Alexander Eden

SOFTWARE ENGINEER — KANSAS CITY, MO

About

Polyglot engineer with experience and expertise across a wide spectrum of technologies, from semiconductors up to distributed systems.

What excites me

  • Impossible puzzles (see: xkcd #356)

  • Proving concepts and building prototypes

  • Writing code for coders and optimizing DX

  • Teaching & debating topics in tech

  • Solving problems of scale

Employment

Senior Fullstack Software Engineer

August 2019 - Present

PayIt
Frontend Software Engineer

August 2015 - August 2019

VML

Education

B.S. Electrical & Computer Engineering

Graduated Fall 2014

University of Missouri-Kansas City

Languages

  • C++
  • Clojure
  • Elixir
  • Elm
  • Kotlin
  • Python
  • Rust
  • Typescript/JS

Tooling & Ops

  • Docker
  • esbuild
  • GCP/GKE
  • GitHub Actions
  • Kubernetes
  • MSW
  • PNPM
  • Terraform
  • Turborepo
  • uv
  • Vite/Rollup
  • Vitest

Frameworks & Technologies

  • Actix
  • Angular
  • Apollo
  • AuthJS
  • DrizzleORM
  • Embedded Rust
  • GraphQL
  • MikroORM
  • MongoDB
  • NestJS/Express
  • NextJS
  • PostgreSQL
  • React
  • RxJS
  • SolidJS
  • Storybook
  • Tauri
  • ThreeJS/R3F
  • WASM
  • WebRTC

Projects

PayIt Platform
Summary

Developed a platform and CMS to facilitate the rapid onboarding and support of government clients while minimizing the need for engineering involvement. With a spectrum of end-users ranging from PayIt's client managers to cashiers at a City Hall to individuals renewing their driver's licenses, the platform is comprised of an entire ecosystem of systems and applications that mesh seamlessly to meet the very unique needs of governments and their constituents.

Under the hood

Disparate government record-keeping systems are integrated into a unified GraphQL gateway via schema stitching. Client managers use an Apollo-powered React app to maintain client-specific GraphQL queries via a low-code UI. Those queries are called by a frontend application to hydrate the UI of a client-agnostic, constituent-facing application with user data.

Ask me about

Rendering enormous forms performantly; internationalization

Mamalarm
Summary

Designed, printed, and programmed a device that enables individuals that have lost their ability to place a phone call—e.g., due to Alzheimer's disease—to contact family members. The device itself is simply three large arcade-style buttons that, when pressed, trigger a text message to be sent to an assigned family member notifying them that they need to call. Family members can log into the app to configure the phone number and message assigned to each button. Changes are automatically synced with the device's firmware via OTA update.

Under the hood

I designed the device using Autodesk Fusion 360. The firmware is embedded Rust running on a WiFi-connected Espressif S3 MCU. The web application is a React + NodeJS + MikroORM + PostgreSQL application deployed to a GCP-hosted, Terraform-managed Kubernetes cluster.