# Jaylene Salas > Software Engineer at Democracy Works Location: New York, New York, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/jaylenesalas Software engineer with a B.S. focused in Applied Physics - Material Science and double minor in English and Applied Mathematics from the City University of New York City College. Experienced applied physicists and software engineer in micro and nano-fabrication, thin film metal electronics, renewable energy and computational physics. With a demonstrated history of working in museums, industry, and nonprofit organizations. Currently working in the field of software engineering where I am committed to writing clean, readable, and scalable code that is directly reflective of the needs of its users. **Technologies:** Proficient: JavaScript, React, Node.js, Express.js, Postgresql, HTML, CSS, Git Experienced: Clojure, Typescript, Python, Express, SQL, MatLab, Arduino, Mathematica, PyMol, Excel, and PowerBI. ## Work Experience ### Software Engineer @ Democracy Works Jan 2024 – Present ### Junior Software Engineer @ Democracy Works Jan 2022 – Jan 2024 ### Associate Software Engineer @ Democracy Works Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 New TurboVote Feature Release Notes ### Apprentice Software Developer @ Democracy Works Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 • Acted as tech lead on the address verification feature, offering TurboVote users accurate election information and assistance from TurboVote by verifying the users address by using an API to suggest a more accurate address. Users could choose between the address that TurboVote suggests and the one entered. Feature can be turned off for partners using our tech. • Address verification feature helped increase geocode rates, and reduce user error in address entry. • Explored different capabilities such as new ways to display data and how to match search inputs against how data is actually returned from an API. • Contributed to the large complex codebase to ensure our tools are able to adapt in a rapidly evolving election landscape. • Wrote tickets and communicating technical information to stakeholders in product and engineering. • Collaborated on code reviews and offer technical feedback to peers. Tech used: ClojureScript, Javascript, React Admin, AuthO and TypeScript. ### Software Engineer Fellow @ The Marcy Lab School Jan 2021 – Jan 2021 • Developed proficiency in JavaScript, NodeJS, Express, ReactJS, SQL, Postgres, and gained knowledge about CS fundamentals, and leadership development over this 16-week Fellowship. • Used open source data such as The New York Times API, Democracy Works Election API, and Berkeley Cool Climate API to develop web apps. • Product owner for the project My Carbon Footprint, a web app that allows user to track how their diets and method of transportation effect their carbon footprint. Tech used: Javascript, Node.js, Knex.js, PostgreSQL, Express, React, JWT, Tableau, and Bcrypt. ### Energy and Environment program @ The Aspen Institute Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Washington, District of Columbia, United States • Work on addressing critical energy, environmental, and climate change issues through non-partisan, non-ideological convening, with the intent of bringing together diverse stakeholders to improve the process and progress of policy-level dialogue and actively engaging in climate change policy – mitigating the effects of climate change, adapting to the inevitable impacts of climate change, and the international cooperation needed to achieve these goals. • Reviewed the February's Energy Roundtable report gave feedback on the convening before it was published.  • Submitted Energy briefs on the current events and updates in the energy realm to share with the team twice a week. • Researched sustainable finance and the role of investment and capital markets in decarbonization.  • Deciphered the most relevant and pressing issues in the energy/climate nexus that should be discussed at convening and identifying which stakeholders should be involved in these conversations. • Developed an action plan around the program’s commitments to diversifying voices at forums, and incorporating equity lenses into all of the program’s work. • Researched and wrote a blog post for the Energy and Environment website on carbon capture. ### Climate Policy Fellow @ Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | New York, United States • Worked on the production of policy briefs under the mentorship of Trevor Houser, an international climate policy leader. Use my knowledge in physics and chemistry to write policy briefs on climate change specifically on solar technology to influence political leaders to be more environmentally aware. • Wrote a policy brief on how New York City can achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through the use of solar and green roofs. Overall my finding showed that New York City has the potential to generate 9,700,000 MWh AC per year and avoid 5.5M metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. ### Research Physicist studying the growth and properties of semiconductor multilayers and nanostructure @ The City College Center for Discovery and Innovation Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 • Worked on material growth and properties of semiconductor multi-layered structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and gas source MBE. • Areas of research activity include III-V compounds, strained-layer and short-period superlattices, surface and interface chemistry, visible light emitters, wide bandgap II-VI compounds, low dimensional nanostructures, quantum cascade lasers, Topological Insulators and multi-layered QD structures and characterizing them using X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and contactless electroreflectance (CER). ### Research Material Scientist @ The City College Center for Discovery and Innovation Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | New York, United States • Research physicist working in Professor Stephen O’Brien lab. I worked on fabricating perovskite materials with a high dielectric performance for multilayered capacitors, non-volatile memory, and energy storage. • Published research finding at MIT conference. ### Research Physicist working in an optics lab studying lasers @ The City College Center for Discovery and Innovation Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 ### Computational physicist @ Brookhaven National Laboratory Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 • Selected as the only student from City College to participate in the winter program studying computational physics and scientific computing to solve modern problems. • Tech used: Arduino, Raspberry Pi, MatLab, and Mathematica. ### Co-researcher Consortium Alumni Youth Council (CAYC) Education Research Fellowship @ American Museum of Natural History Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | New York • Co-research assisting professional social scientist at the American Museum of Natural History. • Investigate the ways in which providing high school students with authentic science experiences may or may not support their interest and choices in pursuing a science career. ### Research Physicist @ Columbia University in the City of New York Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | New York • Worked alongside professor Ioannis Kymissis on the fabrication, and applications of thin film electronics. • Worked on the design and fabrication of metal strain gauges and piezoelectric sensors on a single layer of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film to enhance tactile sensing for robotics. The sensors allow applied force and relative movement to be measured simultaneously. • Tech used: Arduino, Matlab ### Research Scientist @ Brooklyn College Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 • Worked in Professor's Jennifer Basil Lab at Brooklyn College in a research project focused on determining which behaviors are express with a daily rhythm and investigate which rhythmic behaviors are controlled by a circadian clock. • I conducted video analysis on Nautilus swimming rhythms. Hypothesized that Nautilus would exhibit activity a night and at dusk with a low point at dawn and demonstrated that Nautilus have an endogenous free running rhythm of twenty two hours in relation with the clocks of many invertebrates. ## Education ### Bachelor of Science - BS in Applied Physics The City College of New York ### Data Analytics COOP Careers Fellowship ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jaylene-salas --- Source: https://flows.cv/jaylenesalas JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/jaylenesalas/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05