of notable brands such as RollingStone, Variety, and WWD. My primary role is to maintain and improve shared technology between these (and other) brands.
  • WordPress Host Migrations: Technical Lead (Current Project)
    • Migrate all PMC sites to new WordPress host.
    • Review and resolve any compatibility issues within the PHP code (custom WordPress themes and plugins).
    • Collaborate with DevOps engineers to plan/implement developer workflow improvements on new host.
  • Cross-brand Technology: Front-end
    • My primary role (secondary during the migrations project) was to build out new features/improvements for cross-brand technologies, such as Gallery or Lists plugins.
    • Front-end (and some back-end) development work dealing with HTML/CSS/JS/React.js/PHP.
  • Mobile Apps: React Native
    • Helped with final touches on app of one brand, and with the beginning of an upcoming redesign for another brand.
    • React-Native apps built for iOS and Android phones.
    • Handed off responsibilities to another engineer once the host migration project began to pick up speed.
  • Variety.com Redesign: Front-end
    • Joined toward the end of the project to help bring it across the finish line.
    • Front-end development work dealing with HTML/CSS/JavaScript/PHP/Custom WordPress themes & plugins.
  • Team-Building
    • A proposal of mine was accepted and still running today: a #someone-new slack channel using a “Donut” bot (donut.com), where every 2 weeks all members of the channel are automatically paired up to meet and “have coffee together” to get to know each other.
    • Created a new #react-lab channel as an attempt to start hyping up the team for React.js.
    • Started an anonymous "Engineering Skills Survey" to assess what skills/languages we all currently have, want, or are interested in learning. The survey results showed a large interest in React.js. As a result, a group of engineers got together in #react-lab to take React.js courses as a team! Engineering leadership plans to repeat the survey annually.
Software Engineer & Tech Lead
Jan 2017 - Sep 2019 (2 yrs 8 months)
TRIBUS, Chicago, IL (Remote)
  • Latest Projects
    • Created custom WordPress themes (PHP/HTML/SCSS/JS/jQuery)
    • Created custom Nuxt.js themes (Vue.js/Vuex/Vue Router/JS/TailwindCSS/PostCSS)
    • Created a Nuxt.js + WordPress framework nicknamed "NuxtPress" to speed up creation of future projects
    • Created custom WordPress API which had two goals in mind: drastically improve read performance, and enhance developer quality of life
    • Created library of shared Vue.js components for common features and functionality
  • AWS Cloud Architecture
    • Fault tolerance: minimum 2 EC2 instances, read replica on RDS, moved user media to S3
    • High availability: I wrote a bash script for in-place rapid deployments, which performed an atomic deployment via symlinks. I also wrote a custom PHP script to fully preload the PHP OPCache, which would run after any deployment
    • Automation: Created bash scripts for auto-generating NGINX config files from database, cloning production to staging/testing/local, data migrations for client launches, and more. Automated CNAME management on Cloudflare using their developer API
    • Deployment Engineer: Responsible for safe deployment of releases into production environment
    • On-call 24/7: Proactive monitoring was key to catching problems before they occurred. Used Cloudwatch to monitor server health metrics and send text/email alerts
  • Leadership
    • Spent a year as a Tech Lead for a 3 person team before I left
    • Trained/mentored, assigned tasks based on skill to encourage growth
    • Established consistency for the team, such as code format/linting rules, developer workstation configuration (LEMP stack, etc), deployment processes and so on.
Software Engineer
Jun 2015 - Jan 2017 (1 yr 7 months)
TRIBUS, Chicago, IL
  • Created and maintained all custom WordPress themes
  • Mapping RETS data imports to our standardized database fields
  • Assisted Sr. Developer with transition from WPEngine to custom AWS infrastructure
  • Continued maintenance and improvements on WordPress AWS infrastructure
Tier 2 Customer Support
Feb 2015 - Jun 2015 (4 months)
TRIBUS, Chicago, IL
  • Hired with intent to transition to developer role
  • Created and maintained data standardization maps for RETS feed importer.
  • Performed detailed analysis of individual RETS feeds to ensure as much data as possible was imported
  • Used basic Ruby scripting for tasks such as cleaning up formatting, and conditionally importing multiple columns into one.
  • Assisted with chat support queue while training for more technical tasks
Order Management Specialist (SAP ERP)
Sep 2014 - Jan 2015 (4 months)
Westcon-Comstor, Omaha, NE
  • Meant to be a shorter-term job after a failed business venture, but I was having fun writing AutoHotkey scripts to automate data entry.
Web Developer & IT Admin
Dec 2012 - Jul 2014 (1 yr 7 months)
Fidelity Financial Corporation, Omaha, NE
  • Administrator of website, email, hosting.
  • Lead initiative to upgrade outdated office technology
  • Deployed new CRM to more efficiently manage leads and opportunities
  • Converted client paperwork to digital copy which drastically reduced missed sales opportunities.
  • General IT support for all computer equipment.
Web Developer
Mar 2012 - Nov 2012 (8 months)
Quick Connect, Omaha, NE
  • Independently managed Quick Connect’s web development department
  • 45+ Joomla and WordPress websites (mostly small businesses)
  • HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, deployed via FTP to Dreamhost
  • Maintained Quick Connect’s website and internal custom applications (employee time sheets, invoice generator)
Bench Technician
Nov 2010 - Mar 2012 (1 yr 4 months)
Quick Connect, Lincoln, NE
  • Independently managed Omaha office for 6 months.
  • PC/Mac repair, laptop screen repair, data recovery, virus removal, etc.
  • Created quotes for custom PCs, facilitated data migration from old PC, and delivered/setup to client’s home or office.
Fire Support Specialist
Jun 2007 - Mar 2011 (3 yrs 9 months)
Army National Guard, Lincoln, NE
  • Deployed for 2 weeks to Louisiana in September 2008 for Hurricane Gustav and Ike relief operations, working as a driver.
  • Honorably/medically discharged in March 2011 due to a broken leg caused by a motorcycle accident.