John Shaughnessy

Android · TypeScript · Three.js · Unity · AI/ML · Embeddings · Object detection · Speech · Backend APIs

• Built software for a pre-release educational hardware device for children across Android, web APIs, backend AI services, game systems, and UX/product design.
• Developed offline-first AI on constrained Android hardware, including local image classification, object detection, depth processing, image/text embeddings, and speech workflows.
• Built Montessori-inspired learning systems with species/object scanning, collectible cards, quests, and activities designed to foster curiosity about the world outside of the screen.

New York, NY

TypeScript · Python · React · FastAPI · Browser extensions · llamafile · Local LLMs · RAG · ChromaDB · Vector search

• Built experimental AI prototypes for Mozilla including Memory Cache, a browser-extension and local backend system for saved webpages, document ingestion, vector retrieval, local model orchestration, RAG, standalone desktop packaging, and local LLM workflows with Python, TypeScript, FastAPI, ChromaDB, React, llamafile, and PyInstaller.
• Served as technical lead for Mozilla Builders, evaluating hundreds of open-source AI submissions and interviewing candidate projects for grant funding and accelerator support.

Mountain View, CA

TypeScript · JavaScript · React · Elixir · Phoenix · WebRTC · WebGL · WebXR · Postgres · AWS · GCP · Engineering management

• Led engineering for an open-source WebXR/social 3D platform across real-time networking, WebRTC voice and video, WebGL/WebXR graphics, avatars, persistence, backend services, Hubs Cloud/self-hosting, and release workflows.
• Wrote Hubs' multiplayer networking and entity-component game architecture, covering state replication, authority/entity ownership, presence, permissions, physics sync, media sync, and plugin-oriented extensibility.
• Managed and mentored a cross-functional team of 12 engineers and artists through hiring, onboarding, 1:1s, pair programming, goal setting, and release planning while continuing to write production code.

Redwood City, CA

Unity3D · C# · JavaScript · Motion capture · VR

• Built Unity3D/C# avatar and motion-capture systems for a social VR platform, unifying skeletal input from Leap Motion, Kinect, and Perception Neuron.
• Created in-game screenshot sharing, personal-space safety features, artist tools, network-synced animations, and synchronized Netflix, YouTube, and Twitch video experiences.