About
Hello, my name is Ben Herold and I'm a Software Engineer that resides in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia. I graduated from The Art Institute of Philadelphia in March of 2009 with a bachelor's degree in Web Design & Interactive Media. I like to focus on front-end development whether its design and layout or adding interaction to a site in order provide a rich user experience; however, I can handle many different types of programming languages and I am very capable of putting them to use. I find all aspects of the field interesting and enjoy finding solutions that enable sites to fully function and operate the way the end user seems fit. I constantly use creativity and efficiency without sacrificing usability and structure.
Languages
HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, XML, PHP, Ruby
Frameworks
Rails, jQuery, SASS, Bootstrap, D3, AngularJS
Other Tech / Tools
JSON, AJAX, Grunt, Gulp, MySQL, MongoDB, Git, SVN, Cross Browser Compatibility, Accessibility, SEO, ActionScript, Agile Methodologies (Rally), Jira
Awards
- Critical Talent Award (eBay - 2014)
- Best Graduating Portfolio (Art Institute - 2009)
- Dean's List (9 Terms - Art Institute)
- Best of Quarter (3 terms - Art Institute)
- Eagle Scout (2001)
Resume
August 2016 - April 2023
Radial
Software Engineer III
King of Prussia
- Hand-picked for an internal initiative to build a first-in-market Order Management System, demonstrating strategic thinking and an ability to drive high-impact projects with multimillion-dollar revenue potential.
- Transitioned from front-end developer to full-stack Ruby on Rails developer, gaining a well-rounded technical perspective that informs realistic project planning and execution.
- Integrated Radial’s numerous backend APIs through one central user interface, collaborating cross-functionally to streamline system interactions and improve efficiency.
- Actively participated in Agile methodology, including sprint planning, code and design reviews, retrospectives, and daily scrums -- building a strong foundation in project execution and iterative improvement.
- Met weekly with a cross-functional team of developers, managers, and product owners to perform backlog grooming, feature planning, and requirements gathering, reinforcing my ability to bridge technical and business needs.
- Led a distributed team of designers (consultants) and offshore developers across multiple countries to develop and implement Radial’s pattern library -- enhancing design consistency and accelerating front-end development across all products.
- Spearheaded a complete UI overhaul of Radial’s client-facing Payment Processing portal, applying structured planning and coordination to drive a large-scale redesign effort.
- Provided 24/7 support during peak periods, ensuring system stability and performance during high-traffic months, which sharpened my crisis management and problem-solving skills -- essential for overseeing large-scale, high-stakes projects.
- Joined the performance team to optimize application response times, leveraging caching, code refactoring, and coding best practices to ensure system efficiency -- reinforcing my focus on quality and performance in project execution.
- Managed code via a Git repository and a continuous integration environment (GoCD), ensuring seamless collaboration and efficient deployment processes, key elements in delivering projects smoothly and on time.
August 2011 - August 2016
eBay Enterprise
Frontend Web Developer
King of Prussia
- Developed consumer-facing e-commerce webstores for high-profile clients such as Toys R Us, Sony, Timberland, SteinMart, and Spanx -- demonstrating the ability to deliver complex projects at scale.
- Saw projects through their full life cycle, from requirements gathering and wireframing to development, QA, production support, and new feature rollouts -- gaining a holistic understanding of software delivery (SDLC).
- Led demos and training sessions on new technologies and platform features, helping teams adopt best practices and improve efficiency.
- Hand-picked from a team of frontend developers to contribute to an internal cost-reduction initiative, streamlining workflows by developing custom CMS modules, enforcing JavaScript and CSS standards, and implementing tooling for code quality and one-click deployments -- experience directly applicable to optimizing project delivery.
- Worked closely with backend developers, UI designers, and project managers to translate business requirements into functional products, fostering cross-team collaboration and ensuring alignment between stakeholders.
- Recognized with the Critical Talent award in 2014 for outstanding contributions, highlighting leadership potential and impact.
June 2009 - August 2011
Braintune Studios
Co-Founder, Web Developer
Philadelphia
- Co-founded and operated a freelance web shop in partnership with a graphic designer, where we sought out, bid on, and secured over twenty clients -- demonstrating entrepreneurial initiative and the ability to manage client relationships and expectations.
- Updated and maintained various client websites to align with evolving business needs, gaining experience in managing ongoing projects and adapting to changing requirements.
- Developed numerous websites from scratch, consistently implementing new web technologies and adhering to best coding practices -- showcasing my ability to oversee technical aspects of project development.
- Maintained daily communication with clients to discuss upcoming work, provide updates, and offer feedback on navigating the online space -- strengthening client relationship management and ensuring clear, transparent project delivery.
January 2009 - June 2009
MOD Worldwide
Web Developer
Philadelphia
- Updated and managed various client websites in a team environment, maintaining constant communication with clients, designers, copywriters, and company owners -- demonstrating my ability to coordinate multiple stakeholders and ensure project alignment.
- Created and executed monthly and weekly HTML email marketing campaigns distributed via MailChimp, showcasing my ability to manage ongoing marketing projects and meet deadlines.
- Participated in daily phone and in-person meetings to brainstorm new ideas and modify existing projects, staying current with web trends and ensuring continuous improvement in the company’s digital presence.
- Responsible for hiring and mentoring interns, providing guidance and fostering a collaborative team culture while helping develop new talent, further solidifying my leadership and team management capabilities.
Portfolio
Radial Order Management
Technology: Ruby On Rails, HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, D3.js, JSON, SASS
I was handpicked for an internal initiative to build a first-in-market order management system built using Ruby on Rails that is integrated with our numerous backend APIs. Having come from a frontend role in the past this was a big change in what I was used to working with. I learned Rails on the job as we went through our sprints and have been working with it for over 2 years now.
The purpose of Radial Order Management is to dynamically orchestrate complex sourcing and fulfillment scenarios to fulfill orders quickly, from the most profitable locations, using an enterprise-wide view of inventory. As well as enable stores to be active fulfillment centers and generate more sales by having flexible fulfillment options like Ship-from Store, In-Store Pickup, and Ship-to Store and Associate Delivery. There are also tools to allow a client to lookup and modify orders and payments as well as issue refunds. Lastly there is an entire administration section for configuring new stores, user management, custom templates used throughout the packing process, and much more.
I worked across all phases of development to provide the features for the application. I frequently met with management for planning and brainstorming sessions, with the API teams to learn about what they require and how we can translate that to the screen, as well as with an third party design group to groom and layout our screens.
Sony
Technology: ISML, HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS3, Intershop
I was brought onto the Sony project when it was a few months out from launch. I was brought on specifically to refactor the CSS and markup. By the time I had joined the team the core CSS/HTML had grown to become very bloated. There were styles and markup in place that had the same look and feel, but the code written for that component was a little different from each implementation depending on who worked on that component on that specific page. There was no consistency between markup structure or naming conventions. Some of these key components that needed to be refactored were product loops, grid patterns, and some of the core patterns throughout the various product pages.
As I worked through the site wide refactor I also helped run branch rollouts to our test and UAT environments on a daily basis. This process consisted of collecting that days changes and packaging them up for Dev Ops to deploy to the necessary environments. A part of the branch rollout process required me to spend countless hours each night, after the day's work was deployed to each of our 4 environments, validating our code changes and updating any CMS components that were necessary to ensure we could start the next with a fresh updated environment. After the site launched, I stayed on the Sony team for another month or so to help with defects and new features that didn't make the initial launch.
Toys R' Us
Technology: ISML, HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS3, Intershop
During my time at eBay Enterprise, I spent the majority of it on the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us teams. I started out working on Toys R Us Japan. This was going to be the first TRU store launched on our V11(ECP). While working on the frontend I had to ensure that as I built out my page components that it worked for both the English and Japanese languages. This required forethought as to what would need to adjust depending on what the content of component was.
After TRU Japan I was placed on a new team called Toys 'R' Us Global Reference Store (TGRS). The purpose of this team was to build out a base storefront cartridge that can be applied to all the Toys 'R' Us and Babies 'R' Us domains and then a domain specific cartridge could be loaded on top of that with specific elements that pertain to that country or region. This base storefront cartridge would contain all the page templates and components needed to display the common elements of the webstore. Again, this required a lot of forethought and planning on how each page would be used and displayed based on its locale.
At a later date, I was transitioned to new team called Wish List Baby Registry (WLBR). My role on this team was to be the frontend developer that worked with a backend resource to build out all of the Wish List and Baby Registry features for the site. This was a separate team because WLBR was not componentized like the rest of the site through our CMS system so all the markup, CSS, and JavaScript was hand coded.
Steinmart Mobile
Technology: HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS3, AngularJS
Steinmart Mobile was our first attempt at a mobile website on the ECP platform. Since this was our first crack at mobile we decided to try some technology that was pretty new at the time, AngularJS. I had a couple weeks to pick up the basics of AngularJS and then it was time to hit the ground running. I worked with a small group of frontend developers over the course of 3 months to port our desktop site into a (dot)M site. I was solely responsible for the markup and CSS throughout the entire application. From time to time I worked on some of the business logic throughout the controllers, specifically for implementing the Preferred Customer Numbers throughout checkout and my account.
Spanx
Technology: ISML, HTML5, JavaScript, jQuery, CSS3, Intershop
While on the Spanx team I mainly focused on defect fixes and refactoring CSS and CMS structure throughout the site. When it came time for Spanx to be upgraded from v11.4 to v11.6, I was tasked with rebuilding various sections of the site using the new backoffice(CMS) component structure. This was a major overhaul from our previous version of backoffice so it took learning the intricacies of the new patterns and applying them throughout the webstore.