Kaitlyn Higa
Software Engineer, Perpetual End-user, Avid Story-seeker
With a keen eye, open ear, and a curious mind, Kaitlyn is committed to ensuring that the vision of a product is seen and understood, in tandem with establishing an environment that is conducive to everyone doing their best work. Kaitlyn aspires to lead projects to success through their commitment to a constant discovery of data, the flexibility to adapt to change, creating the space for teams to listen and be heard, and ensuring lessons learned are preserved and shared with others.
Talk to them about exploring documentation as a kindness, crafting with fiber, and unconventional mediums for storytelling.
Education
Project Management, Certificate 2020
UCLA Extension Los Angeles, CA
Computer Science, B.S. 2010 - 2014
Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, CA
Skills
JavaScript React.js Ruby Ruby on Rails Legacy Codebases Relational Databases Product Driven Development Extreme Programming Facilitation Story Building User Experience Testing
Experience
Software Engineer
- Worked on a Node.js front and back end, creating a new internal tool for building promotions in React and MobX, developing and implementing promotions that garnered over $100M in revenue.
- Supported maintenance, migrations, refactorings, and architecting and implementing of internal APIs for promotions, pricing, and payments processing.
- Organized internal processes and documentation focused on improving cross-team communications in a remote setting.
- Lead and organized the Asian Associate Resource Group, key contributor to the Pride (LGBTQ+) Associate Resource Group, and BC Women in Tech Associate Resource Group.
Software Engineer
NationBuilder Los Angeles, CA
March 2016 - Feburary 2020
Ruby on Rails, Legacy Codebases, Leadership
- Worked on a legacy Ruby on Rails codebase, and implemented a scalable Front-End system using Webpack and utilizing React.
- Developed and directed a QA process for our new Control Panel launch, coordinating the development of over 12,000 tests by organizing 38 people from accross the company.
- Built models for our products, like GDPR compliance and data dashboards, using Domain Driven Design, collaborating with our Product team to ensure our system met the needs of our customers.
- Lead efforts to refactor and improve our Front-End and grew general Front-End literacy through a series of internal tech talks and documentation.
Web Developer
USAePay Glendale, CA
July 2014 - February 2016
LAMP stack, User Interface Design, Improving processes
- Worked with Backbone.js, PHP, and MySQL to develop an interactive, RESTful web application.
- Migrated our code base from the SVN versioning system to Git, a scalable, modern versioning system.
- Designed, prototyped, and implemented a brand new merchant console, the first update to the web application since initial launch.
- Managed and mentored 2 Web Development Interns from CSUN.