Introduction

Hello there! Thanks for taking the time to learn more about my professional and personal life. I am a software developer with experience in Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, React Native, Redux, Tailwind, and a sprinkling of AWS, Heroku, and other services.

Outside of work you'll find me playing video games and board games; Spirit Island is a current favorite. Love me some co-op games. I also enjoy disc golf, pickleball, and yoga!

Before my career as a software engineer, I worked in Real Estate and Science Education. Programming is a heck of a lot better, though šŸ˜

Senior Software Engineer

I currently work as a senior engineer at Home Chef, on our customer facing website and mobile app. My work is full-stack: it includes designing and implementing backend changes across models, controllers, services, cron jobs, and more, along with frontend work involving network requests, state management, and design-driven updates.
Some day-to-day tools I use include: Rails, RSpec, React, Redux, Tailwind, GitHub and Heroku with a sprinkling of AWS (particularly S3). Team cadence follows Agile standards: daily standups, bi-weekly sprint planning, and retrospectives.

Home Chef is a fantastic company to work for and I am proud to have just passed my seven-year milestone in January 2026. I'm lucky to work with a diverse group of humble, eager learners and stellar programmers. I can't say enough good things about my tenure here!

R&D Engineer Intern

I was privileged to be a team member contributing to HEREā€™s next generation 3D mapping data creation. A variety of tools supported the software development process, including: JavaScript, Scala, Java, AWS (Redshift, S3, EC2), Jenkins, Gerrit, and Jira.

This was my first role out of a coding bootcamp, and it was both challenging and fulfilling. My programming skills grew rapidly, and I was surrounded by incredibly talented people. Check out the awesome work HERE Technologies. Spoiler: location data is powerful!

Teacher's Assistant & Student

My interest as a programmer came to full fruition upon my admission to Actualizeā€™s 15-week coding bootcamp. I learned how to program from the ground up, using Ruby on Rails and Javascript oriented frontend development. You can find my capstone demo video here. After completing the bootcamp I began work as a teacher's assistant and post-bootcamp instructor, aiding future developers attending Actualize.

Science Educator

I attended college at Northern Michigan University in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My degree was in Integrated Science, Secondary Education with a Biology minor - in other words, a high school science teacher.

Iā€™m enthusiastic about all things science and the role discovery and problem-solving play in shaping the next generation.

Hobbies

I love, love, love all things games. Video games and board games are the biggest contributors to that passion. Favorite video games include Ocarina of Time, Counter-Strike, and Stardew Valley. If you get me started on any of these, itā€™ll be hard to shut me up!

Iā€™ve also been into disc golf for most of my adult life. In 2024, I was lucky enough to attend a professional tournament with friends and had a great time. More recently, Iā€™ve picked up pickleball and morning yoga. Getting older isnā€™t fun, but yoga definitely helps keep the joints and muscles greased!

Being passionate about my job and hobbies is core to my personality. Iā€™m a genuinely positive person and actively seek out ways to stay happy and keep my brain engaged. If youā€™d like to know more, donā€™t hesitate to reach out via email at: jplong91@gmail.com

With that, you made it to the end! Thanks for reading. Are portfolios just job dating profiles?! Let me know what you think šŸ˜‡