Darrin Horn

My Services

Darrin is an experienced web developer with over 19 years of experience with expertise in various front end technologies in large commercial environments. Most recently, he has worked with Microsoft in the Enterprise & Partner Group, supporting the large scale Enterprise web site. Prior to this he was at Gamehouse.com where in addition to maintaining and developing for the public gaming site, has redone the front end of the existing ecomm systems. Web coding standards, cross-browser compatibility and scalability have been paramount throughout his career and have guided his teams to create dynamic, highly functional web applications. His interest is to work more with the latest technologies in responsive design.

Expertise

Front-end Engineering

Industry Specialization

Internet Services & Retail

Previous Employers

iSoftStone, Kirkland, WA (contracted with Microsoft) December 2013 – July 2016 (2.5 years) Senior Software Development Engineer (Contract) Environment: Agile; Tech used: HTML, CSS, Javascript, XSLT/XMP, Wordpress, PHP • Lead developer for the Microsoft Enterprise website, a highly interactive and modern website. In charge of website innovation, responsive webpage development and website maintenance • Component-driven development, highly customizable components, design for re usability • Also in charge of subsidiary localization development across 60+ subsites • Architect of a total site / platform redesign using Wordpress and PHP • Current landing page: http://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-us/ Site was initially developed on a XSLT/XML framework containing 300+ pages per locale. In 2015 I co-architected a replacement site with Wordpess and custom PHP, to support both initiatives of driving more end user content creation, and the old site reaching end-of-life status. I currently lead a small team of offshore developers in the ongoing support of the site, and addition of new features. Microsoft, Bellevue, WA June 2013 – December 2013 UX Designer / Developer (Contract) Environment: Agile; Tech used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript • Work with a team of designers prototyping tools and UI for Bing • This includes a A/B testing tool, and a tool for creating and modifying custom pages for testing of Bing.com workflows Gamehouse.com, Seattle, WA June 2011 – May 2013 (2 years) Senior Web Developer Environment: Agile; Tech used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, Java, JSTL • Work on a team of developers leading the front end development and maintenance of the public gaming site. • Site is built on a JSP / Spring architecture, using JIRA as a bug / sprint tracking system. • Using Agile practices in a SCRUMM environment split into 3 week sprints. • Developed the existing ecommerce pages to connect to an updated eComm 2.0 platform. This included an entirely new front end using json data. • Currently involved in a push to migrate the existing site and users to a different platform located overseas. • Supporting all daily marketing efforts including the management of all daily releases Our team, of 7 devs and QA, primarily worked on new features on the site. This included new site widgets, functionality and pages to support Gamehouse.com. Supported existing functionality along with creation of pages for the Zylom sister site. In the past 9 months though, we worked on the creation of a new ordering system that supported the ecomm 2.0 backend. Since marketing wanted the pages existing completely in the content management system, we developed the pages using json. All the controllers returned a json data package that was then rendered to the page when loaded. Most site pages were HTML in the content management system with site “widgets” as JSPs. The site used jQuery as a javascript framework. Classmates, Seattle, WA April 2008 – June 2011 (3 years) Senior Software Engineer Environment: Agile; Tech used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, Java, JSTL • Work on a team of developers leading the front end creation and maintenance of a large Web 2.0 social networking site. • Site is built on a JSP / Spring architecture, currently using JIRA as a bug tracking system. • Team worked in a strict Agile environment split into 2 week sprints. • Successfully launched the yearbooks project onto the site, which was a front end to the initiative to put high school yearbooks online. • Successfully migrated all code in the rebranding effort to change the company’s web presence. Our team was one of the teams in charge of new features to the Classmates.com website, bringing new features such as quizzes, surveys and other “fun” activities. Worked on the front end dev work to support the memory lane redesign that was in progress. The major feature that I worked on while I was there was Yearbooks, a project to bring high school yearbooks to the web. Since the launch time was quick, there wasn’t a lot of planning an making this a reusable component and I was tasked to do the front end of the feature. This was accomplished by extending a number of jQuery functions in order to achieve some of the sliding thumbnail effects. This was a challenging, and fun, project as I had no idea going into it how it was going to be accomplished from a technical standpoint. These were all JSP pages using JSTL, and jQuery, with a spring middle tier. We moved to a completely Agile environment in the years that I was there, reworking our teams into smaller more focused groups that had ownership of areas of the site. Regence, Seattle, WA March 2006 - April 2008 (2 years) Senior Web Interface Developer Environment: Agile; Tech used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, JSTL, .Net • Led the development effort for the rebuild of the public website for Regence.com. • Led the creation of development standards across any new development done within the team. • Responsible for the inclusion and UI treatment of a Google Search appliance into the site. This was done via an XSLT web interface. • Involved in the new design and UI development of internal tools used internal within Regence. • Developed a drag and drop comparison tool using ASP.net and AJAX. • Started at Regence working on the myregence.com member portal, which is a JSP data driven site for Regence members. • Involvement was UI interaction and development of new pieces on the site. • The main piece of this was the inclusion of a community section of the site. I was the lead developer on the web team, which primarily was concerned with keeping the Regence.com website updated with new features and pages. I was brought up to head up the project of redoing the entire 4 websites, and integrating them all, along with partner sites, into a single new main site. These pages were all generated via Teamsite as a content management system. Teamsite used templates that were written in JSP and JSTL. I found myself doing very little development, outside some of the tricky stuff, but instead was the interface between some of the various distinct teams within Regence for the development work. We had a contract agency that did the website, a Java group that worked on Teamsite templates, a different Java group that was in charge of setting up the backend, and our team that was in charge of the overall project. Had to do some customization via XSLT to integrate the Google search appliance into the system via a proprietary web interface. There were other sub projects that occurred during this time, such as a provider tool that was eventually written in asp.net. Originally, myself and a designer sat down and wrote a fully functional demo using jQuery and handed it off to the team. This was rewritten, and then thrown back to me to “make it look nice”. This was challenging as I didn’t have much asp.net experience and rewriting what we already had written on top of this was difficult. Until the .com project was underway, I was working on the myRegence.com member site. This was a JSP application in which I was involved in writing the front end of. Primarily the look and feel, as the structure was already provided.One of the big accomplishments at Regence was the bringing together of some of the various development silos that existed within the company. The web team was part of marketing, and as they were not considered “developers” were not allowed access to many things. I was the first person to bridge that gap, and worked with the java group extensively and was able to get access to many of the systems in place. This was needed as we were expected to provide interface changes to these systems. 4thPass / Motorola, Seattle, WA Aug 2001 - March 2006 (5 years) Senior Web Developer Environment: Agile; Tech used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, Java, JSTL • Wrote a JSP / XML based application for purchasing and maintaining apps and subscriptions for web-enabled cell phones. • This included a cross-browser drag/drop DHTML implementation for organizing applications. • Subsequent revisions of this application were rewritten using Struts and JSTL in order to handle the load of 1 million+ users in various locales and languages. • Was involved in the full design, implementation, and maintenance of the front end. • The application is using BEA weblogic as an application server with Oracle as the backend database. • Managed the interface between the development groups here in Seattle with a software group in China for ongoing development work being done. We worked for years on a system that went through many incarnations, but was originally designed as a system to manage java app provisioning on cell phones. I was brought it to rework the existing system to work in Netscape 4.5, including a drag and drop interface. This was challenging as it was trying to support a browser that had been out of date for 4 years. This system went a complete redesign a year later to support newer browsers, but still had to support older functionality. It also evolved over the years into a cell phone firmware update management system, and then into a system to manage cell phone “news feeds” but the underlying code base was the same. thePLATFORM, Seattle, WA May 2001 - May 2001 (1 month) Web Developer (contract) Environment: Agile; Tech used: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP • Developed ASP based prototypes for this multimedia company in order for them to show demos of their system. • This included developing an Access database that drove the system. • This was a non functional demo, as it did not hook up to any live backend code but had enough dummy data in the database to simulate functionality Saltmine LLC, Bellevue, WA Dec 2000 - Feb 2001 (2 months) Web Developer Environment: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, • Redesigned a portion of the Saltmine internal website, in order to update the content and look. • Developed an ASP based web-application that will be used for employee skills tracking. • Implemented an Access database. Microsoft, Redmond, WA May 2000 - Dec 2000 (6 months) Web Developer (contract) Environment: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, ASP, SQL • Contracted to Microsoft Learning Technologies group. • Primarily worked creating prototypes of the upcoming product releases, serving as a bridge between the Project Managers and the developers. • Worked closely with the designers to determine how the interface would look and feel. Implemented the changes into a website prototype. • Helped to conduct usability studies and rework the demo accordingly based upon user feedback. • This work was done primarily in ASP and DHTML with extensive JavaScript throughout the sites. • To simulate actual functionality on the prototype sites, used an Access database to provide a base of sample information without connecting to actual live data. Digital Counterpart Inc., Seattle, WA December 1998 - March 2000 (1.5 years) Software Engineer Environment: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, Java, • Developed the customer facing' piece of an online order entry/management system for the telecommunications industry. • The original code was written using ASP with IIS and connected directly to a SQL Server. • The second version of the application was redeveloped to use Java Server Pages on a Sun server communicating to java middleware and an Oracle 7 Database. • The Second version included over 400 individual pages. • Designed the graphical interface of both the product and the company's internet home page. This was written in response to the recent federal regulations opening up the path for small phone companies to exist. As they would all need a order entry/management tool to provision new cell phones, we took all aspects of the process and integrated them into a single online system. Destinations.com, Seattle, WA July 1998 - October 1998 (4 months) Software Engineer (contract) Environment: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, LiveWrie • Developed an online reservation system using Netscape's Livewire, and an Oracle database. • Wrote and rewrote new and existing Perl applications to handle messaging and guest book capabilities of the site. AT&T, Redmond, WA May 1997 - July 1998 (1 year) Software Engineer (contract) Environment: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSP, Java, • Sole web developer and primary manager for a large intranet system with several subsystems. • In charge of all major decisions affecting the site, including site layout, complete system design, and software maintenance. • Primarily worked with HTML, Perl and Java. • Increased intranet size and traffic by a factor of ten within the year. • Designed and wrote a number of database Perl Scripts that generated reports from the database that were used to present business information on the web site. • Completed all graphic design for the intranet site. • Responsible for installing and maintaining the Netscape Enterprise Servers, both on Unix and NT4.

College / University Degrees

Bachelor

university of idaho