Jacob Burroughs
Staff Software Engineer at Instructure
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolJacob Burroughs is a Staff Software Engineer in Chicago with 12 years of experience building and operating large web platforms, currently advancing the Canvas LMS at Instructure. He blends backend Ruby on Rails expertise with DevOps and CI/CD skills, having shipped features, fixed cross-version issues, and modernized builds for Rails upgrades. Jacob has a track record of improving release automation and multi-platform packaging—evidenced by contributions to widely used open projects like Canvas LMS and the SuperTux CI/CD pipelines. He started as an intern on the Quizzes team and progressed through senior engineering to staff, demonstrating deep institutional product knowledge and hands-on ownership. Comfortable across the stack, he also has applied research and security-adjacent experience from university labs and threat-analysis internships. Colleagues rely on him for pragmatic upgrades that keep legacy systems stable while enabling modern developer workflows.
13 years of coding experience
11 years of employment as a software developer
Highland Park High SchoolBachelor of Science (B.S.), Computer Science, Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Computer Science at University of Chicago
Github Skills (18)
ruby-rails10
github-ci10
back-end-development10
rails10
cicd10
ruby10
build-automation10
githubaction-workflow10
devops10
postgresql9
javascript9
linux9
packaging9
cprogramming-language8
c-language8
Programming languages (23)
Github contributions (5)
instructure/canvas-lms
Oct 2017 - Jan 2023
The open LMS by Instructure, Inc.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & DevOps Engineer
Back-end Developer & DevOps EngineerContributions:1 review, 651 commits, 30 PRs in 5 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Jacob contributed to the Canvas LMS platform by implementing various features and fixing bugs, showcasing a strong understanding of the platform's architecture. Their work involved modifying JavaScript files related to media comments, integrating with external tools, and updating email branding. Furthermore, the user made commits to the backend, including pulling the Q.N url off the model, fixing an issue with Ruby versions, and patching to manage and build code with the new rails version.
lmsinstructurecanvas-lmsgerrit-mirror
SuperTux/supertux
Sep 2015 - Mar 2021
SuperTux source code
Role in this project:DevOps Engineer
DevOps EngineerContributions:1 review, 143 commits, 49 PRs in 5 years 6 months
Contributions summary:Jacob primarily contributed to the repository's build and deployment processes. Their work included setting up and configuring the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines, including the use of GitHub Actions. They also focused on packaging the project for different platforms by integrating AppImage and creating tarball builds. Furthermore, they implemented changes to the deployment script, including updating the upload host and automating the release process.
supertuxreactgamegamessdl
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