Blake Marterella Email & Phone Number

Haymarket, Virginia, United States

At the heart of innovative software solutions, I established Recursion Tech, an IT consulting and development firm dedicated to delivering full-stack, end-to-end product development. As the founder, my vision was to create a streamlined and replicable development process that ensures quality and efficiency from concept to deployment. I've worn multiple hats, from strategic planner to hands-on developer, embodying the agile and adaptive spirit that the rapidly evolving tech landscape demands.Key Contributions:- Innovative Design Process: Developed a 6-stage robust design process, enhancing our project consistency and delivery standards across all client engagements.- Versatile Role Management: Demonstrated multifaceted expertise by assuming critical roles, including UI/UX Design, A/B Testing, User Acceptance Testing, Security Vulnerability Analysis, and comprehensive Full Stack Development.- Technical Architecture: Crafted and implemented scalable architectures, ensuring robust backend support for intuitive front-end interfaces.- Client Relationship Management: Successfully manage and nurture professional relationships with two ongoing clients, ensuring their strategic goals are met through tailored IT solutions.

Blacksburg, Virginia, United States

Building upon my journey as a networking chair, my role as vice president of CS Careers @ VT amplifies our commitment to sculpting a cohesive community for computer science students at Virginia Tech. With a keen understanding that the tech industry demands a distinct approach, we steer clear from one-size-fits-all career narratives, offering instead a tailored platform where innovation meets opportunity. Our mission isn't just about pointing toward job boards or polishing resumes, we are cultivating a vibrant community of budding CS talents to connect, collaborate, and empower each other.Alongside the 6 outstanding members of the executive board, I have:- Expanded the executive board to 13 members, implementing standard operating procedures, OKRs, and improving executive-board operation to expand CS Careers reach.- Grow the CS Careers Community to over 800 members in under 1 year, and currently 1,100 members in our vibrant community.- Established a direct partnership with the CS Department and various other VT organizations, such as CS Source, CS Root, and the Student Engineering Council, cementing our club's credibility and reach- Organized meetings with 15+ Virginia Tech alumni currently working in computer science roles- Spearheaded the execution of 8 workshops to refine student's resumes, technical interview, and behavioral interview skills, 5 company info sessions, and 3 guest speaker events. A total of 20+ workshops to date.- Created a standard executive board meeting format to streamline execution and leverage each individual's unique skills

Blacksburg, Virginia, United States

CS Careers @ VT aims to foster a connection between companies and the highly skilled computer science students at Virginia Tech. The organization was founded in the Fall of 2022 but has quickly accumulated over 400 members by May 2023 making it the largest student-run computer science organization at Virginia Tech.As the networking chair, I sought to bridge the gap between students and industry professionals. Leveraging the power of networking, our members have the opportunity to engage with high-achieving alumni in computer science roles, learn about new organizations at Virginia Tech during collaborative workshops, or learn first-hand about careers from campus recruiters.What I did:- Increased student engagement by creating a LinkedIn page with 200+ followers and facilitating conversation in our 400+ member discord server- Created a CRM database in Notion with over 80 contacts to streamline the engagement process with alumni, recruiters, and VT faculty- Worked with campus recruiters to organize 3 company info sessions- Collaborated with other VT student organizations to host technical interview and resume workshops for students- Organized guest speaker events to foster a connection between students and high-achieving alumni

Arlington, Virginia, United States

During my time at Yext, I was part of the Reviews team, where we aggregated and leveraged customer reviews to create actionable insights. As a full-stack engineer, each week brought new learning opportunities, from database management to developing RPC endpoints and building front-end features. I enjoyed having ownership over production changes, which involved meticulous testing and collaborating across the organization to release updates.I constantly pushed myself to learn new technologies with each sprint. A particularly challenging yet rewarding project involved updating a DAG to synchronize data across different cloud environments in a single run, with a reusable helper function for future scalability. I also contributed to review insights by developing new endpoints, optimizing ReactJS hooks, and ensuring thorough test coverage. I worked on implementing theme insights for reviews, creating endpoints, and adding input validation to improve user experience.Beyond coding, I pioneered new code architecture patterns to improve future development efficiency, documented these best practices for the team, and contributed extensively to our internal wiki, including a Clean Code summary for new hires. My final project, a testing utility, improved the speed and quality of test execution, with documentation that will help increase the reliability of Yext’s product.Throughout the summer, I developed a strong sense of independence in design decision-making, bolstered by my ability to communicate and document changes effectively. I learned the value of iterative design, shipping high-quality MVPs (“skateboards”) to unblock teammates and increase sprint capacity, fostering collaboration and innovation.

Haymarket, Virginia, United States

Docsnap aims to revolutionize your healthcare experience by giving you access to all your medical records, on your device, whenever you need them. I played 3 different crucial roles during my time at Docsnap:Developer:- Optimized the legacy application by refactoring the code-base in Swift, increasing the performance of the iOS app by 72%- Documented over 90 API endpoints in Postman- Reduced AWS cloud billing costs by 55% and eliminate extraneous data stored in our SQL database- Created a new Docsnap landing page and worked with the board of directors to tailor content to drive revenue. The site was built in-house using Angular, TailwindCSS, GitHub Actions for deployment to 2 development environments, and documentation best practices.Product Manager:- Created a template for user stories in Jira using Gherkin statements and managed 2 Kanban boards for a development team to drive rapid innovation- Documented use cases and improved the user experience by simplifying the workflow. This documentation was used to drive sales and investment.- Generated bug tickets and worked with the CTO to resolve application-breaking bugsExecutive Assistant to the CEO:- I created and documented a standard format for inputting data into Salesforce- I made crucial notes during sales calls to drive revenue and lead to further engagement - Implemented various productivity tools to manage sales prospects, internal meetings, and messages

My summer internship evolved into a part-time position during the Fall 2023 semester as a Software Engineer. I also worked 40-hours weeks during winter break (a 6-week long break from December to January).What I did:- Continued refactoring a legacy project and implemented best-practices with the file structure, documentation, and in-line comments- Created a standard template for pull requests- Created new Epics and Stories in Jira for the team to capture work that needed to be done- Used Terraform to build Infrastructure-as-code for the various development environments (dev, stage, and prod)- Created command-line tools to interact with API endpoints to perform administrative tasks- Linked the frontend Angular application with our Flask API backend- Set strict deadlines to complete features- Presented the live product during demonstrations to the team and potential customers

Stratizant provided me valuable insight into the operations that go into running a business, leading a team, and managing a project. As the summer intern, I was given the opportunity to explore different roles in the company and the learn communication skills necessary to collaborate with these roles while writing software. Finally, I gained experience managing myself while working remotely and learning new skills as needed.What I did:- Collaborated across different teams working on a project:--> Project managers to learn about Jira, the scrum framework, and agile methodology--> Sales directors to create meaningful software to drive revenue--> Solutions architects to understand the cloud components in a project- Learned and used Terraform to setup the dev, stage, and prod GCP backend for a new project- Created documentation best practices using diagrams, documents, and videos to detail and explain software design decisions- Implemented and automated weekly vulnerability scans on frontend and backend dependencies- Wrote and deployed code for Bitbucket CI/CD Pipeline- Developed, tested, and deployed the frontend using AngularJS, Typescript, SCSS, Cypress, and Karma- Created a migration plan for the legacy project and learned about best practices for file structure- Developed, tested, and deployed the backend using Python, Flask, and Docker- Basic MLOPs development using VertexAI and Jupyter Notebooks in GCP- Refactored and optimized legacy code to improve Google Lighthouse performance score by 107%What I accomplished after:- Implemented Jira and the SCRUM framework for fraternity projects- Refactored old personal projects with proper documentation- Continued my knowledge of Infrastructure as Code by incorporating it into my home lab- Added CI pipeline to personal projects (using Github Actions)

Hidden Julles Cafe is a family owned, farm-to-table restaurant emphasizing a welcoming dining experience located in my hometown. Alongside the head chef and owner, Aaron Lynch, I strived to embrace the Hidden Julles hospitality mindset and serve fresh, delicious food amongst even the busiest of times.

Haymarket, Virginia, United States

I served as a leader to shape school culture. I became the face of change; transforming a hyper competitive environment to a welcoming experience to all. I conducted meetings, maintained a strong digital presence to maximize outreach, and hosted school wide events.

Haymarket, Virginia, United States

During my time at SafeGuard Cyber, I worked with the sales team to explore new methods of discovering client contacts . I created an application I called Engagement-As-A-Service which aggregated data (from LinkedIn, Zoom Info, and Discover Org) to construct tailored prospect profiles and accelerated the sales process (generating ~1100 contacts / minute).

Pursuing Bachelor'S Degree, Computer Science, Junior

Activities and Societies: CS Careers @ VT, Triangle Fraternity, Blockchain @ VT, VT Hacks IXVirginia Tech Computer Science teaches.

Certification, Information Systems Technology: Database Specialist, C.S.C.

General Education and IT classes gave me a foundation in Data Structures, Database architecture and management, SQL, and web design (HTML.

High School Advanced Diploma, Information Technology

Activities and Societies: SCA School President, SCA Junior Class President, Information Technology Gold Medalist, Varsity Swim Team.