Nicholas C. Zakas is a web software engineer who specializes in user interface design and implementation for web applications using JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, CSS, XML, and XSLT. He is currently principal front end engineer for the Yahoo! homepage and is a contributor to the Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) library, having written the Cookie Utility, Profiler, and YUI Test.

Nicholas is the author of Professional JavaScript for Web Developers and a co-author on Professional Ajax, and has contributed to other books. He has also written several online articles for WebReference, Sitepoint, and the YUI Blog.

Nicholas regularly gives talks about web development, JavaScript, and best practices. He has given talks at companies such as Yahoo!, LinkedIn, Google, and NASA, and conferences such as the Ajax Experience, the Rich Web Experience, and Velocity.

Through his writing and speaking, Nicholas seeks to teach others the valuable lessons he’s learned while working on some of the most popular and demanding web applications in the world.

Interests

  • JavaScript
  • Web application performance
  • Web accessibility
  • Software architecture
  • Test-driven development
  • Development best practices

Employment

I currently have the best job I’ve ever had as principal front-end engineer on the Yahoo! homepage and am not looking for a change. It would take a lot to convince me to leave this job, perhaps something in the area of $400,000 in base salary, or an ownership stake in the company.

I generally don’t respond to correspondence from recruiters, especially if they’re also asking me if I know anyone else to fill a particular role. If your company is interested in me, I expect to hear from someone other than a recruiter: the hiring manager, the director of engineering, the CTO, or the CEO. Even then, please be sure you know who I am and what I do before contacting me. There’s a lot of information on this site, use it wisely!

More information