Ryan Kienstra
Senior Software Engineer at WP Engine
Austin, Texas, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolRyan Kienstra is a Senior Software Engineer in Austin with 11 years crafting full-stack solutions for WordPress ecosystems, currently building at WP Engine. He brings deep open-source experience contributing to high-profile projects like Gutenberg, Jetpack, and the AMP WordPress plugin—shipping AMP compatibility, TypeScript conversions, and UI/UX stability fixes. Comfortable across front-end and back-end, he focuses on maintainability and testing while routinely refactoring legacy code to modern patterns. His background is unusual for an engineer: advanced graduate training in jazz performance, reflecting a disciplined creative mindset that surfaces in collaborative problem solving and attention to detail.
11 years of coding experience
5 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Musical Arts, Jazz Studies, Doctor of Musical Arts, Jazz Studies at University of Southern CaliforniaMaster of Music, Jazz Studies, Master of Music, Jazz Studies at DePaul University
Github Skills (24)
javascript10
ampl10
component-development10
css10
wordpress10
typescript10
google-amp10
webpack10
php10
front-end-development10
gutenberg10
webpacker10
typescript-types10
wordpress-plugin10
typescripts10
Programming languages (12)
Github contributions (5)
ampproject/amp-wp
Dec 2017 - Apr 2020
Enable AMP on your WordPress site, the WordPress way.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:3 releases, 1276 commits, 169 PRs in 2 years 4 months
Contributions summary:Ryan's contributions primarily focused on modifying and enhancing the AMP plugin for WordPress. They implemented improvements in the validation process, fixed issues related to the display and functionality of the AMP-to-AMP preview button, and updated the front-end display of the block editor. They also added a method to handle the display of various status notices and incorporated a filter for managing error reporting, alongside refactoring code to improve maintainability and support of the plugin.
wordpresswordpress-pluginamp
WordPress/gutenberg
May 2019 - Jan 2023
The Block Editor project for WordPress and beyond. Plugin is available from the official repository.
Role in this project:Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:211 reviews, 42 commits, 23 PRs in 3 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Ryan primarily contributed to the development of the Gutenberg block editor, focusing on enhancing the user interface and component functionality. Their work involved addressing console warnings within the Image and Column blocks, preventing errors in the `<ServerSideRender>` component, and converting various components like `ColorPalette` and `Snackbar` to TypeScript. These efforts demonstrate a focus on improving the editor's stability, maintainability, and code quality. The user also contributed to the refactoring of the `Dropdown` and `Button` components to TypeScript.
wordpressgutenbergwordpress-plugin
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