Ryan Walsh

Ryan Walsh

Senior Software Engineer
18+ of leadership roles in software engineering and management
I’d hire Ryan again in a heartbeat and wish I could hire 100 more of him.

Table of Contents

Intro

Don’t hire me if you want someone to:
  • Take orders blindly. (I am goal-oriented instead of task-oriented and habitually step back and consider the best path and offer my recommendations candidly.)
Hire me if you value:
  • Teammates who act like owners and take full responsibility for achieving goals.
  • Decades of startup experience (including running my own for 5 years)
  • Principles-based leadership
    I helped teach Ray Dalio’s management principles at Bridgewater (#1 hedge fund in the world).
  • Mentoring & coaching with Radical Candor (“Challenge directly” + “Care personally”)
  • Continual improvement of the “machine” of the organization

Education

Princeton University
Bachelor of Arts

Praise & Endorsements

  • Ryan was an invaluable addition to our engineering team when there was a great deal of ambiguity with our product goals and implementation.

    Ambiguity is a common reality in many startups, and Ryan was able to jump straight in, orient himself and start positively contributing on day one.

    He quickly became a subject matter expert in multiple areas of the business and codebase.

    Notably, he brought a clarity of thought and of communication that highlighted critical points of friction in our customer payments flows and delivered solutions that measurably increased revenue.

    He has broad expertise across most aspects of running a business, a keen entrepreneurial mindset and all the technical skills to deliver great products.

    At Forte, he was both a leader who could think strategically and communicate effectively and an individual contributor who could deliver to an extremely high standard of quality.

    I wholeheartedly recommend working with him.

  • “Ryan is an excellent individual contributor as well as a technical leader and strategic thinker.

    He's analytical, thorough, curious, intelligent, hard-working, and an excellent communicator.

    He has broad experience in most aspects of building and running a startup, from the growth side to product to the technical implementations.

    He quickly and naturally jumps into difficult and unclear assignments and consistently delivers.

    I know everything he does will have been properly thought through and will be properly researched, architected, implemented, and documented.

    Any team would be lucky to have him as a member and I'd love to work with him again.”

  • “I’d hire Ryan again in a heartbeat and wish I could hire 100 more of him.”

  • I would jump at the opportunity to work with Ryan again. I think you would be lucky to have Ryan join your team.” [See full letter of recommendation.]

  • “Ryan is one of the bright young leaders of this generation. Extremely skilled, and sees the big picture as well. Thinks about not only the tech but the entire product as a single unit. Highly recommend Ryan...”

  • “Ryan’s entrepreneurial spirit and professional curiosity coupled with his distinctive analytic approach to operational efficiency serve him well both as a leader and collaborator.”

  • “In addition to his deep knowledge of software development, he takes a broad view of his projects within the context of the team’s and company’s goals. Ryan is thoughtful in everything he does and brings constructive suggestions. He’s collaborative and friendly. I’d gladly rehire him.

  • “Ryan is an outstanding individual, engineer, and product owner. Working with Ryan means deep conversations about the intent behind the product experience and commitment to delivering on that promise. Would love to work with Ryan again!

  • “Very much enjoyed working with Ryan. He's an intelligent, questioning, capable engineer. He pushes people whilst also being open to feedback. He's flexible enough to handle multiple domains, but logical enough to push to solutions. Would definitely work with Ryan again.” (Update: Re-hired Ryan)

Technical Expertise

  • Management: of up to 7 engineers from junior to senior skill level using Radical Candor & Principles
  • Front-end: TypeScript, React, Next.js, JavaScript, ES6, Tailwind, Vue, RedwoodJS, jQuery, Webpack, AJAX, HTML5, CSS, SCSS, Apollo, Jest, Jasmine, Mocha, Recoil, Google Tag Manager, mobile-first responsive design, Photoshop
  • Back-end: Node.js, SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, GraphQL, Prisma, Redis, Nginx, Apache, Docker, NEAR Protocol (blockchain), PHP (Laravel, Eloquent, Zend, Horizon, etc), Java (Spring)
  • Etc: Amazon Web Services (AWS) S3, SES, SNS, SQS, Elastic Load Balancer, EC2, RDS, Lambda, Lightsail, Cognito, Cloudwatch, Q, ASK. Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Serverless. OpenAI ChatGPT, Stripe, Git, Slack, unit testing, functional testing, Jira, Confluence, Asana

Professional Experience

Lead Frontend Engineer / Manager / Product Manager
May 2024 – present. Remote. Recruited as re-hire.
  • Building cutting-edge data discovery and visualization tool for financial professionals (for huge clients like JP Morgan).
Senior Software Engineer
May 2023 – Dec 2023. Remote. Laid off.
  • Building an industry-leading platform for music students to find teachers and take lessons online.
(#17 crypto behind Bitcoin and Ethereum)
Co-manager and Senior Software Engineer
Jan 2022 – Dec 2022. Remote. Crypto crash, laid off.
  • Developing software in support of educational programs that build awareness and increase the number of successful developers launching their apps on our sharded, proof-of-stake public blockchain. Keywords: crypto, cryptocurrency, web3, trustless
Team Lead - Senior Software Engineer
Nov 2020 – May 2021. Remote.
  • Creating an easy-to-use front-end for a cutting-edge platform that enables US energy utility companies to modernize their electric grids to better support electric vehicles, solar and wind resources, and other green technologies.
Rose.ai / Better.com
Team Lead - Senior Software Engineer
Jun 2020 – Aug 2020. Remote.
  • Building systems to enable the CEO of a $3-billion company (#1-ranked startup on LinkedIn) to identify top employees and efficiently recruit thousands more with those characteristics.
Co-Founder
Oct 2015 – Jul 2020. Remote.
  • Architected, designed, and developed the payment systems, automations, email services, databases (ensuring uncompromising security and confidentiality of all materials), course portals, internal dashboards, analytics, risk controls, and Facebook ads for a successful online course business reaching up to $41k/month.
Senior Software Engineer & Product Manager
May 2012 – Feb 2015. Remote / San Diego.
  • Served as a lead full-stack engineer for the 156th-fastest-growing company in the US, which got acquired by an $11B company (Rakuten).
Software Engineer & UX Engineer
Jan 2011 – May 2012. Remote / San Diego.
  • Building a white-labeled enterprise dashboard that enabled Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Vodafone, and other cell phone carriers to offer new smartphones with industry-changing 'à la carte' billing technology popular internationally (and required the utmost precision since it controlled users’ charges).
Founder
Nov 2010 – Dec 2011. Remote.
  • Architected, designed, and developed powerful alumni networking site featuring discussion forums, local alumni personality matcher, and more.
Founder
Jul 2010 – Dec 2011. Remote.
  • Architected, designed, and developed location-aware website that was the largest web-based listing of free items offered for local reuse.
(#1 hedge fund in the world)
Project Manager and other roles
Aug 2006 – Jun 2010
  • Managed a team of technologists in construction of large database & reporting system for company-wide metrics.
Princeton University’s official student homepage
Developer and Webmaster
2005 – 2006
  • Engineered and led Princeton University’s official student homepage and primary source of information for undergraduates for two years (Point.Princeton.edu). Also invented Point’s predecessor and helped acquire founding support for it.

Habits, Lifestyle, Personality

Favorite Books

Interests

  • new technology (blockchain / cryptocurrencies, life extension, eVTOL, drones, VR/AR, AI, deep learning, biotech, nanotech, 3D printing, space exploration, etc)
  • entrepreneurship
  • positive psychology
  • mindbody interaction
  • user experience
  • cryptography
  • basketball
  • pickleball
  • surfing
  • soccer
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