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Donald Windrem
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Sayreville, NJ, United States
Toptal member since December 10, 2019
Bio
Donald has a wealth of experience—ten plus years with Oracle Database, five years with PostgreSQL, SQL and other databases, and five years with Python development. Recently, he’s been working with Django, Linux Shell, JavaScript, HTML, among others. Environment-wise, Donald has worked with global, multicultural development teams, has AWS and GCP experience, and is equally comfortable with agile and waterfall methodologies.
Portfolio
Freelance
Database Performance, React, JavaScript 6, SQL, PostgreSQL 10, PostgreSQL
UBS Financial Services
HP Cloud, Adobe ColdFusion, JavaScript, Java, Microsoft SQL Server, Python...
UBS
Oracle PL/SQL, Bash Script, Subversion (SVN), Agile
Experience
- SQL - 15 years
- Oracle PL/SQL - 15 years
- Linux - 10 years
- Databases - 10 years
- Oracle - 10 years
- Database Performance - 9 years
- PostgreSQL - 5 years
- Python 3 - 5 years
Work Experience
PostgreSQL Database Admin
2020 - PRESENT
Freelance
- Corrected several issues that were causing bottlenecks with front-end performance such as index creation and removal, SQL performance tuning, archiving data and general performance maintenance.
- Informed client that identity columns they were using on many of their larger tables were about to hit the maximum limit and we worked quickly to alleviate any issue with these tables with no downtime and improved performance.
- Upgraded security access to the database by performing a security audit and remediating many of the issues after a review with the client.
- Guided the client on how they can monitor for performance issues and gave them tips on index creation, SQL performance, and good/best practices.
Technologies: Database Performance, React, JavaScript 6, SQL, PostgreSQL 10, PostgreSQL
Associate Director
2006 - 2018
UBS Financial Services
- Served as an associate director for Oracle Engineering Group (responsible fo all aspects of DevOps automation in an Oracle DBaaS environment, including strategy, design, engineering, development, and support at UBS worldwide).
- Constructed the infrastructure, established the automated processes for provisioning databases, deployed upgrades, patches, and backups, worked with GoldenGate and Standby databases, and implemented user maintenance as well as other common DBA tasks.
- Implemented Oracle OEM deployment procedures and Hewlett-Packard database and middleware automation tools for bulk migration processes. Coded in Linus Shell, Python/Jython, AWK, PL/SQL as well as others.
- Led and managed the effort to automate the migration of databases from our legacy environment of thousands of Oracle 9, 10, and 11 databases on RedHat Linux and Solaris VMs and servers to our DBaaS environment of Oracle ExaData serves and ODAs with Oracle 11/12 running on them.
- Served as the lead associate and team lead in the ServiceWorks group (a US-based in-house service request tool that handled various request types for wealth management groups), mainly working with Oracle databases. The app received and processes 25,000 requests/minute during the end-of-year tax rush between December 15 and January 1 of each year.
- Worked for UBS Financial Services, one of the largest global wealth management corporations in the world with over 65,000 employees worldwide.
- Converted for UBS a poorly designed ServiceWorks request database—mainly transforming materialized views into regular tables and views.
- Reworked database model tables and used triggers, views, and packages to improve the performance; the database designers used materialized views that refreshed every four seconds to fix various performance issues rather than correcting the underlying database design issues.
- Took a database with monthly crashes and transformed it into one that hasn’t had a crash for over the past two years; normal loads on the serve went from routinely hitting 80-90% to below 5%.
- Acted as a senior associate and team lead of the HR group, working mainly with Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL databases, and Adobe ColdFusion as well as Linux Shell.
Technologies: HP Cloud, Adobe ColdFusion, JavaScript, Java, Microsoft SQL Server, Python, PostgreSQL, Oracle PL/SQL
Oracle Developer
2012 - 2016
UBS
- Moved into the ServiceWorks group to add dedicated Oracle development experience and help improve performance on the ServiceWorks platform which handled all internal company requests from maintenance to trading recommendations.
- Worked on the application that handled 100s of 1000s of new requests and millions of inquiries per day for the 17000 UBS employees in the United States. The system had several outages due to database failures before our modifications.
- Decided as a team to remove Materialized Views that needed to refresh every four seconds and were driving the main processes of the app. We replaced them with tables, smart indexing, packages, and a well-written trigger.
- (Two consulting firms turned down work before they moved me into the group.). Completed the work within the original time frames and won a yearly award for innovation from UBS. Working on this project is one of the highlights of my career.
- Managed the progress of the entire database redesign and managed the team of one business analyst and two Oracle developers through the completion of the original project and through several application enhancements.
Technologies: Oracle PL/SQL, Bash Script, Subversion (SVN), Agile
Web Developer | Database Developer
1991 - 2006
Lenox China
- Occupied various positions including programmer, programmer/analyst, lead developer, and Oracle engineer.
- Worked with RPG and COBOL on IBM I-series, ColdFusion, Oracle, and Java on RedHat Linux servers for various groups including physical warehousing and distribution and data marts for international purchasing, customs, HTS and domestic shipping.
- Began work on the IBM AS/400, now called I-series.
- Supported an international purchasing and shipment tracking application that handled purchase order creation and tracking, vendor tracking, and shipment tracking from the US or overseas, harmonized tariff calculations, and more.
- Designed, developed, and traveled to each of Lenox's seven US facilities (for nine months)—installing, modifying, and training warehouse staff to use warehouse management and shipment management software.
- Used Oracle 8i on RedHat Linux servers to support an in-house data mart that reported on international purchasing and shipping information from the application above.
- Developed the front end in ColdFusion.
Technologies: Shell, Linux, Adobe ColdFusion, Oracle PL/SQL
Project History
Oracle DBaaS Migration
This was a DevOps automation project to migrate all of UBS's thousands of Oracle databases throughout the world from VMs or physical servers over to the UBS Oracle DBaaS environment of Exadata servers and ODAs.
Work Done:
• Set up the infrastructure.
• Implementing automated processes for provisioning databases.
• Migrating existing legacy databases to a DBaaS model.
• Deployed upgrades, patches, and backups.
• Worked with GoldenGate and Standby databases.
• Performed user maintenance as well as other common DBA tasks.
• Used Oracle OEM Deployment procedures and Hewlett-Packard database and middleware automation (DMA) tools for some of the migration processes.
• Coded in Linux Shell, Python, AWK and SED, PL/SQL as well as others. XML and Oracle database was used heavily as well.
Work Done:
• Set up the infrastructure.
• Implementing automated processes for provisioning databases.
• Migrating existing legacy databases to a DBaaS model.
• Deployed upgrades, patches, and backups.
• Worked with GoldenGate and Standby databases.
• Performed user maintenance as well as other common DBA tasks.
• Used Oracle OEM Deployment procedures and Hewlett-Packard database and middleware automation (DMA) tools for some of the migration processes.
• Coded in Linux Shell, Python, AWK and SED, PL/SQL as well as others. XML and Oracle database was used heavily as well.
ServiceWorks Redesign
The ServiceWorks application was the primary service request platform for UBS Wealth Management in the United States. The application and supporting Oracle database had consistent issues, especially in December when the year-end tax inquiries and requests would peak.
Work Done:
• Worked with the team to greatly improve performance. The original database designers used materialized views to fix various performance issues rather than correcting the underlying database design issues.
• Reworked the database model tables and used views, triggers, and packages to further improve performance.
• Handled the design, coding, and maintenance of all data handling packages and stored procedures within the ServiceWorks schemas.
• Led the effort to perform detailed database performance tuning.
Project Results:
• Greatly improved the database performance and made the design easier to maintain as well.
Work Done:
• Worked with the team to greatly improve performance. The original database designers used materialized views to fix various performance issues rather than correcting the underlying database design issues.
• Reworked the database model tables and used views, triggers, and packages to further improve performance.
• Handled the design, coding, and maintenance of all data handling packages and stored procedures within the ServiceWorks schemas.
• Led the effort to perform detailed database performance tuning.
Project Results:
• Greatly improved the database performance and made the design easier to maintain as well.
Credit Account Reporting and Monitoring
Work Done:
• Worked on the corporate credit risk remediation application and database which handled corporate credit and margin accounts held at the bank.
• Updated the database from Microsoft SQL 2000 to Microsoft SQL 2005 and then to Microsoft SQL 2008.
• Converted many of the front-end data access scripts to use functions rather than directly accessing the database.
Project Results:
• Greatly improved the performance and functionality of the application.
• Worked on the corporate credit risk remediation application and database which handled corporate credit and margin accounts held at the bank.
• Updated the database from Microsoft SQL 2000 to Microsoft SQL 2005 and then to Microsoft SQL 2008.
• Converted many of the front-end data access scripts to use functions rather than directly accessing the database.
Project Results:
• Greatly improved the performance and functionality of the application.
Personal Website
I have a personal website that people can review to find out more about me. The website is written in Django and Python, with a Bootstrap framework for JavaScript and CSS and a PostgreSQL database.
Education
1996 - 1996
Certificate in Software and Web Development
Learning Tree International - New York, NY, USA
1991 - 1996
Associate's Degree in Computer Science
Middlesex County College - Edison, NJ, USA
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React
Tools
Shell, Git, Subversion (SVN)
Languages
SQL, Python 3, Python, Java, JavaScript 6, Bash Script, JavaScript
Platforms
Oracle, Linux, Windows, Adobe ColdFusion, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud SDK
Storage
Databases, Oracle PL/SQL, PostgreSQL, Database Performance, Database Modeling, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL 10, SQL Server 2010
Frameworks
Django
Paradigms
Agile, Waterfall Development
Other
Data Modeling, ETL Development, ETL Tools, HP Cloud
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