Dean Karn is a Staff Software Engineer with 11 years of hands-on experience building backend systems, APIs, desktop and web applications, and specialized tooling like barcode generation and Zebra label printing. Based in Courtenay, BC, he blends practical engineering with a "simple is beautiful" design mantra and a strong mentoring instinct. Dean has held senior and staff roles at companies including Clearbit, Segment, and HubSpot, consistently driving reliable, scalable data-focused services. He is an active open-source contributor in the Go ecosystem, notably extending webhook receivers and improving the widely used go-playground/validator for newer Go versions and GitLab event handling. Known for pragmatic problem-solving and continuous learning, he brings both operational depth and an eye for elegant, maintainable solutions.
11 years of coding experience
15 years of employment as a software developer
3 Year Computer Programmer Analyst Diploma, 3 Year Computer Programmer Analyst Diploma at Canadore College
:100:Go Struct and Field validation, including Cross Field, Cross Struct, Map, Slice and Array diving
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Contributions:177 releases, 149 reviews, 443 commits in 7 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Dean primarily contributed to the `go-playground/validator` repository by updating and modifying code related to validation logic within Go structs and fields. Their commits involved updating test files, modifying import paths, and incorporating changes related to Go 1.6 features. These updates included fixes for URL validation and other general refinements, indicating a focus on improving the library's core functionality and ensuring compatibility with newer Go versions.
:fishing_pole_and_fish: Webhook receiver for GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, Gogs
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Contributions:38 releases, 17 reviews, 112 commits in 6 years 7 months
Contributions summary:Dean contributed significantly to adding and supporting GitLab functionality within the webhook receiver project. Their work involved writing tests for GitLab, specifically focusing on handling different GitLab events such as push events, tag events, and issue events. The user also updated code to accommodate these GitLab integrations, indicating a focus on extending the project's capabilities to support various Git hosting platforms. This involved creating test files and adapting existing code to correctly parse and respond to GitLab payloads.
polebitbucketgitlabwebhookreceiver
Find and Hire Top DevelopersWe’ve analyzed the programming source code of over 60 million software developers on GitHub and scored them by 50,000 skills. Sign-up on Prog,AI to search for software developers.