Charles Leifer

Lawrence, KS

Summary of qualifications

  • Active in open source development, having authored numerous popular projects hosted on GitHub
  • Co-created “readthedocs.org” for the 2011 Django Dash -- the site has taken off in the past year and receives almost 3 million pageviews a month
  • Passionate about programming, up on new developments, continually seeking new challenges.
  • Highly skilled in all steps of software development, from analysis to design, development, deployment and maintenance.
  • Very fast learner, can master new languages and technologies easily and intuitively.

Technologies

  • Server-side: Python, PHP, Bash, Google Go, C
  • Client-side: JavaScript (jQuery, Backbone, Prototype), HTML5, CSS, Ajax and Websockets
  • Database: SQL, relational database design, non-relational databases like Redis and Riak
  • Infrastructure: Linux administration, Amazon Web Services, Solr, Sphinx, ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ, Memcached, Nginx, Apache, Varnish Cache, Git, Jenkins CI

Experience

July 2009 – Present, Web Developer and Team Lead, Mediaphormedia and The World Company

Mediaphormedia is the innovative company behind the award-winning content management system Ellington, used on over 300 news and media websites across the United States. Mediaphormedia is also highly regarded in web development circles for creating and open-sourcing the python web framework Django. My role at Mediaphormedia is twofold: to develop new features and improvements for our products, and to work closely with the sales team and clients to deliver high-quality custom solutions.

  • Working on the award-winning publishing platform Ellington and the business listing service Marketplace
  • Leading development of new features as well as behind-the-scenes infrastructure improvements
  • Using Django, backed by PostgreSQL, Solr, Memcached, Redis and RabbitMQ to develop web applications for high-traffic sites
  • Developed a suite of social tools to help foster growth of online communities

July 2008 – June 2009, Web Developer, Lazerpro Digital Media Group

Lazerpro is the pre-eminent web development and online marketing company in central Pennsylvania. I started by porting all legacy applications, which reduced maintenance work greatly. Next I worked on sweeping improvements to the community portal "StateCollege.com", including writing an online food ordering system that does thousands of dollars per month in transactions.

  • Worked primarily in PHP, developing new features for a community portal StateCollege.com
  • Met with clients and members of the sales team to plan and develop custom e-commerce and brochure-ware sites
  • Designed and developed a very profitable online food ordering system
  • Rewrote many of the most popular features on the community portal, including classifieds, apartment listings, MLS, local news, and weather

Education

  • University of Kansas, B.A. English, Honors, GPA 3.65
  • Summerfield scholarship recipient, 4 years
  • School of Liberal Arts and Sciences Honors
  • Department of English Honors