Resume

Qualifications

Over 14 years experience as a professional web developer, with an additional five years as an Internet marketer. This experience has created a broad knowledge base that can be drawn upon to perform all tasks necessary to build and promote a successful website. Produces sites that are SEO friendly, stable, quick, highly available, easy to update, and ranked for keywords in search engines (SERPs). Proactively analyzes systems and processes to determine if efficiencies can be gained; puts solutions in place if deemed appropriate. Easily manages multiple projects with shifting priorities and deadlines. Technologist with a healthy enthusiasm for business development and Internet marketing, whether it be generating CPA deals, launching successful link-building campaigns, or split testing different offers. Developed a process that increased profits by 21% for a $50M company, had a number one video on YouTube, built a site from the ground up that received 250K visitors a month, and produced multiple pieces of content that went viral (front page of Digg, Reddit, YahooBuzz).

Technology Skills

Strives to produce the cleanest, simplest, most reliable and efficient code possible. Enjoys simplifying and architecting systems and workflows from the ground up, but also able to adopt legacy systems, reverse engineer code and workflows, and enhance for functionality and performance.

Web Development

  • PHP - CakePHP / Smarty
  • JQuery / Straight JavaScript
  • .NET MVC
  • MySQL & SQL Server '05 & '08
  • CSS
  • dB: design & optimization
  • Perl
  • Admin on LAMP / Windows stack
  • Object Oriented Design
Optimization

  • SEO: analysis, implementation
  • Project management
  • Viral / Social marketing
  • Conversion funnel optimization
  • Traffic monetization
  • Contract negotiation
  • Partnership development
Software / Services

  • Eclipse & SVN
  • Visual Studio 2010 & VSS
  • SEOmoz
  • Google analytics / Webmaster / Keyword tool
  • Wordpress
  • WHM / CPanel
  • CDNs (Akamai / Rackspace)


Work Experience

  • Lead Developer and ArchitectEducationDynamics / WCS (6/06 - present)

    Helps line manage 5 - 8 developers to produce clean, reliable code for a business totaling $180M in revenue; triages request queue and works with business units as point of contact to determine constantly shifting priorities and to communicate these priorities to stakeholders. Acted as PM for key initiatives to gather requirements, determine functionality, develop timelines for deliverables in a phased / iterative method, and to identify risks to success. These projects were launched successfully, and key stakeholders commented on the smoothness of the undertaking. Also developed in-house and external training programs to get team members up to speed on different core technologies.

    Investigates / implements / maintains systems and processes for high availability, including but not limited to: load balanced systems, caching services (Akamai / Rackspace Cloud), local caching schemes, content and ping alerts, load testing, automated offsite backups, code and query optimization, etc. Develops an array of automation tools and database admins (using CakePHP, .NET MVC, or hand-coded solutions) to simplify technology and business units needs; admins are presented in clean UI with a heavy emphasis on AJAX (JQuery and JSON) to aid in user experience. Works with and troubleshoots caching services, load balanced systems, and failover processes. Uses stress testing tools as a diagnostics measure. Keeps security and scalability in mind when considering a project. Interfaces with vendors and third party companies for a variety of reasons, including product research and evaluation. Documents code clearly for future reference and other developers, and functionality used more than once has been abstracted out to libraries.

    Under own initiative, architects / builds / maintains a system at root level (LAMP) to create a series of SEO sites to leverage for keywords in search engines. Analyzes keywords and devises working strategies to increase traffic.
    Recommendations
    03.24.2011 "Matt played an instrumental role in inventing and producing the code that enabled our company to go from start up to successful exit and beyond! He is a developer that thinks out of the box and has the dedication and persistance to be a game changer. He would be a huge asset to any technical team!"
    — John Anderson, CTO-Partner, WorldClass Strategy 03.31.2011 "Matt Pressnall would be a top-valued asset to any company wishing to hire him. He is a self motivated natural born developer. His knowledge of web technologies is extensive, and he is ROI-focused in the extreme. Matt worked for me for three years and met any challenge I threw at him - I would hire him again in an instant."
    — Bill Jeanes, Director of Technology, EducationDynamics 04.12.2011 "I worked with Matt for five years. He's the kind of guy that you would go to when you need to get something done that involves multiple stakeholders and/or will affect or require input from many parties; Matt could be counted on to communicate with all those who could influence the success or failure of the outcome, come up with a plan, and take the whole process from A to Z.

    And the reason he could do so was because typically he, more than anyone else, knew the technical ins and outs of a project and what needed to be done to implement it properly; because of this he had the respect of those that he needed to get on board, and he was the man to got the job done."
    — Samer Kurdi, Website Optimization Manager, EducationDynamics 03.30.2011 "Matt is an excellent developer who works well on projects alone or on a team. He is a great team player who can help generate the ideas and solutions needed to make projects succeed. I would absolutely recommend him!"
    — John Boyle, Sr. Product Development Manager, EducationDynamics 03.30.2011 "I have worked with Matt for several years on various projects. I have known Matt to be an extremely talented and personable developer that has a keen eye to detail and flexibility. Matt is terrific at taking raw concepts and ideas and developing very sophisticated products with an eye on usability, security and utility. Matt is a diverse developer who has tremendous technical acumen with an eye towards usability and user experience for the end user."
    — John Stebbins, Design Director, EducationDynamics 03.29.2011 "Matt is a knowledgeable and business savvy sr developer & web architect. He has deep understanding of business challenges and the technical knowhow to solve them. Also a pleasure to work with."
    — Kuba Poraj-Kuczewski, SVP Media Services, EducationDynamics 03.23.2011 "Matt is the individual you want on your team and the one you want to keep close by. I have had the priviledge of working alongside Matt for 5 years and it's been 5 years of constant collaboration where Matt's in depth knowledge, creativity, research skills, dedication to a job well done and all around pride in what he does that see's a task or a project through to completion. If you want an individual to understand your request and see it's done right, the first time, then you want Matt to implement your request. Matt has been a mentor to his team mates and an invaluable asset to me personally. I cannot recommend him highly enough and welcome the opportunity to work alongside him anyday."
    — Simon Stryjak, Database Administrator, EducationDynamics 03.23.2011 "Matt is a very talented professional with a ton of enthusiasm for his work. I have worked with him for many years and his problem-solving skills were unmatched. He always had creative solutions for some of our more difficult technical challenges and since he also had an excellent understanding of the business, you always wanted him in the room to help with both technical and business solutions. Matt is as well-rounded as technical professionals come and I hope to work with him again in the future."
    — Jennifer Murrow, VP, Project Management & Process Improvement, EducationDynamics 03.23.2011 "Matt is an exceptional co-worker and leader, it was a joy to work on his team. An incredibly talented developer, I was constantly amazed at his passion for development and skills to conquer any tech issue. One of his greatest skills is fostering an environment of creativity and enthusiasm, empowering his team to develop at their best. I feel that Matt possesses the two most powerful keys to success, for both business and life: skill and enthusiasm."
    — Jean-Paul LaCount, Developer, WorldClass Strategy

  • Senior Internet EngineerThe Seattle Times (5/99 - 5/06)

    Responsible (with one other developer) for all technical aspects of seattletimes.com, the award-winning site that receives well over one million hits per day. Worked on the content management system for the purposes of maintenance, enhancements, and publishing efforts. Built and/or maintained a host of tools and applications, including: the online Archives, which allow users to search for every story published since 1990; the Photo Gallery Generator, which provides a GUI for non-technical users to select and group photos for publication in multiple templates; SLACker (Spell Link Ads Checker), a custom-built testing tool that allows users to run ad hoc or predetermined queries; and many other applications. Tools and processes were created using Agile or iterative product development. Also part of a team that determined site standards and best usability practices. Worked at the admin level in a mixed environment of 20 - 30 Windows, Linux, and Solaris boxes to publish, parse, process, and manipulate data.

    Optimized high school sports score database, a process that entailed reducing code by 95% in a majority of places, thereby limiting overall trips to the database by 90%, and increasing speed by 10 times in the previously slowest areas. Classified employment ads at 15% - 20% above vendor's best project results, primarily through creating methods the vendor's software didn't support. Wrote software that obviated the need for custom CGIs for form processing.
    Recommendations
    07.20.2010 "I worked with Matt for a number of years at the Seattle Times when we were both developers in the fast-paced New Media department. Matt could always be counted on to quickly understand what needed to be done and determine the best way to do it. Even when a project's goals resulted in a tight timeline with a whole new set of technical skills, Matt was easy to work with and got the job done. Matt's the kind of well-rounded technologist that would be a great addition to any organization."
    — John Soltys, Sr. Infrastructure Architect, The Seattle Times Company 07.15.2010 "Matt was a real pleasure to work with during my employment with the Seattle times. His technical knowledge of systems and applications was very good. Matt also brought a lot of creative and innovative ideas to the group. He is a very energetic and outgoing individual that would make a great addition to any team."
    — Jason Scheeringa, Sr. Internet Engineer -> Internet Systems Architect, The Seattle Times Company 07.09.2010 "Matt is a very knowledgeable and analytical developer / systems architect. His knowledge base covers a very broad spectrum of up-to-date web technologies - from web architectural design to web/database development. Goal oriented - 100% reliable! His easy-to-approach, friendly personality makes him a very strong team player. I would recommend him as:

    A+ Systems Architect
    A+ Web Developer
    A+ DBA / Database Developer"
    — Kevin Kwan, Web Developer / Internet Engineer, The Seattle Times Company 06.28.2010 "Matt made huge contributions to the Seattle Times online organization and, more specifically, to the code base, software and tools used by the online staff. He's a solution oriented developer and looks at problems in creative ways. His positive attitude and zest for life also made working with him an always enjoyable process."
    — Eric Brown, Online Producer, The Seattle Times Company 12.06.2007 "Matt Pressnall is the most energetic person I have ever worked with. He is smart, quick to pick up new technologies and apply them in practice. When he is given a task to do, he always gets it done on time, not only meeting the deadline but also finishes it with the most efficient solution.

    Matt wore many hats within the Seattle Times online team. He served as a technical consultant to team members as well as the architect when it came to planning and executing the solution. He worked well with both technical and non-technical staffs.

    I am grateful to have the opportunity to work closely with Matt for about five years. He sure can brighten the working environment and make it a fun place to go to work. I would be happy to work with him again in the future."
    — Franky Wong, Sr. Internet Systems Architect, The Seattle Times Company 12.06.2007 "Matt is very enthusiastic at work. He goes to work with high spirit, not to mention, he's also very smart and hardworking. He is a team player and has innovative technical ideas.

    Back at Seattle Times, Matt was responsible for supporting and maintaining the state-of-the-art first-class in-house Content Management System. He was able to pick up this role in a short period of time.

    In all of the projects that I saw Matt worked on, he always put in 100% of his effort. On top of meeting the deadlines, he's also willing to share his ideas and knowledge with the team.

    I had worked with Matt for about 6 years at Seattle Times. I will not hesitate to recommend him."
    — Jonie Yu, Sr. Internet Systems Architect, The Seattle Times Company

  • Web DeveloperInternational Telcom LTD (9/98 - 5/99)

    Created and maintained a myriad of sites for International Telcom's services. Used HTML, Perl/CGI, Javascript, VBScript, and ASP to gather information from users. A high technical and graphic design sense allowed for adding content and functionality seamlessly. Decided where to expend resources for numerous projects. Researched and learned new aspects of Internet technology.

    Built a publishing system to allow non-technical individuals to push content and design changes at their leisure. Created a suite of tools to reduce the length of a weekly task from 10 hours to 1 minute. Organized and brought structure to all online properties. Built a custom calendar for scheduling events cross departments.

    Recommendations
    07.01.2010 "Beyond a doubt, Matt is one of the most creative, flexible, and highly motivated developers it's ever been my pleasure to work with. He has a sharp mind, a gift for envisioning graceful solutions to complex problems, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and a terrific sense of humor. I genuinely enjoyed working with Matt and I would do so again if the opportunity ever arose."
    — LA Smith, Content Manager, International Telcom, Ltd. 06.26.2010 "In addition to being able to light up the room with his smile, Matt has a great work ethic, is amazingly resourceful, and has the talent and the skills to create great work. He was a pleasure to work with."
    — Susan Sparks, Chief Creative Officer, International Telcom, Ltd.

  • Associate Technical ProducerStarwave / ABCNews.com / Disney (10/97 - 9/98)

    Responsible for the daily production and integrity of the sites: MrShowbiz.com, WallofSound.com, and CelebSite.com. Used HTML, Perl, Javascript, JAVA, BAT Files, and ASPs to create, update, and maintain roughly 50,000 pages. Built web-based front ends using Perl to automate and simplify daily tasks for the production and editorial team. Project lead on many large and small tasks that required collaboration with other departments. Routinely ran the production of the three sites single-handedly.

Other Skills — Not Exhaustive

Wordpress: security, plugins, optimization, management, complex .htaccess files, Coldfusion, Oracle, XML, SOAP, ActionScript, XHTML, HTML, Photoshop, Twilio, CAPTCHA, OpenX Ad Server, admin on Solaris, Linux, Windows, diverse set of APIs, Prototype, YUI, video editing, Camtasia (screencast documentation), Adwords, making co-workers laugh

Education

University of Washington • Graduate
Bachelor of Arts in Communications (emphasis in Journalism and New Media), History minor