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Ryder Lewis
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Asheville, NC, United States
Toptal member since August 28, 2018
Bio
Ryder has 20 years experience building and maintaining large-scale transaction processing platforms (built on Linux, PostgreSQL, Python, and C++), in which performance, reliability, and uptime are equally critical. He has co-founded and architected platforms for three technology companies over his career and is comfortable filling many technical roles in small teams and large teams alike. He communicates well and is meticulous in all his work.
Portfolio
RNT Labs, LLC
RESTful Development, REST APIs, CSS, HTML, Vue, JavaScript, Python...
Softgate Systems
Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Tesseract, Amazon EC2, Qt, PostgreSQL, PHP...
POSA Gateway Solutions
CSS, HTML, Debian Linux, Apache, Qt, PostgreSQL, PHP, C, C++
Experience
- Linux - 15 years
- PostgreSQL - 15 years
- C++ - 10 years
- Qt - 10 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 8 years
- Python - 5 years
- C - 5 years
- PHP - 5 years
Preferred Environment
Mercurial, Git, Vim Text Editor, MacOS, Linux
The most amazing...
...project I've developed evolved over several years from a small reporting package into the central processing core of a large payment processing platform.
Work Experience
Technical Co-Founder
2017 - PRESENT
RNT Labs, LLC
- Created custom software processes and helped our clients increase productivity, loyalty, and sales while reducing long-term costs and IT overhead.
- Supported the Softgate Systems (prior employer) technology through its acquisition by PayPal. Provided software consulting services for Softgate Systems (a division of TIO Networks, acquired by PayPal in July 2017).
- Built an internal software library to utilize in new client engagements. It’s built with elasticity and scalability as core concerns, in a serverless environment, with a backend utilizing AWS’s API gateway and Lambda (Python) to handle requests, DynamoDB for storage, and an S3-hosted Vue.js frontend.
Technologies: REST APIs, RESTful Development, CSS, HTML, Vue, JavaScript, Python, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), AWS Lambda, API Gateways, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Senior Developer and Director of Software Development
2009 - 2017
Softgate Systems
- Wrote a disbursements platform responsible for settling funds for Walmart’s online seller marketplace. This platform settled funds to a network of several thousand sellers on a weekly basis, and at the time of my exit was processing hundreds of millions of dollars per month in payments.
- Contributed as a team lead and core developer on a project to retire and replace Softgate’s legacy DEC Alpha bill payment platform with modern technology. This was a successful 18-month project in which we completely replaced the company’s central bill payment processing platform with a new platform built on a Python backend, PHP/HTML/JavaScript frontend, and PostgreSQL database.
- Worked as a core developer as well as team lead on the platform, adding bill payment processing capabilities while maintaining the existing support for prepaid calling card and prepaid cellular activations.
- Wrote a local HTTP server to work in conjunction with our web-based point-of-sale application to integrate hardware peripherals into the application. These peripherals included check/bill stub scanners, barcode readers, receipt printers, pin pads, and track2/magnetic card readers.
- Implemented an encryption framework and development policies in order to help bring the Softgate organization into PCI DSS Level 1 compliance.
- Built an agent locator, using the PostGIS database extension and Google Maps commercial APIs to geolocate agents and match those agents against location-based queries.
- Wrote NACHA-formatted files (CCD, CIE, CTX, WEB, POP, and TEL entry types) and integrated with several banks in order to push and pull funds from vendors, agents, consumers, and third-party sellers.
- Responsible for ensuring system uptime, performance, and reliability for the entire duration of my time at Softgate. This included capacity planning, load testing, system monitoring, database performance and SQL tuning, application tuning, troubleshooting network issues and server issues. The platform operated in a 24x7 environment with strict payment posting deadlines.
- Configured production system monitoring tools, including Splunk for centralized system logging; and New Relic for production server monitoring, web performance monitoring, and database query monitoring.
Technologies: Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Tesseract, Amazon EC2, Qt, PostgreSQL, PHP, C, Python, C++
Technical Co-Founder and Lead Developer
2005 - 2009
POSA Gateway Solutions
- Built a fintech transaction processing platform from scratch. The platform started out as a reporting service to calculate prepaid calling card sales billing information for a former client (from Live Oak Telecom). The platform quickly morphed into a complete end-to-end transaction processing and CRM solution for companies in the prepaid calling card and prepaid cellular markets. Eventually, we added bill payment processing to the platform and the company was acquired by Softgate Systems.
- Wrote and pioneered a prepaid activation application running on Verifone point-of-sale terminals (dial-up and TCP/IP). This application, written in C, utilized the Verifone Verix and VerixV SDKs to create custom menus and dynamic prompts to capture information required to initiate and complete transactions.
- Wrote the server-side modem and TCP/IP applications required to handle communication with the network of Verifone terminals, including the download of new software onto the terminals as well as handling transactions, voids, and reports.
- Integrated to several (25+) third-party APIs for real-time card activation and airtime replenishment. The APIs were TCP/IP socket connections, typically SOAP, HTTP Post, raw XML over TCP/IP, pipe- delimited ASCII packets, or proprietary variations of ISO-8583.
- Designed all database tables required to support all applications enterprise-wide.
- Administered PostgreSQL database, including backups, SQL tuning, data partitioning and archiving, configuration, and writing stored procedures.
- Built a CRM portal (Linux/Apache/PHP/PostgreSQL) to show real-time transaction information, billing and profit data, setup and configuration of new terminals and stores, and provide self-guided research assistance to tech support/call center personnel to troubleshoot various transaction-related issues.
- Handled all technical roles for first two years of company’s operation, including systems admin, network admin, database admin, development, deployment, maintenance and escalated tech support.
Technologies: CSS, HTML, Debian Linux, Apache, Qt, PostgreSQL, PHP, C, C++
System Architect and Developer
1999 - 2005
Live Oak Telecom
- Co-founded and worked as a core developer and system architect for a prepaid calling card service bureau. At its peak, the platform processed over 1 million phone calls per day and over 100 million minutes per month of billable phone traffic.
- Built a software solution to interface with VCO-4K open programmable telecom switches, including configuration of the switch and trunk groups, answering calls, bilingual IVR functions (English and Spanish), dynamic least cost routing, outbound call completion, and recording of call detail records.
- Wrote a web portal for monitoring call completion statistics and trunk group utilization.
- Wrote a Windows VOIP softphone application, allowing users to place prepaid phone calls from anywhere in the world (over IP) to connect through the US to international destinations.
- Authored many of the database tables used enterprise-wide, including tables required for switch configuration, least cost routing calculations, PIN generation, and custom IVR prompts.
- Wrote and maintained the core event-driven framework used by the development team, driven primarily by timer events and socket events. The framework included C++ classes to initialize applications, set up logging, TCP/IP server or client socket creation, thread management, database connectivity, safe string operations, and many other utility classes and functions.
- Assisted other team members with SQL tuning, debugging memory leaks and threading concurrency issues, best coding practices, documentation, and testing.
- Configured and maintained the development environment for all of the company’s software, including server configuration, build tools, autoconf/automake files, and environment settings.
Technologies: PBX, Asterisk, Qt, Java, SS7, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), Cisco, Oracle, User Experience (UX), C++
Developer
1999 - 1999
Simplified Telesys
- Created and maintained IVR component for prepaid calling card platform.
Technologies: D, Unix, C
Experience
Legacy Platform Replacement, Softgate Systems
Worked as team lead and core developer on a project to retire and replace Softgate’s legacy DEC Alpha bill payment platform with modern technology. This was a successful 18-month project in which we completely replaced the company’s central bill payment processing platform with a new platform built on a Python back-end, PHP/HTML/JavaScript front-end, and PostgreSQL database.
Fintech Transaction Processing Platform, Posa Gateway Solutions
Built a Fintech transaction processing platform from scratch. The platform started out as a reporting service to calculate prepaid calling card sales billing information. The platform quickly morphed into a complete end-to-end transaction processing and CRM solution for companies in the prepaid calling card and prepaid cellular markets. Eventually, this platform was extended to support bill payment processing as well. Throughout the 13-year lifecycle of this platform, I continued actively developing and maintaining the code until it was ultimately acquired by Paypal in 2017.
Technologies: C++, C, PHP, PostgreSQL, QT, Apache, Debian Linux, HTML, CSS, Verifone, Digi DataFire RAS modem boards.
Technologies: C++, C, PHP, PostgreSQL, QT, Apache, Debian Linux, HTML, CSS, Verifone, Digi DataFire RAS modem boards.
Prepaid Telecom Platform, Live Oak Telecom
Co-founded and worked as a core developer and system architect for a prepaid calling card service bureau. At its peak, the platform processed over 1 million phone calls per day and over 100 million minutes per month of billable phone traffic.
Technologies: C++, HP/UX, Oracle, Cisco VCO-4K telecom switch, DTMF/MF signaling, ISDN/PRI, SS7, Java, QT, Asterisk PBX
Technologies: C++, HP/UX, Oracle, Cisco VCO-4K telecom switch, DTMF/MF signaling, ISDN/PRI, SS7, Java, QT, Asterisk PBX
Education
1997 - 1998
Undergraduate Studies in Electrical Engineering
University of Texas - Austin, Texas
Certifications
JUNE 2017 - JUNE 2019
AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
Amazon Web Services
JUNE 2017 - JUNE 2019
AWS Certified Developer - Associate
Amazon Web Services
APRIL 2017 - APRIL 2019
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
Amazon Web Services
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Vue 2, Vue, REST APIs, Google Maps API
Tools
Mercurial, Git, Boto 3, Vim Text Editor, Asterisk, Apache, Splunk
Languages
SQL, C++, Python, C, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, D, Java, CSS
Frameworks
Qt, Flask, Swagger
Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Amazon EC2, MacOS, Unix, Oracle, Debian Linux, AWS Lambda, New Relic
Storage
PostgreSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)
Paradigms
Agile, RESTful Development
Other
PCI Compliance, User Experience (UX), Cisco, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), SS7, PBX, Tesseract, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), API Gateways
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