1. January 2022 - October 2025

   Senior Performance Architect / UX Advocate

   Estée Lauder Companies

   New York, NY, USA

   • Increased stakeholder awareness of web performance concepts and issues by creating, updating and sharing internal documentation, and via internal presentations and regular one-on-one conversations.
   • Improved issue awareness and response time by implementing automated Real User Monitoring (RUM) and Synthetic tests and reports.
   • Ensured rapid issue response by monitoring daily performance reports for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that were not within the performance budget, including Core Web Vitals.
   • Investigated KPI anomalies using RUM and Synthetic tools, DevTools and WebPageTest.
   • Optimized First Contentful Paint (FCP), LCP, CLS and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) by updating PHP/Mustache templates, CSS/SCSS and JS files.
   • Briefed stakeholders quarterly with brand- and regional-focused site audits, including prioritized performance enhancement opportunities.
   • Proactively researched, documented and presented best practices and innovations to engineering team.
   • Reduced average LCP (from 3.26s to 1.78s globally, and from 2.94s to 1.81s in key markets (CA, UK, US)) by automating media lazy load settings, adding preload link for LCP candidate asset, and increasing priority for LCP asset.
   • Lowered average CLS (from 0.41 to less than 0.10 globally, and from 0.44s to nearly 0.04 in key markets (CA, UK, US)) by automating the addition of media asset width and height attributes during file upload.
   • Improved CLS by adding preload links and increasing priority for custom font files.
   • Reduced INP by adding preconnect links for render-blocking third-party assets.

2. April 2016 - January 2022

   Chief Technology Officer, Co-Owner

   AdvantiPro GmbH

   Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany

   • Optimized and automated business efficiency by identifying, evaluating, and integrating third-party services, leveraging solutions such as Freshdesk, Freshsales, Google Drive, Mailchimp, PandaDoc, Redbooth, Slack, and Zapier.
   • Designed and implemented custom in-house solutions when off-the-shelf tools were insufficient, including API integrations between internal systems and external services.
   • Improved operational efficiency through workflow automation, using event-driven and scheduled (cron-based) processes, custom APIs, and integrations such as Zapier.
   • Built and maintained mobile-first, responsive customer websites and applications, using WordPress, PHP, MySQL, CSS, and JavaScript.
   • Analyzed and optimized customer website performance and conversion by using tools such as Chrome DevTools, WebPageTest, Google Analytics, and SEO to identify and implement targeted improvements.
   • Ensure timely issue resolution by maintaining clear communication with teams and customers through support ticketing and project management systems.
   • Maintained reliable internal technical support across hardware, networking, communications, and remote office setups, including VPN and remote desktop solutions.
   • Supported and maintained all company products, including proprietary frameworks and legacy websites.
   • Minimized downtime and operational disruption by promptly diagnosing and resolving internal and customer-facing issues.

3. March 2012 - April 2016

   Senior Developer

   Netbiscuits GmbH

   Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany

   • Delivered numerous features on schedule as a core member of an international Agile team, collaborating across time zones via Jira and Slack.
   • Led front-end development of an analytics dashboard, delivering interactive data visualizations using Bootstrap, jQuery, Ajax, JSON, jQuery DatePicker, Highcharts, Highstock, and dynamic SVG charts.
   • Led front-end development of a customer account management system, building reliable, validated user flows using the Thymeleaf framework, Bootstrap, jQuery, Ajax, and jQuery Validate.
   • Owned development of the company website, implementing a custom WordPress theme with server-side adaptive design and client-side responsive design, integrating both third-party and in-house plugins.
   • Drove cross-device performance optimization efforts, improving load speed and responsiveness through file optimization, minification, concatenation, caching strategies, custom builds, and device-specific markup.

4. November 2011 - March 2012

   Web Developer (freelance)

   Time Inc. (People.com)

   Kaiserslautern, Rhineland-Pfalz, Germany

   • Hand-crafted front-end implementations using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, including jQuery and JSON-driven interactions.
   • Defined and enforced project scope, preventing scope creep and ensuring alignment with requirements.
   • Produced accurate project estimates for timelines, requirements, and costs to support planning and client expectations.
   • Prepared and managed proposals, contracts, and invoices, supporting clear agreements and timely payment.
   • Maintained clear, responsive client communication across Skype, email, and phone throughout project lifecycles.
   • Consistently delivered projects on schedule, meeting agreed-upon requirements and deadlines.

5. June 2007 - November 2011

   Tech Lead

   Time Inc. (People.com)

   New York, NY, USA

   • Simultaneously delivered multiple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript projects, balancing priorities and deadlines.
   • Optimized site-wide performance via numerous initiatives, including:
     • Evaluated and recommended targeted server- and client-side performance improvements.
     • Refactored and reduced CSS across the site, cutting the home page by 23 requests, 52 KB, and 1.3 seconds; applied the same techniques site-wide with consistent cascading gains.
     • Rewrote core JavaScript files to improve execution speed, reliability, and portability.
     • Introduced jQuery as a global dependency, selectively rewriting functionality to reduce file size and improve runtime performance and reliability.
     • Integrated HTML5 Boilerplate practices, including a customized Modernizr build, progressive CSS3 enhancements, and reliable fallbacks.
   • Developed a tablet-optimized, responsive version of the website, incorporating dynamic data retrieval, in-browser data storage, and multi-section swipe-based navigation.
   • Delivered a second-screen experience for the 2011 Academy Awards, enabling synchronized, branded interactivity aligned with live broadcast events.
   • Built and maintained reusable JavaScript solutions adopted across multiple brands, including:
     • Google Maps implementations with custom markers and overlays powered by multiple JSON data feeds.
     • Ajax-based galleries using JSON and JSONP.
     • Custom hotspot tagging tools and gallery stitching solutions.
     • Custom Twitter integration modules.
     • Reusable carousel implementations across multiple projects.
     • Adapted an Ajax photo gallery into an iPad in-app hotspot experience, enabling timely, date-specific magazine content updates.
   • Served as a departmental mentor and team lead, supporting knowledge sharing and technical consistency.
   • Coordinated and presented frequently at engineering team lunch-and-learn and company-wide presentations.

6. June 2005 - June 2007

   Web Developer

   Bank of America (Prime Brokerage)

   New York, NY, USA

   • Automated monthly performance page updates, saving up to 20 man-hours per month while improving data import processing time and data reliability.
   • Built, maintained, and hosted secure client websites, including authenticated areas and fund-specific data access.
   • Developed dynamic investor statement pages, enhancing clarity and client communication.
   • Modernized client websites by implementing advanced CSS and JavaScript techniques, migrating layouts from table-based to CSS-based designs, introducing progressive enhancement practices, improving page load times, and reducing ongoing maintenance effort.
   • Integrated server-side variables to control user access levels and drive page-specific CSS for layout and presentation, improving personalization and client experience.
   • Developed a conference registration website for the Capital Introduction team, improving data tracking accuracy and strengthening customer relationships.

7. May 2002 - June 2006

   Web & Software Specialist

   National Academies of Science (Transportation Research Board)

   Washington, DC, USA

   • Developed conference websites, including an interactive Annual Meeting site supporting 10,000+ attendees, improving attendee data availability, staff efficiency, reporting accuracy, and turnaround time.
   • Replaced a third-party, form-driven registration system with customizable, template-based HTML registration sites, reducing site stand-up time by nearly 20% while ensuring cross-site consistency.
   • Built a stand-alone ASP- and database-driven registration system for no-fee conferences, reducing per-conference costs by $500, cutting data conversion time by 50%, and ensuring data accuracy.
   • Overhauled and streamlined the Annual Meeting VIP invitation and registration process, reducing manual effort by 25%, ensuring data integrity, and eliminating duplicate contacts to improve the VIP experience.
   • Integrated web-based databases with Microsoft Office to streamline reporting and distribution of collected conference data.

1. Pace University

   New York, NY, USA

   • Graduated 2007
   • Achieved Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Studies within three semesters with a 3.98 GPA while working 40 hours per week at Bank of America.
   • Graduated with Distinction

2. Montgomery College

   Rockville, MD, USA

   • Graduated 2004
   • Achieved two Associates degrees, Information Systems and Web Technologies, simultaneously with 3.84 and 3.89 GPAs, respectively, while working 20-30 hours per week at the National Academies of Science.
   • Member Phi Theta Kappa

AaronTGrogg.com

• Personal blog: aarontgrogg.com

  • WordPress-based, custom mobile-first, responsive theme, optimized for performance
  • Improved First Contentful Paint (FCP) by implementing Grunt for HTML, CSS, JS, and SVG minification
  • Ensured site stability via Git for repo syncing and version control
  • Optimized media assets via Smush-it plugin during upload
  • Reduced Time to First Byte (TTFB) by installing & configuring caching plugin
  • Further improved TTFB by employing Content Delivery Network (CDN)
  • Reduced browser requests by customizing cache controls within .htacess
  • Complied with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by anonymizing Google Analytics

Estee Lauder Corporation

• 250 e-commerce websites, 20 brands, 150 countries

  • Reduced average LCP: Globally from 3.26s to 1.78s, in key markets (CA, UK, US) from 2.94s to 1.81s
  • Lowered average CLS: Globally from 0.41 to less than 0.10, in key markets (CA, UK, US) from 0.44s to nearly 0.04

AdvantiPro GmbH

• Company website: advantipro.de

  • WordPress, mobile-first, responsive theme, customized child theme
  • Smush-it plugin to optimize media assets as uploaded
  • Site caching plugin installed & configured to reduce TTFB
  • DNS pre-fetch to reduce external asset latency and INP
  • .htaccess cache controls to reduce browser requests and INP
  • Anonymized Google Analytics for site flow tracking
  • GDPR compliance

• United States Army Garrison (USAG) Bavaria App: (resource no longer available)

  • WordPress, custom mobile-first, responsive SPA theme
  • All app content ported to JSON file
  • AppCache used to download and store static assets, including content JSON
  • Page-load checks for fresher content, downloads if necessary, sets up in-page app navigation
  • Content updates add to history stack, update title, refresh ad, and notify Google Analytics
  • SVG icons for scalability and to reduce network requests
  • Site ported to GoNative app builder for inclusion into Apple & Google app stores
  • Google Analytics tracks in-page events, such as menu opening, Setting updates
  • Anonymized Google Analytics for site flow tracking
  • GDPR compliance

Netbiscuits GmbH

• Company website: netbiscuits.com (version no longer available)

  • WordPress, mobile-first, responsive theme, customized child theme
  • Netbiscuits' Device Detection for server-side adaptive decisions and device-specific modifications
  • Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) WP plugin for custom, reusable content types & layouts
  • jQuery & plug-ins for custom navigation menu and parallax effects
  • LESS for easy, maintainable CSS
  • Grunt for CSS, JS, and SVG minification
  • Grunticon for SVG optimization and PNG fallbacks
  • Git for repo syncing and version control
  • Jenkins for Continuous Integration and Deployment

• Mobile Analytics product website: (resource no longer available)

  • Single-page app
  • Responsive Design techniques for a cross-device, single site
  • jQuery & plug-ins for customized date picker
  • Bootstrap for quick start and consistent UI
  • Customized Highcharts libraries for SVG charts
  • LESS for easy, maintainable CSS
  • Grunt for CSS, JS, and SVG minification
  • Git for repo syncing and version control
  • Jenkins for Continuous Integration and Deployment

• Internal Account Management portal: (resource no longer available)

  • Thymeleaf-based
  • Responsive Design techniques for a cross-device, single site
  • jQuery & plug-ins for customized form validation and copy-to-clipboard capability
  • Bootstrap for quick start and consistent UI
  • LESS for easy, maintainable CSS
  • Grunt for SVG optimization and CSS, JS, and SVG minification
  • Git for repo syncing and version control
  • Jenkins for Continuous Integration and Deployment

People.com

• Tablet-optimized website: (resource no longer available)

  • Incorporate all JS into single file to reduce HTTP Requests
  • Use of image sprites to reduce HTTP Requests
  • Object-oriented JS
  • JSON/P
  • jQuery + plug-ins to integrate custom swipability on touch and desktop devices
  • Tablet-oriented project scope allowed for -webkit-transitions & -transforms in place of JavaScript animations, but also works in desktop WebKit browsers
  • Caching of variables/elements for improved performance
  • Ajax content & images for fast page load
  • Use of "#" for deep-linking
  • Dynamic ad and tracking loading and refreshing on content transitions

• 2011 Academy Awards interactive second-screen trivia game: (resource no longer available)

  • Incorporate all JS into single file to reduce HTTP Requests
  • Use of image sprites to reduce HTTP Requests
  • Object-oriented JS
  • JSON/P
  • jQuery
  • WebKit-only project scope allowed for -web-kit transitions & -transforms in place of JavaScript animations
  • Caching of variables/elements for improved performance
  • Use of cookies to track game status & score
  • Polling feature for syncing of content publishing
  • Use of CSS classes to drive "state" of game, reducing JS/DOM interaction
  • Ajax content
  • Dynamic ad and tracking loading and refreshing, including video ads during commercials
  • Oversaw development of, and integration with, custom CMS

• Photo gallery "Ajaxification": (resource no longer available)

  • Object-oriented JS
  • JSON/P
  • jQuery
  • Caching of variables/elements for improved performance
  • Galleries are build to function without JS, via full page refresh, but progressively-enhanced if JS is available
  • Ajax content & images for fast page refresh
  • Use of "#" for deep-linking
  • Dynamic recirc, ad and tracking loading and refreshing
  • Integration with social linking
  • Implementation of Tagging Tool (see below)

• Photo gallery Tagging Tool: (resource no longer available)

  • Object-oriented JS
  • JSON/P
  • jQuery
  • Caching of variables/elements for improved performance
  • Allow editorial staff to entire gallery slide URL
  • Ajax image from specific slide, displaying in-page
  • Staff can drag over image to create hot-spot
  • Then enter content for that hot-spot to reveal, such as headline, deck, and image URLs
  • Clicking Save creates JSON/P file on server
  • Above gallery JS fetches JSON/P and adds interactivity to page

• Photo gallery "stitching": (resource no longer available)

  • Object-oriented JS
  • JSON/P
  • jQuery
  • Caching of variables/elements for improved performance
  • Ajax content
  • Provide content-aware direction to user regarding upcoming and previous gallery notifications

• Performance optimizations and site enhancements: (resource no longer available)

  • Added HTML5 Boilerplate recommendations, where possible
    • HTML5 DOCTYPE
    • IE-Conditional Comments around html
    • Custom Modernizr
  • Rewrote all site CSS
    Global CSS: (resource no longer available)
    Home-page CSS: (resource no longer available)
    • Researched declarations to determine if still needed and where it is used
    • Removed no-longer-used declarations
    • Moved lesser-used declarations to unique files
    • Introduced CSS reset to global CSS file
    • Rewrote remaining declarations to reduce selector specificity and removed declarations made obsolete by reset
    • Replaced numerous images with CSS3 declarations, retaining image declarations for fallback
    • Converted numerous images to sprites, storing as PNG8s
    • Converted existing GIF sprites to PNG8s
    Sample Results:
    • Reduced Global CSS file size from 70.3kb to 19.6kb
    • Reduced Home-page CSS file size from 43.4kb to 26.4kb
    • Above results were relatively consistent throughout other site CSS files

Responsive Test Environment: https://aarontgrogg.com/rte/

• Developed a responsive development testing environment, allowing developers to check pages in multiple breakpoints with a single click

Practical CSS3: https://aarontgrogg.com/practicalcss3/

• Researched, developed and maintain Practical CSS3, a guide for which CSS3 features you can use today and how to implement them, cross-browser

WordPress Themes & Plugins:

• Developed and maintain a WordPress Theme and Plug-in based on HTML5 Boilerplate
  • https://github.com/aarontgrogg/wp-theme-html5-boilerplate
  • https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/html5-boilerplate/
• Developed and maintain a WordPress Plug-in that cleans extraneous classes and adds semantic IDs and classes to navigation menus
  • https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/navigation-menu-ids-classes/
• Developed and maintain a WordPress Plug-in that, when in Admin, adds classes to the body tag to reflect which Page or Post type you're viewing in Edit-mode
  • https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/add-custom-post-type-slugs-to-admin-body-class/
• Developed and maintain a WordPress Plug-in that takes a page's URL, chops it into pieces, and adds each "piece" as an additional class to the body tag
  • https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/add-url-slugs-as-body-classes/

• Read voraciously on emerging technologies, blogging about items that inspire me:
  • https://aarontgrogg.com/
• Co-founded and co-direct a nonprofit interactive web agency, UX Test Kitchen, developing websites for other nonprofits, for free (now-defunct).
• While living in NYC, coordinated a monthly social gathering of family, friends and friends-of-friends.
• Beyond technology, I love hiking, biking, movies, reading, traveling, learning, and hanging out with my wife, friends and family.