Ben Turner
Principal Software Developer at Octodot Labs
Portland, Oregon, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolBen Turner is a Principal Software Developer with 14 years of experience building full-stack web applications and scalable backend systems, primarily using JavaScript, Ruby, and Java. Based in Portland, he blends deep engineering skills with formal training in User-Centered Design to prioritize solutions that genuinely meet user needs rather than just specs. His career spans startups and large companies— from early-stage roles at Gist (employee #4) to scaling services at BlackBerry and broad product work at Delighted—showing strength across front-end interfaces, data architecture, and integrations. He’s practiced in information visualization and HCI, writes maintainable systems that other engineers can extend, and prefers consulting engagements that consider the whole system. A subtle strength is his long habit of designing synchronization and data-merging algorithms for messy real-world contact data, reflecting both technical rigor and attention to human data quality.
14 years of coding experience
26 years of employment as a software developer
Certificate, User-Centered Design, Certificate, User-Centered Design at University of WashingtonHuman Computer Interaction, Human Computer Interaction at University of MichiganBellarmine College PreparatoryBS, Computer Science, BS, Computer Science at University of San Francisco
Github Skills (34)
ruby-client10
api-node10
rails-gem9
mechanism8
excel8
bootstrap7
puma7
php7
python7
twitter-bootstrap6
ruby-on-rails5
twitter-bootstrap-rails5
logging5
encode5
profiling5
Programming languages (6)
Github contributions (5)
delighted/rubyzip
Apr 2016 - Oct 2019
Offical Rubyzip repository
Contributions:6 PRs, 4 pushes, 3 branches in 3 years 6 months
railsruby-gemmrubyruby
kindjar/middleman-site-with-api
May 2015 - Feb 2023
Contributions:10 pushes, 1 branch in 7 years 10 months
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