James Ives, Principal Software Engineer

Links

• jamesiv.es
• github.com/jamesives
• linkedin.com/in/ivesjames

Experience

1. Technical Lead, Principal Software Engineer at Blizzard Entertainment

   Aug 2020 – Present

   • Own strategy and delivery for Forge, Blizzard's in-house design system built with Web Components (Lit). Manage 7 engineers directly and drive adoption across 50+ developers and ~15 designers supporting 20+ applications.
   • Architect and maintain the full-stack framework behind every Blizzard web app (Next.js and Express), centralizing authentication, compliance, API infrastructure, and shared libraries across teams.
   • Built a design token platform for multi-brand theming across product lines, standardizing how tokens are distributed, versioned, and integrated to cut fragmentation and rework.
   • Cut design-to-launch time by ~50% and improved Core Web Vitals across Blizzard web properties through platform workflows, governance, and performance initiatives.

2. Senior Software Engineer, Principal Associate at Capital One

   Aug 2018 – Jul 2020

   • Shipped customer-facing features end to end using React, TypeScript, Node.js, Python, and SQL.
   • Authored and maintained open-source libraries, including an in-house design system that reduced UI inconsistencies and sped up delivery with reusable components and standardized patterns.
   • Supported product and engineering through United Income's acquisition by Capital One, contributing to a smooth rebrand and workflow transition.

3. Principal Software Engineer at The Washington Post

   Dec 2017 – Aug 2018

   • Built and shipped features for Arc, The Washington Post's SaaS publishing platform powering globally recognized publications.
   • Led delivery for ~30 publisher sites, integrating Google AMP and ensuring accessible, performant implementations end to end.
   • Partnered with enterprise clients including MLB, Le Parisien, LA Times, New York Daily News, and The Boston Globe, translating requirements into production-ready solutions.
   • Standardized delivery patterns with shared libraries, reducing rework and improving consistency across Arc deployments.

Projects

1. GitHub Pages Deploy Action

   Present

   • Build and maintain a widely used GitHub Marketplace Action that automates deployments to GitHub Pages (4.5k+ stars, 500k+ dependencies).
   • Supports advanced workflows including custom target branches and folders, clean builds, cross-repo deploys, and GitHub Enterprise, with frequent releases and long-term backwards compatibility.
   • Recognized by GitHub as one of the most used Actions on the platform.