Heather Vandervecht

Staff developer
Toronto, Ontario
heathervandervecht@gmail.com
heathervv.com
Avid learner, debate lover, and forever optimist. I like creating products that have fun and nifty features AND solve a problem for people. Above all that, I really love supporting my team so everyone feels good bringing their authentic selves to work. My hobbies include day dreaming about space, taking naps, and eating snacks. I’m currently on a mission to eat as many shapes of pasta as possible!

Work Experience

Dialogue

Sep 2021 - Current
Staff Engineer

Tech lead - focused on expanding our app(s) to meet the needs of our clients.

Opencare

Mar 2020 - Aug 2021
Tech Lead, Senior Frontend Developer

Tech lead for the Patient Growth team, wearing many hats and doing many things (ask me!) My main areas of focus were defining the technical vision, reducing tech debt (AngularJS -> React), mentoring, and working with the product, marketing, and customer enablement teams to prioritize features. I also improved processes and led the team in increasing test coverage and reducing bugs. Additionally I built Opencare's first design library with the design team, and built a custom analytics package to simplify integrating analytics across the multiple apps (Snowplow, Fullstory, Heap, Optimizely). Tech stack was predominantly React, Typescript, Jest/React Testing Library, and styled-components, using a rest API built in Node.

Pivotal Software, Inc

May 2019 - Feb 2020
Senior Software Engineer

With a focus on TDD and pair programming, at Pivotal I worked primarily in Kotlin, Spring Boot, and Cloud Foundry to build and deploy products that helped internal team members with their day-to-day work. I also helped with the R&D phase for new products in order to determine the right technical solutions.

Nascent

May 2017 - May 2019
Fullstack Developer

At Nascent I built isomorphic web applications using React, Redux, Node, and Express. In addition to growing and sharpening my skills as a full stack developer, I worked with leadership and clients to assess and explore upcoming features and projects and helped mentor my teammates.

Blunt

Jan 2017 - Nov 2017
Co-founder, Developer

With a desire to create unique work, Blunt was created. Like most (all) startup companies, I wore many hats on a very small team! To name the keys ones, I was the developer, project manager, and point of contact for clients. One highlight of what I was responsible for was learning how to research the best architectural solutions for projects. I handed Blunt fully over to my partner so I could focus more fully on my full-time roles.

Filament Creative Inc.

Apr 2016 - Apr 2017
Lead Front End Developer

As the lead developer, my main role was to engage with clients and support and mentor the members of my team. I also spearheaded the creation of a development process that improved the workflow and introduced new technologies into projects. I worked with WordPress, React, and ExpressionEngine on this team, as well as learned the basics of servers.

Resolution Interactive Media

Dec 2014 - Apr 2016
Front End Developer

FE, BE (and even some design)! I worked with WordPress, Drupal, PyroCMS, and Jekyll (with prose.io integrated for content management). I helped improve the company-wide development process and was front end lead on several projects.

RedRhino Inc.

Jul 2013 - Dec 2014
Jr Web Developer

Built new websites and supported existing ones. Mainly WordPress or static sites, both FE and BE. Additionally, collaborated with the design team on showing them the best practices when designing for the web.

Education

Fanshawe College Interactive Media Design and Production, Media

2011 - 2013

Skills

  • Web app development
  • React
  • React Native
  • JavaScript
  • Typescript
  • Accessibility
  • Technical mentoring
  • Product thinking
  • Mentorship
  • UX/UI
  • NodeJS
  • Roadmapping
  • REST API Development
  • Quality Assurance