Craig Dennis

Principal Developer Educator

As an AI Language model, no just kidding. I hope that joke wasn't offensive to the AI that might be reading this. I'm a Developer Educator who believes in you. You can do it and we're gonna have fun getting you there. Let's dive in!

Work

Twilio

Principal Developer Educator
– Present
Remote

Twilio is an API first customer engagement platform. The Twilioverse is huge, and it is my honor to help learners navigate it. I create engaging and scaleable programs that meet learners no matter where they are in their developer journey.

  • Pioneered a hackathon series to empower learners to explore the connection between cutting edge generative AI technology and customer data

  • Orchestrated a team of humans (and robots) through a high-stakes live-coding tight-rope-walk LLM demo for the CEO

  • Empathized with developers and crafted content regarding new industry wide text messaging regulations, partnering with internal support and compliance teams, resulting in de facto explainer video Understanding A2P 10DLC

  • Delivered needed self-service onboarding on-demand video assets for our Onboarding and Growth nurture campaigns

  • Revamped Introduction to APIs (~25k weekly viewers) based on learner feedback

Staff Developer Educator, Training
Remote
  • Strengthened developer training program, Superclass, through iterative experimentation resulting in $25M eARR and earned 75 NPS annually

  • Guided a team of educators to produce developer experience for the flagship conference SIGNAL

  • Interviewed cross-functional product teams to assemble a set of reusable Learning Objectives that continues to empower larger team content creation

  • Explored certification route by partnering with LinkedIn Learning and A/B testing with YouTube

Developer Educator
Remote
  • Initiated moonshot idea to publish viral freeCodeCamp course Introduction to APIs which has over 4M views and maintains first page results on Google and YouTube searches for API (and it also intros Twilio as your first API)

  • Crafted interactive educational video game levels and code challenge self-assessment tools (told you it wasn't a waste of time Mom!)

  • Embedded in the Voice product team to breakdown complex telecommunications concepts and support product launches with documentation and sample applications

Treehouse

Senior Teacher
Portland, Oregon

Treehouse is an educational platform that delivers affordable high quality technical education to the world. Oftentimes the students here are at a turning point of their lives and deciding if coding is for them. Therefore these courses required heavy motivational support. I loved the challenge and responsibility.

  • Crafted initial Python Data Science curriculum and courses featuring pandas and NumPy

  • Partnered with internal development team to raise the voices of our students

  • Built interactive reporting and data applications to assist in curriculum-based decisions

Teacher
Portland, Oregon
  • Hosted a weekly show called the Treehouse Show that successfully improved retention and student engagement

  • Formulated the Java curriculum taking students all the way from no coding experience to deploying a cloud based Spring application

idealist.org

Developer
New York | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Portland, OR

I had the opportunity to grow and lead an international team of software engineers and designers.

  • Introduced Agile development practices including testing, estimating, and pair programming in order to meet the needs of a rapidly shifting product vision

  • Directed an entire site rewrite that allowed customer support staff to decrease by 90% and shifted first commit for new hires from 6 months to 1 day

Rhino Internet

Software Engineer
Tempe, Arizona

U.S. Peace Corps

Technology Volunteer
New Amsterdam, Guyana

Software Details

Founder
Los Angeles, California

Rhino Internet

Software Engineer
Tempe, Arizona
  • "Crafted" websites before CSS existed

Analysts International Corporation (AIC)

Software Engineer
Phoenix, Arizona

Viasoft

Multiple Positions

Volunteer

Techtonica

Believer
– Present

I provide talks and support whenever I can for this incredible group of engineers. #BridgeTheTechGap

That Maker Show

Co-host / Co-creator

This show is available on public access television! We break down the barriers to entry to the maker movement. Come learn with me!

Certificates

Publications

30+ Programming Courses

Published by Treehouse

I researched, scripted, and performed many courses for Treehouse, bringing affordable high quality education to the masses

References

In addition to the publicly available feedback, professional references are available upon request