# James Baskerville > Software Engineer @ Humanloop | Ex-Square Location: London, England, United Kingdom Profile: https://flows.cv/jamesbaskerville I'm a software engineer with a deep passion for leveraging technology to solve real-world challenges. With a CS degree from Harvard and over 5 years of experience in scaling systems and leading teams, I’ve had the privilege of working at fast-paced companies like Square and Cocoon, where I helped deliver innovative solutions in highly regulated environments. I also hold an MPhil from Cambridge, where I studied technology policy with a particular focus on AI safety and governance—a field that truly excites me. I’m deeply interested in the intersection of technology and policy, and I’m eager to keep pushing boundaries at this nexus, especially in AI. Outside of work, I spend my time playing volleyball, singing, and staying active. ## Work Experience ### Product Engineer @ Humanloop Jan 2025 – Present | London Area, United Kingdom ### Founding Engineer @ Cocoon Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco, California, United States As first engineer, helped grow the company by multiple orders of magnitude across the board—geographies, customers, users, and policy coverage. Restructured and improved product's core business logic, enabling efficient scaling in terms of customers, users, and new leave types. Recruited for engineering and other teams from the ground up and helped define engineering interview and onboarding processes. Served as Tech Lead for various product teams, focused on interpreting government, employer, and insurance leave-of-absence policies ### Senior Software Engineer @ Square Jan 2018 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Distributed funds to almost 80,000 small businesses as part of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) during COVID-19
 Led team of 4 engineers to enable over 50,000 businesses to apply for PPP loan forgiveness.
 Designed and implemented product flow for anticipated first international launch 
 Interviewed internal customers to redesign customer information collection platform with automated and manual review workflows, resulting in significant efficiency gains Migrated marketing emails to new platform, allowing for quick iteration and A/B content tests and leading to significant performance gains ### Lead Web Developer @ Higher Dreams, Inc. Jan 2014 – Jan 2018 | Greater Boston Area Designed, developed, staged, tested, and implemented White House-recognized website. Devised privacy and security policies; defined database structure. ### Software Engineer Internship @ Square Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area Refactored internal system controlling customer flow through loan decision process. Worked within engineering team to launch pilot of new product built on Rails/Ember. Created natural language processing messenger bot to answer frequently-asked questions. ### Teaching Fellow @ Harvard University Jan 2016 – Jan 2016 Worked with students in lecture, section, and office hours to ensure understanding of material. Helped professors with logistics, creation of exams, and grading for a ~150-student class. ### Junior Web Developer @ UniversalGiving Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | San Francisco Bay Area Implemented revamp of UG web pages highlighting its NGO and CSR services. Collaborated with web team on design and layout. Performed SEO, fixed bugs, and tested functionality. ## Education ### Master of Philosophy - MPhil in Technology Policy Cambridge Judge Business School ### Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Music Harvard University ### OPIc Language Certification in Chinese -- Mandarin Beijing Language and Culture University ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jamesbaskerville - Website: https://jemi.app/james --- Source: https://flows.cv/jamesbaskerville JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/jamesbaskerville/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05