← Joe Sak

Joe Sak

Senior Rails Engineer

Denver, CO

+1 303.956.4769

Email me

joesak.com

linkedin.com/in/joemsak

github.com/joemsak

Summary

I make hard-to-change software maintainable.

Senior Rails engineer with 20+ years building web software and 15+ years in Ruby and Rails. Full-stack by history, Rails by habitat. Most useful when an AI-assisted, vibe-coded, or long-lived prototype has to become a real product the next engineer can trust - readable code, clear boundaries, rollbacks ready before each deploy.

Skills

Application
Ruby, Rails, Phlex, Hotwire, GraphQL, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, RSpec, SOLID object design, refactoring, accessibility, SEO, product-minded UI work.
Platform
PostgreSQL, Redis, Sidekiq, AWS (IAM, ECS, EC2, S3, CloudFront), Heroku, Docker, Linux, OAuth, REST and JSON APIs, service integrations, infrastructure ownership, data security.
Practice
Rails and Ruby upgrades, technical debt strategy, repository health, monolith extraction, feature flags, progressive delivery, incident response, mentorship, technical planning, and clean-code refactoring.

Experience

  1. Gusto / Staff Engineer, Developer Productivity

    April 2024 - Present · Remote

    • Led Rails upgrades across two production monoliths to 8.0 and 8.1, and raised extracted services to a 7.2 minimum (the oldest had been on 6.0). Each cut shipped with standby revert PRs and real-time triage as changes rippled across services.
    • Built a maturity-model scorecard tool to campaign and track repo upgrades for Ruby, Rails, Rubocop, Sorbet, Appraisal, and related standards, with an automation plan tied to Ruby and Rails EOL windows.
    • Contributed to GraphQL federation for centralized feature flags, decoupling services and enabling progressive delivery across the org.
    • Modernized core repositories with consistent best practices (Rubocop, Sorbet, Appraisal) so they are safer to change and easier for product engineers to work in.
    • Provided direct developer-productivity support: pairing, code review, generator tooling, and architectural guidance for monolith extraction.

  2. MemberSpace / Senior Rails Developer

    April 2021 - April 2024 · Remote

    • Led full-stack modernization of the core app from Rails 6.x and Ruby 2.x toward Rails 8 and Ruby 3.4, with rollback planning and live triage on each production cut.
    • Owned production and staging infrastructure across Heroku, RDS, and Docker; held 99.9% uptime through years of upgrades and feature work.
    • Supported the infrastructure underpinning thousands of paid memberships and hundreds of digital and ecommerce products without revenue interruption.
    • Refactored core domain code toward SOLID and Metz-style object design so the codebase stayed friendly to change as the product evolved.

  3. Kadenze / Lead Applications & DevOps Engineer

    January 2019 - April 2021 · Remote

    • Upgraded a six-year-old LMS from Rails 4.2 and Ruby 2.3 to Rails 6.1 and Ruby 2.7 through staged production cuts, while continuing day-to-day product work.
    • Owned the full AWS and Docker stack across staging and production as the only full-time engineer.
    • Architected the multi-tenant system and institution-specific portals powering Kadenze's higher-education partnerships.
    • Refactored long-lived domain code using clean-code patterns to keep the legacy core maintainable.

  4. Iridescent / Technovation / Lead Web Developer

    April 2016 - February 2019 · Remote

    • Built the global Technovation platform from scratch for 30,000+ users across 120+ countries, with five distinct roles: students, mentors, judges, volunteers, and admins.
    • Designed UI/UX with real users in mind: rural and remote internet, low-income communities, children, and very different levels of technical comfort.
    • Partnered with non-technical staff at a small nonprofit to keep engineering aligned with the mission.

  5. Self-Employed / Freelance Developer

    February 2014 - April 2016 · October 2008 - October 2009 · Remote

    Contract Ruby, Rails, and React work for product teams; project management, pairing, and TDD.

  6. InfoActive / Lead Web Developer

    June 2013 - February 2014 · Montreal, QC

    Introduced the codebase's first test suite and led a refactoring and clean-code initiative across the application.

  7. Neoteric Design / Senior Web Developer

    October 2009 - June 2013 · Chicago, IL

    • Built reusable Rails engines for a custom CMS that served the agency and its clients for seven years with minimal change.
    • Led the company's transition from Perl/Movable Type to a modern Rails stack and contributed to Refinery CMS.

  8. Artemis Solutions Group / Promoted to Senior Developer

    August 2005 - October 2008 · East Lansing, MI

    Helped build the agency's web team and engineering culture, led technical sales demos and customer training, and contributed to DotNetNuke and HTML5 Boilerplate.

Education

Michigan State University / B.A. Telecommunications, Information & Media Studies

September 2001 - December 2005 · East Lansing, MI

  • Web Director and Treasurer for ASCOT, the college's student association for the Telecom department.
  • Study abroad with the European Commission program in Paris, Geneva, and Brussels.

Community

Chair, Denver Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committee. Volunteer with Denver Streets Partnership and helped restart Denver Critical Mass.