Steven Speicher

Steven is a web engineer living in sunny Seattle with his wife, son, and cat. He works at The New York Times helping to build products that grow subscriber value.

Previously, he was with The Seattle Times, University of Washington Marketing & Communications, and Nebraska's NPR & PBS station.

Experience

Senior Software Engineer, The New York Times, Oct 2018 - present

• Tech lead a rebuild of NYT Games landing page, gather consensus on technical stack, and roadmap milestones
• Engineer web application & private CMS UIs with APIs resolving internal data stores and GraphQL backends on 0-to-1 NYT Parenting product
• Mentor, coach, and goal set with interns, associate engineers, and mentee
• Contribute web scrapers to Pulitzer Prize winning NYT Covid tracking project
• Accelerate time to production with CI pipelines that empower engineers to ship code multiple times per day
• Implement A/B tests, including an introducing a registration wall to the Mini Crossword
• Collaborate across platforms to debug and fix a web view entitlement bug in the iOS & Android NYT apps
• Conduct tech interviews/screenings and onboard software engineers

**Lead Instructor, **University of Washington, Mar 2021 - present

• Instruct self-paced course in Professional & Continuing Education’s Certificate in Frontend Development
• Facilitate office hours, grade assignments, and respond to emails on topics of JavaScript and Advanced CSS
• Advise and guide career changers, adult learners, and other nontraditional students

Software Engineer, The Seattle Times, Aug 2016 - Oct 2018

• Lead front-end development for a single-page application newsroom planning tool
• Engineer a dashboard for seattletimes.com admins to manage creation and display of reader-facing messages
• Research, document, and build a paywall including dynamic metering that helps to increase subscription rates
• Support reader-facing web app and newsroom-facing CMS in partnership with product and design functions
• Identify and implement performance improvements to reduce first meaningful paint from 3s to less than 2s
• Evangelize and develop company-wide UI pattern library
• Perform code reviews and encourage team-wide engineering best practices and documentation
• Participate and advocate for team and individual processes during Scrum ceremonies

Front End Developer, University of Washington, July 2015 - Aug 2016

• Launch a fresh hr.uw.edu and WordPress-powered CMS
• Collaborate with lead designer to ensure UIs follow UW’s design guidelines
• Liaise as lead development expert to project teams and stakeholders
• Organize and present at UW’s Front-end Community of Practice
• Ensure internal and external web applications adhere to WCAG AA and AAA conformity

Producer & Web Developer, Nebraska's NPR, Aug 2012 - Jul 2015

• Design and develop interactive web experiences
• Re-design website and custom WordPress development
• Automate workflow for management of 4TB+ of imagery
• Manage a team of 4-6 student interns and production assistants
• Present project mission and work to general public and expert audiences

Projectionist, Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center, Sep 2009 - Jul 2012

• Screened 35mm, 16mm and various digital format films
• Operated large projectors and monitored film and digital equipment
• Assisted in transition to full-digital cinema theatre

Education

Bachelor of Arts / University of Nebraska – Lincoln, 2012

Majors: Environmental Studies & Film Studies; Minor: Mathematics