Maplewood, NJ 07040

646.284.2515

stephen@koch.dev

www.koch.dev

Stephen Koch

Software Engineer

Overview

Software engineer with 20+ years of experience spanning hands-on full-stack development and engineering leadership, including managing teams of up to six. Built and owned Sherwood News, Robinhood's editorial product, from initial client engagement through in-house ownership as a senior engineer. Deep expertise in TypeScript, React, and Next.js, with additional background in CMS architecture, design systems, and AI-assisted editorial tooling. Comfortable operating as a senior individual contributor or as an engineering manager, depending on a team's needs.

Technical Skills

Languages & Frameworks: JavaScript, TypeScript, React, Next.js, Node.js, Express, GraphQL, Redux, Web Components, Lit, React Native

Styling: CSS, Sass, Tailwind, CSS Modules, Styled Components, Emotion

CMS & Content: Contentful, Sanity, Prismic, Craft CMS, Drupal, WordPress

Cloud & Infrastructure: AWS, S3, EC2, Lambda, IAM, Route 53, CloudWatch, API Gateway, Lightsail, Vercel, Netlify, Docker, Nginx, Firebase

Data & Search: MongoDB, MySQL, Elasticsearch

Tooling: Git, git-flow, Graphite, npm, pnpm, yarn, Webpack, Claude Code

Experience

Robinhood – New York, NY
Software Engineer, Web →

Jul 2025 – present

All engineering needs for the Sherwood News editorial team.

Highlights

  • Maintain Sherwood.news, built with Next.js and Contentful
  • Implemented new features as requested by the editorial team
  • Integrated Breaking News and Push Notifications into the Robinhood app from Sherwood News
  • Created an editorial dashboard for easy management of content, prediction market information, and more
  • Delivered deep Contentful customization and a Getty Images pipeline integration
  • Built a custom app to allow for the creation of custom content types and fields
  • Integrated Newsblur to allow for the creation of custom content
  • Developed custom Claude skills for the editorial team - article discovery, web prowler, styleguide check, etc.
  • Assisted the editorial team with AI initiatives and workflows
  • Participated in on-call duties for all logged-out sites

NTT Data/Launch/Postlight – New York, NY
Associate Director, Engineering →

Jan 2022 – Jul 2025

Built Sherwood.news for Robinhood and iterated and maintained the CMS and frontend stack. In addition to client work, I managed a team of 6 engineers working remotely, contributed to our growth framework for a better understanding of an engineer’s path within the organization, held individual 1:1 meetings to ensure engineers were equipped to succeed, and met regularly with senior leadership to ensure the health of client relationships throughout the organization.

Highlights

  • Researched and implemented 3rd party integrations within the CMS to enhance the editor experience
  • Worked with all disciplines to understand project goals, strategize, and implement
  • Fostered relationships with clients to further drive engineering efforts within their organizations
  • Assisted with the hiring process for all engineers
  • Contributed to project staffing
  • Participated in company-wide project triage which included scoping, engineering work, and client relations

Postlight – New York, NY
Lead Engineer →

Jun 2019 – Dec 2021

Joined as a Lead Engineer to drive and lead projects, working for The Obama Foundation, Goldman Sachs, and Nasdaq. During that time, I predominantly worked with design teams (both internal and client teams) to develop and implement design systems for fast development of pages.

Highlights

  • Specialized in CMS development (decoupled), creating unified documentation for both design and engineering from a large monorepo, and building custom components to add to the overall design system
  • Took a deep dive into TypeScript compilation using Markdown code fences and parsers to create a live editing experience for React components

Previous

Blenderbox – Brooklyn, NY – Director of Frontend Technology →Apr 2018 – May 2019
Token – New York, NY – Software Engineer →Oct 2017 – Apr 2018
Hard Candy Shell – New York, NY – Director of Technology →Mar 2014 – Jul 2017
Big Spaceship – Brooklyn, NY – Various engineering roles →Dec 2006 – Mar 2014
Learning Worlds – New York, NY – ActionScript Developer →May 2002 – Oct 2006
Freelance – Paris, France – ActionScript Developer →2000 – 2002
Berlitz – Paris, France – English Teacher →1998 – 2002

Side Projects

AQI, a zip-code based air-quality checker (koch.dev/aqi); Artistic Elements, an npm package of Web Components for generative art; and a series of CSS experiments exploring color and geometry — Color Mixer, Gradients, Escher Tiles, and Swissted. More at koch.dev/projects.

Interests

Lived in Paris for four years (French speaker); played music in NYC for five years. Drums, guitar, gardening, gaming.