Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Timeline
Hi, I’m

Jason Dixon

Lead Software Engineer
Pittsburgh,PA
Jason Dixon

Summary

Highly experienced Roku developer with 7 years of experience in the full life cycle of Roku channel development, certification, and publication. Has worked at the edge of Scene Graph and Brightscript development, resulting in completely new advancements in advertising capabilities for major streaming providers and the Roku platform itself. Extensive knowledge of the many intricacies of the Roku platform. Led the creation of cloud based CI pipeline for Roku which does not require Roku hardware. Brings years of experience pushing the boundaries of interactivity resulting in a long list of POC's and completed products. Extremely passionate about the future of interactive TV, and loves reshaping what it means to "watch tv".

Overview

7
years of professional experience

Work History

Endeavor Streaming
Beverly Hills, CA

Manager of Client Applications
05.2022 - Current

Job overview

  • Conceive and manage multiple new greenfield projects
  • Manage contracting teams to meet departmental software production goals
  • Act as Roku platform SME in on-going white label project to accelerate development pace to align with company growth
  • Review and assess architecture design, implementation, testing and deployment practices, to identify hidden technical debt and previously unmeasured performance costs incurred by previous designs, and present solutions to any and all performance issues
  • Present quarterly strategic plans to departmental management.

FanDuel
Los Angeles, CA

Lead Software Engineer
08.2020 - 05.2022

Job overview

  • Team lead of OTT team (3 engineers) building on the Roku platform
  • Responsible for project scoping and estimation; team management
  • Advanced custom feature development in Scene Graph to display complex data sets related to sports wagering by user
  • Created industry first cloud-native CI pipeline for Roku
  • Provided guidance and direction to non-technical staff in resolution of highly complex technical problems
  • Decreased application crash rates by over 530% to sub 1% crashes per session
  • Brought Roku into parity with Apple TV and Fire TV apps.

BrightLine LLC
Manhattan, New York

Senior Engineer
01.2018 - 08.2020

Job overview

  • Developed highly complex RSG component library which runs tens of millions times per day on multiple streaming providers
  • Created Brightline's Direct Injection SDK to allow channels to run interactive ads natively outside of RAF with permission from Roku
  • Optimized Brightline's interactive renderer code in the Roku RAF firmware, contained in all Roku devices globally (about 20k lines of code - both SDK1 and RSG in a single brs file)
  • Led major refactoring efforts to introduce highly-efficient design patterns to reduce code complexity; ensure proper thread management; and simplify the integration process for channel developers
  • Led integration of direct injection SDK into complex channel environments and client video player constructions
  • Guided development of new Roku products through advanced knowledge of the Roku platform and Scene Graph best practices.

DVD Empire
Pittsburgh, PA

Lead Roku Developer
11.2015 - 01.2018

Job overview

  • Expanded and optimized 4 different legacy Roku channels
  • Developed11 new private scene graph Roku channels (all private channels have since been removed from the platform)
  • Created white-label channel 'generator' which allowed non-Roku devs to manipulate a simple config file and create new and unique private channels
  • Improved loading times on legacy Roku applications by up to 300% by identifying platform-specific weaknesses and developing to these
  • Began career-long study of "10-foot UI" design principles
  • Performed SDK1 to Scene Graph migration, which allowed for complete redesigns in channel architecture, and the ability to implement asynchronous task nodes for data calls
  • Implemented real-time search suggestions which returned grids of thumbnails to choose content from with the same speed seen on company's web products
  • Implemented channel-wide conditional feature choices to run effectively across full range of Roku hardware generations
  • Conceived of and implemented short, branded, pre-roll loading videos instead of splash screens
  • Performed modifications and additions to a large back-end API in C# and SQL

Education

Arizona State University
Tempe, AZ

Some College (No Degree) from Software Engineering

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA

Some College (No Degree) from Mathematics

Community College of Allegheny County
Pittsburgh, PA

Associate of Science from Mathematics

Timeline

Manager of Client Applications

Endeavor Streaming
05.2022 - Current

Lead Software Engineer

FanDuel
08.2020 - 05.2022

Senior Engineer

BrightLine LLC
01.2018 - 08.2020

Lead Roku Developer

DVD Empire
11.2015 - 01.2018

Arizona State University

Some College (No Degree) from Software Engineering

Carnegie Mellon University

Some College (No Degree) from Mathematics

Community College of Allegheny County

Associate of Science from Mathematics
Jason DixonLead Software Engineer