Ian Schmitz
Staff Software Engineer at Shopify
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolIan Schmitz is a Staff Software Engineer with 11 years of experience building scalable web applications and leading engineering teams across startups and mid-size companies. Now at Shopify, he previously served on the core Create React App team—contributing critical TypeScript, ESLint, and modern JS feature support to a project that once reached millions of monthly downloads. He’s delivered production AI platforms and observability tooling as a consultant, architecting LLM- and embedding-driven workflows that cut legal review effort by over 90% for major law firms. As Director and Principal Engineer at Retain.ai he built data-ingestion pipelines and React dashboards that powered enterprise customers and helped steer an acquisition. Comfortable shipping full-stack systems (React, TypeScript, Postgres, AWS) and improving accessibility in popular UI libraries, he blends hands-on coding with product-minded architecture and open-source stewardship.
11 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Diploma Computer Systems Technology, Diploma Computer Systems Technology at Camosun College
English
Stackoverflow
330reputation
21kreached
8answers
5questions
Github Skills (24)
accessibility10
javascript10
react-components10
typescript10
eslint10
react-component10
material-design10
typescript-types10
typescripts10
react10
build-tools9
optional-chaining9
popover8
dialogs8
dialog8
Programming languages (17)
Github contributions (5)
facebook/create-react-app
May 2017 - Mar 2021
Set up a modern web app by running one command.
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:3 releases, 24 reviews, 89 commits in 3 years 10 months
Contributions summary:Ian primarily contributed to the Create React App repository by addressing issues related to TypeScript and JavaScript configuration. Their work included fixing TypeScript decorator support, type checking JSON files, adding support for setupTests.ts, and supporting optional chaining and nullish coalescing. They also made adjustments to the ESLint configuration and updated dependency versions, enhancing the project's build process and code quality.
reactdeveloper-toolsset-upmodern-web-appmodern-web
mui/material-ui
Dec 2017 - Mar 2020
Material UI: Comprehensive React component library that implements Google's Material Design. Free forever.
Role in this project:Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:1 review, 14 commits, 16 PRs in 2 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Ian primarily contributed to improving the Material UI component library, focusing on enhancing the accessibility and functionality of existing components, particularly dialogs and popovers. Their work involved modifying React component code and associated documentation, including adding `aria` attributes and ensuring proper positioning. The user also addressed issues related to keyboard focus and component theming. These changes demonstrate a commitment to improving the user experience and adherence to best practices in web development.
reactmuimaterialjavascriptmaterial-design
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