Stephen Hess
Senior Staff Software Engineer at H1
Wilmington, Delaware, United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolStephen Hess is a Senior Staff Software Engineer with 13+ years building highly testable, extensible middleware and backend services—primarily in Java and Groovy—focused on search and geocoding for high-traffic, revenue-sensitive products. He has led architecture and performance remediation at companies like H1, MapQuest, Mapzen, and Esri, driving migrations to microservices, introducing Gradle, and saving significant operational cost through efficient services. A test-driven development evangelist, he routinely authors robust JUnit and Spock suites, explores generative/data-driven testing, and has contributed test improvements to notable open datasets and geocoding projects such as openaddresses and Pelias. Stephen balances hands-on engineering with mentoring, onboarding, technical writing, and public speaking to make complex topics accessible across teams. He’s comfortable diagnosing subtle production issues in search systems and enjoys turning tricky-to-test code into reliably tested components. Outside of work he brings a practical, craftsman streak—he also makes picture frames.
12 years of coding experience
21 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Science (MS) Computer Science, Master of Science (MS) Computer Science at New Mexico Institute of Mining and TechnologyBachelor of Science (BS) Computer Science, Bachelor of Science (BS) Computer Science at Capital College, Pennsylvania State University
English
Stackoverflow
1reputation
0reached
1answer
0questions
Github Skills (18)
javascript10
schema-validation10
back-end-development10
json-schema10
apidoc10
testing10
ftp10
validation10
json-validation10
api10
nodejs10
json-schema-validator10
test-automation10
geocoding9
regular-expression9
Programming languages (13)
Github contributions (5)
openaddresses/openaddresses
Nov 2015 - Feb 2020
A global repository of open address, building, and parcel data.
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer & QA Engineer / Test Automation Engineer
Back-end Developer & QA Engineer / Test Automation EngineerContributions:2484 commits, 2410 PRs, 1718 pushes in 4 years 3 months
Contributions summary:Stephen primarily focused on enhancing the codebase by adding and refining tests, specifically within the `test/sources.js` and `test/source_validator.js` files. Their contributions involved the creation of tests for new functionalities and the validation of the source schema. They implemented tests for the removal of prefixes, postfixed units, and other functions, demonstrating a focus on data validation and testing. Moreover, the user improved the test harness, incorporated asynchronous loading for remote schemas, and added acceptance tests, contributing to the overall reliability and maintainability of the project.
geodatadatageofencinggeocodingaddress
pelias/api
Sep 2015 - Feb 2018
HTTP API for Pelias Geocoder
Role in this project:Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:44 releases, 610 commits, 228 PRs in 2 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Stephen primarily contributed to the Pelias Geocoder's API backend by implementing and testing new functionality. Their commits focused on refining the sanitization process within the API, specifically addressing the handling of input parameters such as details, private status, and boundary parameters. The user also demonstrated expertise in testing, refactoring, and code cleanup by moving tests to dedicated files and refactoring code.
apipythongeocodinggeocoderpelias
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