# John Long > Senior Software Engineer at Home Chef Location: Greater Chicago Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/johnlong I am a software developer with experience in Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, React, React Native, Redux, Tailwind and a sprinkling of AWS, Heroku, and other services. I have a keen interest in building scalable solutions (buzzwords, I know, but true) and enjoy working with peers from all walks of life. Iโ€™m proud to have worked at trend-setting companies such as Home Chef and HERE Technologies, as well as to have recently served as a part-time leader in Actualize Coding Bootcampโ€™s post-bootcamp program Curious to know more? Check out my experience below or feel free to reach out via a LinkedIn message or email! ## Work Experience ### Senior Software Engineer @ Home Chef Jan 2023 โ€“ Present | Greater Chicago Area As a Senior Software Engineer on the Customer Experience team at Home Chef, my day-to-day work is similar to previous roles; however, there is greater responsibility to deliver highly effective, maintainable code at a pace that meets business demands. The Senior Engineer role also emphasizes pairing with others and serving as a critical voice on the team during feature development. Some major wins include: ๐…๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ฅ-๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐œ๐ค ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ฆ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐œ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ข๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐š๐œ๐ž, including new backend data modeling, service-layer logic, API updates, and customer-facing pricing calculations. ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐š๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ก ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐š ๐ง๐ž๐ฐ โ€œ๐‡๐จ๐ฆ๐žโ€ ๐ฉ๐š๐ ๐ž, ๐Ÿ๐ž๐š๐ญ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž๐ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐œ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐œ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ. ๐ƒ๐š๐ญ๐š ๐ฆ๐จ๐๐ž๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ž๐œ๐ก๐ง๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ฉ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐Ÿ๐จ๐ซ ๐ง๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ž๐ซ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐›๐ซ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ง๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ๐จ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ that have generated increased revenue for the business. Spearheaded an engineer-led, biweekly โ€œtech debt refinementโ€ meeting to scope, ticket, and estimate codebase enhancements. The format proved so successful that it was later adopted by peer teams. Platform upgrades across our primary technology stacks as part of a small, six-month engineering team. This work included a ๐‘๐š๐ข๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ง๐จ๐ซ-๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ ๐ซ๐š๐๐ž, extensive dependency updates, improved resource utilization, and infrastructure reallocation to better support primary database replicas. Participation on a squad that revamped our engineering interview process, involving significant documentation and process changes. --- These accomplishments span backend infrastructure (Rails) and front-end systems across the Home Chef web application (React) and mobile app (React Native), emphasizing well-tested, scalable code and a โ€œleave it better than you found itโ€ mindset. ### Software Engineer II @ Home Chef Jan 2020 โ€“ Jan 2023 | Greater Chicago Area After my promotion to SEII, I transitioned to the CX team while continuing to work with the same core stack, adding React Native for mobile feature work. Some key achievements include: Rails 5 โ†’ 6 migration, full-stack modeling for opt-ins/add-ons/promotions, major database truncations yielding 30โ€“40% storage savings, and enabling landscape mode on mobile tablets through React Native updates. ### Software Engineer @ Home Chef Jan 2019 โ€“ Jan 2020 | Greater Chicago Area Built and maintained a wide variety of internal tools with Ruby on Rails and ActiveAdmin. Contributed to React applications using Redux, functional components, and modern JavaScript tooling. Created the foundation for a meal comparison tool and modernized the e-commerce menu management system with Redux and functional React patterns, strengthening my fluency with production-scale applications. ### Teaching Assistant & Tech Lead @ Actualize Coding Bootcamp Jan 2018 โ€“ Jan 2023 Assisted instructors in facilitating a learning environment for bootcamp students, including reviewing Ruby, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS code. Served as a tech lead for bootcamp graduates, supporting technical interview preparation through whiteboarding, project work, and career coaching. Co-led a post-bootcamp technical interview prep course, planning and delivering multiple hours of curriculum for each session. ### Software Engineer Intern @ HERE Technologies Jan 2018 โ€“ Jan 2018 | Greater Chicago Area Team member in HEREโ€™s next generation 3D mapping data creation. My contributions included updates to a vanilla javascript dashboard where mapped "tiles" of the world were submitted for final publishing. I also worked on pipelines that ingested and refined those tiles which were used by other parts of the organization. Some tools used in the development process included: - JS, Scala, AWS -> Redshift/S3/EC2/EMR, Jenkins, Gerrit, & Jira. Workflow involved Agile methodologies employed by Scrum. Projects were iterated on in two week sprints where tangible features were designed, coded, unit and acceptance tested. ### Software Developer @ Actualize Coding Bootcamp & Apprenticeship Jan 2017 โ€“ Jan 2018 | Greater Chicago Area The culmination of my learned skills at Actualize: MTG Hydra. The application leverages a Rails backend framework, PostgreSQL database with several models and joint tables, a VueJS based frontend as well as a handful of APIs, including MTG for Developers, ChannelFireball pricing, and Microsoftโ€™s OCR on the Azure platform. Actualize CRM: Worked on a software development team in an agile environment, I added features to the real CRM that Actualize uses to manage its prospective applicants. The CRM allows a user to call and text a lead through the Twilio API. I also worked on features involving its UI, including an internal restructuring that transformed the app into a Single Page Application, making it much easier to use. The app used Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, and VueJS. Coding Bootcamp: I took the intensive, 15-week Actualize bootcamp, where I learned Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, VueJS, and more. But most importantly, I learned how to think as a software engineer and gained the ability to tackle any new technology. ### Real Estate Agent @ Long Realty Jan 2014 โ€“ Jan 2017 | Westmont - Licensed Agent in the State of Illinois and part of the Mainstreet Organization of Realtors - Communicated daily with clients, attorneys, and fellow agents - Performed analysis on housing market trends and local communities using the MLS. ### Student Teacher @ Neuqua Valley High School Jan 2013 โ€“ Jan 2013 | Naperville - Orchestrated daily lesson plans for Earth Science and Astronomy classes - Managed five separate classes of students, which included frequent individual feedback and measured student growth ## Education ### Bachelor's degree in Integrated Science & Secondary Education Northern Michigan University Jan 2009 โ€“ Jan 2013 ### Computer Programming Actualize Coding Bootcamp Jan 2017 โ€“ Jan 2018 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/johnlong91 - Website: https://jplong91.github.io/ - GitHub: https://github.com/jplong91 --- Source: https://flows.cv/johnlong JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/johnlong/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-22