Jörn Zaefferer

What started as frontend engineering turned into the Head of Software Development, where I was responsible for all software development efforts. This still included the React-based web application for managing Docker containers. My role was expanded to the backend that integrates all container hosting, user management and subscription services. On top came various additional services, like for managing customer SSL certificates using Let’s Encrypt. This was rounded off with customer and operations support.

The end of my time as a Java developer and the start of my freelance career. The first year kicked of with projects for SoundCloud (building their then-new mobile site) and the Software Freedom Conservancy (working on a grid component for jQuery UI). A common theme for these and future projects were single-page applications (SPA), back when very few libraries and frameworks existed to build entire applications in the browser. Backbone and requirejs were early tools of choice.

I was one of the first contributors to jQuery and started developing various jQuery Plugins early on. Some were later turned into components of jQuery UI, where I was dev lead for several years. The jQuery Validation plugin is still very popular these days, running one 1m+ websites. I created QUnit, a JS testing library and shaped Globalize, a library for dealing with internalization, which in turn paved the way for distributing CLDR to JavaScript developers.

What started as a tiny open-source JavaScript library became one of the most popular libraries on the web. In 2009 the jQuery Foundation was formed, originally as a project of the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC). When the board of directors was formed, I got to be on the original board and served there until 2015, including the transition to a standalone Foundation, independent of the SFC.

Developing web and desktop applications in Java for clients in banking and insurance sectors. First dev lead position for an attempt at a “replace Excel” in-house product.

After finishing my study at the bib International College in Bergisch Gladbach, this was the start of my professional career, mostly developing web applications in Java. JavaScript mattered very little in these projects, yet in that time I started using and contributing to jQuery in my free time.