Wm. Ruffin Bailey

Online Portfolio: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastwork
Stack Overflow profile: http://stackoverflow.com/users/1028230/ruffin
GitHub repos: https://github.com/ruffin--

Overview

Mr. Bailey has over twenty years' experience in full-stack web application system design, construction, leadership, optimization, and maintenance. He has leadership experience at the team, lead, and project levels for products with $30m ARR.

Recent professional experience concentrates on "cradle to grave" web application work:

  • Architecting and coding ASP.NET Core and Node micro- or monolithic cloud (Azure or AWS) or on-prem middleware in C#, JavaScript, or TypeScript using GraphQL, Dapper, LINQ to EF, or direct data access;
  • Creating Preact (untranspiled!), React (built with vite, tested with vitest), Angular 2-9, AngularJS, and React powered front-ends;
  • Designing NoSQL document schemas for MongoDB and Azure Cosmos, relational schemas for MS SQL Server, MySQL, and others;
  • Testing work, most effectively with Test-Driven Development (TDD), using tools like Jest, Jasmine, & Selenium on the client and XUnit & Moq, among other libraries, on the server-side.

All of these are done with particular attention to keeping code DRY, defensively written, and self-commenting.

Most work has been done in a Scrum environment, and Mr. Bailey was Scrum certified in 2012. He has served as a team lead, tech lead, and a project lead, coordinating stories, standups, and tasks with tools like Jira, TFS, and kanban with Trello.

Mr. Bailey is also a proven communicator, with over eleven semesters' experience as an instructor at the university level, having taught courses in Business and Technical Writing, Cultural Studies of Video Games, and Electronic Media Writing. His academic work has been published in two collections, with one publication taught as part of Duke University's Information Science + Studies program.

More recently, he co-authored, "Restarting Static: Television's Digital Reboot", which was published in the journal Television and New Media in April 2015 (online) and January 2016 (print).

As of May 2025, Mr. Bailey remains one of only two StackOverflow users to have been awarded the JSLint badge, and is in the top 3% all-time in StackOverflow's reputation league. You can review his answers on the site here and some of his favorites here: 1, 2, 3.

Areas of Expertise

C#, SQL, JSON, JSLint, JavaScript, ASP.NET Core, .NET MVC, UWP, LINQ, LINQ to EF, MS SQL Server (and Azure DB), MySQL, MongoDB, Azure Cosmos DB, React, ViteJS, Angular 2+, AngularJS, jQuery, CSS, HTML, Bootstrap, Knockout.js, Xamarin/.NET MAUI, git, XUnit, Selenium, vitest

Work Experience

.NET Senior Engineer (Toptal Contract), Steady Platform, Inc, 2024 – 2025

C#, ASP.NET Core, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), MongoDB, MySQL, wkhtmltopdf, JSON, Figma

  • Contributed to a team to port a consumer-facing financial tracking system to a government-facing income verification tool.
  • Served as a member of the back-end team, responsible for the system's .NET Web API-based (C#) system of microservices, connected via Amazon SQS, MongoDB, and MySQL.
  • Created and was the primary developer on the Report Builder microservice, which read complex income report formats from Argyle and Plaid and transformed users' data into pixel-exact PDF designs.
Industry:
  • Business Services

Full-stack Technical Lead, Hawkes Learning Systems, 2020 – 2024

C#, ASP.NET Core, Microsoft SQL Server, TypeScript, .NET MVC, ASP.NET, Active Server Pages (ASP Classic & vbscript... in 2024?!), React, Vite, Vitest

  • Architected and successfully moved the company's Test Builder code from ASP.NET MVC to the ASP.NET Core Web API with token-based authentication.
    • Test Builder is Hawkes' SaaS tool for college instructors to create exams for students with online scoring, remediation, and training.
  • Researched, documented, and introduced the development team to a Vite-powered client stack built on React. Previously, the most modern client stack used was Angular.
  • Created a transpilation-free, Preact-powered client stack to allow minimally invasive but modern client development within dated jQuery-powered Classic ASP pages and Angular code.
  • Invited to participate—and eagerly participated—in a 360-degree review of the development process and management with the new company owner and consultant.
Industry:
  • Higher Education

Full-stack Engineer (Toptal Contract), Anthem, Inc (BlueCross BlueShield), 2020

JavaScript, Node.js, Express.js, MongoDB, GraphQL, GraphQL API, React

  • Contributed to implementing a new GraphQL and React Native powered MEAN stack for "the largest for-profit managed health care company in one of the largest health insurance networks."
  • Replaced legacy REST calls with a new, in-house GraphQL library.
  • Designed new React-based components (React and React Native) to ingest the new GraphQL payloads in a system designed to allow remote communication with healthcare offices during COVID-19.
Industry:
  • Healthcare Software

Team Lead and Project Lead (Grantmaking), Blackbaud, Inc. July 2018 - January 2020

c#, typescript, angular 2+, json, mongo, sql-server, csla.net, Azure cloud hosting (database & server), bootstrap & bootstrap grid, git

Portfolio direct link: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastWork/web#grantmaking

Mr. Bailey served as project lead on an 18-month application rewrite for a Blackbaud's Grantmaking system, which brought in approximately $30 million/year in revenue.

The rewrite's tech stack utilized an Azure cloud-hosted, multi-tenant MongoDB datastore with interfaces exposed by a .NET Core MVC (but mostly using it to provide REST API endpoints) microservice-based application stack, with an Angular 6+ and TypeScript-powered client. This provided an interesting contrast to the legacy stack of about 1500 single-tenant SQL Server instances hosted in a single datacenter running against a Silverlight (and CSLA) powered client and server.

This project had bogged down before Mr. Bailey's arrival, and even after four years of development, had yet to allow users to create new entities. To jumpstart development, Mr. Bailey proposed a middle-way architecture, replacing the (strangely relational) Mongo/microservice backend system rewrite with REST APIs layered over the legacy CSLA services, allowing the team to dump the obsolete Silverlight dependency more quickly. The rebooted rewrite was operational less thank two years after it was restarted with the hybridized tech stack. (More details can be found here.)

As project lead, Mr. Bailey worked closely with product management to define strategy, make tech stack decisions, create the backlog (from the epic, feature, & milestone macro to Scrum story micro), and to set development priorities for four teams of developers. Mr. Bailey remained a key hands-on contributor as well, coding about 50% of each working day to demonstrate best practices, review new code, and to complete complex tasks.

Toptal Contractor February 2018 - July 2018

c#, typescript, angular 2+, angularjs, json, .net-mvc, graphql, sql-server, bootstrap & bootstrap grid, node.js, mysql, uwp, xamarin, vue.js, react, git

Mr. Bailey passed Toptal.com's careful screening process as a full-stack web developer, and, via Toptal, has worked with everything from small non-profits to two Fortune 50 companies on coding projects, including the following:

  • As part of an in-house disruption team, working with contractors and associates, was responsible for an Angular 9 module adding personalized care advice and procedure cost comparisons to a Fortune 50 healthcare provider's web presence, integrating with GraphQL middleware.
  • Worked with a nonprofit workforce coordination program in a major US city to update and add features to their web apps responsible for student job applications and job matching. Technical stack included MySQL, .NET MVC and AngularJS.
  • Re-architected a stalled GIS system that handled commercial land sales for a company with over $1 billion in revenue, moving from an over-engineered React and Redux codebase to a simpler "events up, props down" state management system.

Senior Developer, CentralReach, January 2017 - January 2018

C#, WebAPI, SQL Server, ReactJS, MobX, JSX, Babel, KnockoutJS, XMPP

Portfolio direct link: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastwork/web#secureChat

Mr. Bailey, like every CR team member, had a diverse set of responsibilities, but his major task the creation of a system-wide secure chat system and to backfill it into an existing healthcare practice management SaaS that did not anticipate modular additions. Beyond integrating with the legacy system, the new chat system also had HIPAA-compliance and full auditability requirements. Edge cases included group permissions changing over time, causing issues like when a group chat "host" lost their relationship/permission to communicate with a group member (or vice versa, when a member lost their relationship with the chat group host). To ensure history wasn't lost to any group member, such situations required freezing the conversation, preserving access, but preventing any new messages from being sent until all group members regained active relationships with the entire group.

Other tasks were typical WebAPI/SQL Server fare, except that the database relied almost exclusively on what reduced to procedural code in stored procedures rather than being a set-oriented schema, which, along with untyped XML stored in VARCHAR and BLOB columns, proved challenging. CentralReach was sold in 2025 for $1.65 billion, so Mr. Bailey figures the team must have been doing something right!

Independent Contractor, Intelisent, c. October 2015 - December 2016

.NET MVC, LINQ to Entities, MSSQL, LINQ, jQuery, Kendo ASP.NET & HTML UI (now Telerik), JSLint, Selenium

Portfolio direct link: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastwork/web#messageFactory

Intelisent markets itself as, "the industry’s most powerful direct mail analytics platform, one centralized place to manage, track, and activate your direct mail data. Built to put your data to work, Intelisent delivers real-time insights that help you target, deliver, and evaluate direct mail with precision". Work centered on MessageFactory Direct Marketing Manager, the CRM that managed digital asset management for customer-facing mail services for major Fortune 500 companies at one of the US's largest [snail] mail distribution companies.

Work here was full-stack .NET MVC coding with SQL Server as the datastore. The front end was powered by Kendo HTML UI and included Selenium automated testing. Mr. Bailey was one of two developers on this project.

Independent App Developer, rufwork.com, LLC, July 2015 - October 2015
(dates for core; still maintained & bugfixed)

C#, Universal Windows Platform (UWP), Microsoft Store, html, JavaScript, Markdown, CommonMark.NET, Imgur API

Portfolio direct link: MarkUpDown.com

Mr. Bailey created from scratch a Markdown editor for Windows 10+, coded with the Universal Window Platform GUI framework, using CommonMark.NET's Markdown processing language. This project spawned a few open source libraries like HtmlFragment that Mr. Bailey wrote to help handle Windows' HTML paste format, which was unexpectedly nuanced, and UWPBox to help with weird TextBox behaviors in UWP. Both are MPL licensed and open for review.

Senior Programmer, Engineering Services Network, August 2014 - July 2015

powershell, smnp, vmware, wpf, c#, java, perl, powercli, git, GitLab

Portfolio direct link: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastWork/code/desktop.html#esnPowerShell

On-site contracting position at a Navy Enterprise Data Center requiring Secret clearance. Work began with the update of legacy VMWare Cops reporting PowerShell scripts delivered under another contract, and help coordinating the optimization of VMWare resources and EMC VNX storage.

Work included creating scripts to manage complex data diff and update uses, automation of VMWare utilization metrics, in-stream review and repair of code delivered to NEDC Engineering from other contracting sources, and update of all PowerCLI scripts to 5.5 compliance.

Mr. Bailey was the only on-site, full-time programmer at the SPAWAR LANT NEDC.

Senior Software Developer & Team Lead, PeopleMatter, October 2012 - August 2014

c#, asp.net-mvc-4, sql-server, fluent-nhibernate, javascript, ajax, jquery, jquery-ui, knockout.js, jslint, tfs, visual-studio-2013, sql, nhibernate-queryover, css, twitter-bootstrap, TFS

Portfolio direct link: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastWork/web#peoplematter

Member and lead of one of five Agile Scrum teams working on PeopleMatter's Schedule module, "an online schedule maker, manager and communicator." The PeopleMatter stack included fairly strict Microsoft MVC 4.0 with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 on the server, and an exceptionally data-rich KnockoutJS powered client.

Mr. Bailey's team's work included development of PeopleMatter's Schedule component, used to schedule employees mainly in hourly service/restaurant positions, the creation of an employee background check service integration with products from Sterling Infosystems, and the creation of a JSLint-powered Team Foundation Server (TFS) build policy to ensure that all JavaScript code checked into the PeopleMatter repository is (reasonably) well formatted.

For the Spring 2014 release of PeopleMatter, Mr. Bailey was the sole coder for two features, the Save for Later status and the Reasons for applicant status changes, featured on the PeopleMatter Spring 2014 product release page.

GIS Programmer, SYNCADD Systems, Inc., January 2012 - October 2012

c#, javascript, extjs, jquery, oracle, mapserver, openlayers, ajax, wcf, sql, css

Portfolio direct link: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastWork/web/mapping.html#ArmyMapper

Performed as one of two programmers on the "Development 1" task of Army Mapper 3.0, the US Army's enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS). Army Mapper is used by the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Installation Management (OACSIM) as a tool to visualize the current state of the Army's resource management across Army installations (ie, bases) worldwide.

Work in the Development 1 task included designing and creating exceptionally advanced, user-facing geo/database query tools, allowing Common Access Card (CAC) authenticated end users to visually construct and save ad hoc queries of what amounted to complex SQL joins. These joined data sources, cutting across any number of tables, could then be concurrently queried by data values and geospatial constraints. Other tasks included creating a Range Query Tool (RQT) that allows Army support personnel to quickly find firing ranges by munition or weapon type, or by querying a number of other range characteristics.

Army Mapper 3.0 employs MapFish, OpenLayers, and MapServer to interface with spatially aware and flat data in Oracle and ESRI ArcSDE. Work was done in PL/SQL, C#, Javascript, and ExtJS.

ASP.NET Developer, SystemTec contractor for SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, October 2011 - December 2011

c#, sql-server, jquery-ui, ajax, javascript, css

Portfolio direct link: http://ruffinbailey.com/pastWork/web#dhecImz

Performed alpha rewrite of Immunizations Directory for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). System allows pediatrician and other doctor offices in the state of South Carolina to manage registered children's scheduled immunizations, both those already administered and those due. Project included learning the schema of the existing database in DB2, coding user interfaces with detailed data quality assurance requirements in .NET, jQuery, and jQuery UI, and connecting the UI and data tiers through a shared middle data tier, then also in development. This was a planned two and a half month project, immediately after which Mr. Bailey joined SYNCADD Systems.

President/Contractor, rufwork programming, Inc., October 2002 - January 2012

c#, vb.net, php, sql, ado.net, sql-server, mysql, javascript, ajax, xamarin, lamp, css, xamarin.ios

Incorporated software development and consulting company in October 2002, and used it to create self-released software and to consult while attending graduate school.

Projects have included database design and maintenance, creation of web-based interfaces to those systems, GIS and geospatial database design, and custom, stand-alone application development.

Most web-based projects utilize AMP stacks (Apache Web Server, MySQL RDBMS, and PHP extensions). Geospatial work includes ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server, MapServer, and Google Maps. Stand-alone application design uses Java or Visual Basic (VB6 and VB.NET), and now in Mono/Xamarin for iOS.

Representative projects follow.

  • Maintains and develops a number of open source projects, including SqlDb#, a hand-rolled RDBMS, available on github, written in C# using the Mono Project/Xamarin. (Ignore the Hungarian.)
  • SpiderSavings.com (AMP): Mr. Bailey designed and built an online business directory and coupon management system for SpiderSavings.com, including an administration module, coupon provider module, and forward-facing search and display functions. This site also included allowing users to manipulate images on the server, geocode their business addresses, and used AJAX for several functions, including end a method allowing end users to send coupons to themselves via the site's SMS functions.
  • Cruise Services USA (Java): Work included a customized job application processing system, created in Java, for a cruise line employment service. The application retrieves emails created by a web form (part of the client's existing workflow), parsed their contents, and placed them into Excel files using automation. As of 2010, the application is still in use and maintained by rufwork programming.

Lead Programmer, Rok Technologies, Inc., September 2003 - July 2004

vb.net, vb6, java, jdbc, jsp, tomcat, arcsde, esri, sql-server, oracle, sql, javascript, css, xml

Prototyped a replacement system for a land records/tax parcel system for a county government in North Carolina, previously written using UNISYS EAE. Lead programmer responsible for new database schema design all the way through to GUI design and integration with the county's GIS information. Development work done in VB.NET, using Windows.Forms for GUIs with some test work with Crystal Reports & html for reporting. Oracle 9i via ODP.NET was utilized for the creation of the data tier.

Was also responsible for web-enabling RDBMS systems that communicate with ArcIMS using JSP.

Custom Solutions Developer, Blackbaud, Inc., February 2003 - August 2003

vb6, com, sybase, sql-server, sql, ado, adox

Customization responsibilities included extending Blackbaud's suite of products through VBA, creating customized Visual Basic 6 stand-alone applications that interfaced with Blackbaud products through COM or directly with the Blackbaud database in Sybase or Microsoft SQL Server, and creating custom reports for Blackbaud products.

Was also responsible for the creation of a web-based online student application system, which interfaces with Blackbaud's Admissions Management application.

Mr. Bailey's single most important accomplishment was likely that he convinced the team to use SQL to map data for custom reports rather than using flat file exports and putting business rules into Crystal Reports directly. previously been done exclusively with flat files exported from the Raiser's Using the old tools, reports would sometimes run for days. Moving that logic to SQL, where it belonged, sped up new reports by orders of magnitude. No kidding.

The coolest thing Mr. Bailey did was to non-intrusively add historical gift reporting views to a schema where product development said such an addition was impossible.

Database Administrator/Internet Mapping Specialist, Technology Planning and Management Corporation, October 1998 - October 2002

vbscript, arcims, javascript, sql-server, arcsde, tomcatvb6, asp-classic, ado, sql, css, java

Served as the NOAA Coastal Services Center's (CSC) lead Internet mapping server programmer as well as one of two database administrators. Database experience below builds on responsibilities listed in the Database Management Systems Specialist description, below.

Most mapping systems utilized a template for which Mr. Bailey was the lead programmer. This code employed the Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI) ArcIMS ActiveX connector (pdf), and provided functionality through dynamic html, cascading stylesheets, and javascript on the client side with Active Server Pages and Visual Basic Script on the server side. Designed and taught a one-day introduction to "The ArcIMS ActiveX Connector" for approximately ten employees at CSC. Received three TPMC President's Awards for project contributions, and had one site featured on USAToday.com.

Descriptions of Mr. Bailey's ArcIMS sites are listed at the following URL: ruffinbailey.com/pastWork/web/mapping.html

Led small programming team in the creation of the first stand-alone application released by CSC. The Build-A-PIVOT application helps National Estuary Program (NEP) and National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) offices build web sites interactively, without the need for an on-site html expert. Released to a small group of NEP leaders in Summer 2002, Build-A-PIVOT was made available to the public on CD in December 2002.

Initially served as junior of two database administrators contracting for a NOAA office of over one hundred employees. Responsible for maintenance of all existing systems as well as the creation of new, non-spatial database systems. These systems included the following:

  • NOAA Coastal Services Center (CSC) Management Information System (MIS): The MIS assists CSC allot its fifteen-plus million dollar budget and nearly one hundred employees over scores of projects.
  • CSC Information and Request Tracking System (IRTS): CSC solicits online customer information on a voluntary basis and the IRTS collects and reports this information for internal use.
  • CSC Dynamic Product Pages (CSC home page): This system kept track of CSC products and descriptions, allowing employees to update the system with new products before in-system managerial review allowed their display in a standardized format on the home page.

Certifications

Security+ CompTIA, 2014-2019

Projects & Interests

Stack Overflow, http://stackoverflow.com/users/1028230, November 2011 - Current

Written 126 answers. Active in javascript, jslint, c#, sql and mono.

GitHub - SqlDbSharp, https://github.com/ruffin--/SqlDbSharp, November 2013 - December 2015

c#

SqlDB# (Moore's Database) is a simplest-case, minimally viable, embeddable, YesSQL datastore, written in C# and designed for crossplatform application prototyping.

Original author and current maintainer.

GitHub - PerlRunner, https://github.com/ruffin--/PerlRunner, January 2015 - February 2015

c#

Stand-alone desktop Windows application to edit & execute Perl scripts. Open file, edit, hit F5, profit. Disclaimer: It's not an IDE.

Original author and current maintainer. Honestly, I can't believe there's nothing [free &] this handy for Perl written "natively" for Windows already. There may be, but all I've found is an Eclipse plugin and a project that released v1.0 and went silent.

SourceForge - Obsolete: Open ActiveX ArcIMS Template (OAAT), http://sourceforge.net/projects/oaat

The Open ActiveX ArcIMS Template is a pre-built, modular, generic, reusable codebase for use with ESRI's ArcIMS version 3+ Internet Mapping Server's ActiveX Connector, created with dhtml, ASP 3, and vbscript for use on Microsoft IIS.

Writing

Meaning And Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays

Playing the Past: History and Nostalgia in Video Games (chapter as pdf)

Restarting Static: Television's Digital Reboot

This article examines the digital television (DTV) transition with particular focus on technical protocols, political and legal decisions, and home hardware. We argue that approaching DTV as a 'reboot' serves as a model for investigating digital transitions more broadly in a new model of public service.

Tools

First Computer: C=64

Favorite Editor: VIm