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Jesper Kristensen
Verified Expert in Engineering
Data Science Developer
New York City, United States
Toptal member since September 19, 2022
Bio
Jesper loves solving problems and helping develop next-generation engineering systems. He is motivated by a deep drive to create excellent solutions and aims to be challenged while moving companies forward. Jesper enjoys working on a budget and delivering on strict time restrictions—it's challenging and exciting.
Portfolio
Panoptic
Agile, Operations, Blockchain, Ethereum, Crypto, Management, Solidity...
Advanced Blockchain
Applied Physics, Computer Science, Ethereum, Web3, Crypto...
Balyasny Asset Management
Computer Science, Applied Physics, Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux...
Experience
- Computer Science - 12 years
- Python 3 - 10 years
- Linux - 10 years
- PyCharm - 6 years
- Ethereum - 5 years
- Solidity - 3 years
- Remix IDE - 3 years
Work Experience
Chief Operating Officer
2022 - PRESENT
Panoptic
- Helped build, test, and deploy the underlying protocol in Solidity. I worked in an engineering capacity and was responsible for getting our entire core codebase ready for an audit.
- Met with VCs and investors to raise funds for our seed round and helped raise millions of dollars for the company.
- Support the definition and development of the hiring process and operations.
- Took responsibility for preparing our product for launch on Mainnet, including getting it ready to go to testnet and undergoing several audits while working with strict timelines and budget.
Technologies: Agile, Operations, Blockchain, Ethereum, Crypto, Management, Optimization, Solidity, MetaMask, DevOps, Web3, Ethers.js, Financial Options, Mathematics, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Alchemy, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Smart Contracts, Web3.js, Hardhat, Foundry, GitHub, GitHub Actions, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Head of Research
2021 - 2022
Advanced Blockchain
- Created the Advanced Blockchain Research (AB.Research) organization, scaling AB.Research from 0 to 15 people in five months while running the critical parts of the hiring process.
- Owned the annual budget management of millions of dollars and helped lead an incubation funding round with more than $3 million raised for a company whose name cannot be disclosed.
- Delivered six peer-reviewed papers in four months to ramp up the research presence on topics such as novel AMM design, novel exotic options design, and more. I won the best paper award at Macau '22 for one of them.
- Created three divisions—Internal Research, External Research, and Research to Product Pipeline—from the ground up with a specific focus on building and incubating, spearheading all divisions.
- Established KPIs for AB.Research and the divisions while owning and leading critical new-product research, development, and the product pipeline.
- Managed the overall day-to-day research and development, providing research help to all AB product lines and the AB.Ventures team. Created and ran technical internal sessions known as "Research goes on-chain."
Technologies: Applied Physics, Computer Science, Ethereum, Web3, Crypto, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Smart Contracts, Web3.js, Node.js, Management, MetaMask, Amazon Web Services (AWS), JavaScript, DevOps, Agile, Ethers.js, Mathematics, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Blockchain, Alchemy, Operations, Hardhat, GitHub, GitHub Actions, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Quantitative Developer
2021 - 2021
Balyasny Asset Management
- Wrote a trading platform with a portfolio manager. The platform—key to alpha generation researchers—was written in Python and worked by reading and writing data to the disk in binary on a Linux machine.
- Collaborated on the Machine Learning Quant Team at BAM. I worked closely with quant researchers bringing data into the platform for their alpha generation strategies.
- Helped scale the platform to work with more and broader data sets, building out and expanding its feature set—like converting from a Bloomberg feed to a third-party provider—and surfacing new datasets from the software to the quants.
Technologies: Computer Science, Applied Physics, Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, JavaScript, DevOps, Agile, Mathematics, Management, GitHub, Quantitative Finance, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Senior Software Engineer – Full Stack
2019 - 2020
Flatiron
- Helped build and scale up a new team of five people. Developed and maintained our provider platform, including its data ingestion.
- Owned the platform's up-time during on-call rotation.
- Won multiple awards within the company, including the "best hackathon" for proving that Kafka can help improve data delivery.
Technologies: Computer Science, Git, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Python 3, Shell, JavaScript, DevOps, Agile, Node.js, Mathematics, Management, GitHub, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Lead R&D Engineer
2015 - 2019
General Electric
- Improved the GE Aviation testing technology leading to savings of $600,000 per year. Helped advance the GE Research organization, bringing it to a new level of optimization technologies.
- Worked on machine learning, AI topics, and GE digital twins. Contributed to data science topics in Linux and Python.
- Delivered key results to the executive level and held weekly customer meetings with GE Power, GE Aviation, and other businesses. This allowed a deep understanding of how to work with business partners and stakeholders.
- Contributed to GE Research operating like an internal center of excellence, counting on an inner group of highly skilled technical consultants.
Technologies: Computer Science, Applied Physics, PyCharm, Git, Linux, Python 3, Management, JavaScript, Agile, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Optimization, GitHub, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Experience
New Decentralized Finance Options Protocol
https://www.panoptic.xyz/I co-built a new decentralized finance (DeFi) options protocol called. It works by moving around liquidity in Uniswap V3, which creates options. It is the first fully functioning options protocol on-chain. Currently, I am helping to build the app, and a website is coming out soon.
Co-authored a Book on AMMs
https://amazon.com/Automated-Market-Makers-Decentralized-Cryptocurrency/dp/1484286154/I wrote a book on Automated Market Makers (AMMs) in the Web3 and, more specifically, the DeFi space. I led the math development, built the main content, and brought the book to publication. This book was based on the initial work I did at Advanced Blockchain when I joined and found a significant lack of understanding of AMMs across the industry. The book is out for pre-release now.
ERC1155 Token Project
This project is similar to one I did for a client but feature-reduced from what I delivered. It uses the ERC1155 standard to hold NFTs and ERC20s. I built the front end and smart contracts from scratch and deployed the project to the Polygon network.
ERC20 Dashboard
I created an ERC20 dashboard using Alchemy for the node provider pulling data using a WebSocket. This dashboard shows all transfers happening for a given ERC20 token chosen by the user and displays the base fee per block, including the block usage percentage.
Education
2010 - 2015
PhD in Computer Science and Applied Physics
Cornell University - Ithaca, NY, USA
2010 - 2012
Master's Degree in Applied and Engineering Physics
Cornell University - Ithaca, NY
2009 - 2010
Master of Engineering Degree in Engineering Physics
Cornell University - Ithaca, NY, USA
2007 - 2009
Bachelor's Degree in Applied Physics
Technical University of Denmark - Kgs Lyngby, Denmark
Certifications
OCTOBER 2022 - PRESENT
Encode Solidity Expert Bootcamp
Encode Club
AUGUST 2022 - PRESENT
Blockchain Bootcamp
Metana.io
JULY 2022 - PRESENT
Ethereum and Solidity: The Complete Developer Guide
Udemy
JULY 2022 - PRESENT
Advanced Solidity: Understanding and Optimizing Gas Costs
Udemy
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Web3.js, Node.js
Tools
Git, PyCharm, Remix IDE, MetaMask, GitHub, Shell, Slack
Languages
Solidity, Python 3, JavaScript, Solidity Assembly
Frameworks
Alchemy, Hardhat
Paradigms
DevOps, Agile, Management
Platforms
Linux, Ethereum, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Blockchain, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Other
Computer Science, Applied Physics, Web3, Crypto, Ethers.js, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Smart Contracts, Optimization, GitHub Actions, Applied Mathematics, OpenSea, Quantitative Finance, Financial Options, Mathematics, Operations, Foundry
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