John Parks Profile Picture

John Parks

Senior Software Engineer · Full-Stack & Backend · AWS / GCP · Payments

Senior software engineer with 20 years of experience building and modernizing production systems across TypeScript, Node.js, Python, PHP, Go, SQL, and AWS. Strong background in payroll/timekeeping, payments, PCI DSS, and high-throughput backend platforms. Recent work also spans applied AI tooling - classification, embeddings, and large-scale data pipelines. Known for owning ambiguous problems end-to-end through architecture, implementation, cutover, and production support.

Skills & Technologies »

  • Languages - TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, PHP, Go, SQL
  • Backend & Data - Node.js, Laravel, Symfony, Flask, PostgreSQL, MySQL/MariaDB, Redis, DynamoDB, SQLite
  • Frontend - React, Svelte, HTML/CSS, Vite, esbuild, Playwright, Chrome Extensions
  • Cloud & Infrastructure - AWS (Solutions Architect; Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, VPC, IAM), GCP, Azure, Linux/Unix, Docker, CI/CD
  • Applied AI & Automation - Embeddings & classification, RAG pipelines, evals, ComfyUI, Microsoft TRELLIS, PyTorch, browser automation, large-scale data acquisition
  • Observability - Grafana, Elastic/Logstash/Kibana, Graphite/StatsD, InfluxDB
  • Domain Expertise - PCI DSS compliance, Payroll & timekeeping, payments & subscriptions, analytics & CAPI (Google, Facebook, TikTok), serviceability & mapping tools

Experience »

SpotOn - Software Engineer

San Francisco, California - remote; October 2023 - August 2025

Restaurant POS, payroll, timekeeping, and back-office automation platform.

  • Modernized "Dolce Clock," a legacy PHP 5.3 timecard system, into a Laravel/AWS application serving timecard operations for hundreds of restaurants and thousands of employees; resolved MySQL performance issues, race conditions, and migration risk in production code.
  • Architected and shipped a zero-downtime FTP-to-SFTP migration for dozens of payroll partners using AWS Transfer Family, Lambda, DynamoDB, S3, IAM, and VPC endpoints with static partner allowlisting; eliminated plaintext PII transmission while allowing gradual customer cutovers.
  • Led development of a comprehensive timeclock software suite using Go, TypeScript, and React, integrated with multi-tenant payroll and restaurant-operations systems.
  • Drove technical planning for Earned Wage Access (EWA) across payroll, tip, and gratuity workflows, balancing product goals with financial-system and compliance constraints.
  • Scaled cross-functional engineering teams by conducting 50+ technical interviews and assessments across the US and India, and defining hiring standards for incoming engineers.

Independent Consulting - Software Engineer

San Diego, California; August 2025 - Present

Selected client work across applied AI tooling, browser automation, creative-production workflows, and full-stack development.

  • Architected high-throughput data acquisition and classification pipelines for AI-training workflows, supporting datasets at the hundreds-of-terabytes scale.
  • Evaluated and integrated Microsoft TRELLIS and TRELLIS.2 into 2D-to-3D generative pipelines for an independent animation studio, building Python/JavaScript control-surface tooling.
  • Engineering custom ComfyUI nodes in Python and JavaScript - including a canvas-based masking node using WebWorkers for responsive image and mask processing - to accelerate intelligent masking and inpainting workflows.
  • Building a phonics engine and RSVP (rapid serial visual presentation) reading application from scratch, integrating TTS and adaptive UX for adult learners.

Alsoa - Software Engineer

San Diego, California; August 2021 - August 2022

Cookieless customer-behavior analytics platform.

  • Built a GCP-based platform for cookieless server-to-server (S2S) conversion tracking in TypeScript and Python, with deep-funnel integrations to Google Ads, Facebook CAPI, and HubSpot.
  • Developed an administration dashboard for technical marketers managing the conversion tracking platform, built in TypeScript, React, and Python with Firebase authentication and a GCP backend.
  • Delivered a PHP Magento module for S2S conversion tracking against the Alsoa platform APIs.

YourSix - Director of Engineering, Software Engineer

Roseville, Minnesota - remote; May 2020 - June 2021

Cloud-based physical security and surveillance platform.

  • Led local and international engineers building cloud-based physical-security software; built an ONVIF-compliant VMS supporting real-time video streaming, multiple formats, and audio/control workflows.
  • Built a unified API adapter enabling edge-deployed device administration through Axis-proprietary O3C reverse proxy, supporting protocols ranging from modern JSON REST to legacy SOAP/WSDL.
  • Designed and shipped Svelte-based interfaces for complex real-time security workflows, partnering closely with product on user-facing controls.

InternetIn / ServiceAbility.app - Software Engineer

San Diego, California; June 2019 - January 2021

Tools for researching internet quality, fiber availability, and serviceability across the US.

  • Built mapping dashboards and parallel automation tooling combining public and proprietary datasets for fiber availability, location-based quality analysis, and multi-location serviceability checks.
  • Reverse-engineered Comcast's complex business pricing structure into a real-time pricing tool and API; built workflow tooling for onboarding, fillable PDF generation, and e-signature integration.
  • Developed live serviceability tooling that queried 20+ provider sites in parallel via browser automation for up-to-the-moment lookup accuracy.

Ebates Inc. / Rakuten - Senior Software Engineer, DevOps Engineer

San Diego, California; 2015 - 2019

Cash-back rewards platform sharing affiliate-network commissions with users.

  • Architected a custom OAuth/authentication platform from scratch as the central auth authority across Rakuten's US product ecosystem, engineered to handle millions of auth requests during peak shopping events like Black Friday.
  • Led technical implementation for Rakuten's first PCI DSS compliance audit across the US product ecosystem, building secure authentication and payment-adjacent infrastructure.
  • Built Node.js automation services for product search and checkout supporting cashback operations; partnered with DevOps to migrate services to AWS and improve scalability and observability.

Selected Projects

  • Long-running Minecraft server - Operate one of the oldest active Minecraft servers, approaching 16 years online. Maintain JVM/Linux/MariaDB infrastructure, observability on a budget, uptime, and a long-running player and admin community.
  • Raspberry Pi PWM fan controller (open source) - Open-source C daemon for hardware-level thermal control on Raspberry Pi, managing low-level interrupts to dynamically adjust fan speeds ( github.com/folkhack/raspberry-pi-pwm-fan-2 ).

Earlier Experience »

Iowa; 2006 - 2012
  • Leepfrog Technologies - Full-Stack Developer; Iowa City, IA. Built digital course catalog systems on CourseLeaf and automated course-data imports from Oracle PeopleSoft and Banner.
  • Premier Guitar - Web Developer / Technology Manager / Photographer; Marion, IA. Migrated a high-traffic publication from Joomla to WordPress; published photography in print and online.
  • Metro Studios - Senior Developer / Development Manager / Director of IT & Server Administration; Hiawatha, IA. Delivered 40+ client web applications and eCommerce stores; grew the web department from a small team to 10 engineers and specialists.
  • Yellowbook USA - Server Engineer; Cedar Rapids, IA. Managed redundant Linux/Microsoft server infrastructure across data centers and consolidated design-asset systems with ESX virtualization.

Education »

Coe College - Cedar Rapids, Iowa; 2005-2008

  • Studied computer science and art.
  • Built a custom CMS and VMWare server stack that powered Coe.edu for over a decade.

Full resume & portfolio available online at johnmparks.com