Building what holds up.
At Foundation Finance Company since 2023, I've led initiatives projected to bring in $200M in loan funding, prototyped a full UI refresh in Figma, and automated processes saving the company $65K–$80K annually — working across TypeScript services, React front ends, and event-driven systems.
What sets me apart is bridging business and code. I build relationships with stakeholders, dig for the "why" behind every feature, and design with the team that has to maintain it in mind — not just what ships fastest.
The work that got me here
Experience
Full Stack Developer
Foundation Finance Company LLC
- Drove API development and requirements for a partner upsell feature projected to deliver $200M in loan funding in year one.
- Proposed and shipped a UI refresh across core app pages — prototyped in Figma, won business buy-in, and rebuilt legacy views with MUI.
- Diagnosed an after-hours production incident and automated the manual process behind it — saving an estimated $65K–$80K annually.
- Hardened server-side configurations and ran a penetration test that surfaced 3 vulnerabilities — patched before release.
- Championed unit testing across the stack — grew coverage from near-zero to ~80% and enforced 80% minimums on new code.
Full Stack Developer Intern
Foundation Finance Company LLC
- Built a MERN-stack observability proof-of-concept as a degree capstone — learned the stack hands-on while making the case for dedicated application monitoring.
- Earned a full-time offer within four months of starting the internship.
Software Engineer Intern
Skyward
- Developed and maintained software using C#, JavaScript, and Git.
- Led projects migrating legacy application features to a modern platform.
- Elected as one of three team leads to guide the Summer 2022 intern cohort.
Education
B.S. in Computer Information Systems
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point — Spring 2023
Concentration: Application Development and Support
GPA: 3.93 / 4.0 (Major: 4.0) — Summa Cum Laude
Skills
Certifications
New Relic Verified Foundation (NVF)
New Relic — Issued Mar 2025
Observability fundamentals, performance monitoring, data visualization, and instrumentation.
What I build on my own time
Projects
A full-stack reference architecture: a dual-role marketplace where end users and vendor organizations share one app with separate auth surfaces, role models, and navigation. Two repos designed to run in tandem — a hardened Express API paired with a React Native client that speaks the same auth protocol end-to-end — and a reflection of how I structure production systems from scratch.
Marketplace API
TypeScript / Express / MongoDB service with parallel consumer and vendor auth flows. Device-bound JWT sessions, escalating account lockouts, anti-enumeration on password reset, Redis-backed rate limiting, and 131 tests across 17 suites.
Marketplace Mobile Client
Companion React Native client. A single AuthProvider unifies consumer and vendor sessions with separate token lifecycles, axios interceptors handle silent JWT refresh, and forms are built with react-hook-form + Zod against shared schema types.
What I Learned
- Designing a dual-role auth model end-to-end — two token flows, two role hierarchies, and a single client provider that keeps them from leaking into each other.
- Structuring an Express codebase for the team that has to maintain it — clear route/service/middleware boundaries, Zod validation at the edge, and a uniform response envelope so clients switch on
codeinstead of parsing strings. - React Native fundamentals from the ground up — navigation as a state machine, platform-secure storage for tokens and device IDs, silent token refresh from decoded JWT expiries, and form ergonomics that hold up across onboarding, password reset, and phone verification flows.
OpenAPI Spec Generation with Zod
A learning repo exploring how to generate OpenAPI specifications directly from Zod schemas — eliminating drift between validation logic and API documentation. Currently using this to plan a tech debt initiative at work to improve documentation for integrators consuming our services.
- Initiative beyond shipping features — improving developer experience for external consumers of our APIs.
- Single source of truth: Zod schemas drive both runtime validation and generated spec, so docs never go stale.
But don't take my word for it
What People Say
You got mad skills brother! Great job at solving difficult problems!
It’s been really cool watching you come on as the intern and see how much you’ve grown since then. You picked up everything super fast and are totally crushing it now!
He was instrumental in this process not only helping add the code but also found a critical issue preventing the deploy from going forward. He stayed on later of his own volition, troubleshooting additional issues found. His actions saved all of us involved many additional hours of work.
The rate you improve surprises me every day. When you put your mind on something I know it can be done. I know you can build anything!
Recognized as a significant contributor to a major business initiative, helping it cross the finish line and deliver business value. Awarded a bronze-level recognition for impact.
Responded to an after-hours integration issue, quickly diagnosed the root cause, and proposed solutions that drove effective follow-up meetings the next day.
Chayton consistently exceeds expectations in his role as a Fullstack Developer. He demonstrates strong technical skills, growing ownership of his work, and a clear focus on delivering high quality, scalable, and secure solutions. His contributions this year improved user experience, system reliability, and operational efficiency, while also delivering measurable business value. Chayton collaborates effectively across teams, proactively addresses technical debt, and continues to grow in architectural thinking and product ownership. He is well positioned for increased responsibility and continued impact in the coming year.