Nicholas Preston

• Design and implement a RESTful API that queues special JSON form data from a Web app and translates it into other REST APIs in our network in order to process Travel Visa Applications using RabbitMQ to handle high traffic and Docker Swarm as our on-prem deployment and scaling.
• Translates technical concepts and information into terms parties could easily comprehend through extensive documentation.
• Tunes systems to boost performance by refactoring slow Rabbit MQ code and slimming down Docker Images.
• Assigned Lead over the VueJS frontend project and the .NET Core REST API backend project.
• Currently Using Docker Swarm, .NET Core 7, and VueJS to code the frontend and backend

• The Sales Team at Four Hands noticed their reports pages were taking 10-20 seconds to load, so I upgraded and optimized their legacy VB websites to current .NET 6.0 Web standards, focusing on optimized searches of multiple tables using SQL Server to gather statistics and execution plans to tailor the best SQL query possible, drastically improving load times to well under 6 seconds in most cases and existing SQL queries around 35% or more.
• Contributed to improved end-to-end load times for Four Hands' internal Golden API, by making design suggestions to optimize both existing and future SQL queries and database design, while evangelizing the most modern ORMs with the goal of cutting down the Developer Backlog and taking pressure off of the Development Team.
• Successfully evangelized a new Web Stack for streamlining coding efforts by introducing a slick combo of the IntercoolerJS library with Razor Pages that allowed the Development team quickly bootstrap fully pre-optimized Razor Pages within minutes, allowing focus to be on the Server-Side Rendering (SSR) of our data, rather than much of the work being duplicated on the client, while simultaneously buffing our UI to handle previously difficult UI tasks like polling and auto-completed search, saving our team countless hours of tedious UI and preventing the waste of thousands of dollars for specialized Web Developers to complete the same tasks.
• Created a special in-house productivity tool capable of converting thousands of legacy code files over to the new .NET 6.0 and C# standards by using smart replacements common in many commercial refactoring tools, saving at least 6 months of valuable Developer effort.

Stack: Razor Pages, Azure, ASP .NET Core, Web API, JIRA, AlpineJS (VueJS), Tailwind CSS, HTML, HTMX/IntercoolerJS.

• QA team needed cost-effective way to automate and run virtual devices, so chose LambdaTest suite to automated web, mobile and end-to-end testing of MPEnergy's Salesforce and Go powered APIs, thereby replacing expensive physical devices and saving up to thousands of dollars
• QA wanted to automate Postman API calls and record metrics but did not have Postman cloud account, so created repository holding over 30 customized API calls and created run scripts in Azure Pipelines, posting summarized results for Executives and Business Analysts and showing 80% pass rate
• Wrote REST API calls using NextJS, Typescript and Axios to streamline user interface performance
• Transformed page designs from Figma into working React UI Components for MP2Energy website, delivering client content via Contentful
• Stack: ReactJS, Go (Golang), NextJS, Figma, Contentful, Anima, Salesforce API, Microsoft Azure, CypressJS, and GitLab

• Attended required training sessions and seminars
• Learned land navigation, triage and weapons reassembly and cleaning
• Learned aquatic survival skills and basic drill and ceremony

• Discovered critical performance issues in Homecare's Stored Procedures across multiple SQL Server databases, which would improve agency response times by at least 30%, and brought these to the attention of the Cheif Technology Officer for remediation by the Development Team.
• Diagnosed malfunctions in Homecare's Pointcare Mobile Java App directing up to 3 daily support tickets to appropriate personnel for remediation and root cause analysis.
• Executed troubleshooting and server support in remote situations, triaging C# errors for legacy Development Team, relieving at least 10% of their critical SQL timeout errors they found in Splunk.
• Stack: SQL, C#, SQL Server, Java, Mobile

• Partnered with full stack team to design and develop robust vendor bidding site for building new homes to meet in-house client requirements of functionality, scalability and performance using React and .NET Core to provide full stack capabilities
• Implemented modern React hooks to create a more uniform and accessible state management solution in browser, while avoiding pitfalls traditionally associated with React classes, reducing the developer costs by at least 5%.
• CTO needed flexible, simple rendering of vendor data app-wide, so we developed Kendo UI grids using React and LESS (CSS) to ensure the possibility for flexible and on-demand UI changes, while keeping complex state hidden from the users and the UI simple and easy to use.
• Maintained and enriched .NET Core API architecture as C# subject matter expert (SME) for development team, providing emergency support, consultation, bug triage and unit testing for 7-layers of interrelated microservices and clients in DR Horton's n-tiered architecture.
• Stack: React, LESS (CSS), C#, .NET Core 3.1, REST API, microservices

• Bayview partner needed document storage for co-owned wholesale loans, so co-wrote job queues for mapping wholesale loans and documents and deployed new API using Jenkins
• Bayview had complex, broken legacy code, which was then retrofitted into command line interfaces (CLIs), some of which was integrated with Encompass (3rd party) SDK into .NET Core microservices
• User interface was required to go with new document management API, so used Angular 9, Typescript and RXJS and co-designed new SQL Server database and .NET Core API to support tracking uploads and transfers
• Stack: C#, Angular, Typescript, RxJS, Jenkins.

Participated in company Hackathon, but left, as there was no work available for .NET.

• CEO required automated end to end testing, so scripted around 40 automated Cypress unit tests purposed for using smoke, regression and end-to-end testing, which established correct front-end interface responsiveness and valid API logic
• Team needed cyber security auditing, so ran HP Fortify scans, catching more than 20 potential information leaks and risky React or C# modules for Navy and Department of Defense (DoD)
• Oncor Energy needed to give users permissions by role, so co-wrote authentication layer within existing electric meter tracking system to interact with other parts of n-tier .NET Core API architecture, guarding certain API endpoints from public access
• Stack: React, Cypress, HP Fortify, .NET Core, C#

• Recognized by lead IT manager for tackling new technologies and chosen to evangelize new Dataview360 web service endpoint synchronization software
• Rounding errors necessitated additional Loan Engine (Serenity) to be recreated in C# as auxiliary calculator for processing loan schedules and during second sprint increased its processing throughput by up to 1500% using asynchronous threading
• Resolved front-end WPF bugs for Cash Store application and diagnosed both financial services and C# bugs within Agile work setting, including race conditions and other state issues
• Stack: C#, WPF, Dataview360