Resume

Overview

Currently a Senior Software Engineer at Alaska Airlines on the Auro design system. Previously on Morgan Stanley's Campfire design system. The work I'm proudest of is the quiet kind: an interface that gets out of your way, a component someone finds without asking, or a release that doesn't feel like an event. The best design systems disappear. My current work sits across these areas: component libraries, accessibility, documentation, and the release tooling around them.

  • Focus

    • Front-End / Design Systems
    • Mobile First UI/UX
    • Deployment Automation
    • Server Side Applications
    • Static Websites

  • Tools

    • Adobe, Sketch, Figma, CodePen
    • VS Code, PhpStorm, Navicat
    • Homebrew, Yarn, Composer, Valet
    • Vagrant, Docker, Forge, Vapor
    • ClickUp, Trello, GitHub, Jira, Azure

  • Tech

    • HTML, CSS/Sass/Tailwind, SVG
    • PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Node
    • Statamic, Nova, Wordpress
    • React, Vue, Alpine, Svelte
    • Laravel, Livewire
    • Web Components, Stencil, Lit
    • GitHub Actions, Bash, CI/CD

  • Mindset

    • Design driven development
    • Enjoy learning new things
    • Mediation/conflict resolution and empathy in tough situations
    • Passionate about mentorship and team development
    • Mindful of over-engineering and wasteful development practices

Experience

  • Alaska Airlines
    Senior Software Engineer - Contract
    Oct 2024 -> Current

    Worked on Auro, Alaska Airlines' Lit-based component library used across the company's digital products. Both component work across the library and the platform that ships it underneath.

    • Architected and built most of auro-cli, the standard TypeScript and Node.js build and release tooling for Auro, Alaska Airlines' Lit-based design system, adopted across all 30+ of its component packages and delivered as 12 reusable commands.
    • Migrated dozens of Auro packages to OIDC trusted publishing, standardizing CI and automating semantic-commit analysis, release notes, and PR preview publishing.
    • Established each component's Custom Element Manifest as the source of truth for generated API documentation and React and Svelte wrapper metadata.
  • E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley
    UI Engineer - Contract
    Mar 2022 -> Oct 2024

    Worked on Campfire Enterprise, Morgan Stanley's design system track for data-dense, workflow-heavy web experiences. Both component work and the documentation, playgrounds, and release tooling around it.

    • Led development of data-dense UI components for Campfire Enterprise, Morgan Stanley's design system, delivered as Web Components for React and Angular consumers.
    • Reduced component release cycle time by more than 60%, from a full day to under 3 hours, by automating npm publishing with semantic-release and GitHub Actions.
    • Cut documentation site compile time by 75%, from 20 minutes to 5 minutes, by migrating the React documentation site from Webpack to Vite.
    • Shipped a React playground for designers and product managers to evaluate live Campfire components without a local development environment.
    • Automated documentation-site deployments every two weeks and created PR preview environments for review before release.
    • Resolved Campfire integration issues for React and Angular consumer teams and mentored junior engineers.
  • Trevetts/Creative+
    Frontend Developer
    Feb 2019 -> Mar 2022

    Frontend developer at a design-driven agency. Shipped Laravel-based sites alongside the design team and built the deployment workflow underneath.

    • Streamlined client-site deployments with a GitHub and Laravel Forge workflow that shipped code and ran database migrations on pull-request merge.
    • Designed and prototyped interactions in Illustrator and CodePen so the design team could evaluate them before implementation.
  • LoudDoor
    Full Stack Developer & Designer
    Sep 2017 -> Jan 2019

    Designed and developed comprehensive digital solutions ranging from advertising materials to web applications. Managed project creative direction from conception through final product delivery, ensuring that every detail of the user experience was tailored to exceed target audience expectations. The primary technology stack consisted of Laravel, Vue.js, and SASS.

    • Design and develop responsive web solutions
    • Test, analyze, and improve the user experience
    • Create high converting advertising media
    • Maintain and improve existing web apps
  • Muscle & Strength
    UI/UX Designer & Developer
    Apr 2014 -> Sep 2017

    Converted Muscle & Strength's legacy non-responsive e-commerce site to a fully responsive build as the sole frontend developer on a two-person team, owning the UI design in Adobe Illustrator and Sketch as well as the frontend implementation. The work spanned both the Magento store side and the Drupal content side, from the checkout system to article layouts, across 30+ page templates and thousands of pages of content and products that had to be redesigned or newly created.

    • Designed responsive page templates and marketing pages with Adobe Illustrator and Sketch.
    • Code responsive prototypes of designs in CodePen with static data.
    • Implement prototype code into Magento or Drupal CMS.
    • Assist store, content, and marketing teams with any custom CSS design work to format forms or special landing pages.
    • Design solutions to any UX issues reported by customer service.
    • Created custom graphics and icons using Photoshop and Illustrator.
    • Created SASS styles and jQuery functions to customize the responsive user experience.

Compliments

Raymond Schwartz

Accessibility Engineer -> E*Trade

During our two years together, I always looked forward to collaborating with Ryan since he challenged me to do my best work. Ryan's depth of knowledge, tenacious research, and detail-oriented thinking always made for a learning opportunity, good debate, and led to making well-designed products.

You can always count on Ryan's keen observations to uncover issues and he always offers creative solutions to address his findings. Ryan is a team-player, taking time to help colleagues whether they're struggling with devops or need some advice on CSS best practices-he's always willing to help. Ryan would be a great addition to any team in many capacities. Working with him is one of the things I miss most about not being at E-Trade.

Damien Mase

CEO/Founder -> Muscle & Strength

I hired Ryan in March of 2014 as our first in-house Front-end Ul/UX Developer. He was tasked with creating the first responsive design for Muscleandstrengthcom. His knowledge and understanding of how to build a website that works optimally on multiple screen sizes was immediately apparent. Working within a strict time frame, Ryan delivered and exceptional product which exceeded our expectations.

Over the past 3 years working with Ryan he's been able to demonstrate his talent for creating visually appealing designs with user experience in mind. His knowledge of design software is outstanding and he's been able to take direction from myself and other team members to take an idea from concept to deployment.

During Ryan's employment he's worked with several internal and external teams on design and user experience projects. He's been able to communicate well and effectively gather information from others to deliver a finished product that meets the project specifications.

Without a doubt, I think Ryan would be an asset as a Frontend Ul/UX Designer to any development team.