Jeremy Helms

Download my original resume (PDF)

I am a designer/developer with over 14 years of professional experience; I love what I do and I've been doing it since before Netscape lost the first browser war. I've written code in a wide array of languages & frameworks and I've done art direction & design for numerous well-known companies and brands around the World. I have been self-employed for nearly a decade in the IT industry, and my current body of work includes work for clients such as for Rachael Ray, They Might Be Giants, Thornberg & Forester, Aspen Surgical, the Business Marketing Association, and many others.

I am accomplished in a plethora of front-end & back-end web technologies and practices, and I am an advocate for Web Standards and the W3C Semantic Web efforts. Apart from design & development, I am also experienced in various hosting infrastructures (scalable, multi-platform, and cloud), load balancing, high availability, reverse proxies, etc. Upon assignment, solo or team, I can carry a project from start to finish beginning with wireframes, mood boards, user interface design, user experience strategy, information architecture detailing, implementation, development, deployment, etc.

I've been asked a lot of times what I favor most: design, development, or infrastructure. I am passionate about each, but I tend to enjoy the UX/IA front-end and UI design/implementation process and the infrastructure/sys admin side over a solo development/code-only role.

I am seeking opportunities to build innovative websites, web applications, and interactive features using bleed-edge tech and high creativity, while continuing my personal education in interactive design, usability, Web Standards, online culture, and team management. I would like to work with an energetic & passionate team, where I can learn, teach, and be challenged.

It is also worth noting that I have practiced flextime telecommute and agile methods solely for the last 7 years. I work just as efficiently and responsibly on location as I do remote, and I can adapt to whatever convention is in place: daily standups, sprints, individual autonomy, accountable communication workflow, et al.

Hired on for a short term contract to work on a social media project in need of organization in various areas.

Introduced various tools for project organization and distributed communication, such as Pivotal Tracker (used in Extreme Programming, one of various Agile Processes), numerous wiki's, 37Signals Campfire & Basecamp, and a project bug tracker.

Converted the version control system in use from Subversion to Mercurial for a more dynamic distributed coding environment. Wrote various help documents and reference sheets to aid developers in this transition.

Converted the storage backend from MySQL to PostgreSQL; wrote various scripts to aid in this migration.

Introduced an affordable infrastructure alternative [to the existing single Slicehost "LAMP" VPS] which consisted of a scalable VPS cluster utilizing Nginx (with round-robin load displacement), Python & virtualenv containers for Django, FastCGI (via Flup, with various custom init.d scripts), PostgreSQL, Fail2Ban, Shorewall Firewall, memcached, et al.

Jupiter Brain is an interactive agency/collective with skills in web design & development, interactive experience design, user experience design, rich internet applications, usability & accessibility, high-availability deployments, programming, marketing, and technology.

Aside from core operational and business responsibilities, my project-related responsibilities include involvement in all project phases (pitch, close, design, produce, develop, deploy and long-term support), writing design specs, project estimates, proposals, workflow diagrams, technical drafts, and service-level agreements, creating wire frames, high-fidelity mockups, and interactive prototypes, determining project budgets, milestones, and schedules.

Initially hired to design & deploy micro-sites; promoted to "Webmaster" and then to Associate Interactive Director. My responsibilities included conceptualizing, developing, and directing all client & corporate creative work, while cultivating, mentoring & managing the creative team as a whole. I coordinated and collaborated with the department managers throughout the company. One of my largest accomplishments while working here was coordinating & facilitating the deployment of a multi-platform (Windows+Linux) micro-datacenter infrastructure used for hosting thousands of domains, with email services reaching over 2 million outbound messages per day.

Got my feet wet in the industry...

Compass CSS Meta-Framework, GHRML Template Markup Language, Erlang Programming Language, Mobile Development (iPhone & Android), Social Media, Semantic Web, Open Source Initiative, Cloud Computing

Twitgift In Progress

Rachael Ray go

GTM Architects go

Aspen Surgical go

Fred Figglehorn go

SourceGas Distribution go

Business Marketing Association (BMA) go

Branch Records go

Mark Hurley, Principal Architect
Enterprise Applications
Turner Broadcasting
tel: 4045756315

"I have known and worked occasionally with Jeremy over the past several years now. Jeremy is focused, caring and always wants to do what is right for the client. His attention to detail and level of perfection are beyond anything I've ever seen in another individual who works in IT."

Lisa McManus, Web Mgr/Designer/Developer/Admin
SourceGas Distribution, LLC
tel: 3032433522

"I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your help over the last year in designing, developing and deploying several of our websites. Your dedication and integrity in providing quality service and creative solutions, regardless of the timeframe, has been invaluable to us. When you get going on a project, you do what it takes to get it done right and on time. I am confident in recommending you for virtually any type of web project, whether small or large."

Samuel K. Tennis, Owner/Operator
Vista-Research


"Jeremy has been providing IT services for my small business since 2003. He has always proven very reliable and given me personal service in a more than timely manner. I often send him questions at the oddest of hours, and somehow, he always seems to just be there waiting."

Top qualities: Great Results, Expert, On Time