Engineering Blog Editor
2017 - PRESENTToptal, Inc.- Authored original works, liaised with authors regarding their works, and edited works.
- Conducted, aided in, and applied SEO research to works.
- Published works to the Engineering blog, and released newsletters to the subscriber-base.
- Documented the implicit team process, allowing quick iterations and reference.
- Made plenty of mistakes, but was once called "intimidatingly productive" in a review.
- Used personal influence and connections to reopen previously closed content distribution avenues—directly increasing readership.
Technologies: Google Docs, Google Sheets, Kramdown, HubSpot, Trello, Slack, SEO, LaTeXCo-founder | CTO
2017 - PRESENTNazdeeq.com- Built the technology that powers the company.
- Created complex Nginx configurations that power the core application.
- Constructed a powerful, very available infrastructure to handle the huge traffic demands.
- Containerized multiple microservices to make the software infrastructure and platform agnostic.
- Developed scalable pipelines for support and partner communications.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, Nginx, Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon Product Advertising APIFreelance Senior Ruby on Rails Engineer
2017 - 2017ABC Containers (via Toptal)- Created a customized ERP for the business.
- Automated almost all of the manual aspects of the business logic.
- Developed a database schema that would fit past data and aid in new data.
- Implemented real-time business reports.
- Reviewed and translated business logic into code.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails, GitLab CI, Mailgun, eSignatureCEO | Developer | Head of Operations
2014 - 2017Payload Technologies, Inc.- Architected an auditable financial system that allowed users to exchange balance and make payments among each other.
- Developed a messaging application that allowed users to talk to each other in real time.
- Implemented an escrow system that would hold and payout the agreed amounts based on user actions.
- Used third-party APIs to securely store Bitcoin.
- Created a service that automatically liquidated Bitcoin into currency through third-party exchanges.
Technologies: Ruby on RailsTechnology Consultant
2012 - 2014Treebark- Created brochureware websites for clients.
- Set up and maintained WordPress and Joomla websites.
- Registered and managed domain names on behalf of clients.
- Implemented Google apps for clients.
Technologies: HTML/CSS, Photoshop
Software Developer in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Member since October 7, 2016
Amin is a developer and entrepreneur who writes clean, test-driven code in Ruby and ES6 wrapped in perfectly-crafted containers for DevOps. As a freelancer and two-time co-founder, he's launched products making $10k+ in revenue, successfully raised funding in Silicon Valley for his Pakistan-based startup, and won two hackathons—from among 300+ global entries. In his spare time, he authors technical content and contributes to open-source.
Amin is now available for hire
Portfolio
- Toptal, Inc.Google Docs, Google Sheets, Kramdown, HubSpot, Trello, Slack, SEO, LaTeX
- Nazdeeq.comRuby on Rails, Nginx, Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon Product Advertising API
- ABC Containers (via Toptal)Ruby on Rails, GitLab CI, Mailgun, eSignature
Experience
- GitHub 5 years
- Ruby 3 years
- Node.js 3 years
- Ruby on Rails (RoR) 3 years
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Git, Atom, Ubuntu or macOS
The most amazing...
...thing I've coded is a Bitcoin-to-currency converter bot that I would send bitcoin to and it would convert it to PKR and wire it to my bank account.
Employment
Experience
- Project C.A.R.E. | A Community Effort to Eradicate Forced Child Begging (Development)https://care.gilani.me
A crowd-sourced effort to eradicate forced child begging.
In Pakistan, it is common to see young children, under the age of 15, who are forced to beg on the streets by their parents or a faceless mafia. Only in Pakistan are these future doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs ignored by every citizen that passes them.
We wanted to help eliminate this terrible practice, but imagine our surprise, when we discovered that a law already exists to curb it. This SDG Hackathon gave us the ability to use our technology for good.
As citizens of Pakistan and as human beings, we asked ourselves why there are children still begging on the streets when there are strict laws protecting them and seemingly well-performing government organizations.
We realized greater civilian reporting and oversight of these organizations is all that remains to be improved upon so we started doing just that with technology. - Please Use Git (Other amazing things)https://hackernoon.com/please-use-git-da3bea7d1234
Counterarguments to the most common reasons against using Git.
Despite Git being ubiquitous among organizations and teams, I’ve met a surprising number of people in Pakistan that don’t use version control. It makes it incredibly difficult for me to collaborate with them. - Two Welcome Side Effects of Webpack in Rails | Article (Other amazing things)https://web.archive.org/web/20170924211345/https://www.euruko2017.org/2017/09/19/two-welcome-side-effects-of-webpack-in-rails.html
An article that I wrote that discusses how a Rails' Webpack integration lets us tap into the world of JavaScript dependencies and bypass the "use CSS helpers" annoyance in the asset pipeline.
- A Software Defined Radio Tutorial: Images from the International Space Station and Listening to Hams with an RTL-SDR (Publication)Radio has used fundamentally the same technology since Marconi’s experiments in 1895. However, improved circuit design and signal processing techniques have allowed us to transmit much more and much farther out than before. In this article, with a laptop and less than $30 worth of equipment, we’ll capture images transmitted from the International Space Station and listen to amateur radio conversations at a local repeater.
- Scale with Speed: The Bitcoin Lightning Network Explained (Publication)The Bitcoin Lightning Network is an independent solution that’s heralded as the solution to bitcoin’s scaling problem by keeping fees minuscule and making transactions instant, away from the blockchain. In this article, Toptal Freelance Blockchain Developer Amin Shah Gilani explores what the Bitcoin Lightning Network really is, how it can make the guarantees it provides, and its current state.
- How to Build an Effective Initial Deployment Pipeline (Publication)Do you run deployment scripts from your development machine, or find yourself referring to deployments by the day of the week they were deployed, instead of using version numbers? It’s time for a better solution. In this article, Freelance Ruby Engineer and automation enthusiast Amin Shah Gilani walks you through his perfect deployment pipeline to use at the beginning of your project. With this CI/CD configuration, every push is tested, the master branch is deployed to staging servers with a fresh database dump from the production server, and versioned tags are deployed to production with backups and migrations running automatically.
- Rails Service Objects: A Comprehensive Guide (Publication)Rails ships with everything you need to prototype your application quickly, but when your codebase starts growing, you'll run into scenarios where the conventional Fat Model, Skinny Controller mantra breaks. When your business logic can't fit in either a model or a controller, that's when service objects come in and let us separate every business action into its own Ruby object.
- A Guide to Security Best Practices for Remote Teams (Publication)Learn how, with the right remote worker security policy, distributed teams can be just as secure as in-house teams. Toptal Freelance Software Engineer and full-time remote worker Amin Shah Gilani walks us through common security attack methods, cyber defense strategies, and, finally, an example of a good remote worker security policy.
- Unlimited Scale and Free Web Hosting with GitHub Pages and Cloudflare (Publication)Whether you’re a bootstrapped startup that needs a brochureware website or a corporation that needs a high-performing web app, this post is for you. In it, Toptal Software Engineer Amin Shah Gilani teaches you how to setup a static, SSL-secure website for the very low cost of free, using Github Pages and Cloudflare.
Skills
Languages
Ruby, JavaScript, ECMAScript (ES6), HTML/CSS, Python 3Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (RoR), ASP.NET MVC, Bootstrap 3+, Express.jsLibraries/APIs
Vue.js, Node.js, React, jQuery, Coinbase API, Twitter API, Stripe API, StripeTools
Cucumber, RSpec, Git, GitHub Pages, GitHub, Adobe Photoshop, Jekyll, Docker ComposeParadigms
Test-driven Development (TDD), Behavior-driven Development (BDD)Platforms
iOS, Docker, Ubuntu, Mailgun, Raspberry Pi, Ghost.io, WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BlockchainOther
APIs, Domains & Hosting, Semantic UI, Bitcoin, Embedded Software, User Experience (UX), Documentation, Writing & EditingStorage
MongoDB, PostgreSQL, AWS S3
Education
- Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Economics and Finance2010 - 2015Lahore School of Economics - Lahore, Pakistan
Certifications
- Ruby Association Certified Ruby Programmer SilverJULY 2019 - PRESENTRuby Association (https://www.credential.net/vbkdpiax)
- Ruby Association Certified Ruby Programmer GoldJUNE 2019 - PRESENTRuby Association (https://www.credential.net/2vxzz0eg)
- Getting Started with PythonJANUARY 2017 - PRESENTUniversity of Michigan | Coursera (https://coursera.org/verify/2GU354Z9X8XT)
- Ruby on Rails: An IntroductionJUNE 2016 - PRESENTJohns Hopkins University | Coursera (https://coursera.org/verify/HSL4KJ7AHJ94)
