Boris is available for hire
Hire BorisBoris Staal
Verified Expert in Engineering
Senior Full-stack Developer
Mexico City, Mexico
Toptal member since July 2, 2013
Bio
With over 20 years of software engineering and architecture experience, Boris is a proven leader and innovator in various domains and industries. He specializes in Rust, Python, TypeScript, and Ruby, including IoT and cloud design. As the chief architect at Vanilla, a fast-growing fintech unicorn, Boris leads the development and guidance of a multi-language microservice mesh based on Kubernetes—ensuring scalability, reliability, and security.
Portfolio
NetDocuments
.NET, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Python 3, PostgreSQL, Couchbase, Apache Kafka, Redis...
Vanilla
Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Rust, Kubernetes, AWS IoT, Elastic, Terraform, Redis...
CageEye
Rust, Python, .NET, TypeScript, Internet of Things (IoT), AMQP, Cassandra...
Experience
- Ruby - 10 years
- Concurrent Programming - 8 years
- PostgreSQL - 8 years
- DevOps - 6 years
- TypeScript - 6 years
- Python - 5 years
- C# - 5 years
- Rust - 3 years
Preferred Environment
Git, Terminal, Vim Text Editor, Sublime Text, MacOS, Agile Software Development
The most amazing...
...project I've designed is a distributed IoT network of sonars that analyzes fish behavior in salmon farms and automates feeding based on their needs.
Work Experience
Lead Software Engineer
2024 - 2026
NetDocuments
- Managed a scrum squad of seven people using ADO and Power BI with full velocity and performance transparency.
- Integrated Datadog telemetry, including full APM of traces, logs, and events into several Rails and C# applications.
- Helped bootstrap a multi-tenant QA environment to scale E2E and the final steps of branch development.
- Co-developed an LLM agent in coupling with a semantic JSON schema trained to assist users in creating, modifying, and debugging applications in real time.
Technologies: .NET, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Python 3, PostgreSQL, Couchbase, Apache Kafka, Redis, Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Terraform, Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, Datadog
Chief Software Architect
2021 - 2024
Vanilla
- Crafted and developed the overall solution architecture as a network of microservices orchestrated by Kubernetes with Rails-facing customers.
- Migrated the project from GCP to AWS using Terraform with the support of development and staging environments.
- Devised and co-authored microservices mesh, including high-load services written in Rust.
- Built AMQP-based data processing pipeline involving ChatGPT and facing customers with WebSocket handled directly by MQTT broker.
Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Rust, Kubernetes, AWS IoT, Elastic, Terraform, Redis, PostgreSQL, SQL, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Concurrent Programming, APIs, Fintech, Full-stack, API Integration, Python, Web Scraping, Scrum, Google Cloud SDK, Linux, RabbitMQ, TypeScript, DevOps, Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Lead Software Engineer
2020 - 2022
CageEye
- Designed and engineered an IoT platform for the reliable gathering of sensor data coming from remote fish farms.
- Created a low-profile Python-based firmware for sonar solution using complex math in a real-time environment.
- Designed and deployed a multi-language microservice mesh based on the Google Kubernetes Engine.
- Introduced data processing pipeline utilizing Apache Airflow and storing terabytes of data in Cassandra.
Technologies: Rust, Python, .NET, TypeScript, Internet of Things (IoT), AMQP, Cassandra, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Terraform, Kubernetes, ASP.NET MVC, Scrum, Google Cloud SDK, D3.js, Linux, RabbitMQ, DevOps, Go, Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Lead Back-end Developer
2020 - 2021
Qai Invest (via Toptal)
- Picked up and refined the existing problematic parts of the app, thus improving the app's stability by 80%.
- Gathered and moved all chaotically-spawned services (PSQL, Redis, Influx) to Terraform, ensuring straightforwardness and ability to detect and mitigate configuration drifts.
- Moved all the used services and the app from numerous providers to Google Cloud with no downtime.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Python 3, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, Redis, Terraform, Kubernetes, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Zipkin, Networking, SQL, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Concurrent Programming, APIs, Fintech, Full-stack, API Integration, Python, MySQL, Scrum, Linux, RabbitMQ, TypeScript, DevOps
Senior Software Engineer
2019 - 2020
Vanilla
- Co-authored and guided overall solution architecture, working as a microservices mesh orchestrated by Kubernetes.
- Deployed the project to Google Cloud Platform using Terraform with the support of development and staging environments.
- Implemented VPN-based private networking access and encryption strategy to correspond to financial services processing personal data requirements.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Node.js, React, Terraform, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, DevOps, PostgreSQL, Elastic, Redis, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack, API Integration, Python, Web Scraping, Scrum, Google Cloud SDK, Linux, RabbitMQ, TypeScript
Senior Software Engineer
2017 - 2019
Evil Martians
- Authored tools that helped the development of a typed superset of Ruby that eventually yielded the Ruby Parser gem.
- Built Rove and advocated Vagrant and container-based development environments at group meetings and conferences.
- Launched three projects developed from scratch as a lead engineer.
Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), JavaScript, C, React, D3.js
Senior Software Developer
2015 - 2017
VMware (via Toptal)
- Redesigned the automatic provisioning system starting from the data level.
- Migrated the existing online solution to a newer version without downtime.
- Automated tasks that were handled manually before.
Technologies: AirWatch, Azure Active Directory, Node.js, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR), SQL, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack, Scrum, Linux
Senior Software Engineer
2014 - 2015
FlexCode
- Built a multi-driver bot platform automating the scraping of ticket prices directly from aero-company websites, including proxy rotation management.
- Designed resilient, scalable worker orchestration as a part of a mono-service built with Rails and Sidekiq.
- Participated in the integration of numerous external APIs.
Technologies: UML, RPC, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack, Scrum, Sidekiq, Angular
Senior RoR Developer
2014 - 2014
Learn To Be Foundation (via Toptal)
- Migrated the platform to a newer Ruby-on-Rails version.
- Assisted in migrating the front end to a newer language stack.
- Participated in API integration using several external edtech services.
Technologies: BigBlueButton, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack
Senior RoR Developer
2013 - 2014
DRH Internet Inc. (via Toptal)
- Introduced a new workflow based on Scrum, including new tools.
- Migrated one of the software from the product line to Angular after introducing them to the framework.
- Assisted with upgrading a testing environment to newer tools, allowing continuous integration.
- Doubled the performance of the testing environment.
Technologies: Angular, Ruby on Rails (RoR), APIs, API Integration, Web Scraping, MySQL
Head of Technology
2010 - 2013
Roundlake
- Built one of the first neo-banking platforms in CIS using a combination of Rails 2 and Java.
- Created an efficient semi-remote team of engineers managed through Scrum.
- Motivated the internal community to contribute to known open-source projects.
Technologies: JavaScript, Node.js, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Concurrent Programming, C#, APIs, Fintech, Full-stack, API Integration, Web Scraping
CTO
2007 - 2010
MobiMoney
- Designed an architecture that successfully handled over 1,000 requests per second at peak load.
- Integrated Rails efficiently with the .NET back end.
- Developed on top of JRuby as one of the first production-ready platforms to utilize all of the just-in-time (JIT) benefits.
Technologies: JavaScript, .NET, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Concurrent Programming, C#, APIs, Full-stack
Software Engineer | Architect
2004 - 2007
Immo
- Created CoZen, an automated deployment, continuous integration, and permissions management system based on Subversion (SVN) and Python.
- Designed imEye, a system for analyzing indicators from thousands of sources.
- Developed a Russian stemming variant of PHP as a C extension.
- Contributed to the company's move from Waterfall to Kanban.
- Improved the scalability of a high-load dating service through sharding, manual RAM-based C++ indexer development, and CDN networking.
Technologies: JavaScript, C++, C, Python, Concurrent Programming, Full-stack, MySQL
Web Developer
2002 - 2004
Labrador ISP
- Built a web interface for customer billing using the most recent UI frameworks.
- Assisted with the deployment of said billing interface.
- Participated in setting up complicated routing between layers of customer networks.
Technologies: JavaScript, Full-stack
Experience
Round Bank
A large-scale Ruby- and PostgreSQL-based enterprise-level solution for online banking. I designed everything from the scalability and testing patterns to the API interface. Additionally, I participated in the deployment process, bringing the product to clients.
Smart Kiosk
https://github.com/smartkiosk/An open-source terminal platform containing software for servers and terminals that would be deployed in the field. The project is based on Ruby and includes some C code for low-level procedures. It has one known deployment cluster containing roughly 4,000 terminals.
Rove: Online Vagrant Configurator
https://github.com/aderyabin/rove/A service that allows the pregeneration of typical Vagrant builds. I co-authored this project, aiming to create ease and popularize the provisioning of development environments using Vagrant and corresponding tools.
WashOut
https://github.com/inossidabile/wash_out/The only available modern Rails-based SOAP server implementation. I co-authored this project, which supported Rails versions starting from 3, utilizing a new server engine framework. It supports Matz's Ruby Interpreter and JRuby.
Codo Tool
https://github.com/netzpirat/codo/A CoffeeScript automatic documentation generator. Within the first year of the project's emergence, I took over maintenance as a core team member of Codo. Currently, I continue to be the project's lead maintainer.
Policier (WIP)
https://github.com/inossidabile/policierThis is my small research project in the area of semantics and linear algebra. I'm looking for a DSL to define ACLs that's easy to read and structured enough to set certain conventions from the start. I'm developing a proof of concept (PoC) for Ruby on Rails, and I plan to adapt this PoC further for Python and Prism.
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Joosy, AMQP, D3.js, Node.js, React, POSIX, Sidekiq
Tools
RabbitMQ, Stylus, Terraform, Sublime Text, Vim Text Editor, Terminal, Git, Elastic, Zipkin
Languages
JavaScript, SQL, C#, Python, Ruby, Haml, TypeScript, Elixir, Python 3, Rust, Go, UML, C, C++, Java, Clojure
Frameworks
ASP.NET MVC, Ruby on Rails (RoR), .NET, Angular, Django
Paradigms
Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Concurrent Programming, Scrum, DevOps, Agile Software Development, Functional Programming
Platforms
Google Cloud SDK, Kubernetes, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Docker, MacOS, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BigBlueButton, AWS IoT, Apache Kafka, Azure
Storage
PostgreSQL, Redis, Google Cloud, Cassandra, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Azure Active Directory, MongoDB, InfluxDB, Couchbase, Datadog
Other
APIs, Full-stack, API Integration, Web Scraping, Fintech, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), RPC, AirWatch, Networking, Device Drivers, SOAP, Programming Languages, Internet of Things (IoT), OpenTelemetry
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