Gordon Jackson

• Managed several lines of business at the agency, including growing security, maintenance, and hosting 1000% over 5 years.
• Provided technology consulting to clients including technology roadmapping and technology stack guidance.
• Communicated with executive team and CEO to maximize development efficiencies and resolve technology issues.
• Wrote policy, procedure and manuals governing internal IT use.
• Conferred with executives to advise and plan for short-term and long-term IT system upgrade needs.
• Led technology selection and rollout, focusing on organizational planning, provider contracts and supplier service-level agreements.
• Coordinated with management teams to plan, develop, align and execute strategies that would meet client's vision, mission and purpose.
• Led and assisted technical upgrade projects for clients by working and coordinating with consultants and developers for integrations.
• Interviewed, hired, trained and mentored staff by coaching daily, leading performance reviews and offering constructive feedback.
• Managed offshore and onshore resources.
• Self-motivated, with a strong sense of personal responsibility.
• Worked effectively in fast-paced environments.

Gordon Jackson Consulting provides custom WordPress implementations requiring complex programming, consulting for security and performance, and website maintenance services.

Custom Donation Platform (WordPress)

CARE Australia | https://www.care.org.au/donate/

The custom donation platform built in WordPress allowed for integration with PayPal, Bambora, Salesforce, and Strattic (WordPress). AWS Lambda middleware used Node.js to communicate data with all endpoints consuming and providing REST services. Developed custom Salesforce REST functions using APEX, custom plugins in WordPress optimized for headless delivery.

Custom Survey Engine with HTML Games (WordPress)

License to Save Lives (University of Illinois) | https://licensetosavelives.com/michigan-start/

The University of Illinois required an interactive survey engine that allowed multiple types of input, videos, interactive games, and detailed reporting. The research project focused on the influence of interactivity on decision making. Object Orientated PHP, complex jQuery with AJAX, and HTML5 were used in a custom WordPress plugin.

Content Management Extensions (WordPress)

The Lunar Planetary Institute | https://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/newsletters/lpib/new/

NASA's Lunar Planetary Institute (LPI) requested a platform where their community could contribute to the quarterly bulletin. LPI efficiently creates the bulletin structure from configurable templates and adds content from the internal and external contributions. A custom child theme uses a unique menu for navigation. A workflow was built using WordPress functionality based on custom post types, custom roles, and administration screens. The PDFLayer API was used to create a PDF document from HTML.

Moving Estimator (WordPress)

Elite Moving and Storage | https://www.elitemover.com/local-move-estimator/

Object orientated PHP, jQuery AJAX, Google Maps API, and a basic rules engine were utilized in implementing a moving estimator application. The module calculates routes, travel times, inventory, trucks, and labor. It is used as both as an internal sales tool and for users visiting the company's website.

Isotope Implementation with Lazy Images (WordPress)

SharpSpring | https://sharpspring.com/app-marketplace/

SharpSpring required a high performance adaption of the Polo theme's Isotope module for their Application Marketplace. Several jQuery extensions, SASS, WordPress functionality, and custom post types/taxonomies were used to allow lazy loading of images, filter using custom taxonomies, and provide multiple filter mechanisms for mobile and desktop.

• Recommended specific [Type] products to customers based on unique technical requirements of each.
• Performed detailed research of customer business structures to accurately tailor [Product or Service] to unique needs of each.
• Compiled research data and gave professional presentations highlighting finds and recommended optimizations.
• Reviewed internal systems and organized training plans to address areas in need of improvement.
• Conducted thorough reviews of operations to devise and deploy improvement strategies.
• Evaluated diverse organizational systems to identify workflow, communication and resource utilization issues.

Responsible for closing technical debt incurred by an absence of technical resources for two years, building annual technical plans, designing and developing custom systems related to both the organization's mission and major external partners, budgets and forecasting, and vendor management. The role expanded to include operations and staff management.

After taking over operations, I uncovered fraud and assisted in dissolving organization with the board of directors in December 2017.

Custom Delphi Inspired Research Platform (WordPress)

NMC | https://bit.ly/2C2gtwP

Object orientated PHP, complex jQuery with AJAX, custom WordPress modules, and AWS Redshift were used to create an interactive research platform for educational technology. Participants leverage a custom discussion forum that updates in real-time. Two voting mechanisms were implemented. Detailed analysis and reporting were implemented for administrators.

Custom Member Management System (WordPress)

NMC

BuddyPress, WooCommerce, ActiveCampaign, BadgeOS, and other NMC modules were integrated to create a membership management system with automated marketing, content restrictions, billing/payment subscriptions, digital badges, and organization profiles.

Custom Event Management System (WordPress)

NMC

Object orientated PHP, jQuery extensions, WooCommerce, and custom WordPress modules were used to create a full-cycle event management system. Proposals were collected in the system from users, administrators could review and rate the proposals using several methods as an online team, proposals could be organized into a schedule template, tickets could be configured for sale, and extensive reporting was implemented.

Learning Management System Extensions (WordPress)

HP ISTE NMC

The HP Catalyst Academy was an online learning site for educators interested in building STEM (STEAM) courses. The system was also used in conjunction with the HP LIFE entrepreneurs program. LearnDash learning management system was integrated with BadgeOS, BuddyPress and WooCommerce. Custom WordPress modules were built for organizations to contribute course materials and view analytics.

Drupal to WordPress Migration (WordPress, Drupal, MySQL, PHP)

NMC

The NMC website was migrated and merged from two Drupal sites (Drupal 4 and 5) to WordPress 4+. SQL and custom PHP scripts were used to clean and migrate the data of thousands of users and hundreds of articles.

Data Center to AWS Migration (AWS EC2, RDS, CloudFront, MySQL Linux)

NMC

Operations were moved from a data center to the Amazon Cloud saving over 50% of the IT budget while increasing performance using autoscaling and CloudFront.

Technical leader and manager for Douglas Shaw & Associates. Transformed the IT department, creating new positions/roles and developing the staff comprised of data analysts, project managers, business analysts, and software developers.

Client Integrations (WordPress)

Guided and assisted with integrations for various clients into Exact Target, Silverpop, Site Catalyst (Omniture), Valid (Automated NCOA), and Push2Pay (Payment Gateway)

ETL and Common Database Model

Successfully introduced and led implementation of an Extract Transform Load (ETL) engine and common database model allowing flexible ingestion of over 30 client databases. This project greatly reduced data errors and allowed for code reuse during reporting and segmentation of client databases. SQL Server, Pentaho Spoon, Fork data modeler, and custom PHP scripting were used.

Custom Campaign Creator (OO PHP, Yii, SQL Server)

Used the Yii PHP platform to create a custom campaign creator for client managers. Similar to an ecommerce system, campaign creative elements were added to client orders, data exported, and projects tracked.

Developed 3 new positions

Developed three new positions for the company leading to efficient processes for reporting. Worked closely with client services leads to understand both technical and business requirements of reporting and segmentation to create two data analyst positions and a project manager role. This resulted in stronger, more confident client relationships, on time reporting, and improved data accuracy.

Technology and Process consulting

Critical to both new business development and retention providing technology analysis and strategic vision to major clients such as The Gideon's International, Wycliffe and Associates, The Nashville Rescue Mission, CareNet, Good Council Homes, and The Seeing Eye.

Department Restructuring

Organized department of 15 direct reports - including software engineers, system administrators, database architects, system architects, and project managers - to better track progress and communicate with stakeholders using the Agile methodology in IT.

Budgeting

Managed the technology budget including services and staffing. Reduced the budget operations overhead by 20% and introduced more effective services.

Designed Monitoring and Maintenance Strategies (AWS, Zabbix, BaSH, ElasticPath, Jenkins)

Designed deployment and monitoring strategies for compliance with Scholastic and HarperCollins using Zabbix, ElasticPath, and Jenkins on the AWS cloud platform.

Technology leader for a division start-up inside Zondervan Publishing. Duties include management of staff and assets, budget planning, long-term technical strategy, and technical sales support. Managed a team of 20 software architects, software engineers, and project managers.

Media Distribution System (Adobe Content Server 4, Apache Open for Business, Java Swing)

Designed Adobe Content Server 4 integration involving a complex deployment of multiple clients. Satisfied all copyright requirements of major publishers. Created a custom desktop multithreaded downloader and iTunes export application. It allowed large audio books to be quickly downloaded and imported into a user's iTunes library. Similar to a private torrent download, multiple threads were used to download the audio file. The application was written to the Java JSR 296 standard.

Point of Sales Integration (Java Contract First SOAP, Apache Open for Business)

Designed and implemented integration with two point of sales systems into the media delivery platform using contract-first SOAP web services in Java.

Rules Engines and Business Process Execution Practice Lead - Chicago. Mentored junior consultants and acted as team lead. Participated in technology considerations and estimations for potential clients.

Web Service Design and Implementation (Java Swing, JBoss, SOAP)

Working in the Agile methodology, completed sprints on time leading to successful integrations with HP and the Sears service system. Contract first services were designed and implemented using Java Spring and JBoss.

WebSphere Technical Designs (Java, WebSphere)

Led the technical design of Omron's new website using WebSphere 6 in the Waterfall methodology with detailed documentation.

Responsible for managing all technical projects and resources for development of Calumet's global ecommerce system. Initially hired as a software developer and advanced to Director of Technology within five years. Expanded the department from three to six developers as business expanded from the United States to include three other countries. Charged with closely working with product managers in all countries to populate the online platform, intake orders, and export sales.

Custom Ecommerce System (Java, Grails, Postgres, Tomcat)

Designed and led the 2006 platform launch using a new Java framework, Grails. Designed the global multi-warehousing, feed integration, and web services modules.

Product Platform Integrations (Java, SOAP, REST, SQL Server)

Designed and automated import of data from three enterprise systems into the web platform daily allowing accurate inventory across four country stores. Increased sales and exposure by implementing product feeds into affiliate marketplaces such as Amazon for the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany.