Ruslan Forostianov
Verified Expert in Engineering
Full-stack Developer
Utrecht, Netherlands
Toptal member since January 21, 2022
Ruslan is a problem-solver first and a software engineer second, with over 15 years of designing and delivering open-source platforms for biotech and cancer research. He contributed major features to cBioPortal and Open Targets, shaping tools used by researchers worldwide. Pragmatic and people-oriented, he excels at translating complex scientific needs into elegant, high-impact engineering solutions while guiding teams toward meaningful outcomes.
Portfolio
Experience
- Databases - 15 years
- JavaScript - 15 years
- Data Science - 10 years
- Scala - 9 years
- Business Analysis - 4 years
- React - 4 years
- Clojure - 1 year
- Design Thinking - 1 year
Preferred Environment
Java, Python, JavaScript
The most amazing...
...achievement was introducing RFC-backed improvements to cBioPortal, including incremental import and dynamic virtual studies adopted across research groups.
Work Experience
Software Engineer
SE4BIO
- Delivered core enhancements to cBioPortal, including incremental data import and dynamic virtual studies, enabling multi-cohort analysis used by dozens of research teams across major cancer centers.
- Led RFCs, architecture decisions, and cross-team collaboration to standardize data integration workflows, reducing onboarding time for new studies from weeks to days.
- Contributed production-grade features to high-impact open-source projects such as cBioPortal and Open Targets, improving data accessibility for thousands of researchers worldwide.
Software Engineer | Owner
Forostianov IT Consultancy
- Analyzed business requirements and designed and implemented three minimum viable products.
- Advised and helped improve existing software in the life science and education domains.
- Developed and gave multiple courses about programming languages, security, and data science.
Tech Co-Founder
Unizone
- Worked on a product-market fit in close cooperation with two other co-founders.
- Interviewed dozens of potential customers and partners.
- Led the development of an MVP for a mobile web app. Performed the CI/CD deployment to quickly implement our customer development findings.
Lead Software Engineer
The Hyve
- Contributed as a tech software engineer to an early-stage startup that became a profitable company.
- Analyzed and implemented business requirements in three open-source software platforms related to healthcare and bioinformatics.
- Mentored a team of 15 software engineers via one-to-one meetings, book clubs, and hackathons.
Senior Software Engineer
SPD Group
- Developed components of the PitchBook platform, including the analytics, ETL, newsletters, and admin section.
- Handled the back-end and front-end development of an eCommerce platform.
- Proposed and implemented regular knowledge-sharing sessions, creating a tradition within the team.
Experience
PitchBook
TranSMART
cBioPortal
https://www.cbioportal.org/Open Targets
https://www.opentargets.org/Open Targets is an innovative, large-scale, multi-year, public-private partnership that uses human genetics and genomics data for systematic drug target identification and prioritization.
Education
Master's Degree in Computer Science
Cherkasy State Technological University - Cherkasy, Ukraine
Certifications
The Data Scientist's Toolbox
Johns Hopkins University, via Coursera
Functional Programming Principles in Scala
EPFL, via Coursera
Machine Learning
Coursera
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, Pandas, Apache Lucene, MobX
Tools
Git, Keycloak
Languages
Java, JavaScript, SQL, Groovy, Python, Python 3, HTML, CSS, GraphQL, TypeScript, ECMAScript (ES6), R, Scala, Clojure
Frameworks
Spring, Spring Boot, Hibernate, Grails, Spark, Material UI
Paradigms
Unit Testing, Design Thinking
Storage
PostgreSQL, MySQL, Databases, RDBMS, Relational Databases, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), ClickHouse, Elasticsearch
Platforms
Unix, Docker, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Firebase, Kubernetes
Other
Software Engineering, Design, Statistics, Data Science, Machine Learning, Business Analysis, MVP Design, User Experience (UX)
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