# Nicholas West > Software Product Engineer & Harm Reduction Advocate Location: New York, New York, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/nicholaswest Veteran of APAC and US tech start-ups ranging from pre-seed to Series A. Crisis defuser, bug assassin, and leader specialized in technical team operations. Open-source contributor to ExHammer, Discord Nostrum, Phoenix docs, Elixir docs, Strava, ArwesJS, the Ethereum Solidity compiler, CoreUI, react-native-navigation docs, and more. Author of Elixir on Phoenix + React Native guides (https://medium.com/@njwest), react-native-weather ReactJS NPM package, VueJS guides, and so on. Publisher of turn-of-the-19th-century American auto-biography and poetry. Former editor of hyper-local journalism. Contributor of columns to the South China Morning Post, InsiderNJ, New Brunswick Today, and the Star Ledger. ## Work Experience ### Senior Software Engineer @ Instinct Science Jan 2024 – Present | United States ### Co-founder & CTO (SaaS Product) @ Stealth Mode Start-up Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Brooklyn, New York, United States Co-founded a Medication Assisted Treatment startup (think Methadone, Buprenorphine). A great learning experience. Led the creation of a MAT EMR SaaS for clinics in the Southwest while producing learning materials for recovered-peer-driven MAT program execution and leading HIPAA compliance. Great learning experience regarding pre-seed investor contract generosity, as our primary pre-seed investor significantly decreased their funding commitment after one of their own investors initiated a share sale, triggering our investor's right-of-first-refusal for their own firm's. ### Software Engineer @ Glazier Jan 2022 – Jan 2023 | New York, New York, United States Engineered full-stack TypeScript architecture (NextJS/tRPC/Prisma/Vercel) for Glazier SaaS sysyem at the behest of the CTO, then trained CTO and colleagues in the stack. Chief squasher of bugs, including production-only and rare instances of in-browser cursor capture. Trained colleagues in E2E testing. Wrote many services, full-stack from frontend client to backend API and business logic, including PayFac, in-browser PDF editing, and live-editable form tables for various business domains. Mitigated major service outages, including FontAwesome’s 2023 delivery API outages and MapBox’s 2023 Package Registry outage. Building full-stack TypeScript/NodeJS systems from 2022-23 reinforced my strong belief in the power of Elixir, Phoenix, and the Erlang BEAM. ### Software Engineer & Head of Account Management @ Terminal 1 Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Hong Kong ### Software Engineer & Technical Account Manager @ Terminal 1 Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 | Hong Kong ### Tech Lead @ The University of Hong Kong Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Hong Kong I led a team building enterprise applications for SWD-backed NGOs with Elixir & Phoenix microservices, VueJS frontends, PostgreSQL, noSQL, AES encryption, append-only logs, CI/CD from independently run GitLab instance to AWS, and more. I also edited scripts and conducted interviews for the HKU FinTech and Blockchain MooC, edited copy for and acted in HK FEHD instructional videos, hosted hackathons for staff and students, and mentored student interns and junior developers. In this position I learned how to manage small software engineering teams, and how to manage operations under significant external duress (HK in 2019). ### Startup Software Engineer @ HK Startup Ecosystem Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Hong Kong SAR Explored the Hong Kong tech start-up ecosystem as a freelance software engineer, consulting for web and mobile-focused B2B and B2C start-up projects and CyberPort companies. Experience included: - Stepping in as CTO to build an MVP charity fun-run fundraising web app with Elixir on Phoenix 1.3, Strava, and Stripe Connect. - Pitching at Rise Conf 2018, what was then APAC's premier start-up conference. - Starting the ElixirHK meetup, which merged with the ErlangHK meetup and still runs today out of DimSum Labs. ### Board Member @ New Brunswick Today Jan 2014 – Jan 2018 | New Brunswick, NJ ### Print Edition Co-founder, Print Production Editor @ New Brunswick Today Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 | Middlesex County, NJ ### Distributed LMS Software Engineer & Instructional Designer @ Rutgers University Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | New Brunswick, New Jersey Built and maintained a distributed LMS integrated with Rutgers CAS, GSuite, private WordPress multi-site, NodeJS, and a React Native Android/iOS app. I was also Instructional Designer for the Doctor of Social Work (DSW) Degree Program, and ran instructional seminars on writing for the web as well as multimedia editing. ### Distributed LMS Software Engineer & Program Coordinator @ Rutgers University Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 | New Brunswick, NJ Built and maintained a distributed LMS integrated with Rutgers CAS, GSuite, private WordPress multi-site, NodeJS, and a React Native Android/iOS app. I also coordinated operations for the Doctor of Social Work (DSW) Degree Program. ### New Media Mentor @ Rutgers University Jan 2011 – Jan 2013 | Plangere Culture Lab, Rutgers University ## Education ### Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in English Rutgers University Jan 2007 – Jan 2011 ### Metuchen High School Jan 2003 – Jan 2007 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nick-j-west - Website: https://www.nickwe.st --- Source: https://flows.cv/nicholaswest JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/nicholaswest/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-22