# Shirley Gaw, PhD

> Staff Software Engineer | Ex-Stripe | Ex-Google | Ex-Pinterest

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/shirleygawphd

Accomplished full-stack software engineer with 15+ years of experience building and maintaining software systems at scale, leading design discussions across teams and timezones, and crafting products with exceptional user experience. Seeking development work for user-friendly B2B applications and people-friendly teams. I want to work on things people see, manipulate, and actually use. Ideally, these technologies contribute positively to society, bring people closer together, teach children, and/or make us healthier. I also care deeply about communicating with respect and treating people well.

## Work Experience
### Software Engineer @ Fractional AI
Jan 2026 – Present | San Francisco, California, United States

### Software Engineer @ NextLevel Infrastructure
Jan 2025 – Jan 2025
- Built a comprehensive subscription CRM system using Supabase (PostgreSQL) that backs up and normalizes data from multiple external systems, unifying data from external systems like Google Sheets (manual) and UISP
- Created database schema linking network infrastructure (cabinets, switches, ports) with billing data through NLID (Network Location ID) system
- Architected multi-system integration supporting current UISP CRM and future billing platforms with unified schema design

### Staff Software Engineer @ Stripe
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023
- Worked on pre-production development of Stripe's billing engine, including support for multiple subscriptions on a single‬
‭ invoice and different servicing/billing periods‬
-‬‭ Implemented on-reader tipping functionality for hospitality/dining merchants, driving over $6M in tips (‬‭ On-Reader Tipping‬‭: https://docs.stripe.com/terminal/features/collecting-tips/on-reader )‬
-‬‭ Served as an API reviewer, providing technical guidance and feedback‬
‭

### Software Engineer @ Pinterest
Jan 2017 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Designed and developed innovative features to drive engagement and growth, including:‬
  *‬‭ Creator business profiles to help creators build their brands on the platform‬
  *‬‭ Android in-app analytics to provide creators with deeper insights into their content performance‬
  *‬‭ Related creator content modules to surface complementary creator content‬
-‬‭ Implemented advanced content moderation capabilities, including engagement threshold notifications and brand-safe filtering‬
-‬‭ Led efforts to optimize the Android homefeed experience, including feature experimentation and personalization controls‬‭ (‬‭ Homefeed tuner‬‭: https://help.pinterest.com/en/article/tune-your-home-feed ) for users‬
‭

### Independent Contractor @ Self-Employed
Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Paris
Developed the Android version of a local social network for women. (Pre-production)

Relevant skills/technologies:
ChatKit, Google Maps, Google Places, Camera API, Dagger2, Espresso, Robolectric, custom Gradle tasks, Google Cloud Storage, Protobuffers 2.0, Wire

### Senior Software Engineer - Android @ Dashlane
Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | Paris Area, France
- Re-architected home screen highlights of recent activity and B2B features (launch July 2016)
- Designed FinTech configurable account creation experience (Banamex launch March 2016)
  * Scalable in-app customized marketing messaging (copy and creatives).
  * Legacy codebase refactor pushed to production without regressions.
- Implemented Dashlane 4 Android support for credit cards, bank accounts (launch January 2016)
- Implemented custom contextual onboarding widget to increase utilization of features

Relevant skills/technologies:
Mobile API design, A/B testing, server-side configuration overrides, RecyclerView, JSON, GSON, Material Design, Robolectric, Gradle, Android Studio, Model-View-ViewPresenter

### Software Engineer @ YouTube
Jan 2012 – Jan 2015 | Paris, France
● Lead engineer managing recommendations in YouTube Kids’ homescreen.
● Setup daily pipelines to curate and score content, ranking roughly 2M channels.
⇨ Internal release (~100 hours of daily watch time, 1600+ users),  targeted to mobiles and tablets.
⇨ [March 2015] #3 downloaded app in US Apple App Store.
● Implemented YouTube V3 video charts (aka V2 standard feeds). http://bit.ly/1BgpkSA
● Implemented YouTube Topics API, which provides Freebase annotations of videos.  Only one of only two new features of YouTube’s V3 API. http://bit.ly/1rcXeHY
⇨ ~7% of overall queries (Sept. 2014).

Accomplishments
● Google I/O presentation. http://bit.ly/1ENkW0N
● Over 10% increased usage of YouTube on mobile devices due to updating backend for LIST requests of popular videos sliced by category and geo-location (v2).

### Software Engineer @ Google
Jan 2009 – Jan 2012
● Implemented click-to-app creative, which provides a template for mobile ads to encourage application downloads.  http://bit.ly/1FTcCOC
⇨ Served 600k times in one week of September 2013.
● Lead engineer for mobile line-item level dynamic allocation, which introduces AdExchange or AdSense ads when inventory is too low.  http://bit.ly/1C7A5ci
● Implemented auto-suggest traffic obfuscator for Google Health
● Implemented per-user, per-profile views and RPC caching which reduced client to server communication by a factor of five.

Accomplishments
● Google representative, Securing Information Technology in Healthcare (SITH) 2010.
● Panelist, Digital Healthcare Technology at a Crossroads, Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2010.

### Research Assistant @ Princeton University
Jan 2002 – Jan 2009
● Interviewed nine activists to gather user experiences with adopting encrypted e-mail software.
● Designed and implemented online discussion groups with secured transport and storage.
● Designed and conducted an online survey and in-person study about how people manage their passwords (50 participants).
● Co-founded a research group to develop assistive technologies for people with the language impairment aphasia.

### Teaching Assistant @ Princeton University
Jan 2007 – Jan 2008
Taught weekly introductory computer science sessions for three semesters to classes of at least 20 students, including non-majors.

### Research Intern @ Microsoft Research Cambridge
Jan 2006 – Jan 2006
● Evaluated a novel software system for reviewing handwritten notes, recruiting and interviewing 18 TabletPC users.
● Published a poster at the European Computer Supported Cooperative Work conference.

### Intern @ Adobe Systems
Jan 2002 – Jan 2002
Adapted a gSOAP library to support Object-Oriented Programming.

### Intern @ Intel Online Services
Jan 2000 – Jan 2000
Architected and implemented a lightweight Java Beans generator.


## Education
### PhD in Computer Science
Princeton University

### B.Eng. in Computer Engineering
University of Washington


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/shirleygaw

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Source: https://flows.cv/shirleygawphd
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/shirleygawphd/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10