James Hawkins

James
Hawkins

Phoenix, AZ

Software engineer & technical founder with 15+ years in early-stage and growth companies. I build full-stack products from zero to scale — most recently a veterinary SaaS that processed $20M+ in bookings and 30k+ appointments.

Get in touch GitHub LinkedIn
Location Phoenix, AZ
Experience 15+ years
Stack Next.js · React · Node
Email contact@jameshawkins.com

Experience

Where I've worked

A decade across operations, growth, and engineering — always as close to the problem as possible.

SimpleDVM
August 2022 — January 2026
Technical Cofounder / Senior Software Engineer
  • Sole software engineer, built a feature-rich practice management SaaS for mobile veterinarians from the ground up.
  • Processed over $15M in bookings and 25k+ appointments in under 3 years, with 99.99% uptime.
  • Shipped calendar management, online booking, SMS/email/phone comms, PDF generation, e-signing, invoicing, payments, inventory management, client portal, and medical records.
  • Integrated Stripe, SendGrid, Twilio, Google Calendar, Quickbooks, Datadog, Posthog, Slack, and more.
Next.js TypeScript React Node.js Postgres Redis AWS Vercel
Ethos Life
August 2019 — August 2022
Engineering Manager, Growth Team
  • Managed a team of 5 software engineers, fostering an environment of growth, collaboration, high performance, and career development.
  • Served as engineering lead for the growth team, supporting multiple product teams, building user-facing products.
  • Drove sprint planning and prioritization to keep projects on track and ensure company KPIs were being achieved.
  • Spearheaded engineering strategy, execution, and future product development.
  • Collaborated cross-functionally with product leaders and engineering managers to align technical objectives with broader business goals.
Senior Software Engineer, Growth Team
  • Architected consumer-facing products related to the application funnel for multiple D2C insurance products.
  • Designed, built, and maintained public and private APIs, ensuring scalability and security.
  • Partnered closely with design and product teams to ideate, develop, launch, and test new features driving growth.
  • Integrated with third-party software across various industries (insurance, identity verification, payments).
React Node.js TypeScript Postgres Docker AWS Redis
Uber
December 2012 — September 2018
Senior Manager, Risk & Fraud
  • Key role in scaling Uber's Risk team from 5 to 100+ employees while reducing loss rates by over 80%.
  • Investigated fraud attack vectors and developed rules, products, and features to reduce fraudulent activity.
  • Drove quarterly product planning and KPI tracking across six Product teams within the Risk organization.
  • Wrote fraud detection rules in Python and SQL to scope and block attack vectors.
Senior Manager, Community Operations
  • Piloted and trained the first team of dedicated support reps at Uber — the foundation of a 20,000+ person support org.
  • Defined hundreds of support policies for riders and driver-partners around the world.
  • Managed a team of 7 and maintained a sub-12-hour support SLA across the West Coast region.
Ashton Kutcher
August 2011 — December 2012
Second Assistant
  • Researched startups for potential investments and assembled dossiers for evaluation.
  • Produced presentation decks for potential investors and business partners.

Education

Background

App Academy
Full-Stack Web Development
January — April 2019
University of Southern California
B.A., Economics
August 2006 — May 2010

Skills

Tech stack

Tools I reach for to build production systems.

TypeScript JavaScript React Next.js Node.js HTML5 CSS3 SASS PostgreSQL Redis AWS Vercel Docker S3 Stripe Twilio SendGrid Python SQL REST APIs

Interests

Outside of work

When I'm not building software, you'll usually find me moving. I'm a regular at the gym, have run several marathons, and am working toward an IRONMAN. Skiing is a genuine passion — I've skied across the US and internationally, and have an ambition to ski on all seven continents. I'm also a big Formula 1 fan and try to catch as many races in person as I can.

I'm also a frequent traveler with a growing list of destinations. I live in Phoenix, AZ with my 2 beautiful huskies, and spend a lot of time on Hacker News when I'm not outdoors.

Bucket list

  • ✓Join a safari in Tanzania
  • Sub-3-hour marathon
  • Complete an IRONMAN triathlon
  • Ski all seven continents
  • Get SCUBA certified
  • Solo parachute jump
  • Visit all 50 US states (Missing: North Dakota)
  • Attend 24 F1 races (Attended: Montreal, Austin, Zandvoort, Monza)