Russell Dempsey
Software Engineer at FilOz
Greater Richmond Region United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolRussell Dempsey is a senior software engineer with 13+ years building distributed systems, developer platforms, and large-scale cloud services across Amazon, Protocol Labs, and startups. He combines hands-on engineering with technical leadership—mentoring teams, guiding architecture, and staying deeply involved in the codebase. A prolific open-source contributor, Russell maintains and advances key IPFS projects (Kubo, WebUI, Desktop) used by broad peer-to-peer and decentralized storage communities, and has driven UX, release automation, and telemetry improvements. His strengths span JavaScript/TypeScript, peer-to-peer networking, automation, and AI/ML tooling, with a knack for turning complex backend challenges into polished developer-facing tools. Based in Greater Richmond, he’s known for sharing knowledge publicly and for pragmatic innovations like automating release workflows and integrating notarization and metrics into desktop tooling.
13 years of coding experience
24 years of employment as a software developer
Bachelor of Science (BS) Computer Software Engineering, Bachelor of Science (BS) Computer Software Engineering at Bellevue UniversityAssociate's General Studies, Associate's General Studies at Community College of the Air ForceAssociate of Science (AS) Computer Science, Associate of Science (AS) Computer Science at Metropolitan Community College
Spanish, Sign Language
Stackoverflow
11,340reputation
741kreached
75answers
5questions
paypal
top-1%
visual-studio
top-1%
visual-studio-code
top-1%
Github Skills (30)
visual-studio-code10
paypal10
github-ci10
javascript10
electron10
gui-application10
ipfs10
desktop-application10
cicd10
desktop10
webui10
go10
visual-studio10
front-end-development10
nodejs10
Programming languages (25)
Github contributions (5)
ipfs/ipfs-webui
Jun 2022 - Jan 2023
A frontend for an IPFS Kubo and IPFS Desktop
Role in this project:
Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:1 release, 202 reviews, 78 commits in 7 months
Contributions summary:Russell primarily contributed to the frontend of the `ipfs-webui` repository, implementing features related to pinning service compliance and file management. They added links to compliance reports in the UI, modified modal components, and integrated download functionality for files and CAR archives. Furthermore, the user automated the release process, incorporating semantic-release for versioning and changelog generation and created workflows for builds, tests, and deployments.
ipfsreactp2pjavascriptweb3
ipfs/ipfs-desktop
Apr 2022 - Jan 2023
An unobtrusive and user-friendly desktop application for IPFS on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Role in this project:Full-stack Developer
Full-stack DeveloperContributions:2 releases, 130 reviews, 33 commits in 8 months
Contributions summary:Russell implemented metrics tracking within the IPFS Desktop application using the Countly SDK. They also made updates to the auto-updater, including adding logging and resolving build issues. Additionally, the user refactored the application context and integrated a splash screen for improved user experience. Further contributions included fixes for the tray menu and configuration options, along with the integration of notarization using `notarytool`.
ipfsdesktop-applicationunobtrusivewindowsprotocol
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.