Kayden Arias Sharky Althen

Kayden Althen


Sometimes I talk about tech. Other times I write about it. Always happy to chat!

Sometimes I talk about tech.
Other times I write about it.
Always happy to chat!

TL;DR - I am a software engineer living in Austin, TX.

I came to Texas from Connecticut originally to pursue foreign language studies in Hindi and Urdu at the Graduate School at UT Austin. Although I loved my studies and living in India, I never quite found a career that I was passionate about until I started teaching myself to build websites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and SQL in 2013.

After a few years of self teaching, I decided to ramp up my knowledge by doing a 3-month intensive coding boot camp called Hack Reactor, now Galvanize, that helped me improve from a web administrator and technical tinkerer to understanding how to build full stack, front end to back end web applications. Being in an intensive coding environment gave me the focus to take my career to the next level and helped me get my first job at a tech company, Rackspace.

For 3 and a half years I worked at Rackspace, learning how to collaborate on a team with other developers, how to write quality automation software, what acronyms like CICD stood for, and what implementing best practices really means. My experiences both technically and socially at Rackspace shaped me so much as a developer; for all the people who spent time with me in my early Rackspace days showing me the ropes for my first job at a big tech company I am forever grateful.

After Rackspace I pursued two new opportunities, working for Adobe as a DevOps engineer (full time) and teaching full stacking web development at the UT Austin Coding Bootcamp (part time).

Teaching new developers a skill that can improve the trajectory of their lives in such an incredible way was a very rewarding experience. It confirmed for me the passion I have for teaching, mentoring, coaching individuals to pursue the difficult journey of becoming a software engineer.

My current coding home is at Adobe as a software engineer in DevOps building internal tools/systems for development teams that work on the e-commerce platform Magento. I particularly enjoy leading teams to streamline difficult/arduous tasks into automated systems and creatively solving problems. It usually takes a lot of work to make something simple and I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing code and processes made easier for engineers.


Technical areas I specialize in:
  • api & web app development
  • containerization
  • continuous deployment strategies
  • client/server protocols, HTTP|gRPC|TCP
  • micro-service architecture
  • cloud tech (AWS, Azure)
  • infrastructure as code
  • security tooling automation
  • chatbot development
  • GitHub integrations
  • automated testing
  • agile sdlc practices


Service Development

golang

Golang • Python • NodeJS • MongoDB • PostgreSQL • MySQL • DB ORMS • AWS • gRPC • Protobuf • TLS/SSL • NFS


Tooling | DevOps

terraform k8 jenkins

Docker • K8s • Helm • OpenShift • NGINX • Jenkins • AWS CodeBuild/Pipeline • Travis • CircleCI • Bots • Terraform • Terragrunt • Ansible • Packer • Git • Cron • bash • ssh • Heroku • Artifactory • New Relic • Splunk


Test Automation

selenium jest pytest saucelabs

Protractor • Mocha • Chai • Karma • Selenium Webdriver • OpenCAFE • Saucelabs • pytest • Jest • go test libraries

Web Development


vue flask grunt

JavaScript • React|Redux • AngularJS • Vue.js • Flask • HTML5 • CSS3 • LESS|SASS • Bootstrap • jQuery • webpack • Gulp • Grunt