Resume - Evan Burchard

Professional Summary

Software engineer turned developer-experience leader with two published technical books and a decade of production engineering across Ruby, Python, and JavaScript. Proven ability to explain complex concepts through books, workshops, and cross-functional mentorship. Returning to full-time work after graduate study and primary caregiving, targeting Developer Relations and documentation leadership.

Publications

Refactoring JavaScript: Turning Bad Code Into Good Code

O'Reilly Media, 2017

Comprehensive guide to improving JavaScript code quality through testing, refactoring patterns, and modern best practices.

The Web Game Developer's Cookbook

Pearson, 2013

Hands-on JavaScript and HTML5 game development through 10 complete, playable projects with downloadable source code.

Professional Experience

Career Break — Family Caregiving & Graduate Study

Oct 2020 – 2026

Primary caregiver (child born 2022) while completing MS in Data Analytics at Georgia Tech (graduated Aug 2024).
Now returning to full-time work, targeting Developer Relations and documentation leadership.

Senior Software Engineer & Tech Lead

Omada Health · Aug 2019 – Oct 2020

Led engineering initiatives on a platform serving hundreds of thousands of users in digital health and chronic disease prevention.
Founded and ran a cross-departmental engineering book club covering TDD, refactoring, and functional programming — building technical culture and relationships across teams.
Conducted code reviews and mentored engineers on code quality practices aligned with the principles in Refactoring JavaScript.

Independent Software Consultant

Aug 2017 – Aug 2019

Clients included Cleo (hicleo.com), a platform for employer-sponsored maternity and family benefits.
Completed and published Refactoring JavaScript (O'Reilly, 2017) during this period.

Director of Engineering Development

ApplePie Capital · Jun 2016 – Aug 2017

Managed engineering team and directed technical strategy for a fintech platform enabling equity crowdfunding.
Established coding standards and development workflows across the engineering organization.

Independent Software Consultant

Jun 2013 – Jun 2016

Clients included Merkle (500friends loyalty platform) and iNaturalist, an AI-powered species identification platform for plants, animals, and other taxa.
Wrote Refactoring JavaScript (O'Reilly, published 2017) alongside client engagements.

Senior Software Engineer

Indiegogo · Jan 2012 – Jun 2013

Built and maintained features on one of the largest crowdfunding platforms, serving millions of users worldwide.
Worked across the full stack in Ruby on Rails, contributing to campaign management, payments, and platform reliability.

Workshops & Community

RailsConf Workshop Leader

Two consecutive years

Refactoring — practical techniques for improving code quality in Rails applications.
Math in Ruby — an exploration of Ruby's built-in math utilities, including gaps in the standard library.

Engineering Book Club Organizer

Omada Health

Founded and ran a cross-departmental book club for engineers covering fundamentals, testing, TDD, refactoring, and functional programming.

Education

Master of Science in Data Analytics

Georgia Institute of Technology · Aug 2024

Bachelor of Arts in Music

Allegheny College · 2007

Skills

Languages & Frameworks

JavaScript/TypeScript
Ruby/Rails
Python
React
Node.js
SQL

Data & Analytics

Pandas
NumPy
Scikit-learn
D3.js
Matplotlib
PostgreSQL

Infrastructure & Tools

AWS
Git
REST APIs
GraphQL
CI/CD

Communication & Leadership

Technical writing
API documentation
Developer education
Engineering management
Workshop facilitation
Mentorship