Technical Advisor
2019 - PRESENTNOW Money- Assisted as a technical advisor after I stopped working with the company full time.
- Solved complex problems that often came up working with various financial institutions and technology providers.
- Guided the recruiting of technical personnel and conducted interviews.
Technologies: Node.js, MongoDB, Advisory, Recruitment, IT RecruitmentCTO
2019 - 2021houza- Built a scalable product from the ground up in a very short time frame to hit the launch deadline.
- Reached feature-level of incumbent property portals in less than 12 months with a fraction of the team and budget size.
- Migrated seamless deployment from Alibaba Cloud to AWS with zero downtime.
Technologies: Angular, MongoDB, Node.js, Hapi.js, AWS, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, JavaScript, TypeScriptCTO
2017 - 2019NOW Money- Rebuilt the entire technology platform integrating with a payment processor and multiple third parties to create a virtual bank.
- Built the region's first eKYC system to help onboard our own customers and offer the service to third parties.
- Oversaw the launch to thousands of low-income workers in the Middle East.
Technologies: Node.js, MongoDB, Android, iOS, Ethereum, TensorFlow, Recruitment, Card Payments, Docker, Docker Compose, JavaScriptCo-founder CTO
2015 - 2017Styck FZ- Launched a startup to encourage UAE residents to move more and be less sedentary.
- Achieved 20,000 registered users with zero marketing spend.
- Became the biggest lead driver for Deliveroo's launch in the UAE.
Technologies: iOS, Android, Parse, MongoDB, Braze, JavaScriptTechnical Lead
2015 - 2017Unihorn Labs- Created a private workplace messaging tool allowing employees and management to interact anonymously. Built with Ionic and Parse.
- Implemented an AI-based moderation tool for the communication app.
- Assisted with an on-demand car washing application as part of the company.
Technologies: Meteor, Ionic, Parse, MongoDB, JavaScriptDirector of Technology
2007 - 2015Dubizzle- Grew the technology team from two to 30 people working in six different teams.
- Grew traffic from almost nothing to 300 million page views per month.
- Founded the R&D department, which spun out an additional marketplace app product that became its own company.
Technologies: Python, Django, Management, Recruitment
Ben Walton
Software Developer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Member since May 3, 2021
Ben is a seasoned full-stack developer who excels in guiding companies through their technical journeys towards profit. At Dubzzle, he grew traffic from almost nothing to 300 million page views per month and founded the R&D department. Ben is skilled in growing technical teams and was the first developer on the ground for companies such as Dubizzle and NOW Money. His passion lies in building products from databases through the back end and APIs up to the front end and single-page apps.
Ben is now available for hire
Experience
- Databases 20 years
- JavaScript 14 years
- Node.js 6 years
- MongoDB 6 years
- Hapi.js 4 years
- React Native 2 years
- React 2 years
- Angular 2 years
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Node.js, Angular, React, MongoDB, Databases, APIs
The most amazing...
...product I've built is a virtual bank for low-income workers in the Middle East enabling the unbanked to become banked.
Employment
Experience
- Live Video Streaming Shopping Application
A React app supporting live video streaming combined with eCommerce. The host app allowed a host to broadcast on the platform and add an additional expert to the video call. The consumer side allowed one to watch the stream and purchase the products that were currently being demonstrated. The host app was React Native and the consumer side was React video streaming was using Agora.
- Real Estate Websitehttp://houza.com
I was the full-stack developer building out this project under a tight deadline. The back end was developed with Node.js using the Hapi framework. The front end was built with Angular 9. We reached the feature level of the incumbent competitors in less than 12 months
- "Virtual Bank" Mobile Applicationhttp://nowmoney.me
Created the full back end for a banking application and assisted with the native Android and iOS builds. The work included building REST APIs from the ground up, connecting to multiple third-party services, and deploying in a PCI DSS compliant way.
- eKYC Platform
Created an eKYC platform in Node.js and native Android and iOS packages on the front end. Ran this as a standalone application that could also be integrated into other applications. The signature of the eKYC record was stored on the Ethereum blockchain for later verification.
- Fitness Mobile Application
Built 100% of the application. It was a Facebook Parse back end, iOS (Swift), and Android application. The app rewarded people for completing a certain amount of steps per day. This was done by working with the accelerometers in mobile phones.
Skills
Languages
JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, CSS3, Python, Swift, SolidityFrameworks
Angular, Hapi.js, React Native, Tailwind CSS, Ionic, Django, FlutterLibraries/APIs
Node.js, React, REST APIs, TensorFlow, Parse SDK, AccelerometersPlatforms
Firebase, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Android, iOS, Ethereum, Docker, Meteor, ParseStorage
Databases, MongoDB, Realm, Alibaba CloudOther
Programming, AWS, Recruitment, Card Payments, IT Recruitment, APIs, PCI DSS, MongoDB Realm, Video StreamingIndustry Expertise
Project ManagementTools
Docker Compose, Agora, MongoDB AtlasParadigms
Management
Education
- Bachelor's Degree in Business Computing2000 - 2004Leeds Metropolitan University - Leeds, UK
