David Moore

Full-stack lead developer with 20+ years building APIs, data pipelines, and AI-powered applications — primarily in media and public radio. Currently Sr. Engineering Manager at Common Sense Media. Previously: Engineering Manager at Acast; Head of Project CITRUS at WBUR; Lead Developer at NPR.

Experience

Sr. Engineering Manager

Common Sense Media
  • Built an AI-powered movie recommendation API using the OpenAI API, backed by a SQLite caching layer.
  • Built a Trends API integrating Amplitude behavioral data with our internal content API to deliver real-time content trends to the mobile app.
  • Refactored mobile app backend, including in-app payment endpoints.
  • Led performance overhaul across website and app: cut first-load page times by ~50% and increased Varnish cache hit ratios by 20–30%.
  • Architecting org-wide infrastructure migration: decoupling content and user data from Drupal CMS into standalone services.
April 2024 - Present

Engineering Manager

Acast
  • Launched Acast+, a paid podcast subscription tool.
  • Expanded the feature set of Acast Access — a white-label subscription tool for large publishers like The Economist.
  • Worked on the tech (and the contract negotiations) that allowed Acast to provide Amazon Music with 30,000 ad-free podcasts.
  • Numerous code fixes for startup acquisition Podchaser.
  • Managed three software teams: Direct Listener Support, Audience Growth, and Distribution.
June 2021 - January 2024

Lead Developer, Emerging Technologies

WBUR
  • Led a team of three as Project CITRUS — an attempt to improve the quality, quantity, and accessibility of WBUR’s on-demand news segments.
  • Built a number of Amazon Alexa skills. Launched — and acted as executive producer, engineer and emergency host for — a pair of daily news microcasts.
  • Wrote and co-wrote a dozen articles about the fate of radio in the digital age.
  • Built an audio news recommendation bot.
July 2019 - June 2021

Lead Developer

WBUR
  • Built several production RESTful APIs (Laravel).
  • Created an MVP service that streams on-demand WBUR audio.
  • Organized, ran and MC'd a two-day conference of public media developers, designers, and project managers.
  • Created suite of tools for web producers (Laravel + Vue + Materialize), enabling them to: curate landing pages; search through all WBUR audio; manage playlists; administer app data; and browse the API.
September 2015 - July 2019

Senior Manager of API Development

NPR
  • Undertook comprehensive inventory and analysis of every API being used at NPR.
  • Co-wrote paper and presentation outlining the future of APIs at NPR.
  • Created decks of how to convert the Public Media Platform (PMP) into version 2.0 of the NPR content API.
April 2015 - August 2015

Lead Developer

NPR
  • Lead developer for a turn-key web platform (Core Publisher) that is used by 130+ public radio stations.
  • Built a suite of modules that integrate Drupal with the Public Media Platform (PMP) API.
  • Wrote and maintained the NPR Drupal modules.
  • Acted as architect/gatekeeper: directing the overall structure of the Core Publisher codebase; making module choices; teaching (and enforcing) coding standards and conventions.
  • Mentored junior Drupal developers, as well as developers that were new to Drupal.
May 2010 - April 2015

Web Developer

Education Development Center
  • Re-designed and re-architected the EDC site.
  • Wrote over a dozen Drupal modules and 5+ themes.
  • Acted as advisor and developer on several sub-sites.
  • Spearheaded nascent social media efforts. Gave numerous web development/Drupal lectures.
March 2005 - May 2010

Internet Campaign Organizer

Oxfam America
  • Helped raise over $20 million online.
  • Created and maintained online activist campaign and fundraising pages using GetActive (now Convio/Blackbaud).
  • Managed and expanded database of 125,000 e-supporters.
  • Co-led inter-agency e-advocacy team in establishing long-term goals and strategies.
July 2002 - March 2005

Proprietor

Crooked Number Consulting
2005 - 2012

Skills

  • Server-side: PHP, Node/TypeScript, Python
  • Scripting: Bash, Perl
  • Client-side: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Vue, React, Angular
  • Back-end: Apache, Nginx, Varnish, CloudFlare
  • AWS: EC2, RDS, Lambda, API Gateway, S3, CloudFront, CloudFormation
  • Database: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, DynamoDB, DuckDB
  • LLM: OpenAI API, Claude API
  • Mobile apps: Flutter, React/Vue Native
  • CMS: Drupal, Wordpress
  • Frameworks: Laravel, Lumen, Django, Flask
  • Search: Algolia, Solr, Google CSE
  • Analytics: Amplitude, Google Analytics 4

Interests

For side projects, I like to fiddle with APIs (e.g., MBTA, Trello, Public Media Platform, Pinboard) and generally scratch open-source itches.

In my free time, I like to dabble with almost anything, and have fun. I built a Red Sox bot — @ForgottenSox (also on Bluesky) — that posts a forgotten player from Red Sox history every day. I manage a tumblr of sports oddities (heavy on football trick plays). I built a rewards-based flashcard system to help my daughter learn her numbers and letters. Need a lightweight OPML reader? Or a Taylor Swift lyrics trivia game?

Writing