Malcolm Matalka
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Stockholm, Sweden
Toptal member since December 7, 2020
Malcolm has been developing software since 2006. He has worked for startups and large banks and freelanced across a range of languages and technologies. After focusing primarily on back-end development, he broadened his expertise to include front-end development in 2015. Malcolm has been the technical lead on multiple projects in the financial, music streaming, and medical device industries.
Portfolio
Experience
- Linux - 14 years
- Python - 14 years
- Software Development - 14 years
- OCaml - 10 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 5 years
- PostgreSQL - 3 years
- TypeScript - 3 years
Preferred Environment
PostgreSQL, OCaml, TypeScript, Python, FreeBSD, Linux
The most amazing...
...front-end and back-end software I've developed is for a system that analyzes DNA sequences for cancer. Scientists designed the analyses; I built the software.
Work Experience
Senior Software Engineer (Remote Contractor)
Abiogenesis Computer Systems Lab
- Served as the primary developer for a next-generation, sequencing-based medical device and the first of its kind to receive FDA approval.
- Led the development of front- and back-end components and several initiatives to simplify the existing code and improve stability. Multiple customers noted the stability of the product.
- Collaborated with the QA department to improve their understanding of the system, improve their testing, and reduce testing time, thereby reducing the time to market.
Senior Software Engiener
Spotify AB (Sweden)
- Led the design and implementation of a Google Cloud-based backup system, enabling teams to move their services from on-premise to the cloud.
- Improved operational confidence and reduced operational mistakes while serving as the technical lead for the team developing operational tooling for Cassandra.
- Performed on-call duty for database operations. Our group served as the database experts and second line for all company databases, supporting customer-facing services during database outages.
- Co-led the group developing new technical interviews for the department.
Senior Software Engineer
Klarna AB (Sweden)
- Served as the core developer of a horizontally scalable, highly available, purchase taking system designed to address operational concerns around Black Friday and Christmas shopping seasons.
- Developed a data replication system for sharing data between active-active nodes between data centers, thereby improving availability.
- Played a key role as the technical lead for the development and DevOps team of around 10 people and performed on-call duties.
Software Developer
Institute for Genome Sciences
- Developed ParaMugsy, a distributed, multiple whole-genome aligner, allowing scientists to perform analysis more quickly and across more whole genomes than previously possible.
- Led back-end development for CloVR, a virtual machine-based genomic analysis appliance, allowing scientists to transparently perform their analysis in the cloud, which reduced turnaround time and improved reproducibility of biological analyses.
- Conducted performance, stability, and scalability testing for internal cloud deployment, providing academic institutions access to a reliable system and free service for performing computations.
Software Developer
Bear Stearns
- Managed the process of merging new releases of third-party tools with internal modifications to keep the business on the latest releases, including security updates.
- Led testing and evaluation activities for the transition to Azul JVM, significantly improving the performance and observability of our product by purchasing new hardware.
- Worked on the team that developed a new derivatives trading platform for internal customers, which helped to grow certain lines of business.
Experience
YAML Diff
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Master's Degree in Bioinformatics
Johns Hopkins University - Baltimore, MD, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Worcester State College - Worcester, MA, USA
Skills
Libraries/APIs
GitHub API
Tools
Chef, Ansible, NGINX, Amazon CloudFront CDN
Languages
Python, OCaml, Python 3, Erlang, Erlang (OTP), TypeScript, Java, C++, JavaScript, YAML
Frameworks
Django, Angular, Twisted
Platforms
FreeBSD, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Raspberry Pi
Paradigms
Automated Testing, REST
Storage
PostgreSQL, Riak, Google Cloud, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)
Other
Software Development, Distributed Systems, Cloud, Apache Cassandra, Full-stack, Ajax, Code Review, HTTP, Biology, Research, Virtual Machines, Caching
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