# Yassi Mortensen > Senior Software Engineer Location: New York, New York, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/yassi Full stack software engineer with a passion for making the web a beautiful place. With experience in Ruby on Rails and JavaScript/React and a background in molecular biology, I discovered web development through my experience with genetic data analysis. I bring strong skills in critical thinking and creative problem solving that help companies design and build beautiful consumer products. ## Work Experience ### Senior Software Engineer @ Squarespace Jan 2022 – Jan 2025 | New York, New York, United States ### Software Engineer @ The New York Times Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 | New York, New York, United States Frontend engineering lead on the cross-functional team that built and continues to maintain a new Online Cancel application for digital subscribers, for which I received the Publisher’s Award Fullstack lead on the Offboarding project, which involves scoping, building, and maintaining a Google Cloud service to send recapture emails to recently canceled subscribers Founding member and leader on the Community Engagement pillar of the Javascript CoP, a new community of practice organization that will promote NYT engineering power and scope both internally and externally Organizing tech talks, onboarding new hires, and fostering an open networking environment in a leadership role on the Internal Communications pillar of Women in Tech Created a universal Technical Design Document Template, which is the new standard for planning technical projects on the Retention engineering team Built an A/B test and redesign of the Manage Billing application within the Payflow, in collaboration with the Churn Reduction team of Growth. This project lead to a 14% lift in reactivation of recently lapsed subscriptions ### Associate Software Engineer @ The New York Times Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Greater New York City Area ### Software Engineer @ Refinery29, Inc. Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Greater New York City Area Was the primary point of contact for Refinery29's user-facing React/Redux web application, refinery29.com. Wrote consumer-facing code for the website of Refinery29, impacting the experience of millions of users worldwide. Worked with members from the Product team to improve ad visibility, clickthrough rates, and customer loyalty by using engineering best practices and technologies. Assisted in closing out and shipping a large-scale site redesign of the entire www.refinery29.com website, taking in input from UX/UI designers and Product teams. Implemented a “trending videos” module that touched every part of the stack, which drove higher click-through rates on Refinery29 video/series products. ### Software Engineering Intern @ Refinery29, Inc. Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Greater New York City Area ### Full Stack Web Developer @ Flatiron School Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 | Greater New York City Area An intensive training program designed to equip New Yorkers with the skills necessary to launch careers in web development. This program includes three months of full-time on-campus training, including classes/lectures, individual, pair and group programming projects, code challenges, presentations and more. Studied a variety of web development languages, frameworks, and libraries in-depth, including Ruby, Rails, Sinatra, Javascript, jQuery, SQL, ActiveRecord, Git, HTML, CSS, React, and Redux Collaborated on project teams to develop and present a variety of web-based applications and build web development skills and efficiency, including: Accountable A personal goal setting tool that uses analytics to track your progress + Built API and schema using Ruby on Rails and ActiveRecord Serializer + Integrated ChartJS for data analytic rendering of relevant charts + Implemented Javascript React and Redux Libraries for a dynamic user experience + Customized CSS for unique app styling Blush An image discovery and bookmarking site built in React and inspired by Pinterest + Designed API and data rendering from scratch using Ruby on Rails and the MVC pattern + Seeded database with 1,400 pictures from third-party API Unsplash + Applied paginated API requests and LazyLoad React library for responsive and timely image loading + Implemented CSS grid layout styling to display organized content on each page load Game of DeThrones A Game of Thrones parody game where the user can choose their own adventure + Applied Javascript techniques for single-page user interface and progress through their individual story + Utilized Git branches and pull requests to maintain a distributed workflow amongst a 3-member team + Implemented NokoGiri for website scraping and database seeding + Integrated Bootstrap and CSS animations for a responsive user experience ### Research Specialist @ UCSF Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area Constructed over 4,000 gene deletion strains for the human fungal meningitis pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans Executed high throughput biolistic transformations on highly virulent strains Submitted complete library into the national Fungal Genetic Stock Center for unrestricted use by the scientific community. Designed experiments on each deletion strain to test for known virulence attributes ### Research Assistant @ UC Santa Cruz Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | Hartzog Lab Conducted independent genetic research projects with supervision of the Principal Investigator Performed plasmid stability experiments and generational studies on yeast histone mutants and yeast controls Built continual subject matter knowledge in genetic innovations through relevant primary and secondary scientific literature ### Undergraduate Research Intern @ NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jan 2014 – Jan 2014 | Mountain View, CA Supported the Principal Investigator with experimental procedures involving hazardous organic chemicals Maintained cleanliness, organization, and efficiency of the materials and tools used in the laboratory ### SEA-PHAGES phagehunter @ Howard Hughes Medical Institute Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | UC Santa Cruz Isolated a novel bacteriophage, Critter, from the Santa Cruz mountains and characterized its structure and genome using learned molecular biology and genetics techniques. Created online profile of phage Critter on the Mycobacteriophage Database, PhagesDB.com, including discovery information, characterization, and images of plaque morphology, restriction digest analysis of isolated genomic DNA, and Electron Microscope picture of phage. Annotated the genome of bacteriophage Chunky using DNA Master and Phamerator and submitted finished annotation to GenBank for publishing. Presented the Chunky genome annotation at the national HHMI SEA-PHAGES Symposium at their Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, VA. ### Resident Assistant @ UC Santa Cruz Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | Santa Cruz, CA Maintained the Judicial responsibilities for the Housing Contact and Rules of Conduct as part of the University Housing units for 24 students. Planned, mentored and led social events for undergraduate residing in six housing units. Provided information and resources to students about the organization and programs available on university campus. ### Chief Executive Assistant @ Advanced Rehabilitation Technologies Jan 2012 – Jan 2012 | San Diego, CA Sent out notification letters for rehabilitation machines usage when the patient or their insurance stopped making payments for the services. Contacted insurance companies and adjustors by phone regarding court cases and lawsuits that the company was involved. Scanned databases of patient files for fraudulent cases to provide reports for executive management staff. ## Education ### Bachelor's Degree in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology University of California, Santa Cruz Jan 2011 – Jan 2015 ### Full-Stack Web Development Flatiron School Jan 2017 – Jan 2018 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/yassimortensen - Website: https://medium.com/@yassimortensen - Website: https://yassimortensen.github.io/portfolio --- Source: https://flows.cv/yassi JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/yassi/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-23