Joel Gaff, Jr.

Why I'm a fit for Authorium's Software Engineer

Here's what the posting asks for, and what I've actually done.

Approval workflows, versioning, and permission models

In Partita Doppia, invoices and bills start as drafts and post to the ledger when approved. Every document keeps a history of who changed what, and it can only be edited, voided, or deleted while nothing depends on it.

Systems thinker: complex domain objects and data models in production

Partita Doppia is a double-entry ledger where every transaction is a document that posts to it, with tracking categories and the standard reports. I've run nearly a dozen production Rails apps, designing each data model myself.

Security minded: defensive coding and protecting sensitive data

Grateful Deploy runs only fixed, allowlisted commands (nothing is typed) and binds to 127.0.0.1. Partita Doppia uses passwordless six-digit email codes and Active Record encryption.

Document infrastructure: PDF generation and processing unstructured data

Partita Doppia generates PDF invoices with Prawn and emails them to customers, and imports CSV, OFX, and QFX bank statements. Cucamonga turns forwarded travel confirmation emails into a trip board.

Ruby on Rails proficiency and interest in modular monoliths

Four-plus years of Rails, building in the 37signals style: one Rails monolith, Hotwire, SQLite, and Kamal deploys.

Quality obsessed: testing, documentation, observability

My repos ship with Minitest suites, a pre-push hook, and READMEs, and Partita Doppia has a CONTRIBUTING guide. Grateful Deploy shows each app's version, health, and memory.

AI-native workflow with Cursor and Claude

My repos include CLAUDE.md files for coding agents, and I was a guest on Omarchy Stories episode 009, "AI Coding: Are We Shipping Faster and Learning Less?"

High agency

I work as a manager of one and execute without supervision. Each of my apps went from idea to production with nobody handing me tickets.

To be upfront: My experience comes from building and running my own production apps rather than from an employer, and my front ends are Hotwire rather than React.