About Me

My name is Jacques Castonguay. I've been a fulltime engineer since May 2020. I've worked with multiple tech stacks, making me a fast learner of frameworks. Currently I am using Angular and Laravel as part of a LAMP stack. My personal projects use primarly Firebase, Python, and React.

Work History

Software Engineer II | Cambium Learning Group | April 2022 - now

  • Collaborated in a cross-departmental team to develop AI-integrated MVPs
  • Transitioned applications from AngularJS/vanilla PHP to modern Angular and Laravel frameworks, enhancing application performance and reliability
  • Designed and implemented user-centric web UIs using HTML, CSS, Typescript, and Angular, showcasing skills in full stack development and a focus on user experience
  • Conducted code reviews and practiced refined coding standards, ensuring maintainable, testable code, and encouraging collaboration and knowledge sharing

Software Engineer | Securian Financial | June 2020 - March 2022

  • Developed and automated complex contract processes using Spring Batch and Groovy, reducing manual labor by 50 hours monthly
  • Enhanced performance and reliability of the internal company task management website, effectively managing hundreds of tasks daily and ensuring smooth, operational workflow
  • Identified and resolved high-priority bugs; implemented comprehensive Unit Tests using Mockito, achieving over 97% active uptime for critical web applications
  • Executed large-scale data queries and created Spring batch jobs, providing crucial data insights for policy development and decision-making
  • Focused on fostering a collaborative work environment, organizing team-building events and activities to enhance team morale and engagement

Software Development Intern | Apogee Enterprises | October 2017 - May 2020

  • Collaborated with a team of interns to develop a pattern recognition application, resulting in significant cost savings for the company, estimated in the six-figure range
  • Converted legacy products from Visual Basic to C#, modernizing the company's technological framework and enhancing overall system performance

Personal Projects

AI powered custom podcast generation

  • Utilized Open AI API, Firebase Functions, Firestore, and React to make AI generated audio podcasts

Spanish phonetic converter to calculate the IPA transcription of a sentence in spanish

  • Published app on Google Play Store

Volunteering

Cristo Rey High School Robotics team | programming mentor | February 2023 - present

  • Volunteered as a programming mentor, leading and guiding students in understanding and applying programming concepts in robotics

Education

  • Metro State - Masters of Computer Science, 2024 - present
  • MNSU: Mankato, Mankato, Minnesota - Computer Information Technology - BoS (3.65 GPA), 2015 - 2020