John Kirch

John Kirch

CURRICULUM VITAE

Name:

John Kirch

Adresse:

Großraum Frankfurt am Main

LinkedIn:

john-kirch-7475864

Staatsangehörigkeit:

US-amerikanisch

Familienstand:

Verheiratet

Professional Experience

emnify GmbH Senior Technical Writer at emnify GmbH (Dec 2022 - present)

Tools: Amazon AWS, Confluence, Docusaurus, Markdown, Postman, Git, GitHub, Jira, scripting (Node.js and shell), VS Code

  • Work with a fellow documentation specialist to migrate legacy documentation to a new documentation website using Docusaurus

  • Create a user guide for the web-based emnify Portal

  • Collaborate with SMEs to create a new Service Description

NXLog Ltd Lead Technical Writer at NXLog Ltd. (Feb 2020 - Nov 2022)

(A 100% remote position)

Tools: AsciiDoc, Asciidoctor, Antora, Docker, Git, GitLab, Linux, Markdown, scripting (Perl and shell), VS Code

Lead Technical Writer (Apr 2022 - Nov 2022)

Documentation is treated as code. Documentation is considered to be as important as code. Our technical writer team can communicate effectively in an asynchronous manner since NXLog is a remote-only company. Our workflow is based heavily on peer reviews, in which threads are opened in GitLab merge requests. All content is written in AsciiDoc and tracked in GitLab projects.

  • Mentor our team in best practices and determine when content is ready for publication

  • Create new content: integration guides, blog posts, etc.

  • Write shell scripts and playbooks to maintain and further develop the Antora publishing pipeline

  • Act as the Antora SME for the DevOps team

  • Participate in the recruiting process as an assessor of applicants' technical potential and general writing capabilities

Senior Technical Writer (Feb 2020 - May 2022)

  • Create new content for: API reference manuals, user guides, integration guides, internal and external blog posts, landing pages, etc.

  • Create guides for integrating new technologies, e.g., Microsoft Azure Sentinel, Apache Superset, etc., with NXLog

  • Proofread all content, both technical and marketing materials

  • Create and maintain scripts used in our documentation publishing pipeline

  • Create a new structure in Antora for all sets of technical documentation and migrate all content from the current Ruby-based Asciidoctor documentation

Files.com Sr. Technical Writer at Files.com (Jun 2019 - Jul 2019)

(A 100% remote position)

Files.com is actually the main product of Action Verb LLC, a remote-only employer with no physical presence. Its circa 15 employees are spread across multiple states.

  • Created technical documentation using AsciiDoc

  • Analyzed technical issues reported by customers and gave recommendations to customer support staff

Gap Inc. Gap Inc., Corporate Headquarters, San Francisco, CA. (Jul 2009 - Feb 2019)

(100% remote since January 2015)

Despite having four different titles/positions and nine different supervisors over an almost 10 year career at Gap Inc, there was one constant: continuously contributing back-end web application code for the “CPM Toolbox,” an integrated suite of web applications for managing construction projects within the Gap Inc’s Real Estate and Store Development organization. These contributions relative to the team as a whole are best visualized in this GitHub graph.

GitHub Activity

Software Engineer III (Jul 2016 - Feb 2019)

  • Continued to build out the custom PHP Framework I started developing in 2011, e.g., added i18n functionality (with foreign currency management), attribute-based ACL

  • Created migration scripts for migrating highly normalized relational data to NoSQL (MongoDB) for certain web applications that had historically suffered under the relational data model

  • Designed data models for new and existing web applications

  • Reviewed code and provided feedback for application developers

  • Functioned as the Product Owner within the scope of Scrum: composed new user stories, met with stakeholders regarding the accuracy of the user stories, and groomed the Product Backlog to prepare for sprint planning sessions

  • Performed all Amazon AWS system administration and served as an advisor for other teams in Gap’s Real Estate and Store Development organization seeking to deploy Amazon EC2 instances and services

  • Planned and administered server configurations for both database and web servers

  • Customized Git hooks for automatically publishing releases to various sites based on branches: testing, staging, and production

Manager / Technical Lead (Oct 2011 - Jul 2016)

  • Developed new web tools for our in-house B2B suite of web applications linking suppliers, consolidators, architects, and general contractors with our construction project management staff to manage the construction operations of 1,500+ stores in the US and Canada

  • Mentored junior web developers in the portfolio:best-practices-of-web-development.adoc (the original document is still available on one of the CPM Toolbox websites), PHP object-oriented coding techniques, and complex SQL queries for our highly normalized MySQL data

  • Sought to introduce a PHP Framework into our existing suite of web applications, but settled on writing my own PHP framework since most MVC frameworks would not work with our existing proprietary user authentication system and project-based ACL without extensive refactoring

Web Developer / Technical Lead (Jan 2010 - Oct 2011)

  • Senior web architect for a large, in-house B2B suite of web applications linking suppliers, consolidators, architects, and general contractors with our construction project management staff to manage the construction operations of 1,500+ stores in the US and Canada

  • Developed a complex set of tools supporting project-role authentication, bid analysis, workflow (multi-tier approval process), revision control of submitted forms during the approval process, document management and more

  • Provided over 1,300 registered users with the best web experience possible

Web Developer Consultant (Ascent Services) (Jul 2009 - Jan 2010)

  • Maintained and developed new web applications

  • Provided web development services for Cisco Systems internal business/sales capacity planning website using Perl CGI and Oracle 10g on a Solaris platform

  • Designed and developed PHP modules and PostgreSQL database schemata for both existing and emerging web products

  • Worked closely with front-end web developers to produce custom web applications for our clients

ESOL Adjunct Professor at Northwest Florida State College, Niceville, FL (Aug 2006 - Apr 2007)

  • Taught ESOL classes at 2 campuses

  • Taught ABE (Adult Basic Education) classes

Copy Editor at Al-Adly Publications (Jun 2005 - May 2006)

  • Copy editor for various publications

  • Provided consulting and technical support for the publication process

UT Austin Applications Specialist at the University of Texas at Austin, Germanic Studies, Austin, TX (Jan 2002 - Oct 2004)

  • System administration of a departmental web server

  • Developed and maintained custom web applications for two separate websites:

    • An internal site for staff to reconcile around 50 financial accounts

    • A public site to provide details for current classes: Abstract, Syllabus, Reading Lists, etc.

  • Provided desktop support to faculty and staff

Vignette System QA Engineer at Vignette (now OpenText), Austin, TX (Jan 2001 - Apr 2001)

  • Built configurations for QA testing

  • Maintained a custom PHP web application for providing metrics on QA test results

Education, Training and Certifications

  • Machine Learning, Stanford taught by Andrew Ng, 07/13/2017.

  • CELTA: University of Cambridge Certificate in TEFL, Pass (Grade B), awarded 01/17/2005. Center Number US072, Accreditation Number 100/2664/2, Certificate Number ccpf214887.

  • BA, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, Summer 1996, Major: German, GPA 3.916

  • Zwischenprüfung, Universität Siegen, Siegen, Germany. Master’s program. Major: Medieval German Literature and Linguistics. Minor: English Literature and Linguistics.

Publications

  • Kirch, John. “Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 versus UNIX.” AUUGN (the journal of the Australian Unix Users’ Group) 19, no. 3 (August 1998): 12–27.
    The popularity of the online version, from which the AUUGN print edition was derived, was so enormous that volunteers translated it into Chinese, Croatian, Czech, French, German, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

  • Zalan, S.E., Roger Judson, and John Kirch. “Optimal Use of Iterative Stacking.” Paper presented at the Intercompany Geophysical Conference by Chevron Geosciences Company, Incline Village, NV, October 21–26, 1984.

Honors and Awards

  • One year, Full Stipendium from the DAAD for participating in a Masters Program at the Universität Siegen, Germany
    Only two recipients were chosen each year based on academic excellence within the German Studies Department at the University of Houston. The official letter from the Universität Siegen is dated May 14, 1986.

  • 29th International Science & Engineering Fair, Anaheim, CA. May 1978

    • Special Award from the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists)
      Received full tuition and travel expenses paid for attending the University of Missouri Geology Field Camp at the Branson Field Laboratory, located in the Shoshone National Forest near Lander, Wyoming.

    • Special Award from the SEG
      One of only two recipients awarded a 5-day tour of various seismic exploration companies in Houston, including Fairfield Industries, specializing in high resolution offshore oil exploration Was offered a summer internship at Fairfield Industries

  • 28th International Science & Engineering Fair, Cleveland, OH. May 1977
    Special Award from the SEG
    One of only two recipients awarded a 5-day tour of various seismic exploration companies in Houston, including Seiscom-Delta Corporation and a chance to spend an afternoon with Robert E. Sheriff who inscribed a copy of his Encyclopedic Dictionary of Exploration Geophysics, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, 1973