Jon Roberts

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SUMMARY

Lead software engineer with 15+ years building Ruby on Rails and, more recently, TypeScript systems. I specialize in search, authentication, and high-traffic event platforms, with Nix at work and at home.

SKILLS

Languages
Ruby, TypeScript, JavaScript, Haskell, SQL, PHP
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails, Hanami, React, SolidJS
Search
OpenSearch / Elasticsearch
Auth
SAML, OAuth2 / PKCE, JWT, SSO, Okta, Doorkeeper
Data
PostgreSQL, pgvector, Redis, MySQL, CouchDB
Infra
Nix, Docker, Ansible, AWS, Github Actions
OS
Linux (NixOS, Debian / Ubuntu, Gentoo), macOS

EXPERIENCE

Mar 2022 – Present

Lead Software Engineer
South by Southwest
Remote

  • Technical lead for a team of 6–10 developers. Build reference architecture the team reuses across projects, review pull requests, and mentor less experienced engineers.
  • Designed a search architecture for the SXSW schedule, using OpenSearch (Elasticsearch) as a read-optimized store for the frontend and Postgres as the normalized source of truth.
  • Built custom index mappings and denormalized documents across several models, with a presentation layer that shapes results, highlights, and aggregations for faceted search in a React frontend.
  • Led a phased migration to unified SSO across SXSW’s Rails and WordPress properties: Clearance sessions with Redis broadcast, a bridge between the .sxsw.com and .sxswedu.com domains, and OAuth2 / PKCE with JWT for the mobile app.
  • Rebuilt the attendee recommendations system on pgvector.
  • Run development workflows in Jira and GitHub, maintain CI pipelines, Docker and Ansible configuration, and Nix dev environments, and handle AWS infrastructure changes.
  • Building MCP tools that let attendees query the schedule through LLM agents.

Mar 2021 – Mar 2022

Senior Software Engineer
Proof (formerly Notarize)
Remote

  • Built SAML single sign-on through Okta for internal staff, mapping Okta groups to role-based access control in the app.
  • Integrated with eOriginal’s eVault to securely store the authoritative copies of digitally signed documents.
  • Built a CLI tool around a Java PDF library for document processing.
  • Refactored flaky and slow rspec+factorybot tests to improve CI reliability.
  • Converted / refactored legacy JavaScript to TypeScript.
  • Migrated application configuration to AWS Parameter Store as part of the move from Heroku to AWS.

Oct 2012 – Mar 2021

Senior Software Engineer
South by Southwest
Austin, TX

  • Owned SXSW’s core attendee systems: the schedule platform (schedule.sxsw.com), the e-commerce cart and checkout, and the central OAuth / SSO provider used across SXSW’s apps.
  • Built cart checkout, coupon redemption, guest-to-user cart merging, and payment processing with ActiveMerchant, plus a coupon management service and a centralized transaction-logging API for payment gateways.
  • Built PanelPicker’s public voting and scoring system for session proposals, and messaging, badges, and Facebook login for the SXSW social app.
  • Built on-site registration tools: wristband and badge distribution with registration import and deduplication, FileMaker-integrated artist registration, and a volunteer badge printing app using the Shiftboard API.
  • Built an image hosting and manipulation service on Thumbor, with client gems that integrated it into SXSW’s Rails apps.

Sep 2009 – Oct 2012

Independent Contractor
Various
Austin, TX

  • Built Rails, Drupal, and WordPress projects for clients including SXSW, Dell, UT Austin, Austin Humane Society, and Scott & White.

Sep 2008 – Sep 2009

Lead Developer
Pixeldust Interactive
Austin, TX

  • Built a 12-language, PDF-generating Drupal site for Johnson Controls, plus CakePHP and WordPress sites for other clients.

1998 – 2008

Web / UX designer, and CG artist roles in Austin and Indianapolis.

EDUCATION

1999 – 2003

Savannah College of Art & Design
BFA in Computer Art

Studied VFX, compositing, procedural effects, shader programming, design, and a ton of art history.

PROJECTS

nix-config
Multi-host NixOS flake for my desktops and homelab.
rails-nix
Example Rails app using Nix for all dependencies.
other open-source
Contributed to nixpkgs, dry-rb, elasticsearch-rails, xmonad-contrib, fmrest-ruby, etc.

INTERESTS

Functional programming (Haskell, Elixir, Gleam, Elm, Rust*), cooking, gardening, mushroom foraging, guitar (badly), bicycles, photography.