Buckley Robinson

Summary

Staff-level Full-Stack Engineer with 20+ years of experience building robust, elegant software products — often solo, often from scratch — across a number of application server platforms, including: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript frameworks, php, and cloud-native platforms.

From crafting a commerce platform at Invative to architecting ML pipelines at BrightBytes, I focus on scalable backend systems, thoughtful UIs, and independent ownership.

Business goals always drive my work — clean code and elegant architecture naturally follow when you’re solving the right problems the right way.

Skills

• Languages & Frameworks: Ruby, Rails, Node.js, Express, PHP, JavaScript (ES6+), React, Vue, Ember, Angular, TypeScript, CSS/SASS
• Architecture & Infra: AWS, Docker, Redis, Postgres, MongoDB, Serverless (Lambda), CI/CD pipelines, Event-driven systems, State Machines, Rules Engines, REST, GraphQL
• Testing & DevOps: RSpec, Capybara, Minitest, Mocha, Jest, Selenium, Cypress, GitHub Actions, CircleCI, TravisCI, AWS CodePipeline
• Leadership & Strategy: Mentorship & coaching, Org design, OKRs, Cross-functional roadmapping, Cloud cost reduction, Onboarding programs
• UX & Product: Reusable component systems, Hybrid mobile UX, Design collaboration, Browser extensions, Real-time dashboards

Work Experience

Invative Inc., Burbank, CA

• Staff Engineer (Aug 2019 – May 2024)
  • Architected and delivered Overhub, a multi-tenant commerce platform enabling dynamic storefronts, affiliate tracking, and adaptive compliance workflows—led full-stack execution across web, mobile, and backend services.
  • Built a modular state machine system to orchestrate complex order lifecycles and transaction flows, supporting real-time decisioning.
  • Created a JavaScript storefront SDK for rapid front-end deployments via Webflow, enabling non-dev teams to build and style custom UIs.
  • Designed and implemented a React-based admin dashboard, supporting real-time analytics, customer support tooling, and fulfillment tracking.
  • Developed a low-latency rules engine for intelligent payment routing, increasing revenue quality and fraud resilience.
  • Owned feature development end-to-end, collaborating with CTO, PMs, and designers to align infrastructure with UX goals.

BrightBytes, San Francisco, CA

• Director of Engineering (Nov 2018 – Mar 2019)

  • Led a 40-person engineering org across 5 teams with 5 direct-report managers and 2 consultant agencies.
  • Created a career framework for managers, with multiple reports advancing to Director and VP roles.
  • Spearheaded a cloud cost-reduction initiative: $50K → $7K/month in 6 months.

• Engineering Manager (May 2016 – Nov 2018)

  • Designed and rolled out a multi-tier hiring & onboarding strategy, enabling team growth under budget constraints.
  • Instituted OKRs for engineering, improving delivery predictability and cross-functional transparency.
  • Implemented Basecamp for inter-team project coordination.

• Senior Engineer (Nov 2013 – May 2016)

  • Owned delivery of the company’s highest-availability data ingestion service, powering 75%+ of data.
  • Partnered with designers to evolve internal UI components; contributed to consistency via D3.js + Angular visualization systems.

VerticalResponse, San Francisco, CA

• Senior Software Engineer (Jun 2012 – Nov 2013)
  • Scaled email-tracking backend throughput 1000× via architectural redesign.
  • Built a server-rotation system for email deliverability and reputation management.
  • Led a monolith-to-SPA rewrite using Ember.js; mentored frontend engineers on modern JS practices.
  • Developed internal UI library and first cross-product style guide.

Adpeak Inc., Sarasota, FL

• Chief Technical Officer (Apr 2011 – Jun 2012)

  • Built and scaled high-traffic browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, IE) for deal discovery, media conversion, and social tooling.
  • Served 250M+ daily impressions via a custom ad-serving and tracking infrastructure.
  • Developed rules-based content targeting with user-defined personalization.

• Lead Engineer (Aug 2010 – Apr 2011)

  • Mentored engineers, formalized onboarding, and collaborated closely with design/product teams.
  • Supervised migration of legacy extension codebase to modern JS frameworks.

C2B, Sarasota, FL

• Consultant (Owner) (Jun 2010 – Jan 2011)
  • Built extensions including GitHub PR tools, Trello list filters, and YouTube audio/video downloaders.
  • Engineered hot-reloading system for Chrome extensions.
  • Delivered full-stack solutions across ad tech, IoT, and CMS tooling.

Clickbooth.com, Sarasota, FL

• Technical Business Analyst (Feb 2010 – Jun 2010)

  • Led rebuild of CPA publisher dashboard and built compliance automation tools.
  • Acted as a bridge between product stakeholders, designers, and engineering teams to translate business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
  • Led UX efforts for publisher-facing tools, improving campaign visibility, partner engagement, and platform usability.

• Lead Engineer (Oct 2009 – Feb 2010)

  • Rebuilt the publisher dashboard for a high-volume CPA network using PHP and jQuery, enhancing performance, usability, and reporting capabilities.
  • Engineered ad compliance tools using PHP and JavaScript to automate policy checks, reducing manual review cycles and accelerating approvals.
  • Developed automated testing suites with Selenium and a custom PHP-based framework to validate frontend and backend ad-serving functionality.
  • Created the company’s first design and CSS style guide, establishing visual consistency and scalable frontend patterns.

• Senior Software Engineer (Feb 2008 – Oct 2009)

  • Contributed to early-stage development of Clickbooth’s internal publisher and advertiser platforms.
  • Supported backend feature development and frontend optimization efforts across high-traffic campaign management tools.

Sungrazer Inc., West Palm Beach, FL

• Program Manager (Jan 2007 – Jul 2007)

  • Managed government client relationships, overseeing project timelines, software development schedules, and stakeholder expectations.
  • Coordinated internal engineering resources and external partners to ensure successful delivery of travel and information systems projects.
  • Directed UX and product delivery initiatives to align client needs with functional software outcomes.
  • Delivered real-time travel portals and public-sector web platforms.

• Software Engineer (Aug 2005 – Jan 2007)

  • Built a web-based point-of-sale system using classic ASP and JavaScript, deployed across retail environments with unified UI conventions and performance optimization.
  • Led UI/UX design efforts across the company, authoring internal style guidelines and establishing consistent design patterns across applications.
  • Led development of Palm Beach County’s Travel Portal using a custom XML API, PHP, and Prototype.js, enabling real-time travel information and public engagement.
  • Engineered SOAP-based interfaces in PHP to expose CeresOne’s business logic to third parties, powering both external clients and internal applications.
  • Delivered full-stack CMS integrations and user experiences for public- and partner-facing platforms using Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal.
  • Developed CMS and SOAP-based API integrations for municipal clients.

• Junior Engineer (Aug 2003 – Aug 2005)

  • Contributed to internal tool development and early-stage CMS customization projects using PHP and classic ASP.
  • Assisted senior engineers with backend development and API integration tasks across travel and retail client projects.

Education

Self-directed engineering education via bootstrapped product work, open-source contributions, and team leadership. Extensive experience in production systems, scaling strategies, and design collaboration.