# Chris Taeyoung Kim > SWE @ Cohere Location: New York City Metropolitan Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/christaeyoungkim Hi👋! My name is Chris and I'm a Software Engineer passionate about creating beautiful, user-friendly web apps, with an affinity for frontend frameworks and design/UX principles. Currently, I work as a Frontend Software Engineer (Member of Technical Staff) at Cohere. I'm a recent transplant to NYC, originally from Toronto. My tech stack includes React.js, Next.js, JavaScript ES6, TypeScript, Vue.js, HTML, CSS, TailwindCSS, SASS/SCSS, RESTful API Integration, and Firebase. Before transitioning into Software Development, I have had 10 years of combined experience as a secondary teacher and community music educator. This experience equipped me with excellent leadership and interpersonal skills, a capacity to maintain order and problem-solve in fast-paced and pressurized environments, as well as an ability to adapt and be flexible in diverse and unique situations. I bring my analytic lens and disciplined training as a classical musician, along with my technical skills, to problem-solve through creativity and thinking "outside the box". I value communication and teamwork, as well as frequent and ongoing feedback to continuously learn and grow 🌱! Outside of work, you might find me at the gym, reading, going on long walks, or snuggled up with my cat, Chabs. I'm also obsessed with candles, tarot cards, traveling, community-building, and techno - always happy to chat about those topics ✨ ## Work Experience ### Member of Technical Staff - Software Engineer @ Cohere Jan 2023 – Present | New York, New York, United States - Design and develop responsive, high-performance web components and pages using TypeScript and Next.js framework, implementing complex UI/UX designs while ensuring cross-browser compatibility and accessibility standards - Architect and maintain headless CMS integration solutions using Sanity, creating sophisticated content schemas and developing reusable components and modules that enable marketing team members to efficiently manage and publish website content. - Build a comprehensive UI component library in Storybook to ensure consistent development practices and maintainable code. - Implement and optimize SEO strategies through technical solutions, including metadata management, semantic HTML structure, performance optimization, and ensuring compliance with current web standards and best practices - Collaborate with design/creative and marketing stakeholders to translate business requirements and visual designs into scalable, production-ready frontend solutions using modern web technologies including TailwindCSS for sophisticated styling systems - Lead technical maintenance and enhancement initiatives, including regular package updates, security patches, and performance optimization of the marketing website, blog, and docs - Participate in on-call rotation duties every 3-4 weeks, providing critical frontend support and implementing rapid solutions for time-sensitive issues across web properties - Execute A/B testing and analytics integration to measure and optimize user engagement and conversion metrics, working closely with marketing team to implement data-driven improvements - Contribute to continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines and development workflows, ensuring code quality through comprehensive testing and peer review processes ### Intern of Technical Staff - Software Engineer @ Cohere Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Frontend engineer on the Embeddings and Search Team - Developed and deployed demos, internal tooling, and annotation efforts - Contributed to the team through rapid prototyping, efficient development practices and design choices, and quick learning ability, such as picking up NextJS, Tailwind and Typescript on the job - Promoted to full-time Member of Technical Staff within four months ### Founder and Community Organizer @ TechTank Jan 2023 – Jan 2026 | Toronto, ON As the founder and community organizer at TechTank (a 100% volunteer-run organization), my mission is to empower early-career developers and tech enthusiasts in Toronto. I'm passionate about creating opportunities for growth, learning, and networking, and to foster a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive tech community in Toronto. Key Responsibilities: - Program Development: Initiate and manage support programs for early-career developers, including 'Guppy Talks' virtual panel discussions and a job-search accountability buddy program. - Event Organization: Curate a variety of events including in-person networking events, social meetups, tech workshops, online webinars, career-prep sessions, and inclusive spaces for women and non-binary folks in tech. - Team Management: Guide a core team of volunteer admins in strategic planning and support activities for TechTank, aligning our initiatives with community needs. - Community Partnerships: Collaborate with various tech hubs in Toronto to enhance community resources and opportunities, contributing to the growth of TechTank. - Public Relations: Lead promotional efforts on platforms like LinkedIn, Meetup, and Slack, creating content that has effectively tripled event attendance, thereby significantly expanding our community reach and engagement. ### Frontend Web Developer @ Top Hat Jan 2023 – Jan 2025 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Worked in a cross-functional team to create new pages as well as update existing code and pages on the corporate site using JavaScript, SCSS, Jenkins, React and PHP - Proactively improved the overall handoff and QA processes for better work efficiency and product quality - Worked closely with the Design team to upgrade the digital experience and solve design problems together ### Faculty - Piano & Songwriting @ Community Music Schools of Toronto Jan 2017 – Jan 2023 | Toronto Taught music through online platforms during COVID-19 restrictions (Zoom, creating YouTube videos and using Music EdTech), reaching a total student body of 700+ students in Regent Park, Jane and Finch, and other satellite locations. Worked with K-12 students in a classroom-setting, community school and developed creative resources to meet student interests and learning needs, collaborating with 50+ staff and faculty members ### Voice & Piano Instructor @ Musica Music School Jan 2014 – Jan 2023 | Toronto ### Secondary Teacher @ Toronto District School Board Jan 2020 – Jan 2023 | Toronto - Taught grades 9 to 12 English and Music in a respectable manner, adhering to the curriculum mandates and School Board initiatives. - Successfully contributed to fostering intellectually rich and socially inclusive class environments both in-person and virtual (Google Workspace/Zoom) classrooms. - Incorporated effective and interactive educational technologies such as Nearpod, Peardeck, Flipgrid, Padlet, Mentimeter and more, as well as digital music technologies such as Soundtrap, BandLab, GarageBand, Flat.io, Noteflight and more to allow for a highly engaging learning environment. - Coordinated a year-end Music and Arts Concert which reached a 300+ community audience. - Raised OSSLT scores from 92-98% through targeted extra-help sessions. [Occasional Teacher, Toronto District School Board, ON, Sep 2022-present] [Bloor Collegiate Institute, Toronto District School Board, ON, Sep 2021-June 2022] -ENG2D1, ENG3U1, AMG2O1, AMG34M1, AMV1O/2O/3M/4M1 [Emery Collegiate Institute, Toronto District School Board, ON, Oct 2020 -June 2021] - ENG1D1, ENG2D1, ENG4C1, ESL-A/B/C [Westview Summer School, Toronto District School Board, ON, July 2021] - GLD2O1 Reach Ahead (Literacy, Numeracy & Learning Skills) ### Translator @ Unbabel Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | Remote Performed various online translation from English-to-Korean and Korean-to-English pairs focused on customer service communications. Adept in accurately assessing the context of material, translating it in an understandable and appropriate way. ### Alto II Section Lead @ Metropolitan United Church Jan 2017 – Jan 2021 | Toronto, Canada Area ### Research Assistant @ York University Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Toronto, Ontario, Canada York University Department of Computational Arts - Assisted in creating a resource guide for digital music technology and training aimed to help classroom music teachers increase use of emerging music technologies in their classroom – in response to COVID-19 remote teaching. Resource guide included numerous tools for both synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as ideas and lesson plans to accompany the tools suggested. Successfully implemented resource guide to support the 50+ teaching staff at the Community Music Schools of Toronto. ### Customer & Membership Services Assistant, Faculty of Kinesiology @ University of Toronto Jan 2012 – Jan 2019 Provided student support and response for walk-in, telephone, and email inquiries at the Varsity Center and Athletic Centre under the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education. Delivered accurate, efficient, and welcoming customer service to community members, University of Toronto students, staff, and alumni. Managed various administrative duties to maintain office operations. ### Graduate Teaching Assistant @ University of Toronto Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Faculty of Music Taught, planned, and assessed Year 4 undergraduate and graduate-level students (Music and Culture). Built student capacity for Culturally Relevant and Responsive Pedagogy in music education. ### Undergraduate Student Researcher - Community Music Programs @ University of Toronto Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 | Faculty of Music ### Recruitment Coordinator @ Helen Ziegler and Associates Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Toronto, Canada Area Provided administrative support in recruiting and screening potential healthcare candidates for accredited hospitals in the Arabian Peninsula. Responsible for tracking the status of each candidate requirements, licensing procedures, paperwork process, and contract offers. Worked with diverse candidates around the world. Maintained social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn). Advanced keyboarding and computer skills (Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat). ## Education ### Master of Arts (M.A.) in Music Education - Faculty of Music University of Toronto Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 ### Immersive Web Development Certificate Juno College of Technology Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 ### Bachelor of Education - BEd in Intermediate/Senior - Music & English York University Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 ### Honours Bachelor of Music in Piano - Music Education University of Toronto Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 ### English University of Toronto - Victoria University Jan 2010 – Jan 2013 ### Langstaff Secondary School Jan 2006 – Jan 2010 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/chris-ty-kim - Website: https://chriskim.dev --- Source: https://flows.cv/christaeyoungkim JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/christaeyoungkim/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-22