John A. Bell

Remote Worker based in Providence, RI

ja.bell@me.com

Profile

Support engineer and customer success professional with 30 years of experience and a strong technical foundation — including hands-on work in Ruby, Python, Swift, and AWS. I've built and shipped production tooling, automated workflows, and monitored live SaaS systems through high-stakes events. I bring a rare combination of deep customer empathy and genuine engineering ability, and I'm comfortable working directly with product and engineering teams to solve hard problems.

Skills

Ruby, Python, Swift, Bash, JavaScript, HTML/CSS
AWS (EC2, S3, IAM, Lambda) & GitHub
API & Webhook Integration
Production Tooling & Workflow Automation
CI/CD Familiarity & Release Pipeline Management
CRM & Ticketing (Salesforce, Zendesk, Jira, Notion)
Technical Writing & SOP Authoring
SOC-2 Compliance Process Support
Cross-functional Technical Collaboration
Customer Advocacy & Relationship-building
Empathy, Active Listening & Conflict Resolution
Self-directed Learning & Rapid Skill Acquisition

Experience

Technical Founder

12/2025 - Present

Senior Customer Success Representative

11/2020 - 3/2025

Customer Success Manager & Support Engineer

7/2017 - 11/2020

Genius

8/2008 - 12/2016

Systems Coordinator

1/2006 - 6/2008

Key Wins

Built a production NPS system and integrated data pipelines from scratch in Ruby and Python — wired directly into the product via webhooks and used daily across the team
Managed accounts for Larian Studios, Catalyst Game Lab, and Alderac Entertainment Group — crowdfunding campaigns valued at $1M+ — including on-call coverage and infrastructure monitoring during live launches
Automated operational workflows in a Ruby on Rails SaaS product, including image and data pipelines and API-connected tooling shipped to production
Helped grow the Crowd Ox customer base sixfold, contributing directly to its acquisition by BackerKit, and successfully retained over 80% of those accounts through the transition
Founded, built, and independently shipped Norakind — a native iOS/macOS app — managing the full software lifecycle including CI/CD and App Store release pipeline
Earned multiple awards at Apple for exceptional customer service, including several months with a perfect NPS score of 100

Norakind

Technical Founder

12/2025 - Present

Founded, designed, and built Norakind — a native iOS/macOS productivity app for the ADHD market — currently live on the App Store
Built end-to-end in Swift, independently managing the full software lifecycle: architecture, development, testing, CI/CD, and App Store release pipeline
Responsible for all product decisions, user feedback, and ongoing iteration

BackerKit

Senior Customer Success Representative

11/2020 - 3/2025

Managed 30–50 high-value accounts at any given time (contracts over $3,000 each); surfaced and triaged platform issues during live campaign launches and coordinated escalation with BackerKit engineering
Led the customer transition after BackerKit's acquisition of Crowd Ox — handling data migration, operational continuity, and account retention, with a successful retention rate above 80%
Contributed to internal playbooks and SOPs; worked with payment platforms including Stripe and PayPal to navigate complex compliance scenarios

Crowd Ox

Customer Success Manager & Support Engineer

7/2017 - 11/2020

Designed and built internal operational tooling — scripting automations in Ruby and Python that reduced manual work and improved workflow efficiency across the team
Worked directly with the engineering team to diagnose production issues, build API integrations, and ship tooling improvements — acting as a technical bridge between operations and the product
Built and maintained a production NPS integration and multi-platform data pipelines, managing their configuration, deployment, and long-term reliability
Managed a team of three Customer Success representatives, setting standards for product knowledge and supporting their growth

Apple

Genius

8/2008 - 12/2016

Diagnosed and resolved complex hardware and software failures at the component level across macOS, iOS, and iPadOS — working directly with customers to repair, troubleshoot, and educate
Identified and escalated systemic hardware and software defects to Apple engineering
Earned multiple awards for outstanding customer experience, including several months with a perfect NPS score of 100

Brown University Bookstore

Systems Coordinator

1/2006 - 6/2008

Managed all University Bookstore systems, including IBM AS/400 backend, point-of-sale systems, and a mixed fleet of Mac and PC workstations
Served as Department Computing Coordinator (DCC) — a liaison between the Bookstore and the wider university on computing needs, resources, and knowledge-sharing

Projects

Norakind

A native iOS/macOS productivity app for the ADHD market, built end-to-end in Swift. Founded, designed, and shipped independently — live on the App Store.

Spenvelopes

A simple and fast envelope budgeting app for iOS. Currently in development, bringing a classic budgeting method into the modern mobile era.

In Development

Mechanical Bell

A studio building custom tools and sites for content creators and streamers — from video curation experiences and streamer presence sites to interactive stream meta-games like trading card systems and audience reward pools.