Daniel Whiffing

Employment History

Started Directive Software as Sole Proprietor to seek out larger variety of work. Formed relationships with a variety of Digital Agencies in Toronto and leveraged them to get a steady flow of Full Stack Software Development Contracts.
Have built several Serverless Applications from scratch based on the needs of clients, including Consumer Loyalty, Financial Tech, Investment, and Internal Resource Management domains.
Responsible for Architecture Planning, Freelancing, Tech Leadership, Full Stack Development, and Clarification of Requirements on the variety of projects I have worked on
In addition to larger Full Stack projects, I have built a variety of static pages for clients of all sizes by working with Designers to determine the look of the site, rapidly develop it with Responsive Design Principles in mind and host it for the client at low cost.

Working as the Engineering Lead for the Growth team, I helped to mentor and guide the other engineers on my team. This included training new engineers and co-ops, introducing them to our culture and showing them how to succeed at Drop
Assisted with Project Management by creating and maintaining technical tickets for our team while still performing regular IC responsibilities
Worked with Product Team and Management as the company grew to help plan an Effective Product Roadmap based on set OKRs Had regular check ins with team members to discuss work satisfaction, alignment with company goals, and ways to create more impact
By understanding the way the Product Team worked most effectively, I was able to consistently meet tight deadlines while still acting as an advocate for Technical Excellence across our platform
With the Head of Product, I developed multiple games with the app which funnelled churned users back into our flywheel and increased WAU by a consistent 23%. We also worked on amplification features for the Business Development team to close deals with new partners

I led 6 Software Engineering Co-ops, introducing them to our conventions and technical frameworks. I helped them to complete their initial tasks and manage their progress on any features they worked on.
Developed React Native iOS/Android application in under 4 months with a very limited specifications and minimal design finalized. Was able to find a balance between delivering quality vs quickly that satisfied company objectives
Always treated UX and Code Quality as a priority; I acted as a pseudo Product Manager initially, working closely with Product Managers once they joined
With no data team, I added event tracking and tooling to support experimentation by the Product Team to help find Product Market fit and learn more about our users. When generated reports were inadequate for their needs, I wrote new queries to drive their insights
Acted as primary Engineer responsible for stability of Application code, keeping a close eye on new issues and working quickly to resolve them. Also worked on Ruby Backend and implemented necessary changes to support Application features I was developing

Maintained a legacy code base, rewriting aging code to support newer versions of Rails, making the application cheaper to run, easier to develop, and more stable for our users
During my extra time while waiting for new work, developed a new React based product to replace the existing Javascript application being presented to Mobile users. This embraced by the Product Team and eventually became the default Mobile Web experience
Whenever possible, worked closely with Product Managers and Designers to ensure all features were implemented according to spec with a consistent User Experience

Participated in weekend Game Development Hackathon in January for each year since 2013, creating a game within a 48 hour period either independently or on a team
When working independently, I have carefully planned and organized the designing the game, creating the art, writing the code, and creating sound effects to fit within a short time span while still coming out with a fun and unique product
Learned to collaborate and communicate with people with a variety of interesting and unique skill sets and personalities. I developed as sense of how to balance fun and hard work to create a positive environment for collaborators

Created viral mobile games rapidly with a team of artists to capitalize on recent viral news, trying to release the games within 48 hours of the news breaking
I accomplished this by developing of a series of templates that allowed gameplay concepts to be quickly re-used with new assets and minor tweaks to existing gameplay to add a new twist
We released a series of Mobile games during a 5 month period that allowed us to get consistent spikes in ad revenue on release, which was supplemented by the sale of physical products like t-shirts and coffee mugs