Jacob Benson

Lead Software Engineer · Auburn, Alabama

I ship web, desktop and iOS software end to end: design, code, tests and releases. At XO Armor Technologies I lead a five-person team across the company's software for clinics: desktop design tools, 3D-printing services and web dashboards. I also build my own products under One Tall Order (opens in a new tab).

Now
Leading the engineering team at XO Armor Technologies, and the release process behind its software.
Apps
Sight Words, live on the App Store. Rainroute and Contingent, invite-only pilots.

Products

Sight Words App Store, (opens in a new tab)

Live on the App Store

An iOS reading app for kids. Flashcards, quizzes and tracing with read-aloud, per-word progress, and custom decks so a class's own word list can be typed in or imported. Built after my son's list came home and no app made it easy to drill his actual words.

SwiftUI · SwiftData + CloudKit · StoreKit 2

Rainroute rainroute.com, (opens in a new tab)

Invite-only

CRM and estimating software for gutter contractors. Contractors sketch the gutter runs and it works out the parts list, priced from their own price list, then carries the job through scheduling, invoicing and a customer portal.

Next.js · TypeScript · Supabase / PostgreSQL · Stripe · Twilio

Contingent contingent.me, (opens in a new tab)

Invite-only

A dead man's switch for your messages. If you stop checking in, the messages you wrote go out to the people you chose, in waves, by text and email.

Next.js · PostgreSQL · Cloudflare Workers · Twilio · Resend

Building

DaySmith

In progress

A day planner for people with ADHD: the day sorted into morning, afternoon, evening and anytime sections, a brain dump, rollover for unfinished tasks, focus sessions and widgets. It checks its own text contrast against WCAG as it runs.

SwiftUI · HealthKit · WidgetKit · Live Activities

Sigil

In daily use

A desktop app for running several coding agents side by side, giving each one its own isolated git worktree by default. When a tab's branch has a pull request, the tab shows its PR and CI status. Claude Code hooks tell the app the moment an agent needs me; other sessions fall back to reading the terminal.

Tauri · Rust · React · xterm.js

Experience

  1. Lead Software Engineer at XO Armor Technologies (opens in a new tab)

    Feb 2026 – present
    • Lead a five-person engineering team across XO's software suite (desktop design tools, 3D-printing services and web dashboards): I define the work with the product owner and run delivery and code review, while staying hands-on as the team's most active code contributor
    • Led the build of a guided 3D editor that takes a clinician from a foot scan to a print-ready custom insole, replacing a Blender-based workflow, with save-and-reopen and full undo history replayed into a Python geometry engine
    • Restarted production releases after a three-month gap: three desktop releases in three weeks, each behind a staging rehearsal, a written QA guide and sign-off from the product owner
    • Reworked the build pipeline so a push to a specific branch publishes a test build to its own update channel, so the team can test any change without touching customer channels
    • Established the team's engineering process: a branch-per-ticket workflow, mandatory code review, Definitions of Ready and Done, and a QA plan for every feature, after an audit found that almost no work was being merged or reviewed
    • Identified and resolved a critical data-integrity defect in the 3D geometry pipeline that could silently discard a patient's model, and caught it in pre-release testing before it reached clinics
    • Took ownership of the company's cloud, source control and DNS, and set up the first alerting the team actually receives

    TypeScript · React · Electron · Three.js · Node.js · Next.js · Prisma · PostgreSQL · Python · Flask · Vitest · Playwright · pytest · AWS · Sentry

  2. Software Engineer at One Tall Order LLC (opens in a new tab)

    Jan 2026 – present
    • Designed, built and shipped Sight Words, an iOS reading app for kids, live on the App Store: SwiftUI, SwiftData with CloudKit sync, and a StoreKit 2 one-time Pro unlock; first commit to App Store release in seven months
    • Built Rainroute, CRM and estimating software for gutter contractors: sketch gutter runs to generate a parts list priced from the contractor's own price list, then schedule, invoice and share a customer portal; in an invite-only pilot
    • Built Contingent, a dead man's switch that delivers a user's messages by text and email in waves after missed check-ins
    • Moved Contingent's database tests off mocks to a real Postgres after a database-rule bug reached production
    • Test the parts that can hurt users against real systems, not mocks

    Swift · SwiftUI · SwiftData · CloudKit · StoreKit 2 · Next.js · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · Supabase · Stripe · Twilio · Resend · WebAuthn · Cloudflare Workers

  3. Software Engineer at BC Stone Homes

    Oct 2024 – Jan 2026
    • Helped build the Next.js app that became the main workspace for the sales team and project managers: a simpler front end over HubSpot with every home being built or sold in one place, document signing, and buttons that trigger HubSpot workflows
    • Saved the sales and admin staff hours each day and cut errors, because they no longer had to work in HubSpot directly
    • Built an internal company portal on my own: sign-in, policies and HR documents, the company calendar, news and an employee directory
    • Built a ticketing system for raising and tracking requests with vendors

    TypeScript · Next.js · React · Tailwind CSS · HubSpot API · Wrike · Microsoft Entra ID

  4. Development Lead at GameLab

    Oct 2023 – Oct 2024
    • Led development of the software that runs GameLab's gaming pods, used by military personnel and college students, working with a remote contractor
    • Built Offline Mode, so players could still sign in and play when a facility lost its internet connection
    • Built hardware testing into the app, so technicians test every controller and keyboard in place instead of leaving for a third-party website

    PHP · Laravel · Vue.js

Education B.S. Software Engineering, Western Governors University

Certifications AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner · Google Data Analytics Certificate

Toolbox

Languages
TypeScript · JavaScript · Python · Swift · Rust · PHP · SQL
Web
React · Next.js · Vue.js · Laravel · Flask
Desktop & 3D
Electron · Three.js · Tauri
iOS
SwiftUI · SwiftData · CloudKit · StoreKit 2
Data & cloud
PostgreSQL · Prisma · Supabase · SQLite · AWS (S3) · Cloudflare Workers · Stripe · Twilio
Testing & CI/CD
Playwright · Vitest · XCTest · Swift Testing · CI/CD

How I work

Own it end to end

Design, code, tests, App Store review, billing, deploys, support pages. On my own products there is no one to hand the next step to, so I've done every one of them.

Test against the real thing

Mocks only prove code agrees with itself. Where a rule lives in the database, my tests build a real Postgres from the same migrations production runs. I started doing that after a database-rule bug reached production with every mocked test passing.

Every outage becomes a test

When something breaks, I write down why and add a check that fails if it ever happens again. A lesson only has to be learned once.

New tools, same standards

I've been writing code since QBasic. AI coding agents are part of my toolkit now and they make me faster, but the standard hasn't moved: nothing ships until a test has checked it.

Background

I started programming as a kid: a QBasic trainer for TradeWars 2002, the BBS game everyone dialed into, IRC scripts, and a BBS of my own.

Then I spent most of my career in a tool belt, as a carpenter, electrician, general remodeling contractor and construction superintendent. That work taught me to plan before cutting, build to code, and stand behind the job after the crew leaves.

I came back to software for good, and I build it the way I built houses.

Contact