Marc Hermann

Always willing to learn, never afraid to ask

Summary

  • Product-minded Software engineer who loves to solve problems, help others, and make things people like to use.
  • Former science communicator with a physics degree, animator, and creative director, with more than a decade of experience working with clients and leading teams.
  • Based in Berlin, and happy to work remotely as well.

Skillset

  • Languages: JavaScript, TypeScript, SQL, HTML/CSS, Regular Expressions, Kotlin, C, C#
  • Technologies: NExt.js, React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, React, Next.js, Unity, Tailwind CSS, Git, Jest, Cypress, AWS S3, QuickSight, GCP BigQuery

Experience

Software Development

Software engineer at Kleinanzeigen, an Adevinta company (2022 - now)

  • Frontend specialist with full-stack ambitions in the Smart Advertising team

    • Built a self-service portal for first-party advertising partners from scratch (Next.js / TailwindCSS application).
    • Worked our central advertising front-end library:
      • Contributed features for better ad efficiency.
      • Migrated big parts of the library from JavaScript to TypeScript.
    • Improved internal ad setting configuration tool (React application) with new features.

Independent software developer (2020 - 2022)

  • Web application Alexandria

    • Co-created an open source application for language learners.
    • Collaborated in a distributed, international team of three.
    • Key contributions:
      • Designed database and API with extensibility and contributors in mind.
      • Repurposed PostgreSQL text search capabilities for Alexandria’s own text parsing.
      • Wrote front end text parser with regular expressions to split text into React components and to highlight previously encountered words and phrases.
      • Introduced global state management solution Recoil across the React app.
      • Implemented back-end functions, front-end components, tests, and email verification.
    • Case Study
    • Repositories on GitHub
    • Tech:
      • Node.js + Express.js,
      • React + Recoil,
      • TypeScript,
      • PostgreSQL,
      • RESTful API,
      • GitHub Actions + Docker
      • Heroku, Netlify

  • Award-winning VR experience Mind the Brain!

    • Built key scene Microscopic Space, a flight through a procedurally generated network of neuron 3D models while signals traverse the network.
    • Collaborated in the distributed mYndstorm productions team with developers in Berlin and Munich.
    • Tech:
      • C#
      • Unity 3D

  • Web application ThrSqr

    • Built a login-free RSVP tracker with push notifications for weekly events that successfully reduces messaging group clutter by up to 90%.
    • Repository on GitHub
    • Tech:
      • Node.js
      • Express.js (view engine: Pug),
      • PostgreSQL
      • Web Apis: Service Workers, Push, Web Notifications
      • AWS S3/Lambda
      • Heroku

  • VS Code extension Conslog.

    • Built a collection of time saving snippets for every JavaScript learner.
    • Repository on GitHub
    • Tech:
      • Regular expressions
      • JavaScript / JSON

Software developer, founder at Sand und Schiefer (2000 - 2004)

  • Online course platform Bildungswerkzeug

    • Co-developed one of the first e-learning platforms on the German market.
    • Designed and implemented user experience / user interface across two versions of the software.

  • Award-winning educational particle physics website KworkQuark

    • Created dozens of interactive experiments.
    • Designed three iterations of the site.

Creative Direction & Animation

Director, producer, animator, founder at TRICKLABOR (2006 - now)

  • Breaking down complex scientific subjects into manageable chunks of knowledge.
  • Producing films for some of Europe’s biggest research institutions.
  • Overseeing productions from concept to delivery in close co-operation with clients.
  • Leading project-based freelancer teams, from film-crew to illustrators, animators to voice-over artists.
  • Translating between scientists and artists.
  • Doing hands-on work in the areas of video editing, compositing and animation.

3D Supervisor at softmachine (2006 - 2007)

  • Oversaw the 3D work for the award-winning fulldome (360°) production Realm of Light.

Freelance 3D animator (2004 - 2006)

Teaching

Instructor at Hertie School (2019 - now)

  • Annual lecture and workshop on designing science posters.

Education

Launch School (2020 - 2021)

  • Mastery-based curriculum in software engineering
    • Six written assessments, four interviews and one take-home project across the curriculum had to be be passed with at least A- to proceed.
    • Ten courses and hundreds of exercises covering…
      • Programming fundamentals,
      • Computational thinking and problem solving,
      • Programming in JavaScript (functional, OOP, ES6, DOM manipulation, asynchronous),
      • Networking (infrastructure, layer model, protocols),
      • Relational Databases with SQL, and
      • Web applications with Node.js, Express.js, PostgreSQL, REST APIs, HTML, CSS.
    • Duration: About 1000 hours over the course of 18 months (part-time).

CS50x (2020)

  • Harvard University’s introduction to computer science
    • with lectures and problem sets, covering algorithms, C, Python, SQL, Lua.

RWTH Aachen | University of Edinburgh | Universität Hamburg (1994 - 2000)

  • Physics (major)
  • Journalism (secondary)
    • Degree: Certificate, grade “Sehr gut”
  • Minors:
    • Philosophy/Logic, Anorganic Chemistry, History of Science, Modern Hebrew