About Me
Tech lead for a decade, individual contributor for two decades. Comfortable working from junior developers up to the CEO. Known for quickly nailing down problems, working across varied stacks, and helping people learn.
Contact
- me@ryanbigg.com
- linkedin.com/in/ryanbigg
- ryanbigg.com
Skills
- Technical Leadership
- Mentoring
- Ruby on Rails
- React
- TypeScript
- GraphQL
- AI / Claude Code
- Design Systems
I've worked most recently as a full-stack tech lead at a payment processing company. I was sought after for my in-depth Ruby on Rails knowledge, as well as my tenacity to dive into difficult problems. I enjoy making great (fast!) software, and delighting users. I use AI tools like Claude Code deliberately, keeping human review and existing team guardrails in place rather than letting them run unchecked.
I would be happy to work as either a senior individual contributor, or as a manager of developers. I have previously worked in other domains such as customer engagement surveys, internet-of-things, and developer training. I have a long history of writing documentation and technical books.
Experience
Lead Developer — Fat Zebra
2021 – Present
Grew Customer Experience team from 2 to 12. Led tech integration of an acquired payment gateway now processing over $4 billion in payments. Built a React-based Design System, adopted GraphQL across the Merchant Dashboard, and led SecurePay API integration. Mentored multiple developers to mid and senior level.
- 2022 — Brought on two developers and a designer; took ownership of the PayNow stack (JS SDK) and led the Zeal Design System and GraphQL adoption.
- 2023 — Led the React SDK and PayNow V3 rewrite, a payment plans refactor, and Click to Pay integration with Mastercard, Visa and Amex.
- 2024 — Integrated Apple Pay, refactored the Reseller Dashboard, shipped multi-layered BIN blocking for fraud prevention, and promoted three developers.
- 2025 — Technical lead for the SecurePay XML API integration, shipped in two phases within the year; hired three more developers.
- 2026 — Reshaped the team's hiring process, liaised with partner banks on product requirements, and rolled out Claude Code across authoring and review.
Freelance Contractor — Various
Feb – Aug 2021
Part-time "mercenary for hire" across TypeScript/React/Ruby stacks: one team upgrading jQuery componentry to TypeScript-powered React and adding platform stability measures (Ruby tests, CI, AppSignal monitoring), another upgrading a Rails 5.0 application to 6.1 and clearing deprecation warnings.
Full-time Developer — Various
2007 – 2021
Ruby on Rails development at Covidence, Culture Amp and LIFX.
Highlights
Author — Tech Books
2008 – Present
Wrote several published books on Ruby, Rails and Elixir, and contributed extensively to Rails documentation. Built Twist, a book review tool now in its third incarnation as a Hanami application, to support the writing process. See ryanbigg.com/books.