Work History - Chris Johnson
Work History
15+ years building web platforms — from Nebraska startups to San Francisco scale-ups to independent consulting. Every project taught something new.
20+<br>Companies
15+<br>Years
10<br>Full-time roles
All 22<br>Full-Time 10<br>Contract 5<br>Internship 7
2025 – 2026
Momentic.AI
Software Engineer (Contract)
Contract<br>2025 – 2026
AI-powered end-to-end testing platform for web and mobile applications. Momentic uses AI to automatically discover, generate, and maintain test suites — replacing brittle manual test scripts with intelligent, self-healing test automation.
Frontend engineering for AI-powered test automation platform
Building interfaces for AI-driven test generation and execution workflows
Web and mobile testing infrastructure at the intersection of AI and developer tooling
TypeScript<br>React<br>AI/ML<br>Test Automation<br>Playwright
Canvas.xyz
Software Engineer
Full-time<br>2024
Collaborative writing and document platform. Canvas builds tools for real-time collaborative authoring with a focus on elegant, distraction-free interfaces and powerful editing capabilities.
Frontend engineering for real-time collaborative document editor
Complex state management for multi-user concurrent editing
Rich text editing interfaces with performance-critical rendering
TypeScript<br>React<br>WebSockets<br>CRDTs<br>Rich Text
2022 – 2023
PayIt
Software Engineer
Full-time<br>May 2022 – Aug 2023
Top software development company in Kansas City. PayIt builds world-class digital government services — DMV, property tax, vehicle registration — for millions of citizens across North America, including the State of North Carolina and the City of Toronto.
Architected frontend systems powering 50+ white-label government applications serving millions of constituents
Drove UI standards for performance, testing, and maintainability across multiple product teams
Led Pendo analytics implementation — defined and instrumented key product metrics enabling data-driven design decisions
Architected document management sub-system handling multiple file formats with authenticated third-party integrations
Championed accessibility (WCAG) and internationalization across all client applications
React<br>TypeScript<br>Redux<br>Node.js<br>Java<br>Kubernetes<br>MongoDB<br>Pendo<br>GitHub Actions
NACLO / Carnegie Mellon
Lead Developer (Contract)
Contract<br>2023 – 2026
The North American Computational Linguistics Open competition (NACLO) runs an international student competition to get high schoolers a head start in computational linguistics. Built a greenfield competition management platform replacing a legacy Perl system that had served the organization for over a decade.
Designed and built a full competition management platform from scratch — student registration, results tallying, site administration
Replaced legacy Perl system with modern Python/Flask application
Full project lifecycle: requirements gathering, architecture, implementation, testing, deployment
Volunteer-driven organization affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University's computational linguistics program
Python<br>Flask<br>PostgreSQL<br>HTML/CSS<br>JavaScript
UIS-KC
DevOps / Systems Engineer (Contract)
Contract<br>2023 – 2026
Insurance services company in Kansas City running a decade-old .NET 4 application for processing client insurance claims, generating forms, and administering responses from state offices. A masterclass in maintaining legacy systems that Just Work.
Reconstructed CI/CD pipeline for a 10+ year-old .NET application on Azure (Kudu)
Upgraded third-party dependencies to latest secure patches
Performed security audit and automated email integration
Set up codebase for continued development by future maintainers
C# / .NET 4<br>Azure<br>Kudu<br>CI/CD<br>Security Audit
2020 – 2025
Futo.org
Software Engineer
Full-time<br>2021 – 2022
Privacy-focused technology organization building open-source alternatives to big tech platforms. Mission-driven work defending user privacy and data sovereignty.
Built frontend systems for privacy-focused open-source applications
Contributed to the organization's mission of creating sustainable open-source software
JavaScript<br>React<br>Open Source
Sourcetable
Software Engineer
Full-time<br>~2021
Data and spreadsheet tooling startup. Built interactive web interfaces for data manipulation and visualization.
Frontend development for interactive data application
Complex UI state management for spreadsheet-like interactions
JavaScript<br>React<br>TypeScript
Simplifyy
Software Engineer
Full-time<br>~2020
Property management automation platform. Built web interfaces for property managers to streamline tenant communications and maintenance workflows.
Developed interactive web application for property management workflows
Frontend and full-stack feature development
JavaScript<br>React<br>Node.js
2017 – 2019
Tlon Corporation / Urbit
Engineering Manager, Interface
Full-time<br>2017 – 2019
Tlon builds Urbit — a clean-slate, decentralized personal computing platform...