Christopher is available for hire

Christopher Ford

Verified Expert in Engineering

Web Developer

Location

Grand Rapids, MI, United States

Toptal Member Since

August 17, 2022

Chris is a full-stack software developer experienced in handling many projects. He specializes in listening and understanding the client's needs and applying a technical solution to create a solution. Sometimes, that can be a website. Sometimes, it is an automation tool. Whatever the need is, he can create the software to fill it!

Web Development Software Engineering Front-end Web Scraping Back-end ESLint Full-stack AWS DevOps Git PHP GitHub JSON Python REST APIs SQL

Portfolio

Retextion

Node.js, Express.js, React, PostgreSQL, Shopify, Shopify API, GraphQL, Redux...

firstSTREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. dba Journey Health Lifestyle

React, Gatsby, Shopify API, Shopify Plus, Azure Active Directory B2C (ADB2C)...

Pageworks

PHP, React, Node.js, Express.js, Amazon Web Services (AWS), DevOps, MySQL...

Experience

Web Development - 6 years PHP - 6 years Node.js - 5 years Laravel - 5 years Express.js - 5 years React - 5 years Next.js - 4 years Vue - 4 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

MacOS, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Jira

The most amazing...

...thing I've done is work for a startup that began with a small code base and few features and took it to a live product with hundreds of thousands of users.

Work Experience

Lead Full-stack Engineer

2021 - PRESENT

Retextion

Created custom integrations with Klaviyo and Gorgias.
Developed a customer-facing portal integrated with the Shopify API. Set it up so customers can authenticate, interact, and edit product subscriptions in real-time.
Integrated the Shopify application with Twilio and webhooks for seamless customer communication via SMS text messages and a chatbot.

Technologies: Node.js, Express.js, React, PostgreSQL, Shopify, Shopify API, GraphQL, Redux, Front-end, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Back-end, MongoDB, Stripe, JSON, APIs, API Integration, Stripe API, Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), ESLint, Leadership, Full-stack, NGINX, SaaS, Amazon EC2, Redis Cache, REST APIs, SQL, eCommerce APIs, Jest, Git, Storybook

Gatsby Developer

2022 - 2022

firstSTREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. dba Journey Health Lifestyle

Worked for a health and lifestyle company where I developed the customized storefront for the company products from scratch using React.js/Node.js and Shopify GQL API.
Calculated the estimated tax and the shipping price using Avalara API.
Implemented the checkout and custom tagging feature using Shopify webhooks.

Technologies: React, Gatsby, Shopify API, Shopify Plus, Azure Active Directory B2C (ADB2C), Full-stack, GitHub, Amazon EC2, Redis Cache, REST APIs, SQL, Django, eCommerce APIs, Jest, Git, Storybook

Full-stack Software Developer

2019 - 2021

Pageworks

Engineered full-stack modern web applications from the ground to production.
Improved company productivity by investigating inefficiencies and applying technology as a solution.
Resolved issues and features as needed/requested for many different software projects. Developed new and old features with different technology stacks on a flexible basis.
Created the company's first mobile application for both iOS and Android and integrated it with a familiar headless Craft CMS.

Technologies: PHP, React, Node.js, Express.js, Amazon Web Services (AWS), DevOps, MySQL, Software Engineering, Web Development, Laravel, Next.js, Gatsby, Full-stack Development, JSON, APIs, API Integration, Stripe API, Stripe, MUI (Material UI), Python, Firebase, Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), ESLint, Full-stack, Bootstrap, NGINX, SaaS, Redis Cache, SQL, Git

Web Developer and Database Administrator

2017 - 2018

Marshall Associates

Worked daily with MySQL database. Ensured software ran properly and resolved errors.
Added to the existing codebase of company software on front and back-end tasks and data-intensive projects.
Automated previously manually completed tasks to save the company hundreds of hours of labor.
Utilized AWS tools for database management and cloud computing purposes.

Technologies: PHP, Angular, React, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, JSON, API Integration, Firebase, Bootstrap, SQL, Git

Experience

Retextion

https://retextion.com

Retextion is a Shopify app created to help merchants manage their subscription-based business. I loaded it with helpful retention tools, such as a chatbot, email, SMS notifications, and promotion offerings. It also comes with automation tools and a customer-facing portal to allow users to manage their subscriptions at their fingertips and drastically cut down on customer service tickets.

365 Car Shop

https://365carshop.com

An online car shop that drives active car buyers in the local market to the dealership website every month. I worked on this project as a full-stack developer implementing many different features, optimizing the advanced filters using ES, and scraping the car details from various websites.

Ovation

https://app.ovationup.com

A guest feedback platform where guests can leave their feedback and reviews all in one place. Restaurants can determine business strategies based on the trending discovered by AI. As a full-stack developer, I resolved several challenging problems in the project, including the ML algorithm implementation and multi-dimensional data visualization.

Skills

Languages

PHP, HTML, GraphQL, JavaScript, Python, SQL, TypeScript, CSS

Frameworks

Laravel, Next.js, Express.js, Redux, MUI (Material UI), Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS, Django, Jest, Angular, React Native, NestJS, Serverless Framework

Libraries/APIs

React, Node.js, Vue, Stripe, Stripe API, REST APIs, Shopify API

Tools

GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Jira, Figma, Git, NGINX, Shopify Plus, Azure Active Directory B2C (ADB2C)

Paradigms

Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), DevOps

Platforms

Firebase, Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, Contentful, Shopify, Amazon Web Services (AWS), WooCommerce

Storage

MongoDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), JSON, Redis Cache, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Amazon DynamoDB, Elasticsearch

Other

Web Development, Software Engineering, Front-end, Full-stack Development, Back-end, API Integration, APIs, ESLint, Full-stack, WebSockets, eCommerce APIs, Mobile Back-end, AWS DevOps, Web Scraping, Gatsby, Leadership, SaaS, Storybook, Etsy

Education

2018 - 2020

Coursework in Software Engineering

42 Silicon Valley - San Francisco, CA

2012 - 2016

Bachelor's Degree in International Business

Aquinas College - Grand Rapids, MI