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The resume of developer Chris Wiegman
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resume.md

Chris Wiegman

chriswiegman.com | email

I am a Sr. Staff Software Engineer on the teams building Atlas for WP Engine. Throughout my career I've lead teams building everything from JavaScript frameworks, WordPress plugins, Chrome extensions, development environments and more. When not building software I enjoy teaching, mentoring and speaking and have been fortunate to do so at dozens of conferences, Meetups and other events. Today my work, both personal and professional, focuses on the intersection of development, privacy, ethics and usability of software and development to help improve the lives of everyone who uses modern technology.

Professional Experience

Sr. Stafff Software Engineer

WP Engine - Apr 2024 - Present

  • My role covers traditional software engineering, developer relations and more as I work to help WP Engine promote and grow the Atlas platform.

Engineering Manager

WP Engine - Dec 2021 - Mar 2024

  • Lead the Faust.js and WPGraphQL teams in building robust solutions to make headless development with WordPress easy and accessible.
  • Drove Faust.js through a change in mission and technology to ensure it becomes the de-facto standard for headless WordPress development.
  • Lead my teams both in my official role as Engineering Manager as well as Product Manager for both products.
  • Built and managed a team of 7 engineers who work directly on headless WordPress solutions.
  • Sponsor of the company's internship program for high school and college software engineering interns.
  • Lead the company's engineering hackathon bringing together a team of folks to ensure our remote hackathon was successful over hundreds of people and dozens of teams and projects.
  • Lead the organization's mentorship program connecting mentors with mentees looking to advance their technical skills in support of their careers.

Senior Software Engineer

WP Engine - Sep 2018 - Nov 2021

  • Built and launched the Atlas Content Modeler WordPress plugin with a team of talented WordPress developers to improve the content editing experience for headless WordPress.
  • Designed an built Live Cart to improve the performance and usability of eCommerce sites on the WP Engine platform.
  • Built scalable microservices, WordPress plugins and other projects with languages including PHP, GoLang, Python, Ruby, JavaScript and more.
  • Managed project build pipelines and workflow with technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, Jenkins, Google and Amazon cloud services and numerous others.
  • Built WP Engine's DevKit local development environment throughout the lifespan of the product.
  • Helped build WP Engine's relationship with the WordPress developer community through speaking, writing and related advocacy.
  • Assisted in the hiring and training of new team members through code reviews, interviews and mentoring engineers throughout the organization.
  • Served as the team's "agile advocate" to help facilitate and organize projects and other work through the use of Agile techniques and the Scrum framework.
  • Served as a mentor for employees looking to level-up on various skills used in WP Engine's engineering organization.

Senior Web Developer

University of Florida - Sep 2016 - Sep 2018

  • Maintained and improved the organization's many websites across both WordPress and Drupal platforms.
  • Helped scale team workflow with tools such as CI and other automated tools to improve security and performance of all web properties.
  • Built various tools in Laravel and other technologies for use throughout the organization.
  • Built and maintained a Vagrant configuration using puppet to replicate the specific nuances and configuration of our production servers.

Senior Web Engineer

10up - Feb 2015 - Sep 2016

  • Contributed in the building of enterprise level WordPress solutions such as ElasticPress for internal and client use.
  • Provided support and guidance for clients such as Brightcove and others.
  • Developed project estimates and other documentation for use in planning, execution and further development of client projects.
  • Promoted 10up and gave back to the WordPress community by speaking throughout the US on WordPress and related topics.

Developer (Lead Developer iThemes Security)

iThemes.com - Dec 2013 - Feb 2015

  • Converted Better WP Security to iThemes Security and launched a companion pro version.
  • Guided the development of iThemes Security support and related areas.
  • Helped manage the growth of the project with the addition of team members providing services such as design and support.

Senior Developer

Springbox - Apr 2013 - Nov 2013

  • Developed websites and solutions for national brands such as Nestle, The Air Force Academy and others.
  • Furthered the use of WordPress internally with training and other education while utilizing the platform in numerous sites and projects.
  • Developed internal infrastructure including development and production servers, deployment systems and supporting systems.
  • Led the developer intern program helping college students gain valuable agency experience.

Adjunct Faculty - Computer Science

St. Edward's University - Aug 2012 - Dec 2013

  • Taught an Introduction to Computer Science Course as well as an advanced course on computer security.
  • As an adjunct I was awarded my own course in computer security during my first semester teaching.

Web Developer

St. Edward's University - Jan 2012 - Apr 2013

  • Developed university websites in Drupal, PHP and other technologies.
  • Worked with a close, professional team to present solutions to further university goals.
  • Participated in projects ranging from marketing to identity management.

Developer, Blogger, Owner

Bit51 - May 2003 - Nov 2013

  • Developed the Better WP Security plugin which, at the time of its sale, was one of the most popular plugins on WordPress.org.
  • Created the Better Google Tasks Chrome Extension which received accolades from users including Matt Cutts.
  • Developed other WordPress plugins and Chrome Extensions.
  • Built sites for small clients in WordPress and Drupal.
  • Helped give back to the community through blogging and speaking.
  • Hired and managed a team of professionals to provide customer service to users of Better WP Security.

LAN Systems Specialist

Southern Illinois University - Aug 1998 - Jan 2012

  • Took SIU Aviation from a mostly paper based organization to one utilizing over 400 computers and servers supporting faculty, staff and students.
  • Developed the departmental web infrastructure in Drupal and WordPress which grew to contain over 10,000 pages.
  • Hired, trained and supervised a team consisting of student workers and graduate assistants utilized in helping efforts in marketing and user support.
  • Guided the department in all areas of technology as a member of the department's advisory panel.
  • Gave back to the rest of the university community in time and expertise in matters related to website development and digital marketing.

Captain/Training Captain

Pacific Wings Airlines - Nov 2005 - Nov 2006

  • Transported passengers and cargo throughout the Hawaiian islands as a captain in charge of my aircraft, crew and fare.
  • Trained new captains and first officers on procedures relating to the Cessna 208 aircraft utilized by the company.
  • Guided and mentored new pilots throughout their initial operating experience with the airline.

Pilot/Flight Instructor

Northern Illinois Flight Center - Aug 2004 - Oct 2005

  • Transported owners and clients on Citation and Falcon business jets.
  • Taught individuals how to fly in pursuit of their private and commercial pilot's licenses as well as toward instrument ratings.
  • Helped new aircraft owners transition to their planes for the company's Cessna dealership.

Flight Instructor

Southern Illinois University - Sep 2001 - May 2003

  • Taught students of the university's aviation program from private pilot to certified flight instructor.
  • Managed lesson plans, coursework and FAA records for a variety of students each semester.

Popular Projects

Kana

Kana is a simple WordPress development, written in Go, that focuses on plugin and theme development. It offers a zero-config, complete WordPress development environment based on Docker.

WP Engine's Live Cart

Live Cart is a WordPress plugin for WP Engine customers that solves the cart fragments problem faced by WooCommerce store owners in a novel way. Instead of simply disabling cart fragments it shows them only if needed when there is a project in the cart and it also makes use of WP Engine's cache to cache popular cart fragments. In my testing it could make stores with Cart Fragments perform as well as stores without them, especially in smallers stores.

WP Engine’s Faust.js headless WordPress framework

Faust.js is a JavaScript framework that aims to make headless development easier for WordPress developers by bringing forth the full power of WordPress to headless apps. Currently it offers features such as authentication, post previews, the WordPress template hierarchy, the WordPress Toolbar and support for Gutenberg blocks.

WP Engine’s Atlas Content Modeler - Project replaced by ACF

Atlas Content Modeler was WP Engine's answer to creating more structured content for headless WordPress developers. It allowed the creation of custom post types, fields and more. Upon WP Engine's purchase of Delicious Brains and ACF, the development of Atlas Content Modeler was ended in order to focus on ACF.

WP Engine’s DevKit - Project replaced by Local by Flywheel

DevKit was a WordPress development environment, based on Docker, designed for advanced WordPress developers. It was sunsetted in favor of the more mature, Local, product upon WP Engine's purchase of Flywheel and Local.

Primary Vagrant - Project archived

Primary Vagrant was a WordPress development environment based on Vagrant and Virtualbox that allowed WordPress developers to spin up highly customizable WordPress development sites quickly for plugin, theme or site development.

iThemes Security (Better WP Security) - Sold to iThemes

Better WP Security was a WordPress security plugin designed to help site owners ensure they are enforcing the best security practices possible to keep their site safe. Upon its sale to iThemes in 2013 it already had over 2 million downloads on WordPress.org and it lives on today as iThemes Security and iThemes Security Pro.

Better Google Tasks - Project archived

Better Google Tasks was a Google Chrome extension that made managing Google Tasks easy with notifications and full task management from the Google Chrome toolbar.

Certifications and Licenses

  • Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®) - Jan 2021
  • A+ Certified - Jul 1997
  • FAA Certified Flight Instructor, Instrument (CFI-I) - Jul 2022
  • FAA Commercial Pilot - ASEL, AMEL - Jun 2001

Education

M.S. Computer Science

B.S. Aviation Management

Speaking Engagements

Other Activities

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