Nathan Childers · Engineering Lead

I build software people actually use.

I lead engineering at Captivated, where we help businesses talk to their customers over text. On the side I build multi-tenant web apps and small, sturdy tools for the communities around me.

See my work GitHub ↗ Get in touch
01 / About

Full-stack engineer, team builder, Indiana-based.

I've spent years on the full stack of a production messaging platform: Rails APIs, Ember front ends, real-time websockets, embeddable widgets, and the Docker and CI pipelines that ship them. Today I lead that team, which means as much time on standards, reviews, and mentoring as on code.

I care about software that is boring in the best way: clear to read, safe to change, and quick to deploy. Outside work I like taking a real-world problem (a volunteer sign-up sheet, a family calendar, a contest at an amusement park) and turning it into something small that just works.

Engineering LeadCaptivated
Full stackRuby · TypeScript · Cloud
IndianaFort Wayne & Indianapolis
02 / Selected work

Things I've built and led

Day job · Platform

Captivated business messaging

A business texting platform that lets companies manage customer conversations over SMS and web chat. I lead the engineering team and work across every layer of the system.

  • Rails customer API, Ember web app, websockets service, and a Sidekiq-backed relay
  • Containerized development on hardened Docker images with CI-driven deploys
  • Embeddable chat and SMS website widget, installed with one script tag or Google Tag Manager
  • Version-gated front-end releases so users update without losing their place
Ruby on RailsEmber.jsWebSocketsDockerAWSHeroku
captivated.works ↗
SaaS · Live

Gatherlane Calendar

A multi-tenant family event portal. Workspaces isolate households, categories, and events; members hold a role per workspace; admins approve events and publish them to Google Calendar.

TypeScriptReactExpressPostgreSQLDrizzleOpenAPI
gatherlane.app ↗
Community · Live

Grace Point Craft Show sign-up

Volunteer scheduling for a church craft show. Every sign-up is validated in a single Firestore transaction, so two people can't take the last spot. Includes a printable organizer roster and scheduled email reminders.

FirebaseCloud FunctionsFirestore
gracepointcraftshow.web.app ↗
Contest app · Live

Rank the Coast

A Cedar Point ride-ranking contest built for Not Your Normal Guy. Guests drag-and-drop a full park ranking, and contestants play timed rounds scored live against the crowd's averages.

JavaScriptFirebaseReal-time
rank-the-coast.web.app ↗
Leadership · Culture

Engineering standards & handbook

I wrote our team's engineering handbook: clean-code guides for Rails and Ember, API conventions, Definition of Ready and Done, decision records, and an automated branch promotion pipeline.

ADRsCode reviewCI gatesDORA metricsMentoring
03 / Toolbox

What I work with

Back end

  • Ruby on Rails & Sidekiq
  • Node.js & Express
  • PostgreSQL & Drizzle ORM
  • REST & OpenAPI

Front end

  • Ember.js (Octane)
  • React & TypeScript
  • Capacitor mobile builds
  • Embeddable widgets

Infrastructure

  • Docker & Compose
  • AWS, Lambda & IaC
  • Firebase & Cloud Functions
  • CI/CD pipelines
04 / How I work

A few things I believe

Clear beats clever.

Code is read far more often than it's written. I'd rather ship something obvious that the next person can change with confidence.

Write the decision down.

Short architecture decision records save hours of re-arguing. Future you will thank present you.

Small, safe deploys.

Feature branches, an integration environment, automated gates, and frequent releases keep production calm.

Solve the real problem.

Sometimes the right tool is a sprawling platform. Often it's a single page with a database and a reminder email.

05 / Contact

Let's build something.

Have a project, a role, or a problem worth talking through? I'm always happy to hear about it.

hello@nchilders.com GitHub ↗ LinkedIn ↗