I'm Ross MacDonald.

About me

I'm a highly skilled Software Engineer with a passion for building innovative solutions that drive real impact. With expertise spanning backend engineering, APIs, databases, and front-end frameworks like React, I love collaborating with diverse teams to tackle complex challenges and deliver high-quality products that delight users.

Currently, I work as a Backend Engineer at ChowNow, where I've gained extensive experience integrating third-party services, streamlining development processes, and implementing creative solutions to enhance user experiences and drive operational efficiency. Some of my key projects include developing APIs for passwordless authentication that securely serve over 1 million users and spearheading a major code refactoring effort to reduce technical debt.

My technical toolkit includes proficiency in Python, JavaScript, React, AWS, Docker, API development, relational databases, and more. Beyond my love for writing elegant code, I'm passionate about mentoring fellow engineers, driving best practices, and fostering a collaborative culture. I thrive in fast-paced, high-growth environments where I can dream up creative solutions, take ownership of impactful projects, and deliver real value.

When I'm not immersed in code, you can find me enjoying the great outdoors with my family or chasing after my energetic toddler. I believe in working hard and playing hard - and that the best solutions often emerge from stepping outside our everyday routines and comfort zones to gain fresh perspectives.

Fun fact: Before breaking into the world of tech, I worked for 5 years as a 911 Emergency Dispatcher (yes, I have stories).

Experience

• Backend Engineer II

  ChowNow | Los Angeles, CA | 2023 - Present

  • Led integration of third party data service for restaurant analytics and reporting, developing configuration and streamlining the Software Development Life Cycle to enhance data-driven decision-making and operational efficiency for restaurant partners.
  • Collaborated with engineers from a newly acquired company to integrate our software, providing one-on-one guidance throughout the process. Developed Single Sign-On (SSO) for integrated web services, streamlining user access and enhancing security.
  • Developed and implemented APIs for passwordless authentication, enabling customers to securely login via OTP using Twilio Verify service. To date, over 1m users have a verified phone number or email address, significantly enhancing user experience and security.
  • Drove a major refactoring project to deprecate and remove 36k+ lines of legacy menu code from a monolithic codebase, significantly reducing technical debt.
  • Revamped unit test suite by implementing mocks for all menu functionalities, significantly boosting test reliability and maintainability, resulting in faster, more robust testing cycles.
  • Planned and implemented effort to leverage our payment processor’s APIs to send out notification emails when account statuses changed, allowing restaurant partners and customer service to be more proactive in keeping accounts in a desired state.

• Software QA Engineer I & II

  ChowNow | Los Angeles, CA | 2022 - 2023

  • Performed manual and automated testing on mobile and web applications, including leading the testing effort on our integration with Uber and the introduction of our multi-provider delivery feature.
  • Proactively communicated with members of the organization both in and outside of engineering to solve ongoing issues and enhance the end-user experience.
  • Wrote automated tests within our Python/Selenium testing framework.

• Software QA Engineer

  Axos Bank | San Diego, CA | 2021 - 2022

  • Developed an internal API using node.js, Elasticsearch & Kibana to export and visualize test results, improving accessibility and insights into test performance.
  • Led team meetings with off-shore staff to enhance coverage and maintainability in our test automation suite

• Technical Skills

  • Python
  • JavaScript
  • HTML & CSS
  • React
  • Django
  • SQL
  • Redis
  • AWS
  • Docker
  • DataDog
  • Sentry
  • LaunchDarkly
  • GitHub
  • Snowflake

Work

Disclaimer: With a toddler running around, the time for side projects isn't what it used to be. These are a couple of years old and don't necessarily reflect my current expertise.

• Overtime Tracker

  • React Native
  • TypeScript
  • CSS
  • Apple Calendar API
  • Expo

  A personal favorite that I used almost daily in my previous career as a 911 dispatcher. My schedule was so hectic that it needed its own app. I could add, delete or update shifts, while syncing them with my Apple Calendar.

  View Source Code

• Safety Blanket

  • React Native
  • JavaScript
  • GraphQL
  • MongoDB
  • Node.js

  A full stack mobile app that provides users with emergency and non-emergency public safety help at their fingertips. A user's geolocation is used to find agencies closest to them. The landing screen gives the user the option to call an agency, open up the location in google maps, or to save the contact information in their phone.

  View Backend Code View Frontend Code

• Find Your Park

  • React
  • JavaScript
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Node.js
  • PostgreSQL
  • Express
  • Heroku
  • Netlify

  A full-stack application for Californians looking to head outdoors. The app allows a user to find parks in their area via various search methods. I built this mostly for personal use due to the lack of aggregated data on parks run by different agencies (state, national, county, etc.).

  View Backend Code View Frontend Code

Contact