
Aurélien Stébé
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Engineer and Developer
Goyave, Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe
Toptal member since April 29, 2022
Aurélien is a creative software engineer with a strong focus on AI and web technologies. With over 20 years of experience, he has led major projects and developed innovative solutions in various ecosystems. His recent work includes an Obsidian AI chatbot plugin and a unique JavaScript front-end framework. With a background in Java, Linux server DevOps, a deep understanding of the web platform, and multiple tech stacks, Aurélien handles all aspects of software engineering from design to delivery.
Portfolio
Experience
- Web Development - 14 years
- Java - 12 years
- Back-end - 10 years
- JavaScript - 9 years
- Front-end - 8 years
- PostgreSQL - 6 years
- TypeScript - 5 years
- Python - 4 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Ruby, React, Next.js, Tailwind CSS, NestJS, Django, PostgreSQL
The most amazing...
...project I've worked on was the Virtual Observatory at the European Space Agency, traveling the world to design and develop open protocols for astronomical data.
Work Experience
Toptal Tech Lead Principal Engineer
Brandon Miles
- Managed a team of remote developers, coordinating all technical aspects, including code reviews and task assignments; delivered version 1.0 on time with a revamped UI/UX and new features.
- Migrated the front-end to Next.js and back-end to NestJS, improving performance, scalability, and maintainability and establishing a solid foundation for future enhancements.
- Enhanced UI/UX by introducing Tailwind CSS for consistent styling and implementing Lexical, an advanced rich text editor, modularizing React components to unify the look and feel and improve code maintainability.
- Restructured the data model and database architecture in PostgreSQL, ensuring project longevity, preparing for advanced LLM and generative AI features, and establishing a clear, modular, and secure data handling system.
Toptal Tech Lead Principal Engineer
Davidson Consulting, Inc.
- Led the technical study and planning phase for an innovative web app project, coordinating with a full team to deliver a comprehensive project plan, deployment architecture, and UI/UX designs.
- Delivered a detailed features backlog and project estimation, outlining various MVP options aligning with the client's requirements and including an original recommendation engine powered by LLMs and AI.
- Conducted extensive research and delivered a thorough evaluation of merchant and vendor APIs for product retrieval and automated ordering, significantly enhancing project viability and client satisfaction.
- Designed a scalable deployment architecture on AWS, incorporating DevOps best practices and cost estimation for hosting, ensuring a robust foundation for project development and future growth.
Toptal Full-stack Principal Engineer
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- Served as a Toptal consultant for Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), a prominent arts organization in California.
- Took over and managed the Artist Power Center (APC), a community website for local artists, built using Svelte and deployed on Firebase.
- Implemented a gamification system to encourage artists to complete their profiles, significantly increasing registered users from 400 to over 1,200.
- Managed all technical aspects of the project, including integrating with various external services like Cloudinary, Elasticsearch, Algolia, and SendGrid.
- Improved website analytics, providing detailed insights into user activity and website performance, which helped in making data-driven decisions.
Senior Full-stack Principal Engineer
Freelance Client
- Upgraded an internal platform to a progressive web application, enhancing performance and user experience by leveraging modern web technologies.
- Modernized the front end by implementing React, which improved responsiveness and ensured a seamless experience across devices.
- Optimized back-end functionality using Ruby on Rails, resolving critical issues in specialized payment APIs and enhancing scalability and maintainability to support growing demands.
- Developed and maintained data pipelines using Python, focusing on ETL processes to ensure accurate and efficient data handling for large-scale databases.
Senior Full-stack Principal Engineer
Studio BeDesign
- Joined a local graphic design company expanding into web design as the technical expert, setting up their entire IT infrastructure.
- Implemented a Docker-based solution for streamlined WordPress deployments, improving the efficiency of the development process.
- Led a significant migration from a legacy Django eCommerce website to a custom-built WordPress solution with a complete administration panel.
- Tutored the team on WordPress administration, development, and modern HTML and CSS, enhancing their technical skills.
- Guided the graphic designer on the nuances of web design, including responsive design and interactive elements, improving the overall design quality.
Senior Full-stack Software Engineer
Exelcia IT
- Joined a dynamic team of expert Java consultants, providing technical support for multiple large companies and contributing to the team's growth to over 42 engineers.
- Participated in a significant project for Orange Caraïbes and Réunion, two major mobile phone operators, involving the merger of their customer support platforms into a unified codebase.
- Specialized in Unix server administration for various airline companies, including Air Caraïbes, ensuring smooth operations.
- Developed Java server tools to ingest and map data from the Amadeus service in databases, improving data analysis capabilities.
Java Full-stack Software Engineer
Telespazio
- Led the development of a unified web portal for the Sentinel-1 satellite mission at the European Space Agency, supporting mission project development.
- Utilized the Grails Java/Groovy web framework to build the service, integrating APIs for Jira, KnowledgeTree, and OCS.
- Collaborated extensively with the client to establish taxonomies and incident workflows, ensuring the service met their needs.
- Established the architecture for the interconnected services and wrote the deployment procedure and operation instructions, ensuring a smooth deployment process.
- Traveled multiple times to deploy the service on the premises, ensuring the service was set up correctly.
Java Back-end Software Engineer
European Space Agency
- Played a key role in the International Virtual Observatory Alliance (IVOA), an effort to create standards and implementations for the open and seamless publication, discovery, and analysis of astronomical data among universities and space agencies.
- Led the design and implementation of the first fully harvestable and searchable registry, later adopted as the official Euro-VO registry, providing a comprehensive database for astronomers to register and discover services.
- Elected as Vice Chairman of the Registry Working Group due to significant contributions to the project, including active participation in specification writing and implementation.
- Conducted multiple workshops and participated in biannual international conferences, educating astronomers on how to use the software, ingest data, and deploy new services.
- Worked on various projects across different IVOA working groups, focusing on data access, query language, and data format specifications in an international collaboration setting.
Experience
Gladdis | Open Source AI Chatbot Plugin
https://github.com/AurelienStebe/GladdisAble to operate from any open Markdown file in Obsidian, Gladdis appends the LLM's responses to the conversation window. It supports audio file transcription through the Whisper API and can automatically load text files when WikiLinked, making it a breeze to provide context and reference materials.
Gladdis' distinguishing feature is the ability to create system prompts with distinct personalities. Users can name their system prompts and use FrontMatter to choose who to talk to, paving the way for creating a council of experts once AI-to-AI communication is implemented.
This project demonstrates my skills in developing unique AI solutions and designing powerful user interfaces. It also highlights my proficiency in integrating with APIs, my expertise in JavaScript/TypeScript, and my ability to implement complex features involving extensive parsing.
GladeJS | Open Source Front-end Framework
https://github.com/gladejs/gladejsThe framework's core feature is its unique bundling approach. GladeJS intelligently traces CSS and JavaScript components across pages, creating unified bundles for pages sharing the same CSS. This method significantly enhances web performance and reduces load times.
GladeJS is designed to be versatile and adaptable, supporting a wide range of front-end reactive JavaScript libraries, including React, Vue, Svelte, and more. It also accommodates various templating languages and style languages, making it a comprehensive tool for web development.
This project showcases my ability to develop innovative solutions in the Node.js ecosystem, my expertise in various front-end technologies, and my commitment to improving web performance. It also reflects my ability to develop tools that simplify and enhance the overall development experience and process.
Migration of a Major eCommerce Website
https://exploitant.fr/I led the migration to a WordPress and WooCommerce-based architecture, ensuring a seamless transition of over 10,000 inventory items without any data loss. I also implemented a mobile-friendly design, enhancing the site's accessibility and user experience. The new site features a comprehensive administration panel, enabling clients to manage their extensive inventory easily.
One of the standout features implemented was a 3D, 360-degree navigation tool providing a virtual tour of a server room. This innovative feature allows users to click on items within the 3D environment to view product details and make purchases. This project demonstrated my ability to manage complex migrations, develop user-friendly eCommerce solutions, and implement innovative features to enhance user engagement.
Upgrade to a Progressive Web Application
I led the modernization of the front-end, transitioning the existing codebase to a more component-based architecture, which significantly reduced code repetition and improved maintainability. My work also included the integration of modern browser APIs and the implementation of a responsive design, ensuring device compatibility and aligning with the latest web standards.
On the back end, I integrated specialized payment APIs, bolstering the platform's transactional functions, and contributed to the overall improvement and addition of capabilities. This project showcased my comprehensive skill set in web development, from crafting sophisticated user interfaces to integrating complex back-end systems.
Amadeus Data Specification Code Generator
My tool parsed the Excel-based specifications and auto-generated the corresponding Java source code required to ingest the updated data into our Oracle SQL database. This significantly reduced the time and effort required to adapt our system to specification updates, transforming a process that could take up to a month of manual work into an automated task that could be completed in an afternoon.
This project demonstrated my ability to develop innovative solutions to complex problems, significantly improving the efficiency and reliability of our data ingestion process. It also highlighted my skills in working with complex data formats and developing automated code-generation tools.
Data Flux Ingestion Dashboard and Statistics
My primary contribution was the implementation of a real-time analytics dashboard using Elasticsearch and Kibana. This dashboard provided a comprehensive overview of the ingestion process, including system performance metrics and data integrity checks. It enabled managers to monitor the process in real-time, ensuring regular intervals of data ingestion and identifying potential issues such as data anomalies or system performance bottlenecks.
This project significantly improved the efficiency and reliability of the data ingestion process, providing valuable insights into flight operations and passenger data. It demonstrated my ability to work with complex data formats, develop efficient data processing utilities, and implement real-time analytics dashboards.
Education
Engineer's Degree in Computer Engineering
ISEP - Institut Supérieur d'Électronique de Paris - Paris, France
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Node.js, React, Vue, Marko.js, jQuery, Rollup.js, REST APIs, API Development
Tools
PostCSS, Git, Subversion (SVN), Apache Maven, Apache, NGINX, ChatGPT, Whisper, Webpack, JSX, Apache Tomcat, Google Analytics, Figma, Kibana, Apache Ant
Languages
Java, Groovy, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, HTML, CSS, Sass, Less, SQL, XML, XSL, XSD, HTML5, CSS3, PHP, Haml, GraphQL, Ruby
Frameworks
Spring, Next.js, Nuxt.js, NestJS, Svelte, Tailwind CSS, Express.js, Bootstrap, Grails, Django, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Material UI, Electron
Paradigms
REST, Functional Programming, Asynchronous Programming, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Database Design, Serverless Architecture, Design Patterns, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Test Automation, ETL, Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), Code Refactoring, Microservices, Microservices Architecture, Test-driven Development (TDD), DevOps
Platforms
Docker, Netlify, Firebase, WordPress, Algolia, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, WooCommerce
Storage
RDBMS, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, JSON, Databases, MongoDB, NoSQL, Cloud Deployment
Other
Amadeus, Obsidian, Chatbots, OpenAI, Prompt Engineering, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Language Models, API Integration, API Gateways, CI/CD Pipelines, Team Leadership, Technical Leadership, APIs, Computer Science, Software Design, Linux Server Administration, Data Structures, Data Architecture, Software, Architecture, Software Architecture, Algorithms, Web Development, Front-end, Front-end Development, Back-end, Back-end Development, Full-stack, Full-stack Development, Serverless, User Interface (UI), Vector Databases, OpenAI GPT-4 API, Progressive Web Applications (PWAs), Web Applications, Vite, System Design, Design Systems, UI Components, System Architecture, Code Review, Open Source, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Data Management, ChatGPT API, SOAP, User Experience (UX), Large Language Models (LLMs), Cloud, Cloud Infrastructure, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Leadership, Scalability, LangChain, Payment APIs, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), eCommerce, Retrieval-augmented Generation (RAG), Machine Learning
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