Grant Keller
Software professional dissolving barriers between digital machines and humans.
- 15+ years fullstack experience
- Senior Frontend UX Engineer
- Accessibility & Performance Expert
- Code Polyglot: diverse skillset to solve problems across disciplines
Highlights
New York Post
Senior User Experience Developer @ Alley Interactive
Worked closely with our client, the NYP editorial team, on the primary development team for all NYP digital properties.
Analyzed buinsess goals to pitch and lead improvement implementations. Team responsbile for mainting a world-class user experience at massive scale. Developed on custom enterprise stack hosted on WordPress VIP
- Client collaboration
- Performance Tuning & Enhancement
- Troubleshooting complex systems & problems
Technologies:
- WordPress
- React
- Typescript
- PHP
Anglerfish Exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
In 2021, an intact and undamaged anglerfish floated it's way onto a Southern California beach.
It was destined for the National History Museum of Los Angeles.
For a limited time, it would be a scientific and sightseeing superstar.
Most anglerfish specimen are found distorted and disfigured due to pressure changes, but this one was nearly pristine.
One of only 30 speciments to be retrieved in a condition suitable for study and exhibition.
But there was a problem...
The angler fish lives so deep in the darkest depths of the ocean, that it's tissue is unaccustomed to the sun. If light touches it, it begins to break down.
The museum needed to display the fish in a way that ensured only necessary light struck the specimen, and wanted to track the total light exposure over the lifetime of the exhibit.
This is where software came to the rescue.
I was tasked with writing software to run on an Arduino inside the museum exhibit.
The board drove motion and light sensors, and logged the amount of light that struck the fish to an online Google Sheet.
The lights turned on when guests approached, and off after inactivity to minimize light damage to the specimen.
With the science team able to monitor the light exposure via real readings, and safeguards in place to protect the specimen, the public wa able to get up close and personal with this mythical fish.
The exhibit was open to the public from August 25th to November 29th, 2021.
Skills
Tools of the Trade
at home on Mac, Linux & Windows
Javascript
- Typescript
- React
- GSAP
- ThreeJS
- Astro / Gatsby
- Node
- NextJS
- Express / Fastify
WordPress/PHP
- Custom theme development
- Custom plugin development
- WordPress VIP hosting platform
- Advanced Custom Fields
- WooCommerce
- Custom membership systems
- WP-specific performance
- Custom post types
CSS
- Sass/SCSS
- CSS Animations
- Tailwind / Bootstrap
- Advanced CSS techniques
- Webpack / Turbo / Vite
- Responsive at all sizes
- Cross-browser compatibility
HTML
- Information Architecture
- Technical SEO
- Advanced Accessibility / WCAG 2.2
- Advanced Performance
- Analytics (GA4, Custom)
- Google Ads / Adslot
- CRO / Heatmaps / A/B Testing
Python
- Stable Diffusion / Comfy UI
- Computer Vision / OpenCV
- Tensorflow / PyTorch
- Flask
- Tkinter / Qt
- Executables via PyInstaller
- Portable Distribution
- Anaconda / Virtual Env
C++
- Arduino Ecosystem
- ESP32 / Espressif toolchain
- PlatformIO
- OTA Updates
- Captive WiFi portal
- API fetching
- Data parsing
- LED and peripherals
Staff Positions
-
Lead Software Engineer - Davant Systems
Feb 2023 - Present
Skills:
- Python
- Stable Diffusion AI
- React
- Typescript
- Node.js
- Fastify
- CSS
- Tailwind
- DaisyUI
- Shell scripting
- AWS
- Cloudflare
Building next-generation software for professional visual creatives powered by Stable Diffusion AI.
- Python GUI application using tkinter, QT
- Wrote extensive integration with Stable Diffusion engine via APIs, with QoL UX
- One-click download and install Stable Diffusion engine on PC & Mac
- Built custom, 100% portable Stable Diffusion python bundles for all platforms. The user’s machine needs nothing - they just need the Davant Studio software
- Created custom build pipeline for one codebase to create distributables for all target platforms
-
Senior User Experience Developer - Alley Interactive
Aug 2020 - Dec 2023
Skills:
- WordPress
- React
- Typescript
- CSS/SCSS
- PHP
Led frontend development efforts for high-profile editorial and museum clients in a scrum environment.
Focused on strategic planning, UX best practices, and WCAG 2.1 accessibility compliance. Ensured a user-centered approach across projects, overseeing frontend strategy from initial planning through deployment. Collaborated closely with backend developers and client stakeholders to deliver cohesive, high-quality websites. Regularly conducted UX, accessibility, and performance audits, delivering actionable recommendations to reduce bounce rates, increase session durations, and ensure compliance, encouraging continued client investment.
- Shipped code daily to 204M monthly visitors to The NY Post web properties on the WordPress VIP enterprise platform
- Lead the company’s Accessibility Community of Practice to grow internal knowledge and alignment
- Analyzed client web properties for IX and UX improvements
- Created Information Design documents for content strategy
- Developed team planning proceses that resulted in major client project finishing on time
- Mentored junior devs, found opportunities to increase contributions
- Involved in hiring process to interview & vet candidates
-
Frontend Web Developer - Studio 3 Marketing
May 2018 - July 2020
Skills:
- Datto Custom CMS
- PHP
- CSS/SCSS
- GSAP
- Shell scripting
Collaborated in a fast-paced dev team building highly polished websites for luxury clients in the medical and legal industries.
- Built reusable components for an in-house DattoCMS-driven system, streamlining development cycles and editorial workflows.
- Achieved perfect Google PageSpeed scores on multiple client websites through advanced web performance optimization.
- Led the implementation of custom GSAP animations, elevating user experience and positioning client websites as premium, high-end solutions.
- Trusted to develop the website for sister company Studio 3 Enterprise
- Built a CLI tools suite to optimize and batch-process large image galleries, accelerating preparation for web use.
-
WordPress Developer & Strategist - Keller Digital
Aug 2011 - May 2019
Skills:
- WordPress
- Javascript
- CSS
- PHP
- Cloudflare
- cPanel
Partnered with clients across industries, including government, nonprofits, and private companies, to develop and maintain custom WordPress themes and plugins tailored to their needs.
- Los Angeles Department of Public Health: Led a small team to plan, design, and build a custom WordPress system delivering curricula to 29,000+ students across 60+ Los Angeles schools.
- NorCal POCIS (Nonprofit): Developed a custom WordPress jobs board using Paid Memberships Pro, enabling job opportunities across members in 66+ Bay Area schools.
- Dun & Bradstreet: Collaborated with stakeholders to identify pain points and deliver strategic improvements to their WordPress site.
- Hawke Media: Subcontracted with a leading marketing agency to optimize web performance, improving load times and user experience.
Projects
-
Embedded Software Engineer - Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
Anglerfish Exhibit
Jun 2021 - Aug 2021
Skills:
- C++
- Arduino
- Platform I/O
- Sensors integration
- Google Sheets API
Designed, built and installed an Arduino-driven light sensor system for the display of a rare Pacific anglerfish specimen. The fish’s tissue is highly sensitive to light, so the ichthyology collection staff needed a way to limit and track light exposure. We wired a motion sensor to the cabinet lights, so they only turned on when a visitor approached the display. A light sensor then continuously measured the amount of light striking the specimen and uploaded it to an online spreadsheet for later analysis. Additionally, we took a LiDAR scan of the specimen and 3d printed a full-scale model which was embedded into the signage to provide tactile interaction.
-
Embedded Software Engineer - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
MiniPulse DSN Visualizer
Jan 2022 - Oct 2022
Skills:
- C++
- ESP32
- PlatformIO
- APIs
- XML
- Hardware Integration
- NeoPixel WS2812B LEDs
- FastLED
- Wifi
Collaborated with Stratin Engineering to develop the software for a replica of the ‘Pulse’ installation in JPL’s lobby.
Wrote C++ on a single ESP32 SoC to fetch XML data from NASA’s Deep Space Network API, providing information on real time data transmission with active spacecraft. Parsed spacecraft names and transmission rates, which was then visualized on the LEDs via hand-crafted character maps and 5 different animation patterns with 6 levels of intensity based on transmission rate.
Engineered a custom WiFi portal to allow configuration and updating of the device from a phone or other device via ESP32 onboard WiFi. Delivered production-ready software package for a limited hardware run of units.
