J Scott Smith
Engineering Manager
Nike Virtual Studios in Los Angeles 🌴
Who
Senior engineer with frontend expertise and experience leading teams to build modern, performant web applications. Focused on creating exceptional user experiences through collaborative leadership, hands-on technical contributions, and fostering environments of continuous learning and innovation
Recent Work History

Point One Navigation

Nike Virtual Studios
Engineering Manager
Led a small but mighty frontend engineering team responsible for building swoosh.nike, which pivoted from a Web3 platform to become the home for Nike's first ever pre-order sales platform resulting in 50 million+ revenue for the business, solving a business challenge Nike had been unable to achieve in over a decade. The team built innovative expressive digital/physical product pages and game experiences that engaged deeply with a Gen Z audience.
As the engineering manager, key responsibilities included:
- Conducted regular 1-on-1s to monitor team morale, provide empathy and business clarity, understand technical challenges, and support individual development
- Managed direct reports through goal setting aligned with career development and business KPIs, collected feedback for performance reviews, and conducted compensation conversations
- Collaborated with senior leadership to plan and prioritize deliverables based on business objectives and team capacity
- Managed agile work cycles through sprint planning, backlog grooming, and resource allocation in collaboration with design and product teams
- Guided team innovation through "Innovation Fridays," enabling members to explore AI tooling, research new features, and present opportunities to leadership through prototypes, architectural diagrams, and cross-functional pitches
- Provided technical guidance and architectural oversight while enabling team autonomy in building the platform
- Influenced product roadmap by creating prototypes and presenting strategic opportunities to leadership, resulting in 1-2 new features being prioritized
Technical contributions to the platform:
- Maintained hands-on technical leadership by actively building complex features alongside the team and providing direct technical mentorship and code review
- Identified and explored new business opportunities to engage gaming culture, including platform expansion strategies like Twitch integration, through rapid prototyping with AI agentic workflows
- Explored extending Nike's design system using ShadCN and internal token-based system to support dynamic theming beyond light and dark modes, enabling flexible brand and marketing customization
- Architected and developed a composable block system that enabled rapid authoring of marketing and product pages while maintaining flexibility for dynamic storytelling requirements
- Developed performant physical product detail pages and fault tolerant interfaces using React suspense and error boundaries that powered the critical pre-order purchase flow for high traffic launches
- Created interactive 3D experiences and workflows for making user navigable immersive scenes using navmeshes in React Three Fiber to quickly build experiences that enhanced product journeys with engaging storytelling
Senior Full Stack Engineer
Launched a new Nike brand called dotSWOOSH that was a virtual goods platform and scaled it from 0-to-1, developing initial community onboarding through the first successful primary collection sale, selling nearly 100k digital assets and generating nearly $2 million in revenue.
Led comprehensive frontend infrastructure development with key technical contributions including:
- Developed a NextJS TypeScript application using key technologies including Tailwind, React Query, React Three Fiber, and Zustand while using AI agentic workflows to boost productivity
- Built design system and component library in collaboration with design supporting the new Nike brand, with Jest testing and Storybook documentation
- Set up monorepo package architecture to share common code between client applications and backend services
- Implemented Algolia search integration and custom infinite gallery view supporting hundreds of thousands of virtual items with extensive filtering, sorting, and favoriting capabilities
- Impacted platform scale by researching and implementing localization strategies allowing global expansion from US to EMEA countries
Beyond individual technical contributions, provided leadership and team support through:
- Coordinated and trained Ops teams on Contentful infrastructure through regular training sessions, providing technical support, and collecting feedback to facilitate efficient processes
- Provided technical mentorship through ADR/RFC guidance and comprehensive PR reviews focused on technical excellence and individual growth opportunities
- Resolved team conflicts by facilitating discussion forums to surface different perspectives and build consensus for moving forward
- Facilitated cross-team collaboration through regular 1-on-1s across the engineering, design, and product teams to understand challenges and identify opportunities
- Provided project management through engineering estimates, deliverable coordination, and progress presentations to senior leadership
- Demonstrated organizational building by creating interview processes, conducting technical interviews, and assisting with hiring decisions

HMBradley
Senior Software Engineer
Early engineering hire to build and scale an innovative banking experience rewarding customers with high interest rates for saving behaviors. Primarily worked as a product engineer on NextJS React web applications for deposit and credit card products but also providing influence and impact with the business, design, and marketing teams.
Key engineering and design contributions:
- Product development - Delivered core banking features while managing code reviews, running agile processes, trunk-based development, and continuous deployment with feature flag iterations to maintain high development velocity
- Design system leadership - Developed comprehensive React Storybook component library, aligned with design team to tokenize styles using tooling like Tailwind, and created custom data visualization features
- Full-stack ownership - Completely redesigned and rebuilt marketing website using TypeScript and Gatsby, enhancing brand and product presentation with engaging user experience optimized for search engines
- Cross-functional collaboration - Partnered with design team using Figma to prototype new product features and improve customer experience, including a completely revamped onboarding flow
- Customer engagement - Surveyed and communicated with customers on Discord, built creative easter eggs and campaign microsites to delight customers and strengthen brand connection

Fair
Senior Software Engineer
Fair was an automotive fintech company providing subscription vehicle services to consumers. Worked directly with executive leadership to rapidly prototype and concept new products expanding Fair's vehicle offerings to new markets.
Key contributions to the engineering and the business:
- Product innovation - Collaborated with executive leadership to rapidly prototype using progressive web app and React Native technology to validate new product concepts for market expansion opportunities
- Business strategy - Developed Fair Premium, a new brand experience in partnership with founders to improve user acquisition and elevate the Fair brand for a new customer base focused on luxury vehicles
- Internal tooling - Contributed to internal tooling development through agile processes, code reviews, and feature implementation to improve product operations team efficiency
- Design system development - Built and tested shared UI libraries using TypeScript, Storybook, and React to maintain consistency across web products
- Release management - Managed feature releases for Fair.com platform to support evolving business requirements and marketing needs

GumGum
Senior Web Engineer
GumGum was a computer vision advertising technology company leveraging AI to analyze visual content for targeted advertising placements. Worked as a full-stack engineer developing core products in a fast-paced, test-driven development environment.
Key contributions to engineering and the business:
- Product development - Built and deployed new features each sprint using React and test-driven development practices, managing product releases and critical hotfixes in an agile environment
- Technical leadership - Provided mentoring and guidance to team contributors while conducting comprehensive code reviews through PR workflows to maintain code quality
- Cross-functional collaboration - Demoed product features to company stakeholders and leadership, bridging technical implementation with business value
- Talent acquisition - Interviewed engineering and design candidates to support team growth and maintain high hiring standards
- Community engagement - Contributed to GumGum's tech blog, attended industry meetups and events, and helped develop Gumdrops, GumGum's open-source React component UI library
- Release management - Managed product releases and coordinated hotfixes to ensure platform stability and customer satisfaction

HAUS
Lead Frontend Developer
Haus was a creative agency focused on building premium digital experiences for brands. Led frontend development team producing React web applications from concept to deployment while coordinating with producers to deliver projects under tight client deadlines.
Key contributions to engineering and project delivery:
- Project Lead - Led and managed frontend development team members on a project by project basis, coordinating contributions and ensuring project delivery timelines were met
- Creative technical architecture - Applied modern JavaScript patterns to architect rich, animated web experiences utilizing cutting-edge browser APIs
- Project management - Collaborated closely with producers to scope, plan, and execute client projects within aggressive deadline constraints
- Code quality - Established organized, DRY, and maintainable codebases with focus on accessible presentation layers and best practices
- Client delivery - Delivered end-to-end React applications that met premium brand standards and client expectations
- Innovation focus - Stayed current with latest web technologies and browser capabilities to create cutting-edge digital experiences
Experience Highlights
Senior frontend engineer and leader building modern web products and experiences
- 9+ years of software engineering experience delivering growth-focused web applications with React frameworks (NextJS, Gatsby, Vite), TypeScript, REST APIs, and GraphQL to scale platforms and drive business impact
- 5+ years working with NextJS to build dynamic products and marketing sites using new App Router features, migrating from Create React App or legacy Pages Router applications, and optimizing web performance against Core Web Vitals
Leadership & Management
- 3+ years of team leadership managing diverse frontend teams of 4+ engineers, creating high-performing culture through empathetic leadership, technical mentorship, 1-on-1s, career coaching, conflict resolution, and knowledge sharing initiatives
- Managed direct reports including performance reviews, compensation conversations, and career development planning through goal setting and coaching
- Demonstrated experience building technical organizations through creating interview processes, conducting interviews, and structuring teams into squad models
Key Achievements & Impact
- Led frontend development from 0-to-1 for a new digital product at Nike called dotSWOOSH, contributing to over $50 million in enterprise revenue
- Led design system development from inception through ongoing maintenance, partnering with design teams to deliver visual consistency, developer velocity, and improved user experiences
- Built a composable block system powered by Contentful, enabling Design and Ops teams to create unique product and marketing pages independently, without engineering support
- Utilized AI agentic workflows to accelerate prototyping of 3D experience and research for discovering and pitching new business opportunities to senior leadership
- Cross-functional collaboration with product, design, marketing, data, and senior leadership teams to develop and implement technical strategies that achieve business objectives and drive innovation
- Influenced senior leadership to adopt a content component system, accelerating content delivery for new launches by 40% on the swoosh.nike web experience
- Built top-of-funnel experiences in the execution of go-to-market strategies launching new innovative Nike products across the US and EMEA, generating high-traffic events and high sell through
Engineer with a creative edge
- Built rich interactive web experiences using Canvas, SVG, WebGL APIs, and libraries (Framer Motion, React Three Fiber, Lottie, Rive), leveraging creative background in design, typography, 3D, and animation to ensure visual excellence
- Bridged design and engineering teams through technical translation and collaborative workflows, contributing directly to the design process to maximize business and consumer impact
- Applied comprehensive CSS expertise across vanilla CSS, SCSS modules, and modern token-based solutions like Tailwind CSS
- Delivered comprehensive design assets including hi-fidelity designs, wireframes, user flows, prototypes, typefaces, brand identities, and style guides
- Focused on the user by taking features beyond the requirements to create surprise, delight, and memorable user experiences
Work History
Big Storm Creative Studio
Designer and Web Developer
2014 – 2012
CSU Chancellor’s Office
Graphic Designer
2012
California State University Summer Arts
Graphic Designer
2012 – 2011
Visual Purple
3D Artist and Animator
2006 – 2008
Technologies
A non-exhaustive list of technologies or software I've worked with:
TypeScript
JavaScript ES6+
React JS
Optimizely
Contentful
Redux/MobX
Node JS
Vitest/Jest
REST
GraphQL
SQL/Sequelize
Webpack/Rollup
Babel
Git/GitFlow
Agile/Scrum
Docker
Canvas
GreenSock
Lottie
SCSS/SASS
Tailwind
HTML5/CSS3
Backbone MVC
PHP
Figma
Sketch
Adobe Creative Suite
Interests
Leadership
Management
Mentorship
Product Strategy
Product Development
UI Design Systems
Animation
WebGL
User Experience
Open source
Web accessibility: A11y/ARIA
Functional programming
Rapid prototyping
React Native
Unit testing
Education
Memorisely
Product Design UI/UX Bootcamp
2022
California State University, Long Beach
BFA Graphic Design
2008 – 2012
Book Shop Ads
Creative Advertising School
2009
CSU Summer Arts
Fine Arts study abroad in Florence, Italy
2009
Long Beach City College
2007
Allan Hancock College
Associate's Degree
2004 – 2007
Awards & Honors
Young Ones Advertising Competition Finalists in Client Pitch
2012
Magna Cum Laude
2012
Fine Arts Affiliates Scholarship
2010
Mary Stephens, V.P. Administration and Finance Purchase Award
2008, 2010, 2012
CSULB President’s List of Honors
2008 – 2012
Santa Maria Arts Council Grant
2007