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Steven Kryskalla
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Commerce Charter Township, MI, United States
Toptal member since November 10, 2014
Bio
Steven is a full-stack software engineer and web developer with nearly a decade of experience working on large consumer projects for some of the world's most easily recognizable companies. Recently focused on DevOps, he is a smart and personable professional who can tackle solo or team challenges with equal ease.
Portfolio
Dropbox
Bash, Bitten, Trac, VMware vSphere, Jenkins, Puppet, Python
CommandIQ
RQ, Redis, Boto, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Redshift, Amazon EC2, Python
Lumosity (Lumos Labs)
CentOS, HAProxy, Graphite, Nagios, Python, Redis, MySQL, Chef...
Experience
- Linux - 15 years
- Python - 13 years
- JavaScript - 8 years
- Redis - 5 years
- Git - 5 years
- Flask - 4 years
- DevOps - 3 years
- Ruby - 3 years
Work Experience
Software Engineer, Release Engineering
2015 - 2017
Dropbox
- Operationalized and automated manual processes related to desktop client builds (Windows, Linux, and OSX).
- Maintained and improved the existing build system (Trac, Bitten, py.test) for desktop clients.
- Designed and deployed a new desktop client build system using Jenkins, VMware vSphere, and Python.
- Participated in on-call rotation for build issues.
- Wrote custom puppet modules for OS X and Linux to provision build infrastructure.
Technologies: Bash, Bitten, Trac, VMware vSphere, Jenkins, Puppet, Python
Senior Back-end Engineer
2014 - 2015
CommandIQ
- Improved the reliability and functionality of back-end systems (data processing pipeline).
- Used auto-scaling groups for deployment (Netflix-style red/black deploys of new AMIs).
- Integrated Rollbar for better visibility of platform errors and exceptions.
- Added monitoring via CloudWatch.
- Managed a Redshift data warehouse cluster (data loading, unloading, monitoring, cluster resizing, etc.).
Technologies: RQ, Redis, Boto, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Redshift, Amazon EC2, Python
Senior Software Engineer, Operations
2012 - 2014
Lumosity (Lumos Labs)
- Fixed hardware failures, network failures, MySQL and Redis crashes, bad deploys, DDoS attacks, failed maintenance windows, and more at all hours of the day.
- Managed 150 dedicated servers (dedicated hardware from SoftLayer).
- Sharded and scaled clusters for MySQL, Redis, and Memcached.
- Added automation and monitoring for all levels of the stack.
- Managed configuration with Chef and Ansible.
Technologies: CentOS, HAProxy, Graphite, Nagios, Python, Redis, MySQL, Chef, Ruby on Rails (RoR)
Software Engineer, Operations
2011 - 2012
Lolapps
- Rewrote copy-pasted Bash deployment scripts as clean, re-usable Python code (with Fabric).
- Migrated internal Subversion repos to Git and GitHub.
- Set up a continuous integration and deployment system using Jenkins.
- Implemented automated rolling of MySQL table partitions to safely rotate out old data on live database servers.
- Helped manage 200+ dedicated servers in many capacities including provisioning, automation, and maintenance.
Technologies: HAProxy, Memcached, MongoDB, MySQL, Bash, Fabric, Pylons, Python
Software Engineer
2008 - 2011
ePrize
- Built online promotions for top brands such as Xbox, Disney, Gap, Condé Nast, Dell, and Coca-Cola.
- Led development on Xbox Live Rewards.
- Built custom CMS and internationalization functionality on top of Django.
- Did back-end engineering work for large scale email marketing campaigns via ExactTarget.
- Developed Facebook applications.
- Integrated and built data exchanges for clients using a broad range of technologies (SOAP, REST, SFTP, Java, C#, Perl, Python, etc.).
- Created custom reports and dashboards for clients to help them visualize their programs' metrics.
Technologies: X (formerly Twitter) API, Facebook Open Graph API, MySQL, SOAP, REST APIs, Django, Python, JavaScript, Perl
Robotics Lab Assistant
2005 - 2007
Lawrence Technological University
- Built software to generate thousands of pages of printed material for Robofest competitions (certificates, name badges, signs, etc.).
- Did web development for Robofest.net using Java, JSP, and Python.
- Taught classes and led workshops on robotics for people of all ages (grade school through adult).
- Helped organize and run Robofest events.
- Conducted systems administration for robotics and computer labs on campus (Linux, Windows, Solaris).
Technologies: SVG, Robotics, C++, C, Python, Java
Project History
Journal of Brief Ideas
https://github.com/physicsdavid/journalofbriefideasAn open access journal (like arXiv) for scientific ideas. Winner of the Communications category at Science Hack Day SF 2013.
OpenXC Taximeter
https://github.com/lost-theory/ingenuity-taxiA program that shows drivers the real-time cost of their trip using data from OpenXC. Winner of Best Use of Data at BoingBoing Ingenuity 2013.
Xbox Live Rewards
Microsoft's loyalty program for Xbox Live members. I built out the back-end (integrating with Xbox Live and partners), CMS functionality and internationalization, and front-end features (surveys, data visualization, other interactive functionality).
Disney Movie Rewards
Disney's movie rewards program. I performed maintenance and built out custom functionality including custom reporting, promotions, and integration with Disney and other vendors.
My StackOverflow profile
Rated top 10% for Python development.
Education
2003 - 2008
Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics
Lawrence Technological University - Southfield, Michigan
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Fabric, REST APIs, Facebook Open Graph API, RQ, Twilio API, X (formerly Twitter) API, Underscore.js, jQuery, Facebook API
Tools
Nagios, GitHub, Git, Mercurial, Terminal, Chef, Boto, Puppet, Jenkins, VMware vSphere, Trac, Subversion (SVN), Adobe Photoshop, Audacity, Paint.NET, Inkscape
Languages
Python, JavaScript, SQL, Bash, Java, C, C++, Ruby, Perl
Frameworks
Flask, Pylons, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Django
Platforms
Linux, MacOS, Firefox, CentOS, Amazon EC2, Android, Windows, Mailgun
Storage
Redis, Memcached, MySQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Redshift, PostgreSQL, MongoDB
Paradigms
DevOps, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Functional Programming, Agile Software Development, Asynchronous Programming, Scrum, Concurrent Programming
Other
Graphite, Vi, HAProxy, SOAP, Robotics, SVG, Bitten, Tornado
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