Peter is available for hire
Hire PeterPeter DeWeese
Verified Expert in Engineering
Ruby on Rails (RoR) Developer
Blacksburg, VA, United States
Toptal member since April 26, 2022
Bio
Peter is a software engineer with more than 20 years of experience. He currently specializes in Ruby on Rails and iOS development and technical leadership. He has developed solutions for finance, healthcare, government, DoD, education, media, and other industries and has many successful websites, integrations, and apps in the wild.
Portfolio
DeWeese Consulting, Inc
Objective-C, Swift, Ruby on Rails (RoR), JavaScript, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)...
Braven, Inc.
Ruby on Rails (RoR), Salesforce, Communication, Team Mentoring
Braven, Inc.
Ruby on Rails (RoR), Salesforce, Communication, Team Mentoring, JavaScript...
Experience
- Ruby on Rails (RoR) - 15 years
- JSON - 15 years
- PostgreSQL - 15 years
- SaaS - 10 years
- Haml - 10 years
- Heroku - 10 years
- Swift - 6 years
- Objective-C - 6 years
Preferred Environment
MacOS, Slack, Heroku, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Ruby, CSS
The most amazing...
...thing I've built is Funding University, a student lending website with financial integrations for credit reporting, decisioning, disbursement, and servicing.
Work Experience
Owner, Software Engineer, and Tech Lead
2014 - PRESENT
DeWeese Consulting, Inc
- Partnered with Funding University as a software engineer and acting CTO from 2016 to 2018. Led strategy and implemented student lending product for the company using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript.
- Led mobile development with TDMK Digital for the LifeJourney STEM parent iOS and Android apps.
- Developed and launched Bond Intelligent Care, a video-based healthcare app for a startup working with so-fetch.
- Assisted service companies in proposal writing for government, DoD, and private contracts.
- Improved video delivery and subscriptions for an educational publisher's Ruby on Rails app.
- Led a team to create an iOS app to improve a large bank's credit card merchant services.
- Created a doctor-to-doctor communication iOS app for a large government healthcare organization.
Technologies: Objective-C, Swift, Ruby on Rails (RoR), JavaScript, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), API/Services Architecture, Leadership, Ruby, API Integration, CSS, Xcode, Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Team Mentoring
Ruby on Rails Developer
2024 - 2025
Braven, Inc.
- Guided developers and team members to enhance a product for the university students' workforce transition.
- Worked extensively with Active Jobs for background automation, complex controllers, models, PostgreSQL usage, nested attributes, and forms.
- Integrated with Salesforce, Canvas, Auth0, Zoom, Discord, and other APIs.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Salesforce, Communication, Team Mentoring
Ruby on Rails Developer
2022 - 2025
Braven, Inc.
- Acted as principal engineer for the development team, mentoring the team, providing architectural solutions, and supporting the product.
- Implemented new student portal while partnering with Pathify, Auth0, and consultants. Led back-end integration, front end, and security efforts.
- Led projects for integration improvements with Canvas, Salesforce, and other systems to direct user flow, access, and reporting.
- Implemented and guided many new front-end and back-end features for students and staff.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Salesforce, Communication, Team Mentoring, JavaScript, Canvas LMS, Auth0
Back-end Senior RoR Developer
2022 - 2022
Beyond Finance, LLC
- Developed Salesforce API integration concerns for Object trees and other API endpoints to work smoothly alongside ActiveRecord and Heroku Connect.
- Integrated, mapped and built business logic for credit reports for credit reporting integrations.
- Developed financial business processes for back-end financial services.
- Taught about and made recommendations regarding Rails development, code smells, refactoring, and similar topics to advance the team.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, Amazon Web Services (AWS), JavaScript, Salesforce API, Fintech
CTO and Software Engineer
2018 - 2021
Funding U
- Led technical strategy for a student lending business using a novel credit decisioning algorithm.
- Managed 1 to 3 employees for the design and development of a public website, administrative website, and financial integrations.
- Architected, led agile process, and developed solutions using Ruby on Rails and JavaScript.
- Led technical platform management for business processes.
- Managed data security and performed quality and security audits.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Haml, Heroku, JavaScript, Leadership, CTO, Ruby, API Integration, CSS, Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Team Mentoring, Fintech
Senior iOS Developer
2012 - 2014
3Pillar Global
- Built prototypes and Capital One Wallet for Capital One, one of the first apps to work alongside Apple Pay at launch.
- Implemented improvements for a new deployment of ReadyBlue for Northrop Grumman for fleet readiness and maintenance.
- Implemented an augmented reality iOS app for Ballston BID with Vuforia, OpenGL, and Amazon S3 to allow users to take photos with Alex Ovechkin and other local athletes.
- Led the creation of the Freeway library to simplify API to view concerns required for most iOS projects.
- Managed contract completion, including bug fixing, final improvements, and deployment for Naviance Student.
- Produced documentation and provided training for Git processes, storyboarding, and Objective-C refactoring.
- Improved and delivered an app for Integrity Windows for window design and selection.
- Led a couple of months of development, hardening, and delivery of the GEICO iPad app for the famous insurance company. Released in December 2012.
Technologies: iOS, Objective-C, Swift, C++, OpenGL, OpenSSL, Java, Leadership, API Integration, CSS, Xcode, Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Team Mentoring, Fintech
Senior Software Engineer
2006 - 2012
Eye Street Solutions
- Developed JobOn, a web application to apply for jobs by video. Improved the web app for a startup product written in RoR utilizing jQuery, Solr, Heroku, Wowza media server software, and Flash.
- Led and developed OTG Alerting, an emergency management alert and warning origination system, with an iOS front end and an RoR 3 back end. An application with JSON API to create and disseminate standard alerting protocol (CAP) XML messages through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) IPAWS open server.
- Architected, developed, and released Veporter, an iOS app for enterprise video capture and editing. The app can be customized to work directly with any enterprise’s content management system or services like YouTube.
- Developed features for a web-based product designed for third-party retirement administrators to help manage their clients’ retirement plans and accounts. Used RoR 2, Capistrano, and MySQL 5.
- Built features and resolved issues for an RoR 2 MySQL-backed URL shortening service that allows custom domains, branding, and statistics tracking.
- Implemented a FEMA program, the National Incident Management System (NIMS) Compliance Assistance Support Tool (NIMSCAST) web app, and 2007-2010 assessments and reports. It uses a Java web server and is used by government agencies nationwide.
- Developed an iOS app prototype for FEMA for emergency preparedness.
- Designed and implemented portal and Sprint network integration features for a children's cell phone service. Used XHTML, Velocity, JSP, the Spring framework with Struts MVC, JAXB, Hibernate, and Oracle 9i over Tomcat 5.
Technologies: Java, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Objective-C, iOS, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, JSON, SaaS, Linux, Ruby, API Integration, CSS, Xcode, Git, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Fintech
Senior Programmer and Systems Adminastrator
2003 - 2006
Fiserv
- Provided system integration and webMethods expertise. Debugged and assisted with the development of integration processes. The company was formerly called BCE Emergis and Emergis; each was the legal owner during my tenure there.
- Built a webMethods code standards analysis and enforcement tool to track all service references across tools. The project was purchased twice while I was employed there.
- Maintained production environment for Java and webMethods and provided on-call support. Deployed and verified webMethods and Java products in production and provided debugging and support.
- Developed and maintained a fully controlled and automated webMethods configuration and code deployment process using Ant, Perl, CVS, and Bash.
Technologies: Oracle, Java, webMethods, Shell, SQL, Perl, Linux, API Integration, Fintech
Developer Support Engineer
2001 - 2003
webMethods
- Supported developers with their integrations using webMethods software. This involved education, pair development, and debugging.
- Helped Motorola, Fairfax County Government, and many enterprises run successful integrations.
- Provided on-call production support for customers.
Technologies: Java, webMethods, XML, XSLT, Oracle, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), RosettaNet, API Integration, Fintech
Owner and Software Engineer
2000 - 2001
DeWeese Consulting, Inc
- Completed and deployed the screamer stock tracker Java Applet for total sum parts for Money.net.
- Developed and deployed an online warranty tracker with Total sum parts for National Electronic Warranties to be used by Amazon.com and other national chains using Java, Jakarta EE, Tomcat, Apache, and MSSQL server. Designed a co-branded system.
- Provided on-site development, automation, testing, and design to the Society of Research Administrators International (SRA) for their National Practitioner Databank (NPDB) and Healthcare Integrity and Protection Databank (HIPDB) contract.
- Used Java, Oracle, and JSP and moved it from all-in-servlets to a servlet controller and JSP display architecture.
Technologies: Java, HTML, Oracle, API Integration, CSS
Web-based Tool Developer | Part Time on Call
1998 - 2000
Quantum Research International
- Provided Lotus Domino solutions for CSC using Java, JavaScript, and LotusScript. Created a dynamic phonebook with AJAX-like loading.
- Researched and prototyped a dynamic web-based statistical display tool for after-action review of metrics from military simulations using Java.
- Built presentation applets to visualize simulation concepts for DARPA proposals.
Technologies: Java, Perl, JavaScript, LotusScript, Applets, CSS
Developer | Part Time on Call
1996 - 1998
The MITRE Corporation
- Developed dynamic web components using Perl, CGI, OpenBSD, and JavaScript.
- Provided network support for a department. Implemented a backup system.
- Installed rack equipment, ethernet, and fiber cable for the Pentagon Renovation project.
- Helped prototype a battlefield tank networking project using Java and prototype 802.11 units. Developed a system using Java 1.0 that allows network agents to deploy and perform remote tasks like reconfiguring routers.
Technologies: Java, Perl, OpenBSD, JavaScript, Lotus Domino, CSS
Experience
Funding U
https://funding-u.comA student lending platform for un-cosigned gap funding for undergraduate students.
Let your hard work co-sign for you. It uses a novel algorithm to determine borrower risk of students without any credit score or co-signer.
I led this project as CTO and principal developer. I built it from an early prototype to a successful product that handles and integrates with services for a loan application, credit reporting, decisioning, underwriting, closing, disbursement, and servicing.
Let your hard work co-sign for you. It uses a novel algorithm to determine borrower risk of students without any credit score or co-signer.
I led this project as CTO and principal developer. I built it from an early prototype to a successful product that handles and integrates with services for a loan application, credit reporting, decisioning, underwriting, closing, disbursement, and servicing.
Capital One Wallet
The features of this app have since been integrated into Capital One Mobile.
Capital One Wallet was released alongside Apple Pay in 2014 and was featured in the what's in your wallet ad campaign at the Super Bowl. It allowed users to track their spending, use their Capital One cards with Apple Pay, and redeem rewards.
Capital One Wallet was released alongside Apple Pay in 2014 and was featured in the what's in your wallet ad campaign at the Super Bowl. It allowed users to track their spending, use their Capital One cards with Apple Pay, and redeem rewards.
Bond Intellegent Care
A video doctor-to-patient app working with an Atlanta area hospital to provide healthcare throughout the world. I developed a native iOS app to integrate with a Ruby on Rails app using a REST API, WebSockets, and Stripe. Later in development, I also worked on the Ruby on Rails back end.
Education
1996 - 2000
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Virginia Tech - Blacksburg, VA, USA
Skills
Libraries/APIs
OpenGL, OpenSSL, Google Analytics API, jQuery, Stripe, Salesforce API
Tools
Xcode, Git, Slack, Shell, Canvas LMS, Auth0, Lotus Domino, Amazon CloudFront CDN, Google Analytics
Languages
Haml, HTML, Ruby, CSS, Swift, JavaScript, Objective-C, SQL, C++, Java, Perl, XML, XSLT, LotusScript
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby on Rails 4, Ruby on Rails 5, SwiftUI
Paradigms
API/Services Architecture, REST
Platforms
Heroku, MacOS, iOS, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Salesforce, Oracle, webMethods, OpenBSD, Linux
Storage
JSON, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), PostgreSQL, MySQL, FlatFile
Other
Computer Science, SaaS, Leadership, API Integration, Team Mentoring, Writing & Editing, CTO, Fintech, Online Payments, Communication, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), RosettaNet, Applets, WebSockets
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