Jeff Bowman

Senior Staff Software Engineer in San Jose, CA · he/him
 jbowman.com ·  jeff-bowman ·  jeffbowmancs ·  jeffbowmancs

Tech Lead of Google Maps Platform SDKs for Android, iOS, and Javascript. In my role I support and advocate for cross-organization solutions: Propose, design, measure, get buy-in, track, and deliver.

I love inheriting hacks old and new and engineering them into solid, clean solutions, particularly regarding internal and external APIs. I also enjoy honing my writing and presentation skills and helping fellow developers through my contributions on StackOverflow.

Recent work

Google
Software Engineer (2010 - present, 4 promotions)
currently Senior Staff Software Engineer

  • Google Maps Platform (2020 - present)
    Area Tech Lead across all Maps Platform mobile SDKs and Javascript APIs, representing the work of 40+ engineers. I create and track cross-cutting proposals for improved performance, API surfaces, and reliability efforts including testing. I also support, advocate for, and measure team efforts to executives and to other TLs.
  • Google Maps for Android (2013 - 2019)
    Contributing engineer and Platform Architecture TL for one of the most widely-used Android applications in the world. Codebase-wide refactors and testing, including unit, integration, and screenshot tests. Tech Lead of a team of 5 engineers.
  • Internal CRM tool (2010 - 2013)
    Contributing engineer on a Java/JSP/GWT internal tool.

Volunteer/personal work

Anthropomorphic Arts and Education, LLC
Convention staff (2012 - present) and nonprofit Board of Directors (2017 - present)

Executive staff for a 4000+-attendee fan convention with a $300k+ annual budget held annually at the San Jose Convention Center. Roles include Chairman (2015, 2017), Programming Director, Marketing Director, and Executive Secretary. Elected to Board as a Director at Large in 2017. Responsibilities include scheduling and data tracking, business arrangements with partner hotel and business organizations, graphic design work, leadership of 150+ volunteer staff members, and public speaking on behalf of the organization.

StackOverflow
Personal contributions (2012 - present)

As of February 2024, I am in StackOverflow’s top 1500 contributors or top 0.2% (by reputation points). I am one of two gold badge contributors to dagger-2, and I am the sole gold badge contributor on the topics of guice and mockito. Based on pageviews to my highly-ranked answers, StackOverflow has estimated my total impact as reaching ~8 million people. See my Q&A highlights page.

Previous experience

  • Livescribe, Inc. (consumer tech startup): Oakland, CA, 2007 - 2010
    Web Developer / Web Services Intern: ActionScript 3, Javascript, HTML
  • The Daily Californian (student newspaper): Berkeley, CA, 2006 - 2008
    Web Developer / Online Manager: PHP/HTML, developed CMS, managed 2 other developers
  • Democratic Education at Cal: Berkeley, CA, 2005 - 2008
    Webmaster / Program Co-Director: PHP/HTML, developed CMS (still in use as of 2021)
  • Xanga.com Inc. (blogging platform): Freelance Designer, 2004 - 2006
    Web and Interactive Ad Developer: Flash/ActionScript 2