Adam Sven Johnson

Principal engineer

About

+64 22 622 9832 (please organise a time via email or text before calling)

I'm a principal engineer with over 20 years experience in a wide range of web development technologies.

I focus mainly on the backend of the web stack, building APIs and robust services, and have done some work using modern front end web technologies.

The language I'm currently the most familiar with is Go, and I also make use of some Python and Typescript.

Personal interests include coffee, fermentation and food of all sorts, cycling, music and maps.

I'm a New Zealand citizen.

Employment history

Vista Group, Auckland, NZ

Principal engineer

October 2023 – present

The Movio product helps cinema chains create targeted marketing campaings via email, sms, push notifications and social channels based on consumer signals.

As Movio was integrated into Vista Group more closely I moved to a company wide developer experience role and then became principal engineer of the Movio product as that became necessary to lead the development teams direction.

Technologies used: Go, TypeScript, Python, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, AWS DynamoDB/Lambda/SQS.
Movio, Auckland, NZ

Engineering team lead

April 2018 – October 2023

Movio helps cinema chains create targeted marketing campaings via email, sms, push notifications and social channels based on consumer signals.

At Movio I joined as a senior engineer, moved up to team lead and took a lateral step to developer experience engineer.

I am proud to have been involed in developing and open sourcing bramble a graphql federated gateway.

Technologies used: Go, TypeScript, Python, Docker, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kafka, PHP, Scala.
PressPatron, Auckland, NZ

Freelance developer

February 2018 – April 2018

PressPatron makes it easy to support the future of journalism, via crowdfunding, membership payments and donations.

I helped improve the application from a prototype to an application that will handle traffic from several popular news sites.

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, Docker, Chef, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, AWS, Stripe, PHP.
Farmdrop, London, UK

Technical team lead/Software engineer

April 2016 – September 2017

Farmdrop is building a new low impact supply chain to deliver fresher and better food and improve returns for farmers and producers.

I led a cross functional team supporting the warehouse operations and logistical software. The system included a Ruby On Rails/Javascript/React frontend and multiple Ruby on Rails backend API services as well as Android apps for staff. The team consisted of several Android developers, a UX designer, as well as DevOps, full stack and backend developers.

My main achievement was supporting more than one operational location, allowing the business to expand and to start planning for UK wide operations.

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, React.js, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Heroku, PostgreSQL, Redis, Android/Java/Kotlin.
The Open Data Institute, London, UK

Software developer

October 2014 – December 2015

The Open Data Institute encourages governments and companies to release data in the open for the common good.

I helped scale the ODI’s Open Data Certificate system to index the majority of UK and US government published open data, as well as supporting development on proof of concepts for dataset indexing and licensing projects.

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, MySQL, jQuery, Chef, XSLT, GIS
Marks & Spencer, London, UK

Freelance developer

September 2014 – October 2014

Marks & Spencer’s is a large UK retail chain with a strong online presence.

I came in on a short contract to add to the team count between other roles. I helped design and develop a modern API wrapper around a enterprise part of the system that allowed the rapid prototyping of internal projects.

Technologies used: Python/Django, Javascript.
myHealthPal, London, UK

Lead developer

April 2014 – July 2014

MyHealthPal is developing apps to help people with chronic conditions manage their health and share their data with scientists to help develop new drugs and treatments.

I architected a patient information storage system that complied with international data protection regulations, enabling the product to scale internationally.

Technologies used: Python/Flask, AWS, Docker, Jenkins, Ansible, PostgreSQL.
Berg, London, UK

Software engineer

January 2013 – February 2014

Berg was an award winning design agency that started exploring IoT and connected devices.

I joined Berg to help with the expansion of the BergCloud platform. When I arrived, the initial proof of concept was struggling to support 500+ devices. I enabled it to handle much larger loads and moved the design from a polling implementation to a streaming system that delivered messages in an event stream.

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, Python, Node.js, C++/Arduino, MySQL, Javascript, WebSockets, Redis, HTML5/Canvas.
Artfinder, London, UK

Developer

April 2012 – November 2012

Artfinder started as a recommendation engine for visual art and then pivoted into print sales of emerging artists.

In the Artfinder team I worked in Python and Django ingesting large collections of art works from partners and working on new ways of recommending and helping people discover art they liked.

Technologies used: Python/Django, PostgreSQL, Javascript/HTML5, Redis, Memcached, Varnish, AWS, Puppet.
Reevoo, London, UK

Developer

April 2009 – April 2012

Reevoo is a shopping comparison engine that collects reviews from a large number of E-Commerce retailers and helps customers decide on purchases.

As part of the Reevoo team I developed the embedded javascript widgets, backend APIs and infrastructure to support a highly available service.

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, Javascript/jQuery, Redis, MySQL, AWS.
Tricycle Apps, Melbourne, Australia

Developer

March 2007 – December 2008

Trike provides prototyping and bespoke web app development.

At Trike I quickly learnt Ruby and Ruby on Rails and worked on many client applications and internal prototypes. I also adapted and extended the Reddit R2 codebase for making other online community websites.

Technologies used: Ruby on Rails, Python, AWS, Heroku, MySQL.
Idiom Software, Auckland, New Zealand

Developer

April 2006 – December 2006

Idiom Software is a supplier of graphical business logic tools to enterprise clients.

At Idiom I learnt Java and C#, developed feature additions the two versions of their GUI tools. I also worked on custom integrations with large clients such as District Health Boards.

Technologies used: Java, C# .Net
Zeald, Auckland, New Zealand

Developer

March 2004 – April 2006

Zeald is a supplier of custom designed E-Commerce web sites.

I joined Zeald after university and learnt Perl and HTML/CSS while there, quickly becoming proficient in their CMS system. I then started developing client customisations to some of the more complex sites including paypal integrations.

Technologies used: Perl, PHP, PostgreSQL, MySQL, HTML/CSS, Javascript.