Resume of Jim Christopher

A forward-thinking software engineer with 14 years of full SDLC experience across highly-regulated commercial, defense, and education industries.  Excellent written and verbal communication skills.  Scientifically-trained and industry-honed research and problem solving abilities.  Award-winning teaching and mentoring experience.

Objective

A leadership role in a pragmatic software development group, working in an environment leveraging my creative problem solving skills and diverse software development background.

Technical Qualifications

Languages:Technologies:Methodologies:
  • C#
  • C++
  • SQL
  • Powershell
  • MSIL
  • x86 Assembler
  • XML / XSL
  • DHTML / XHTML
  • Java Script
  • Java
  • PHP
  • Perl
  • .NET, Mono, CLI
  • Cryptographic Systems / PKI
  • Design Patterns
  • CLR Hosting
  • Spring.NET, Castle, Unity
  • Microsoft Enterprise Library
  • Powershell, Cmdlets, Providers
  • ASP / ASP.NET
  • Web Services
  • MSBuild, CruiseControl.NET
  • Windows Device Drivers, WDK
  • Sockets, TCP/IP, UDP, Remoting
  • ATL / WTL / MFC
  • COM / ActiveX Control Development
  • Unit Testing / TDD
  • Object Mocking
  • Inversion of Control / Dependency Injection
  • User Stories
  • Scrum
  • Continuous Integration

Code Owls LLC

Owner
3/2010 – Present

Provide software engineering and project management services.  Manage open source projects.  Promote PowerShell and .NET.

  • Created StudioShell - a deeply integrated PowerShell host for Visual Studio 2008 and 2010.
  • Open sourced the ASP.NET Membership provider and PoshRabbit projects.
  • Speaker at Southeast User Groups and developer conferences, discussing PowerShell development, distributed SCM, and StudioShell.

PokerTek, Inc.

Senior Software Engineer
9/2005 – 3/2010

Responsible for the specification, design, implementation, testing, and support of applications and systems to run automated electronic poker rooms in the highly-regulated gaming industry.  Acting SCM, build master, and Scrum master.

  • Surpassed regulatory compliance for application security by creating a federated application integrity validation system using C#, Public Key Cryptography, SQL, Remoting, and TCP/IP.
  • Enabled regulatory product approval by implementing security and instrumentation services that comply with established regulatory protocols and standards (e.g., GAT3) using C#, Remoting, and Powershell.
  • Development of WDF and DDK Windows device drivers for control of proprietary hardware using C++, and assembler.
  • Shortened regulatory product approval cycles by creating a system for correlating source code to a compiled binary using reverse engineering techniques.
  • As Scrum master, successfully guided the software team to achieve project milestones on-time during unexpected layoffs and subsequent team attrition.
  • Established pragmatic development methodologies and project management techniques including Scrum, unit testing, test-driven development, user stories, planning poker, iterative and incremental development cycles, automated builds, and continuous integration.

LearningStation, Inc.

http://www.learningstation.com
Senior Architect
7/2002 – 9/2005

Directed all systems integration of third-party vendor applications into the LearningStation Education Desktop™. Created and supported new web applications targeting the education market. Maintained legacy applications.

  • Simplified security systems integration by creating an identity federation service based on SAML v2.0 using C#, ASP.NET, SQL, Web Services, PHP, XML, and Public Key Cryptography.
  • Effected a 37% decrease in user-level support incidents by implementing an audit system to log changes to key database entities.
  • Improved reliability and maintainability of systems integration failure points by refactoring manual data migration systems into a single, automated, and audited process.

Convey Systems, Inc.

Software Engineer
2/2001 – 7/2002

Responsible for design, implementation, testing, and support of distributed Internet communication and collaboration applications using C++, ATL, WTL, COM, Java, Visual Basic, Javascript, VBScript, ASP, ADO, XML, and SQL.

  • Successfully ported highly integrated browser host application from Internet Explorer to AOL, Netscape Navigator, and Mozilla two months ahead of schedule.
  • Maximized support team responsiveness with a proactive system that logs field incidents to a central service in real-time using XML, ASP, ADO, SQL, and C++.
  • Accelerated component development by creating a software factory that ports ActiveX controls to Java libraries and Netscape Plug-ins.
  • Increased team productivity by creating a documentation system that generates HTMLHelp for an ActiveX component using ATL, Javascript, ADO, and Windows Script Components.

Compuware Corporation

Professional Staff
5/2000 – 2/2001

Provided consulting services for software development, web development, quality control, and documentation projects for various clients.

  • The majority of this time was spent as a consultant to Convey Systems, Inc.

Breault Research Organization, Inc.

http://www.bro.com
Windows / Internet Software Developer 1/1998 – 2/2000

Responsible for design, implementation, and testing of modules for optical engineering applications using Visual C++, MFC, ATL, and Perl; website development using JavaScript, Perl, VBScript; software and web quality control and maintenance.

  • Maintained a Secret security clearance.
  • Realized a 3 to 8 minute increase in Customer Support incident responsiveness (a 26% increase in total incident capacity) by creating Internet-enabled application support modules.
  • Maximized team efficiency by standardizing UI development into a simple text-based framework.
  • Increased website traffic by 112% through long-term content strategies for the vertical optical engineering market.

Education

University of Arizona, Dept. of Psychology

MA Cognitive Psychology
8/1995 – 1/1998
Tucson, AZ
  • Development of QUAVER perception experiment engine library in C++.
  • Specialization in human perception and behavioral statistics.

Trinity University, Dept. of Psychology

BA Psychology
8/1991 – 5/1995
San Antonio, TX
  • 3.7 GPA 

Publications

Christopher, Jim. "Extending the Windows Scripting Environment." Windows Developer's Journal. October, 2001.

Awards

  • Finalist, Blue Diamond Technology Award, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, Spring 2002.
  • Favorite Faculty Member, University of Arizona, Fall 1997.