Fern Dot
Principal Software Engineer at Gainsight
Seattle, Washington, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolFern Dot is a Principal Software Engineer based in Seattle with 11 years of experience building scalable web, mobile, and AI-powered systems that have served over 15 million users. She combines hands-on backend expertise in Python and Django with full-stack fluency in JavaScript/TypeScript, leading teams of 4–10 to deliver robust, well-tested production services and AI features. As a former co‑founder, she scaled a consumer product to 7,000 users and drove triple‑digit growth, and at Skilljar she modernized a large codebase (Python 2→3), improved reliability, and shipped AI tools that cut incident response time. An active open-source contributor, she’s implemented JWT auth and API refinements in the popular djoser Django auth project, reflecting a focus on secure, developer-friendly APIs. Known for pragmatic design, mentoring, and a preference for simplicity, she blends product sense with engineering rigor to move prototypes into reliable systems.
11 years of coding experience
12 years of employment as a software developer
Dual Enrollment, Dual Enrollment at Tompkins Cortland Community CollegeNon-Degree Program Communications, Non-Degree Program Communications at Clarks Summit University
English, Spanish
Github Skills (12)
api-rest10
authentication10
user-authentication10
rest-api10
serializer10
python10
api-design10
restful-api10
django10
jwt10
pytest9
testing9
Programming languages (12)
Github contributions (5)
sunscrapers/djoser
Sep 2018 - Feb 2019
REST implementation of Django authentication system.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:11 commits, 8 PRs, 47 comments in 5 months
Contributions summary:Fern primarily contributed to the back-end functionality of the djoser project, focused on user authentication and API design. Their commits involved refactoring and splitting user serializers, enabling partial updates, and adding documentation enhancements. They also implemented and tested JWT authentication, alongside adjustments to the settings and documentation. They also corrected import issues.
pythondjoserauthentication-systemdjango-rest-frameworkdjango
coronavirus-diary/coronavirus-diary
Mar 2020 - Apr 2020
Ethically sourcing data for the fight against disease.
Contributions:126 commits, 56 PRs, 177 pushes in 1 month
fightsourcingdisease
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