MattBechtel
I am a full-stack developer with experience in developing technical processes with an eye towards finding revenue-generating solutions. I bring expertise in backend systems, API development and integration with some frontend experience working with modern JavaScript frameworks.
Skills
- Collaboration, Working on Cross-Functional Teams
- API Development & Serialization - Optimizing Database Calls
- Testing with Python unittest, Testslide, RSpec, Cucumber, and Capybara
- Agile Development & Continuous Development
Experience
Production Engineer
I design architecture and develop internal features to support capacity and resource management for the world's largest internal private cloud.
Software Application Developer
I developed and extended features for several Ruby on Rails applications used by staff and clients in support of a non-profit organization committed to building partnerships and resources for the world's most vulnerable people. Among my major projects was integrating a funds transfer system to distribute grants to people who lost their jobs due to the CoVid-19 economic slowdown. I was also responsible for building out behavioral test suites with Cucumber.
Director of Donor Relations
I managed all fundraising efforts for a small non-profit organization dedicated to providing out-of-school-time educational services to children in the District of Columbia. I built relationships with staff, donors, and other stakeholders with the goal of increasing funding for the organization's priorities.
Development Officer
As Development Officer at Refugees International, an international advocacy and policy organization, I developed a number of fundraising programs, oftentimes incorporating new software and technology, to increase revenue. Among other projects, I developed an end-of-year Presidential ask solicitation program to boost major gifts and launched a webinar program to keep major donors engaged year-round.
Database Administrator
As keeper of the database, I managed to keep Refugees International's donor database clean, updated, and functional. During this time, I also managed a major database transition from one software provider to another and ensured that different systems across the company could share the same data.
Education
Flatiron School
Gettysburg College
Portfolio Highlights
Succotash
Succotash is a farm management software application built with a Rails/PostgreSQL backend and a React-enabled, Material-UI frontend with state managed in Redux. Farmers and gardeners can manage their crop cycles from planting through harvest. By providing a date to the application, users are able to view and edit the status of their farms and its sub-divisions, which allows the app to serve as both a storage of farm history and a planner for future crop cycles.
Catch 22: The Game
Catch-22 is a novel by Joseph Heller. Catch-22: The Game honors the themes, characters, and events of that novel through a fun and humorous text-based strategy format. Messages are displayed at intervals with async/await functions. Players are provided with options with the goal of surviving as a bombardier over Italy during World War II. A balance of random-number generation and player decisions determine the result of each round. Staying true to the themes of the novel, the game is impossible to win. The game is built with a Rails/PostgreSQL backend and a React frontend with Semantic-UI components.
Metrobus 2020
Utilizing WMATA's public API, Metrobus 2020 allows DC-based commuters to accurately predict bus and train arrivals, favorite their frequent stations and busstops, and set an alarm for when a bus approaches a stop. The app uses an uncluttered minimalist frontend written in vanilla JavaScript with Bulma components. The rails backend protects API keys and fetches data from WMATA, caching some data in a Redis database to prevent superfluous calls to the WMATA API. A simple sign-up and password system allows users' favorites to be persisted to the database for future use in the app.