Ben Jakuben

Summary

I have led teams as a developer, manager, director, and vice president. My career has shown me that compassionate, involved leadership with a focus on trusting and empowering individuals leads to successful teams in terms of career goals and high-quality deliverables. I depend on and believe strongly in processes and documentation that evolve with the team. I strive to create an environment where people can create space for deep work and proactive collaboration.

In terms of software engineering, I have deep experience in mobile development on both Android and iOS, and I’ve worked on enterprise Java systems, ASP.NET Web APIs, and Python for data analysis. I strive for clean, testable interfaces, well-organized architecture, and clarity of code, especially for maintenance. I have written code in a wide variety of languages, and while I enjoy picking up new languages, frameworks, and tools as needed, my expertise lies in mobile development and I am most proficient in the following:

Languages: Swift, Objective-C, Java, Kotlin
Tools: GitLab/GitHub, Asana, ADO, Jira, Confluence, Trello, Firebase, Mixpanel
Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, NoSQL

Experience

Assurant Labs // Westlake, OH and Remote (Mentor, OH)

Associate Vice President of Engineering, January 2021 - Present

Led and coordinated cross-team iOS and Android app and SDK projects for global clients
- Biweekly updates for two apps with multiple derivative client whitelabels, delivering new features, enhancements, and bug fixes
Responsible for engineering staffing for 6 cross-functional product teams, including software and QA engineers
Responsible for budgeting and planning for people, software, and hardware including full-time employees and contract relationships
Acted as temporary Engineering Manager for development of a new program that provides new backend integrations and new dynamic choices to users
Implemented an architecture review board and ongoing training program
Instituted a process to organize, prioritize, and track organizational improvements using ADO
Responsible for Security and Compliance audits

Director of Engineering, July 2019 - December 2020

Oversaw the development and release of two major app rewrites from native Android and iOS to a common cross-platform React Native codebase
Instituted a biweekly release train for app updates on both Android and iOS
Hired, managed, and developed software and QA engineers focused on mobile app development
Created a fully staffed QA Engineering team (one manager and four QA engineers)

Treehouse // Remote (Mentor, OH)

Director of Curriculum, October 2017 - June 2019

Hired, managed, and developed the teaching team at Treehouse
Created structured curriculum plans for learning paths (Tracks) and Techdegrees
Created and maintained content feedback, usage, and efficacy reports
Managed cross-team projects and initiatives related to quarterly OKRs
Partnered with Google to certify the Android Techdegree as a path for earning the Android Developer Certificate
Partnered with IBM Watson to create a course and with Adobe to create a UX Design Techdegree

Teacher Manager, March 2015 - October 2017

Hired, managed, and developed teachers focused on backend and mobile technologies
Managed content creation projects with teaching, engineering, and video production staff
Partnered with Apple to create Swift learning content for the public launch of the new language
Co-created a production pipeline in Asana to streamline organization and communication around content creation
Researched and implemented practices to improve teaching efficacy

Android/iOS Teacher, June 2012 - March 2015

Developed sample projects to incorporate in project-based learning instruction
Wrote and recorded videos to teach thousands of students how to develop for Android and iOS
Wrote blog posts to teach, engage, and inspire students
Presented at meetups and conferences about software development in the mobile sector

Progressive Insurance // Mayfield Village, OH

IT Programmer/Analyst 3 (Mobile), 2010 - June 2012

Developed on the main consumer-facing native mobile apps for iOS and Android, including leading development of a new custom card-based carousel of services
Co-founded a community for developers interested in learning native mobile programming
Led the refactoring effort to take ownership of an Android app that had been developed by outside consultants
Implemented updates to .NET Web APIs used by iOS and Android mobile apps

IT Programmer/Analyst (1 and 2), June 2004 - 2010

Prototyped and implemented the first 3rd party APIs (SOAP and REST) used by the HRIT team
Developed pages and middleware and ran infrastructure of an Oracle/PeopleSoft HR system
Worked as part of a leadership team to implement a custom upgrade of Oracle/PeopleSoft
Wrote SQL reports and supporting pages to support the internal training department