Dieter Van de Walle
Verified Expert in Engineering
Back-end Developer
Stockholm, Sweden
Toptal member since February 17, 2022
Dieter is a back-end developer with 17 years of experience. Having a solid background in operations and networking, he excels in building and scaling companies from greenfield to 100+ employees. Dieter enjoys solving complex problems by building Java, Spring, or cloud-based solutions.
Portfolio
Experience
- Software Engineering - 20 years
- Java - 20 years
- PostgreSQL - 15 years
- Spring - 13 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 12 years
- Software Architecture - 10 years
- C++ - 6 years
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - 5 years
Preferred Environment
Java, Spring, React, PostgreSQL, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, Kotlin, Gradle, Technical Leadership
The most amazing...
...thing I've built and scaled is the music and podcast ingestion systems at Spotify.
Work Experience
CTO | Co-founder
AudioHarvest
- Built a SaaS podcast solution on AWS cloud designed for performance, stability, and scalability from the ground up.
- Set up a CMS and digital marketing solution integrated with the SaaS product.
- Involved in sales and pitching the product to potential customers and investors.
Head of Software
ASDD AB / Aerit
- Bootstrapped the tech infrastructure of the startup company.
- Designed and built the real-time drone management back-end infrastructure.
- Oversaw the construction of a real-time web-based drone management application.
- Hired a small team to accomplish the startup tech goals.
Senior Software Engineer
Spotify
- Designed and developed the podcast ingestion system and helped scale the podcast catalog systems from a few thousand up to 2.5 million podcasts and updated it in near real-time.
- Outlined and developed the new generation of music ingestion systems to increase scale, SLO's, and stability.
- Took ownership of Scala-based data pipelines running on Google Dataflow, interfacing with Bigtable and BigQuery, and processing millions of items per minute.
Senior Software Developer
Lightspeed
- Supported a startup from 20 to 100+ employees, turning the company into a global player through an acquisition.
- Helped establish mature development practices, version management, quality assurance, and continuous integration.
- Delivered the payment solution, payment card processing, and integrations with Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, Worldpay, and Zettle.
C++ and Java Developer
Newtec Cy
- Oversaw the Sat-IP satellite network transport system. Refactored the 100,000-line codebase to new requirements, which resulted in an independent, highly-reliable component.
- Managed the AudioCodec audio encoding and decoding solution. Deployed the highly-customized embedded Linux platform in remote unreachable locations with a heavy focus on reliability and fail-safety.
- Developed the MENOS satellite network management software using Java, implemented new features, and integrated with the Tellicast transport system.
Research Assistant
MultimediaLab University of Ghent
- Built a C++ H264 decoder for supporting the video compression research.
- Participated in several joint-effort projects between academic and business partners.
- Developed several H264 and AVC-related tools to support the work of a research group.
Experience
Spotify Music and Podcast Ingestion Pipeline
http://www.spotify.comI played a key role in this project that resulted in reducing processing times from days to hours. I also designed and built a new podcast ingestion system, scaling from thousands to millions of podcasts. Additionally, my task was to take ownership and improve Google Dataflow-based podcast publishing pipeline, owning the back-end servers serving all Spotify clients.
AudioHarvest SaaS Startup
I founded and bootstrapped the SaaS startup, building a cloud-based—AWS—robust and scalable solution. I also implemented and managed all related technical concerns, including CRM and digital marketing.
Education
Masters Degree in Computer Science
Ghent University - Ghent, Belgium
Certifications
PRINCE2 Foundation
APMG International
ArchiMate 2
The Open Group
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Liquibase, React
Tools
Apache Maven, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Google Compute Engine (GCE), Git, Flyway, Cloud Dataflow, Amazon CloudWatch, Apache Beam, Gradle
Languages
Java, C++, Scala, Kotlin, TypeScript
Frameworks
Spring, gRPC, OSGi
Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EC2, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Docker, AWS Lambda, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Arduino, Kubernetes
Storage
Google Bigtable, JSON, PostgreSQL, H2 Database
Paradigms
PRINCE2
Other
Software Engineering, H264, Digital Music, Software Architecture, Google BigQuery, Video Compression, Performance Tuning, Music Industry, Amazon RDS, IT Project Management, SEO Marketing, Telecom Equipment & Solutions, Video Editing, Technical Leadership
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