Blaine Kasten

Led a team of 50+ engineers, PMs, and QAs to successfully migrate a large codebase to React Native in an 8 month long project as engineering director and project tech lead, I optimized the technical process by developing a custom Babel plugin to mock exports from modules, facilitating the seamless transition from React DOM to React Native. Additionally, migrated large chunks of the code with custom built codemods. I ran daily standups with the projects stakeholders and engineering managers to continuously align on process, strategy and deliver updates.

After that project, I spearheaded the creation of a growth team. We conducted product discovery for tooling, implemented Amplitude Experiments and implemented a few immediate A/B tests that contributed to a 2% revenue growth in the first quarter before the company re-organized the structure and the team was disbanded.

Additionally, I’ve worked on nearly all parts of our stack including CI improvements, release strategy, app development, native application changes, backend development, e2e and unit testing, organized and led engineering offsites, DSAR process, Cookie banner integration, non-sso user management and audits, training and mentoring of other engineers and managers.

Co-founded and led a startup focused on creating a cross-platform audio recording platform (DAW) to help musicians create and collaborate music asynchronously. I led technical goals which included the custom development of a Rust based audio engine that would be core and reusable across ios, android, web, and lambdas.

I developed the MVP, hired co-founders, interviewed candidates for additional roles (such as marketing). I gained us entry into The Startup Collaborative in Omaha, NE. I did user discovery and acquired initial customers.

Architected and built the entire web app UI, including a custom state library leveraging observability architecture in a stream-based application.

Contributed to significant features in an iOS Swift app.

Developed TypeScript REST API services and Firebase functions.