{ Brendan }

Frostware



{ whoami }
{ Experience }
{ Portfolio }

About Me

Hi there, I'm Brendan Frost, and you can find me in that exciting space where technology and creativity blend together--which is nearly everywhere, these days. As a dedicated and seasoned senior-level Front-End Software Engineer and Web Developer, I've long had a penchant and passion for transforming complex technical challenges into easy and beautiful user experiences. Originally from Washington, D.C., I've lived in the Midwest and have now been in New Orleans, Louisiana for around 13 years.

My entry into the tech world was unorthodox, with a background in English and creative writing, including a stint as an English Composition Instructor at the University of New Orleans, a trainer of employees captioning phone calls for the hard-of-hearing, a retail shop manager, a lawncare worker, all of which honed my communication and leadership skills. In short, I can get along well and work effectively with anyone.

In 2017, I leapt headlong into the world of software through the Advanced Software Engineering Immersive Program at Operation Spark, a sister program of San Francisco's Hack Reactor--and identical in coursework and level of challenge. Since then, I've grown into the Tech Nerd, Codemonger, Software Knowledge + Fiction + History Nerd that I never knew I was destined to become. It has been a ridiculously fun and challenging journey to work with innovative companies like Leviton and Zehnder Communications. My role at Leviton, I've evolved from a Website-maker and JavaScript Slinger, to a Full Stack Software Developer, to the My Leviton Team Technical Lead. At Leviton, I not only contributed to and led the development of impactful projects like My Leviton 3.0 but also embraced the role of a mentor and technical advisor, shaping the future of the development team along with the UX Design Head and Team Management Lead.

My technical toolbelt spans a broad range of front-end and back-end technologies, with a special love for JavaScript, its frameworks like Angular and React, and web development with an emphasis on visual beauty and an obsession with user-friendliness. I have thrived also in the world of IoT and smart home technology, bringing inanimate objects to life with code inside of a highly large and sophisticated codebase shaped around best practices, requiring interaction with a huge variety of other specialists, including the firmware, cloud and hardware teams. I am nerdily excited by the challenges and rewards of turning complex technical requirements into intuitive, user-friendly solutions.

In my non-professional moments you can find me trying out smart home gadgets, setting up atmospheric lighting/sound/interior design configurations, building my own software projects to hack my own life, writing a historical fiction series or an dystopic-urban-fantasy novel, reading some philosophy, tailoring thrifted clothes, cooking weird (mostly delicious) meals, or snuggling my cat Chauncey. I also love to enjoy the rich world and culture of New Orleans with friends.

Welcome to this window into my creative and professional world--take your coat off, stay a while.

Oh, and don't think I forgot about the Cat Tax... here is Chauncey helping me fold my socks.

Here he is enjoying a beautiful day in the garden, back when he used to work out at the cat gym six days a week and had two tails.

And finally, this is him in his much, much younger days, in the late medieval era in full knight's armor.

Curriculum Vitae

Technical Knowledge

Front-end: Javascript@latest, Typescript, Angular, React/Native, Ionic, jQuery, CSS/3/SCSS, Greensock, D3
Back-end: Node, PHP, Apache, SQL, MongoDB, Express, Postgres, Firebase, Mongoose
Technologies: IoT/smart home, git, bash, Bluetooth [+ Low Energy], OTA, Linux, Android/iOs testing and deployment, AWS, Solr, Webpack et al, Mocha, Chai, Heroku, Ajax

Professional Experience

Leviton, 4 years

Technical Lead, My Leviton Team, 1 year
  • Build/complete all major projects for feature additions, major updates, or high-priority bug situations, and closely supervise and train all team members working on the app’s features/updates/bugs
  • Continuously assess and improve the team's management methods, best practices, design-to-code pipeline, efficiencies, and latest technologies
  • Train and continually guide the app team on all things My Leviton, including best practices for safe and efficient app architecture, long-term bug solutions
  • Act as the source of truth, consultant and advisor for technical questions related to the app for designers, project managers, firmware team, cloud team, and director of Leviton customer support and their team
Software Developer, 3 years
  • Contribute to release of My Leviton 3.0, an app with more than 800,000 users which communicates with millions of devices daily; ensure smooth pushes to production and publication to Android and iOs app stores
  • Build and add major features including dashboard which collates all app features, devices and functionality into a, dynamic, sortable and customizable user view; biometric login; device activity scheduling; August and Schlage Lock Integrations; app registration; app settings; firmware updates page; a redesigned My Leviton Webapp
  • Build internal Project Flow Management application for improved inter-office communication for projects
  • Learn and dive into Leviton’s huge suite of products, services and internal APIs, systems and methods
  • Work with UX designer to implement new cleaner app CSS standards based on Block Element Modifier

Zehnder Communications

Full Stack Software Engineer, ~3 years
  • Built websites and applications on tight deadlines for mid- to enterprise-level clients
  • Created robust, secure applications involving transactions, events, schedules and other complex interactions
  • Adhered to careful Git standards internally plus client-facing standards such as ADA, Pagespeed and more
  • Worked with AS/PM/design teams to bring projects efficiently from concept to fruition

Crescent City Vape | Social Media & Organizational Manager, 2014 - 2016
University of New Orleans | English Composition Instructor, 2011-2014

Notable Software Projects

AFCI Breaker Communication
  • Complexity: Required transporting data through a Bluetooth Low Energy api to decrypt an AES-CCM passkey, communicating with byte array ACK/NACK responses to parse trip records marked by indices
  • Cool Factor: Super fun to dive closer to the firmware/hardware and work with severely space-limited BLE data transfer
My Leviton 3.x.x
  • Complexity: Almost 1 million users; smart home device interaction with Decora Smart Switches, Dimmers & Voice Dimmers, Fan Speed Controllers, Load Centers, Plugins, and many more; device enrollment, reconfiguration, characteristic OTA updates via WiFi, Bluetooth, Cloud, and device integrations such as Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa and Schlage Locks;
  • Cool Factor: What isn’t!? Automating homes is awesome. Not least of all for those who really need it.
My Leviton webapp [my.leviton.com]
  • Complexity: Blending the My Leviton webapp experience smoothly into the marketing-centric landing/intro pages
  • Cool Factor: Showing the public what Leviton is about with a fun blend of information and beauty
Leviton internal Project Management app
  • Complexity: Creating an app that met the needs of the project managers, development teams and administrators between multiple offices at a company new to me at the time
  • Cool Factor: Rapidly learning Leviton’s dynamic via a thrown-to-the-wolves style project
Visitsouthwalton.com
  • Complexity: Gorgeous, dynamic, integrated cinemagraph and parallax visuals; Events Finder; Itinerary Maker; Interactive Map; Listings filters;
  • Cool Factor: Creating a stunning cinemagraph-animation splash page for a major tourism client
Z-comm.com
  • Complexity: Creating a streamlined, modular “sections” templating system for the Zehnder CMS
  • Cool Factor: Building the new digital face of the company
Piccadilly.com
  • Complexity: All-ajax Manager Portal + Secure Online Ordering processing 10,000+ transactions
  • Cool Factor: Mmm, Piccadilly
Campusfederal.org
  • Complexity: Building a responsive front-end to parse and present large, changing, legally regulated volumes of product and rate data + Rewriting financial calculators originally written in perl
  • Cool Factor: Making a site my friends use

Education

Operation Spark Immersion/Hack Reactor

Advanced Software Engineering Immersive Program, 2017

University of New Orleans

M.F.A. in Creative Writing, 2014

University of Wisconsin

B.A. in English Literature, 2009

My Work

My Leviton App & Webapp

Features I built

  • Secure Biometric Login
  • Dashboard Page to centralize and unify all app features
  • Smart Leviton Load Center Features
    • All new features and views for the release of the second-generation smart breaker panel, the Leviton Whole Home Energy Monitor (LWHEM)
    • Beautiful animations showcasing a user's live home power usage
    • Graphs with historical user energy data, broken down by time, panel, and breakers
    • Selection/configuration of essential circuits to remain on in case of power loss
  • Total revamp of all webapp pages, including products, partners, and support pages
  • Secure password creation with beautiful live-adaptive UI to explain requirements
  • August Smartlock Integration
  • New Pro Program pages

Features I worked on, improved, debugged

  • Smart device scheduling and automated activities
  • Over-the-air (OTA) product firmware updates
  • Password reset with deeplink rerouting
  • User residence invitation/access revocation
  • Integrations
    • Amazon Alexa
    • Google Home
    • Apple HomeKit
    • Schlage Locks
  • Breaker and breaker panel feature improvement, repair, diagnosis and instruction

Check out the app

Leviton's app showcase



Visit South Walton





Piccadilly





M.O. Walsh, Author





Justin Maxwell, Playwright









©Brendan Frost,