Hi, my name is

Ian Foote.

I build

A senior full-stack software developer with 20+ years of experience shipping real-time, high-scale systems across e-commerce, telecom, aerospace, healthcare and beyond. I turn hard problems into elegant, dependable code.

Get in touch View experience
01. About

Senior developer, end to end.

I'm a senior full-stack software developer with two decades of professional experience delivering cutting-edge technology for industries ranging from e-commerce and telecommunications to aerospace, correctional services, telemedicine, farming and higher education.

My work spans the whole stack: project management, requirements gathering, software architecture, front-end and server-side development, database design, mobile apps, software testing and cloud engineering. I care about clean code, performance, and systems that stay up under load.

I have a habit of walking into unfamiliar technology stacks and shipping production systems anyway — I learn what I need on the job. Recent highlights include senior engineering at Shopify, building billion-transaction order-processing pipelines, and creating browser-based real-time video platforms for prisons, telemedicine and user research.

20+
Years professional experience
12
Industries served
1B+
Transactions / year delivered
350+
Peak transactions / second
02. Skills

What I work with.

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Languages

  • C# / .NET (1.0 → 4.5+)
  • JavaScript / TypeScript
  • Java, Scala, PHP 5
  • Ruby, T-SQL, PL/SQL, VB.NET

Front-end

  • HTML5, CSS3, LESS/SASS
  • AngularJS, React, jQuery, Bootstrap
  • WebRTC, SignalR, real-time UI
  • Responsive & accessible design

Back-end & Server

  • ASP.NET / IIS, WCF, Entity Framework
  • Node.js, Express, Ruby on Rails
  • Groovy on Grails, Play Framework (Java/Scala)
  • REST, GraphQL, Liquid, Web API, XML/JSON B2B
🗄

Data & Messaging

  • SQL Server, SSRS, Cassandra
  • MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL
  • RabbitMQ, ffmpeg pipelines
  • Replication & disaster recovery
📱

Mobile

  • Xamarin Forms (iOS & Android)
  • Android SDK, IceLink / WebSync
  • App Store & Google Play deploys
  • Twilio, OAuth2.0, browser extensions

Cloud & DevOps

  • Azure & AWS (incl. testing)
  • Docker / Mono on Linux
  • CI with Selenium / PHPUnit
  • Git, TFS, Subversion, Mercurial
03. Experience

Where I've worked.

Senior Software Developer — Shopify Inc.
Oct 2019 – Aug 2020 · Toronto, ON
  • Improved Shopify's point-of-sale offering and helped resolve internationalization issues around currency, shipping and taxation.
  • Built with Ruby on Rails, Node.js, React, GraphQL and Liquid.
Senior Developer — SMITH
Feb 2017 – Jul 2017 · Gatineau, QC (Remote)
  • Remote developer maintaining and extending the global order-processing software for a major restaurant chain.
  • Worked on the China-ordering subsystems (incl. multilingualization), the in-restaurant touch-screen ordering infrastructure, and the mobile pre-order app.
  • The platform enabled 1 billion transactions/year at < $0.005 each, peaking above 350 tx/s.
Lead Developer — Morneau Shepell
Oct 2016 – Jan 2017 · Markham, ON
  • Developed plugin-free peer-to-peer browser screen sharing for call-centre technical support (SignalR).
Senior Software Developer — Global Aerospace Inc.
Feb 2016 – Sep 2016 · Markham, ON
  • Delivered ~30 SSRS reports, an agent prospecting site, and a public insurance portal (AngularJS + .NET REST, WCF internally).
  • Designed XML/DTD schemas for B2B document generation with Thunderhead, letting the company enter the nascent drone-insurance market.
Software Developer — Frozen Mountain Software
Jun 2014 – Oct 2015 · Surrey, BC
  • Real-time WebRTC audio/video for prisons (stress-tested to 200 concurrent conferences on Mono/Linux), telemedicine and user testing; Chrome/Firefox screen-share extensions; server-side recording via ffmpeg.
  • Built the real-time engine for LiveCare Connect (telemedicine) — which by early 2021 was serving 400+ clinics across Western Canada with 21,000+ hours of video logged, later acquired by Cloud MD.
Senior Software Developer — TeamSpace Canada
May 2011 – Aug 2013 · Bedford, NS
  • Senior dev on Viacom's MTV / VH1 / CMT web properties; rebuilt the stack on Groovy on Grails.
Internet Application Developer — Bright Crow Media
Mar 2010 – Dec 2011 · Halifax, NS
  • Authored the "Automap" Joomla 1.5 component; gathered requirements and designed the database schema.
Developer / Tester — Azorus Inc.
Mar 2008 – Aug 2009 · Halifax, NS
  • Reverse-engineered & normalized DB schemas; built Selenium/PHPUnit CI; optimized for high throughput clusters.
DBA / Developer — ForeignExchange Translations
Feb 2004 – Oct 2007 · Louisville, CO, USA
  • Redesigned SQL Server schemas, built SSRS reports, B2B integration, replication & disaster recovery.
04. Highlights

Impact in numbers.

1B+

Transactions / year

Order-processing pipeline for a global restaurant chain at under half a cent each.

350+

Tx / second peak

Throughput on par with Amazon's busiest days, with zero-downtime upgrades.

200

Concurrent conferences

WebRTC prison & telemedicine platform stress-tested and proven to scale.

400+

Clinics served

The LiveCare Connect telemedicine engine I built reached 400+ clinics across Western Canada (early 2021).

0

Plugins required

Browser screen-sharing for call centres — no installs, no extensions.

05. Systems & Agentic AI

Private infrastructure & agentic self-hosting.

Beyond application code, I design and run my own always-on infrastructure — a small self-hosted network of Debian and Windows hosts. It's where I keep my services private, my costs at zero, and my experiments in agentic AI close to the metal.

🌐

Networking & DNS

  • LAN design across Debian + Windows hosts
  • Domain setup & DNS for ianfoote.com & jarvis.ianfoote.com
  • Reverse proxies, Let's Encrypt (win-acme) TLS
🐧

Linux & Server Admin

  • Debian & Windows Server setup and administration
  • SSH key-auth, nginx as a Windows service
  • PostgreSQL (incl. as agent memory store)
🤖

Agentic AI & Local LLMs

  • llama.cpp on a local RTX 3060 (Jarvis)
  • Hermes Agent + OpenClaw orchestration
  • Self-hosted hub (Mattermost) for multi-agent coordination — in progress
💬

Self-Hosted Services

  • Mattermost — private team coordination hub
  • Migrated off Telegram for privacy & $0 cost
  • Jellyfin media server on the home HTPC
06. Beyond the code

Hobbies & volunteer work.

I love technology, but I work hard to keep a life outside it. My resume lists a few of the things I do when I step away from the keyboard.

Music

  • Amateur singer & harmonica player — blues & rock
  • Played in a few bands and at open-mic nights
  • Performed at a street music festival in 2018 (~200 people)

Community & Gardening

  • Helped build Common Roots Urban Farm
  • Elected coordinator of a community garden society (2014)
🥋

Martial Arts & Fitness

  • Four provincial gold medals in high-school wrestling
  • Trained Capoeira, Muay Thai and No-Gi Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Making

  • Built my own 3D printer from scratch
  • Follow developments at reprap.org

Volunteering

  • St. John Ambulance Brigade first-aider
  • At music festivals, figure-skating comps & motorcycle races

Dance, Games & More

  • Salsa dancing (a little rusty)
  • Settlers of Catan and a casual game of Texas Hold'em
07. Contact

Let's build something.

I'm always open to interesting problems and good teams. The best way to reach me is email.

contact@ianfoote.com