Nathaniel Kraft
Team Manager // Technical Lead // Sr. Front-End Developer

Front-End Team Lead, Technical Lead, Sr. Web Developer

November 2010 – Present
IQ Solutions, Rockville, MD (iqsolutions.com)

During my 14 year tenure with IQ Solutions, I’ve been promoted from Junior Web Developer up to Front-End Team Lead and Technical Lead. During that time, I have been involved in the design, development, and/or maintenance of 15+ enterprise-level, public facing U.S. Federal Government websites, the majority of which were built on the Drupal Content Management System (CMS).

As the Front-End Team Lead, my responsibilities include:

• Managing up to 6 direct reports, consisting of mid-level and junior-level Web developers that focus on site-building and front-end development. I meet with them on a regular basis to perform one-on-one check-ins, during which we discuss goals, work load, and any challenges that I might be able to provide mentorship or assistance in resolving.
• Conducting twice a week developer scrums, during which I act as the meeting lead and host for the entire development team, consisting of 14+ staff members. These meetings are held virtually, over MS Teams, as our entire staff is full-time remote.
• Meeting with other leads and Director of Development to discuss team management, staff allocation, and project needs.

As a Technical Lead, my duties are:

• Building out site themes in front-end code.
• Architecting new site features and then developing those features for eventual production deployment.
• Attending client-facing meetings alongside my project managers, and acting as a subject matter expert in regards to the development, enhancement, and management of the clients' websites.
• Decomposing complex tasks into actionable tickets and triaging out to junior staff members and freelancers.
• Providing direction and technical review on new “barebones” tasks submitted by the project manager or requested by clients.
• Debugging and troubleshooting problems reported by the client or by project managers.
• Optimizing sites for page load speed using Google Core Web Vitals.
• Peer reviews of tasks and merge requests, including performing QA/QC
• Planning and executing deployments of code changes on production sites.
• Writing emails and technical communications to clients and internal staff.
• Assisting in the writing and editing of project outlines and proposals that are shared with clients.
• Assisting in content creation and content editing.
• Updating modules and the core codebase behind the websites as necessary, including performing time-sensitive security updates.
• Working closely with Lead Network Engineer and Sr. Backend Developers to provide enhancements, updates, and troubleshooting for production sites.
• Selecting, editing, or creating photos and graphics for use in websites and email marketing.

Web Production Specialist

October 2009 – October 2010
Westat, Rockville, MD (westat.com)

During my time at Westat, my primary responsibilities were to build, develop and manage websites and related projects for federal government agencies in the health and human services sector.

Web Designer

October 2007 – October 2009
The Humane Society of the United States, Washington, DC (humaneworld.org)

As a Web Designer at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), I was hired to:

• Build and strengthen the nonprofit's online brand, by designing and coding microsites and email campaigns used for fundraising and advocacy.
• Design banners and online advertisements at the request of internal clients. These assets were distributed to advocates, corporate partners, and were shared on MySpace, Blogspot, and early Facebook.
• Extend the brand of a major public policy initiative for use in letterhead, t-shirts and other marketing and community outreach materials.

Marketing Technologist

April 2006 – October 2007
Arent Fox LLP, Washington, DC (arentfox.com)

While at the law firm of Arent Fox in the role of marketing technologist, I was expected to be a jack of all trades, applying my communication technologies background while:

• Launching a new public-facing website.
• Helping draft and send marketing emails at the request of the Chief Marketing Officer.
• Creating and formatting graphics for Web and marketing purposes.
• Encoding mp3 and video files for embedding on the website.
• Developing a registration tool for firm events using PHP and MySQL.
• Updating and maintaining biographical information for more than 300 attorneys.

Web Content & Electronic Product Specialist

July 2003 – April 2006
Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (gpo.gov, bookstore.gpo.gov)

During my time at the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), I was tasked with:

• Managing content updates and code maintenance for several agency websites
• Creating and designing marketing collateral for the online bookstore.
• Traveling around the country to conduct in-person training of federal depository librarians on the use of the GPOAccess.gov website (now defunct).
• Representing GPO at various trade shows relating to libraries and the publishing industry, where I would work with a colleague to promote the services of the GPO and the use of its websites.