Jackson Marketon

Product-Driven Staff Engineer & Engineering Leader

Volunteer Search & Rescue Responder

Professional Experience

Shopify

Dec, 2022 - Dec, 2024

Staff Engineer - Growth, CX RND

Contributing to technical strategy and architecture within Shopify's merchant support experience, focusing on the Help Center ecosystem and AI-powered conversational interfaces. Key areas of impact:

  • Leading engineering mentorship initiatives to uplevel team capabilities, fostering technical excellence through structured guidance and hands-on coaching.
  • Collaborating with Product teams to shape strategic vision and technical roadmap for next-generation merchant support experiences.
  • Driving architectural improvements and modernization initiatives as part of the senior technical team, implementing sustainable engineering practices.
  • Contributing to the technical direction of LLM-powered chat solutions that enhance merchant self-service capabilities.
  • Establishing robust observability frameworks and metrics-driven development practices to improve system reliability.
  • Partnering with engineering leadership to develop and implement engineering best practices across teams.

Staff Engineer - Shop Ads

  • Led frontend architecture and product engineering initiatives for Shopify's advertising solutions, driving key innovations in merchant advertising capabilities
  • Drove platform adoption and merchant retention for Shopify Audiences through strategic product improvements, helping merchants optimize ad performance and reduce customer acquisition costs
  • Enhanced and scaled the Shop Cash Offers program, implementing key improvements to user experience and comprehension that drove platform revenue growth
  • Provided technical leadership and mentorship as the principal frontend domain expert, establishing best practices and architectural patterns across multiple product teams
  • Collaborated cross-functionally with product, design, and data teams to deliver high-impact advertising solutions for Shopify's global merchant base

Pinterest

May, 2020 - Nov, 2022

Senior Software Engineer - Two Twenty

  • Played a key role in Pinterest's innovation team, rapidly prototyping and validating new business opportunities and product initiatives.
  • Developed frontend creator tools and studio experiences for Pinterest TV, enabling streamlined content production and live shopping capabilities.
  • Drove full-stack implementation of early-stage products from concept to launch, working closely with product and design to validate market opportunities.
  • Contributed to strategic product discovery through rapid experimentation and technical feasibility analysis of new platform directions.
  • Collaborated in a fast-paced startup environment to identify and build new revenue streams and user engagement features for Pinterest's core platform.*

Senior Software Engineer - Monitization, Business Access

  • Led critical turnaround of advertiser access management system, creating new delivery framework and mentoring team members to deliver ahead of revised schedule.
  • Collaborated with leadership to restructure project timeline and execution strategy, successfully transforming a behind-schedule initiative into an early delivery.
  • Drove continuous improvements to business access tools post-launch, enhancing advertiser workflows and platform security through iterative development.
  • Lead cross-functional solutions for alpha-stage initiatives, collaborating across teams to build new monetization capabilities.
  • Demonstrated technical leadership by identifying bottlenecks, mentoring team members, and establishing improved development practices to accelerate delivery.

OpenTable

Feb, 2019 - May, 2020

Senior Software Engineer - Consumer Web, Booking

  • Architected and maintained high-traffic consumer booking experiences, delivering critical frontend functionality for OpenTable's core reservation platform.
  • Drove adoption and implementation of GraphQL as a core team member, establishing best practices and improving data efficiency across consumer-facing services.
  • Led development of backend-for-frontend services, optimizing performance and reliability of booking flows for millions of users.
  • Collaborated cross-functionally to enhance the restaurant reservation experience, improving conversion rates and user satisfaction.
  • Contributed to technical architecture decisions and mentored team members in modern frontend development practices.

Field Nation

Dec, 2017 - Dec, 2018

Senior Software Engineer

  • Implemented core microservices infrastructure using Node.js, enabling scalable solutions for internal engineering teams.
  • Developed and maintained company-wide React component library, establishing consistent UI patterns and accelerating frontend development velocity.
  • Led technical initiatives to standardize development practices and improve cross-team collaboration through shared services architecture.

Alley Interactive

Jul, 2014 - Dec, 2017

Senior Developer

  • Led development of data visualization platforms for major clients including Kaiser Family Foundation, building interactive analytics engines using D3.js and Angular.
  • Architected persistent audio solution for Reveal News, enabling seamless podcast playback across page navigation.
  • Established JavaScript engineering standards and testing practices across the organization, implementing comprehensive testing frameworks.
  • Delivered high-impact data visualization projects and analytics implementations for enterprise media clients.
  • Drove adoption of emerging frontend technologies (React, Redux, Node.js) while maintaining focus on performance and accessibility.

The Walker Arts Center

Sep, 2013 - Jul, 2014

Front-end Developer

  • Led successful migration from on-premise to virtualized infrastructure while maintaining critical systems uptime.
  • Developed custom content management tools including web-based article creation platform and image processing API.
  • Improved publishing workflow efficiency through implementation of automated content management solutions.

Education

Dakota State University

2010 - 2012

Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Computer & Network Security

  • Specialized coursework in cybersecurity and networking
  • Advanced coursework in forensices, ethics, and software engineering

Volunteer Experience

Red Rock Search and Rescue

Mar, 2023 - Present

SAR Technician, Command Post & 4x4 Team

  • Certified SARTECH II with specialized training in wilderness search and rescue operations
  • Participating in high-stakes search missions, leveraging technical skills for mapping, communication, and operations planning
  • Contribute to team strategy and decision-making during rescue and recovery operations
  • Trained to provide wilderness first aid and basic life support in remote locations