Ben Pochily
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
As a consultant at Pivotal Labs, Ben advised and collaborated with teams at United Airlines, Allstate, and Blue Cross Blue Shield to deliver an impressive array of applications and APIs. He has crafted modern software products for over a decade, ranging from full-stack web apps to Linux loadable kernel modules and everything in between. Ben brings craftsmanship, creativity, and discipline from his classical music training to produce high-quality, thoroughly tested, and highly readable code.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Git, WebStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, MacOS
The most amazing...
...thing I've built is a hybrid AI algorithm, using principles of Monte Carlo search, machine learning, and heuristic evaluation to play the board game Monopoly.
Work Experience
Software Engineer (Co-team Lead)
Hyperion
- Assisted with transforming a small, old-fashioned software department into a modern Agile team while serving as the co-team lead.
- Played a central role in architecting the rewrite of a primary software product while simultaneously maintaining and interfacing with legacy systems.
- Advocated for and implemented new processes, including continuous deployment, trunk-based development, and a focus on well-tested code.
- Created and deployed several automated monitoring systems, catching multiple production incidents before customers were impacted.
Software Engineer II (Team Lead)
NS8
- Led a team of five engineers, providing technical guidance, enabling productivity, and promoting individual growth. Promoted to team lead after seven months at the company.
- Designed, implemented, and oversaw the migration of customers to an updated product version with zero downtime and zero data loss.
- Advocated for and participated in Agile software craftsmanship in a rapidly growing startup.
Software Engineer
Pivotal Labs
- Enabled and guided enterprise software teams to facilitate rapid Agile development and adherence to coding best practices while serving as a consultant.
- Practiced the extreme programming methodology, including test-driven development and 100% pair programming.
- Created a robust, user-friendly Android app used by United Airlines baggage handlers to scan, track, and load baggage.
- Built a web application with Spring Boot and React/Redux, enabling Allstate call center associates to efficiently collect information and dispatch assistance to disabled vehicles.
- Engineered a microservice-based API, facilitating reliable communication with more than 16 million Blue Cross Blue Shield policyholders by aggregating, organizing, and intelligently recommending contact info from multiple sources.
- Created a Java/Spring API and Gemfire in-memory database, supplying lightning-fast access to Blue Cross Blue Shield basic member information.
- Built a Kotlin API, performing pre-processing of insurance quote requests for CNA Insurance by integrating with existing SOAP and REST APIs.
Computer Engineering Co-op
Assured Information Security
- Documented Linux kernel internals and facilitated kernel-level development by prototyping Linux loadable kernel modules.
- Conducted research and modeled applications, using proprietary techniques and classified information in a high-security environment.
- Became an expert on the Linux ELF file format by creating several ELF loaders and utilities.
Experience
Monopoly Artificial Intelligence
https://bpochily.github.io/calculating-monopoly-probabilitiesTo solve this problem, I devised a hybrid algorithm based on precomputed probability calculations, machine learning, and Monte Carlo tree search. The application uses a flexible, object-oriented design to facilitate customizable board configurations, house rules, and adaptive AI behavior. It’s still in progress, but when last benchmarked, it was able to simulate over 10,000 complete games of Monopoly per second!
You can read more about the probability component of this project at the GitHub link provided.
Skills
Languages
JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, C, SQL, HTML, ECMAScript (ES6), CoffeeScript, Kotlin, C++, Go, Python, PHP, CSS
Frameworks
Spring, Express.js, Angular, Redux
Libraries/APIs
Node.js, React, REST APIs, D3.js, Stripe, Stripe API
Paradigms
Clean Code, Test-driven Development (TDD), Extreme Programming, Agile, Continuous Deployment, DevOps
Other
Music, Collaboration, Software Engineering, Linux Kernel, Linux Kernel Modules, Security, Operating Systems, Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Genetic Algorithms, Calculus, Teamwork, Serverless, Architecture, Software Architecture
Platforms
VMware Tanzu Application Service (TAS) (Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF)), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Android, Linux, MacOS, AWS Lambda
Storage
PostgreSQL, MySQL, JSON, MongoDB, IBM Db2, Redis, Amazon DynamoDB
Tools
Grafana, CircleCI, Terraform, RabbitMQ, Gradle, Apache Maven, Jenkins, IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm, Git
Education
Double Master's Degree in Viola Performance and Chamber Music
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Immersive Program in Software Engineering
Hack Reactor - San Francisco, CA, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Viola Performance
Eastman School of Music - Rochester, NY, USA
Coursework Toward Bachelor Degrees in Computer Engineering and Viola Performance
Binghamton University - Vestal, NY, USA
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring