Michael Kochell
Founder at Jam Tools, Inc.
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolMichael Kochell is a founder and full-stack engineer with 11 years of experience building production web platforms and open-source collaboration tools. He spent five years at Mattermost contributing across front-end React work and backend Go features—improving mobile UX, slash-command functionality, and integrations like the GitHub plugin for a widely used open-source Slack alternative. Prior roles span Ruby, Python, and JavaScript stacks with hands-on experience in Kubernetes, AWS, and PostgreSQL, reflecting strong DevOps and infrastructure chops. Based in Indianapolis, he now leads Jam Tools while advising at HopeSpace, bringing product-minded engineering to early-stage efforts. Known for shipping reliable features and tests, he blends community-focused open-source contributions with practical system design. Collected from a software engineering degree at Rose‑Hulman, his career shows a steady progression from systems internships to cross-cutting platform ownership.
11 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (BS), Software Engineering and Computer Science, Bachelor of Science (BS), Software Engineering and Computer Science at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Github Skills (31)
javascript10
github10
web-application10
apidoc10
plugin-development10
css10
ui-design10
mattermost10
uid10
go10
api10
front-end-development10
webapp10
golang10
html10
Programming languages (18)
Github contributions (5)
mattermost/mattermost-plugin-github
Dec 2019 - Dec 2022
GitHub plugin for Mattermost
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:377 reviews, 34 commits, 80 PRs in 3 years
Contributions summary:Michael primarily contributed to the server-side aspects of the GitHub plugin for Mattermost, focusing on core functionalities such as handling webhooks, subscriptions, and the API. Their work involved modifications to server-side code, including changes to the command handling logic and API configuration. The commits also include updates to the manifest and configuration files, indicating involvement in the plugin's setup and release process.
github-botpluginpull-requestmattermostgrav-plugin
mattermost/mattermost-webapp
Nov 2018 - Jan 2023
Archived web app of Mattermost. Moved to the monorepo: https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost
Role in this project:Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:427 reviews, 193 commits, 196 PRs in 4 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Michael primarily contributed to the Mattermost web application, focusing on mobile browser and UI improvements. Their work included fixing issues related to invite links in mobile browsers and implementing changes to the user interface, like adding options for sending an invalid slash command as a message. They also added support for new features like the apps marketplace UI and the app bar while working with different components. The user demonstrated expertise in React, Javascript, and UI development in a web application context.
webapphttps-servermattermostmattermost-server
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.