Dave Garwacke

About

I build modular front-end systems and lead the people who ship them. For a decade at Warby Parker and now Whatnot, I've moved between principal engineer and engineering manager, leading storefront rebuilds, developer tooling, and design systems with performance and accessibility at the center.

Kingston, New York · he/him

Work

1. Whatnot

   2025–Present

   1. Staff Software Engineer

      Feb 2025 – Present

      Building the live-shopping marketplace, focused on front-end architecture, performance, and reliability.

      React · TypeScript · Next.js · Cloudflare · AWS

2. Warby Parker

   2014–2024

   1. Principal Engineer, Customer-Facing Applications

      Nov 2023 – Oct 2024

      Led architecture for the customer-facing web, iOS, and Python API stack.

      • Led the migration from custom auth to Auth0, improving security and scale.
      • Stood up OpenTelemetry alerting for on-call, cutting incident response times.
      • Raised the site's PageSpeed score by reducing main-thread work and blocking resources.

      Next.js · React · Auth0 · OpenTelemetry · Python

   2. Engineering Manager

      Mar 2021 – Oct 2023

      Managed cross-functional teams of staff and contractors, setting KPIs and OKRs against company goals.

      • Planned and ran the migration of legacy code to Next.js and TypeScript.
      • Shipped an in-house, web-based Virtual Try-On with TensorFlow for non-iOS users.
      • Rebuilt Checkout from the ground up around modular, customizable flows.
      • Set up an accessible design system that cut time-to-ship by two sprints.

      Next.js · TypeScript · TensorFlow · Design Systems

   3. Principal Engineer, Web

      Jul 2018 – Jan 2021

      Set web architecture direction on the company's Architecture Council.

      • Built Pepper, an in-house AWS tool for deploying single-page apps, cutting deploy times.
      • Introduced RFCs and Architecture Decision Records to standardize technical decisions.

      React · AWS CloudFormation · CodeBuild

   4. Senior Front-end Developer, Team Lead

      Jul 2016 – Jul 2018

      Built accessible, progressively enhanced features for the isomorphic React storefront, and started the Front-end Guild.

      React · SASS · Web Applications

   5. Front-end Developer

      Sep 2014 – Jul 2016

      Built the responsive storefront in isomorphic React on a Backbone, Flux-style architecture, with experiment variations for any CMS content.

      React · Backbone · Flux

3. If You Make It

   2005–2015

   1. Founder, Lead Developer

      2005 – 2015

      Founded and ran IYMI, a music site home to the Pink Couch Sessions, an acoustic video series I started in 2006. Built and maintained the full custom stack.

      PHP · MySQL · jQuery

4. EngageSciences

   2014

   1. Client Services Engineer

      Jan 2014 – Sep 2014

      Built custom campaigns on the company's APIs, including a mobile face-painting contest using canvas and camera access.

      JavaScript · Canvas · CSS

Skills

Languages

TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, HTML, CSS/SASS

Frameworks

React, Next.js, Node.js, Astro

Focus

Accessibility, Web Performance, Design Systems, Modular Architecture

Platform

AWS, Cloudflare, Auth0, OpenTelemetry

Education

SUNY New Paltz, B.S. Computer Engineering · 2001 – 2005

Contact

Let's build something good.

dave@garwacke.com LinkedIn ↗ GitHub ↗