Jonathan Schoonhoven's Resume

Principal Software Engineer & Experience Designer in Oakland, California.

I design robust web applications that serve millions of requests per minute.
I create transformative experiences, blending art and technology.
I lead complex, cross functional projects that solve hard problems.

Listening.com, Principal SWE, Backend

April, 2023 --- present

Listening.com provides a mobile, desktop, and web application for converting text documents to speech. We use a suite of AI tools to create beautiful audio for complicated documents like academic PDFs.

Leadership: As the Principal Engineer, I led a team of 4 engineers and was responsible for all major technical decisions
Monetization: I developed intricate mobile and web payments infrastructure for thousands of paying customers
Scale: I designed the infrastructure that has scaled to handle uploads from hundreds of thousands of users, generating tens of thousands of hours of generated audio
AI: I deployed and tuned many AI/ML/LLM models at scale with a focus on cost and performance

Rhetoric, Principal SWE, Full Stack

October, 2021 --- March, 2023

Rhetoric is an online service for crafting interactive presentations (like Google Slides) combined with short-form video (like Loom). I lead the technical direction and development of Rhetoric, with achievements including:

Leadership: As the Principal Engineer, I oversaw all major technical initiatives and made critical decisions to drive the success of the project.
Full-Stack Development: I designed and built a cutting-edge video editing suite that rendered instantly on the frontend while processing edits asynchronously on the backend.
Workflow Optimization: I developed a server-side, asynchronous workflow that efficiently converted PDFs and PPTXs to images, extracted and re-added dynamic content from the source, and overlaid it back onto the final output.
Monetization: I implemented a Stripe integration and introduced a freemium subscription model with paid plans for premium users and teams, successfully monetizing the app.
Feature Development: I implemented various advanced features, including real-time audio transcription over websockets, threaded commenting, document upload/parsing, and sophisticated role-based access controls.

Sherlock, Principal SWE, Full Stack

August, 2020 --- February, 2022

Sherlock is a legal/health-tech startup that provides "a modern way to navigate life after 60." I lead the technical direction and development of Sherlock, with achievements including:

Leadership: As the Founding Engineer, I made key, early-stage technical decisions that laid the foundation for future success. I launched the first working version of the app myself, then scaled the engineering team with two additional full time hires.
Compliance: I Implemented a security-first approach to the architecture, ensuring HIPAA and HITECH compliance from the initial version. Sherlock works with the sensitive legal and healthcare details of its clients.
Monetization: I implemented a Stripe integration with both a la carte and subscription models, successfully monetizing the app.
Security: I led the development of robust data privacy and security standards, maintaining the highest level of security throughout the development process

Meow Wolf, Game Developer, Story Experience Team

May, 2021 --- September, 2021

The Convergence Station is the newest, largest, and most ambitious project by Meow Wolf, America's fastest-growing themed entertainment company. As Game Developer, I was in charge of developing the ATM (Access to Memory) machines that added narrative and gamification throughout the 4-story installation.

Technology and Architecture: I served as the principal author of the Convergence Exchange ATM codebase, overseeing all technical decisions for the code.
Component Library Creation: I developed the first reusable component library for Meow Wolf using React and NPM, streamlining the development process and promoting code reusability.
Game & Narrative Design: My ATMs (Access to Memory machines) were the primary mechanism for storytelling and gameplay at Meow Wolf Denver.

Magnopus, Game Designer, Dubai World Fair

August, 2019 --- October, 2019

Magnopus is a creative studio best known for its work with Disney on Coco (2017) and The Lion King (2019). Magnopus was asked to recreate the entirety of the World Fair within a 3D virtual adventure game that could be played online (VR) or on site (AR). The game was central to the official World Fair app and was used by tens of millions of visitors (and many more online). As a Game Designer for the project, I demonstrated the following skills:

Game Development: Designed the core APIs and data models to support nonlinear quests and AI-assisted dialog for tens of millions of visitors (and millions more in our virtual experience)
Game Design: Designed quests that leveraged cutting-edge technologies such as AR, VR, Google Cloud Anchors, and onsite physical interactions to create a unique and immersive experience.
Narrative Design: Crafted captivating stories that showcased the rich folklore and history of Dubai, the Emirates, and the Middle East, adding depth and authenticity to the overall game narrative.

Culdesac, Principal SWE, Engineering

January, 2019 --- August, 2019

Culdesac is a tech-forward, environmentally-conscious real estate developer, building the first car-free neighborhood in the US. I was hired to lead the nascent engineering team, and scale their technology to be ready for real residents.

Leadership: Oversaw all major technical aspects of Culdesac's APIs and resident-facing apps. I led technical interviews and played a key role in building out the engineering team.
Payments Systems: Designed and developed a complex, credit-based payments system that integrated with Stripe and bundled rent payments with food and travel expenses.

Lyft, Senior SWE, Global Team

November, 2018 --- December, 2018

As a Senior Software Engineer at Lyft, I was selected to join the Global Team and led the design and development of systems to translate Lyft into new languages. My project was recognized as a top priority by the executive team.

Localization & Internationalization: Spearheaded a high-priority project to translate Lyft into new languages, recognized by the executive team as a top priority for 2018.
Tech Specs: Authored the official technical specification defining over a year of cross-functional engineering work
Independent Contribution: Led the implementation effort, developing the Translation Service API and related libraries and tooling
Systems Design: Solely responsible for the design and development of the systems required for language translation at Lyft

Lyft, Senior SWE, Internal Tools Team

April, 2016 --- November, 2018

As a Senior Software Engineer on Lyft's Internal Tools Team, I played a critical role in owning and optimizing Lyft's geospatial service, which stored essential data related to Lyft's availability and pricing. I also designed and implemented the payments infrastructure used for driver bonuses, processing tens of millions of dollars.

Reliability: Owned and developed Lyft's geospatial service, the source of truth for business critical data including where Lyft is available and the base price of rides. It is rated Tier-0 (most-essential).
Performance: Optimized the geospatial service to handle 100 million queries per minute, ensuring high performance and reliability. Reduced the service's P99 response time from 150ms to 5ms, improving overall service efficiency.
Payments: Designed and implemented the payments infrastructure for driver bonuses, processing tens of millions of dollars in transactions.

Lyft, SWE, Data Platform Team

July, 2015 --- April, 2016

As a Software Engineer on Lyft's Data Platform Team, I played a crucial role in designing and implementing tools to process and manage terabytes of event data in realtime and batch modes.

High-Throughput Systems: Designed and implemented the tool used to batch edit and backfill event stream data: it streams data from/to our DB at 10k events per second.
ETL: Massively reduced load on Redshift by moving large ETL jobs to Hive and by dynamically shifting slots/resources between analysts and ETL jobs based on current need.
Concurrency Patterns: Dramatically increased performance of slow ETL jobs by implementing concurrency/streaming patterns across the ETL system.
Massive Data Migration: I played a key engineering role in the initiative to migrate Lyft's data out of our Redshift cluster (which was the single biggest cluster in the world) and onto Hive.

Change.org, SWE, Data Team

June, 2012 --- May, 2015

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Data Team, I played a key role in building and maintaining critical systems for realtime and batch ETL, experimentation service, and machine learning services.

Product Development: Designed and built Curious, an internal BI tool for visualizing data in our Redshift cluster that was essential to decision making for revenue and executive teams. It remained the primary data exploration tool for years after I left the company.
Feature Development: Built the frontend for Change.org's internal Experiment Service, from concept to production deployment in under two weeks, demonstrating efficient and rapid development skills
Data Engineering: Proven ability to understand and work with complex data systems, experimentation services, and machine learning services, demonstrating deep domain knowledge and technical expertise.

jtschoonhoven / resume