Kara R Bernert

Professional

Gust

New York, NY

Sr. Software Engineer & Product Manager, 2014-2019

Engineering & Development - Developed features for and maintained large-scale web applications in various languages and frameworks using Agile processes, behavior- and test-driven development, and pair and individual programming

• Participated in a variety of feature development teams as a project manager and/or individual contributor
• Jointly introduced first the React/Redux framework and later Elm to better structure application JavaScript; helped onboard team members unfamiliar with the frameworks
• Led efforts to increase the development speed and quality of UI in various applications by addressing technical debt, improving workflows, and increasing communication between designers and developers
• Led effort to unify the UI of multiple applications with different technical stacks under the Gust brand through shared code and styleguides to produce consistent, easily maintainable styles and UX patterns

Experiments & Data - Led the technical implementation and guided the design of marketing and product experiments pertaining to growth, engagement, and user experience

• Managed all technical requirements for ongoing sales and marketing experimentation around a newly released product, including analytics combining data from in-app event logging, HubSpot APIs, and Google Analytics
• Created and maintained dashboards using Periscope Data, Segment, and application databases to monitor progress of company-level OKRs as well as individual project goals
• Assisted with the design and execution of a 3-month market research project to inform SaaS product repackaging, which drove 2-3x increase in sales of higher-tier products

Leadership & People - Worked to improve organizational performance as a team leader, a project management mentor, and a leading participant in culture & employee policy overhaul

• Managed 3-to-6-person cross-discipline teams that took projects from ideation through delivery: coordinated between design, development, and stakeholders; wrote stories; lead sprint planning; consistently delivered technical features on time
• Managed hiring for 3 front-end developer/designer roles: wrote code challenges, screened candidates, scheduled and completed technical interviews. Assisted with hiring for a data analysis/engineering role
• Participated in definition and refinement of quarterly OKRs at the company and team levels
• Led an effort to collaboratively define our desired company values and then rewrote the employee handbook
• Updated product management processes with a small team to better support empirically-backed product roadmapping and increase project management transparency; subsequently helped teammates in product, marketing, business development, and QA learn and employ the new tools and processes

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Boston, MA

Technical Research Asssistant II, 2013-2014

• Maintained multiple breeding mouse colonies, performed murine microsurgeries, and performed various biochemical analyses with lipids, proteins, and DNA
• Initiated and completed highly self-directed research with significant autonomy
• Analyzed data and prepared figures using R, and wrote and edited scientific papers for publication

Volunteer

Delay Fiction

New York, NY

Technical Advisor, 2018-Present

Assist Executive Director in building and maintaining an online literary magazine with a custom static site generator. Currently leading a full site redesign

Elm-NYC

New York, NY

Cohost, 2016-2018

Jointly ran a monthly meetup of new and experienced elm users including talks, tutorials, and casual coworking

WHACK

Wellesley, MA

Mentor, 2017

Helped small groups of undergraduate women compete in weekend-long hackathons with technical, design, and project management guidance