Software engineer. Seven years of Rails, Java and Linux keeping a hospital messaging platform up at Vocera, then COO and technical lead at a software contracting company in Japan. Open to full-time roles and contract work.
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Software engineer
Seven years of Rails, Java and Linux at Vocera, then COO and technical lead at a software contracting company in Japan. Based in Osaka.
I build the backend parts of software that people only notice when they break, and I try hard to make sure they don't.
For seven years that meant Vocera's clinical communication platform: the APIs, message queues and Linux servers that get alerts and calls to hospital staff. I started there part-time in 2014, while finishing my degree, and left in 2021 as a platform developer and scrum master for an international team.
In 2026 I was COO and technical lead at ME Tech, a five-person software contracting company in Japan. There I upgraded a school management platform from Rails 4.2 to Rails 7.1, step by step, with more than 8,000 tests that I built with Claude Code and reviewed. On my own time I've been building Sensei Connect, a bilingual marketplace for substitute and on-demand teachers in Japan, and smaller things I want to exist, like a companion app for Heartopia players.
I build with Claude Code, on my side projects including this site and on client work at ME Tech. I set the architecture, design and test plan, Claude Code writes most of the code, and I review every change against the tests. I can explain any decision in it.
I've taught English in Osaka since 2024, to students from one to sixty-five. Planning a lesson and designing an API turn out to be the same job: know who is in front of you and give them the right abstraction.
2026
Five-person software contracting company in Japan. Set coding standards, code review and security requirements, managed two engineers, onboarded three, and ran planning with the CEO.
Ruby on Rails, Vue.js, TypeScript, Python, PostgreSQL, AWS, Stripe, Claude Code
2024 – now
One-on-one and group lessons for students aged 1 to 65 at Dorothy EQ Plaza, Little Stars English and Mac's English School (as a substitute), plus private students. Custom lesson plans, including CLIL-based lessons and business English.
2022 – 2025
Remote work while traveling: development, QA and project management on Echoes of Undeath, a two-person Unity game now in Early Access on Steam. Also the Dorothy EQ Plaza website, and planning help for small teams.
Unity, C#, HTML, CSS, JavaScript
2014 – 2021
Previously Platform Developer I (2016 – 2018) and Junior Platform Developer, part-time (2014 – 2016), Extension Healthcare
Backend for a platform that routes alerts, calls and messages to hospital staff. Rails and PostgreSQL APIs, device integration over XMPP and Java, and the RHEL servers underneath. Ran scrum for an international team, led customer escalations and mentored new hires.
Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Java, XMPP, RHEL, Apache, Glassfish, AngularJS
2013 – 2014
Built web pages and database tables in Groovy and Grails, working directly with the people who asked for them.
Groovy, Grails
B.S. Computer Science, Purdue University Fort Wayne (then IPFW), 2017. JLPT N5, 2024. Certified ScrumMaster and Certified SAFe 5 Practitioner, both earned in 2021 and no longer active.Résumé (PDF) Download
Bilingual Japanese/English marketplace for substitute and on-demand teachers in Japan: a job board, dispatch where the first eligible teacher to accept gets the job, lesson bookings, and Stripe payouts. In development; payment testing isn't finished. About 810 automated tests.
Offline-first companion app for Heartopia players: collection tracking, a 'Next Up' engine driven by in-game weather, time and season, and Google Drive backup. Built with React, TypeScript and Capacitor; reached beta on Android.
A small weather app with a home-screen widget, built to learn Flutter end to end, with Playwright tests for the web build.
Hero and loadout picker for Marvel Rivals lobbies. A single-page Vue app on this domain. Jarvis, clip that.
Everything else on GitHub
I'm looking for a full-time software engineering role on an English-speaking team, in Osaka, Tokyo or remote. I also take contract work: upgrading older Rails apps and getting them under test, building features in Rails, Vue or TypeScript, and setting up CI/CD and AWS deploys. I'm based in Osaka and don't need visa sponsorship. Send a note below, email jdorko90@gmail.com, or find me onLinkedIn.