Boris is available for hire

Boris Staal

Verified Expert in Engineering

Software Developer

Location

Mexico City, Mexico

Toptal Member Since

July 2, 2013

With over 20 years of software engineering and architecture experience, Boris is a proven leader and innovator in various domains and industries. He specializes in Rust, Python, TypeScript, and Ruby, including IoT and cloud design. As the chief architect at Vanilla, a fast-growing fintech unicorn, Boris leads the development and guidance of a multi-language microservice mesh based on Kubernetes—ensuring scalability, reliability, and security.

Full-stack Web Scraping SQL Ruby on Rails (RoR)Ruby JavaScript DevOps TypeScript C#Python Google Cloud Google Cloud Platform (GCP)Agile Software Development PostgreSQL .NET Zipkin POSIX

Portfolio

Vanilla

Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Rust, Kubernetes, AWS IoT, Elastic, Terraform, Redis...

CageEye

Rust, Python, .NET, TypeScript, Internet of Things (IoT), AMQP, Cassandra...

Qai Invest (via Toptal)

Ruby on Rails (RoR), Python 3, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, Redis, Terraform...

Experience

Ruby - 10 years Concurrent Programming - 8 years PostgreSQL - 8 years DevOps - 6 years TypeScript - 6 years Python - 5 years C# - 5 years Rust - 3 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Git, Terminal, Vim Text Editor, Sublime Text, MacOS, Agile Software Development

The most amazing...

...project I've designed is a distributed IoT network of sonars that analyzes fish behavior in salmon farms and automates feeding based on their needs.

Work Experience

Chief Architect

2021 - PRESENT

Vanilla

Designed, developed, and guided RoR-based back-end architecture for the application with numerous external integrations and background document processing.
Migrated the project from GCP to AWS using Terraform with the support of development and staging environments.
Designed and helped to implement multiple microservices, including high-load ones implemented in Rust.

Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Rust, Kubernetes, AWS IoT, Elastic, Terraform, Redis, PostgreSQL, SQL, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Concurrent Programming, APIs, Fintech, Full-stack, API Integration, Python, Web Scraping, Scrum, Google Cloud SDK, Linux, RabbitMQ, TypeScript, DevOps, Go

Lead Software Engineer

2020 - 2022

CageEye

Designed and implemented an IoT platform for the reliable gathering of sensor data from remote fish farms.
Developed a low-profile Python-based firmware for a sonar solution using complex math in a real-time environment.
Designed and deployed a multi-language microservice mesh based on Google Kubernetes Engine.

Technologies: Rust, Python, .NET, TypeScript, Internet of Things (IoT), AMQP, Cassandra, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Terraform, Kubernetes, ASP.NET MVC, Scrum, Google Cloud SDK, D3.js, Linux, RabbitMQ, DevOps, Go

Lead Back-end Developer

2020 - 2021

Qai Invest (via Toptal)

Picked up and refined the existing problematic parts of the app, thus improving the app's stability by more than 80%.
Gathered and moved all chaotically-spawned services from Postgres, Redis, and InfluxDB to Terraform, ensuring straightforwardness and ability to detect and mitigate configuration drifts.
Moved all the used services and the app itself from numerous providers to Google Cloud with no downtime.

Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Python 3, PostgreSQL, InfluxDB, Redis, Terraform, Kubernetes, Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Zipkin, Networking, SQL, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Concurrent Programming, APIs, Fintech, Full-stack, API Integration, Python, MySQL, Scrum, Linux, RabbitMQ, TypeScript, DevOps

Full-stack Developer

2019 - 2020

Vanilla

Designed, developed, and guided RoR-based back-end architecture for the application with numerous external integrations and background document processing.
Deployed the project to GCP using Terraform with the support of development and staging environments.
Created and implemented a VPN-based access and encryption strategy to correspond to a financial service that processes personal data requirements.

Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), Node.js, React, Terraform, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, DevOps, PostgreSQL, Elastic, Redis, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack, API Integration, Python, Web Scraping, Scrum, Google Cloud SDK, Linux, RabbitMQ, TypeScript

Senior Software Developer

2015 - 2018

VMware (via Toptal)

Redesigned the automatic provisioning system starting from the data level.
Migrated the existing online solution to a newer version without downtime.
Automated numerous tasks that were handled manually before.

Technologies: AirWatch, Azure Active Directory, Node.js, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR), SQL, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack, Scrum, Linux

Web Architect

2014 - 2015

Xagax Solutions LLC (via Toptal)

Created the architecture of multiple interconnected services, forming a single SaaS solution for analytics, billing, and stock management.
Designed the intelligent integration platform, allowing the integration of different CMS, eCommerce, and payment solutions into a seamless, technically independent, and cheap-to-support system.
Participated in the integration of numerous external APIs.

Technologies: UML, RPC, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack, Scrum

Senior RoR Developer

2014 - 2014

Learn To Be Foundation (via Toptal)

Migrated the platform to a newer Ruby-on-Rails version.
Assisted in migrating the front end to a newer language stack.
Participated in API integration using several external edtech services.

Technologies: BigBlueButton, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), APIs, Full-stack

Senior RoR Developer

2013 - 2014

DRH Internet Inc. (via Toptal)

Introduced a new workflow based on Scrum, including new tools.
Migrated one of the software from the product line to Angular after introducing them to the framework.
Assisted with upgrading a testing environment to newer tools, allowing continuous integration.
Doubled the performance of the testing environment.

Technologies: Angular, Ruby on Rails (RoR), APIs, API Integration, Web Scraping, MySQL

Software Engineer | Technical Evangelist

2010 - 2013

Roundlake

Introduced remote Scrum methodology successfully.
Introduced an efficient process for training new hires.
Motivated the internal community to contribute to known open-source projects.
Designed and implemented a high-load media service with a rich browser application front end.

Technologies: JavaScript, Node.js, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Concurrent Programming, C#, APIs, Fintech, Full-stack, API Integration, Web Scraping

CTO

2007 - 2010

MobiMoney

Designed an architecture that successfully handled over 1,000 requests per second at peak load.
Integrated Rails efficiently with the .NET back end.
Developed on top of JRuby as one of the first production-ready platforms to utilize all of the just-in-time (JIT) benefits.

Technologies: JavaScript, .NET, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Concurrent Programming, C#, APIs, Full-stack

Software Engineer | Architect

2004 - 2007

Immo

Created CoZen, an automated deployment, continuous integration, and permissions management system based on Subversion (SVN) and Python.
Designed imEye, a system for analyzing indicators from thousands of sources.
Developed a Russian stemming variant of PHP as a C extension.
Contributed to the company's move from Waterfall to Kanban.
Improved the scalability of a high-load dating service through sharding, manual RAM-based C++ indexer development, and CDN networking.

Technologies: JavaScript, C++, C, Python, Concurrent Programming, Full-stack, MySQL

Web Developer

2002 - 2004

Labrador ISP

Built a web interface for customer billing using the most recent UI frameworks.
Assisted with the deployment of said billing interface.
Participated in setting up complicated routing between layers of customer networks.

Technologies: JavaScript, Full-stack

Experience

Round Bank

A large-scale Ruby- and PostgreSQL-based enterprise-level solution for online banking. I designed everything from the scalability and testing patterns to the API interface. Additionally, I participated in the deployment process, bringing the product to clients.

Smart Kiosk

https://github.com/smartkiosk/

An open-source terminal platform containing software for servers and terminals that would be deployed in the field. The project is based on Ruby and includes some C code for low-level procedures. It has one known deployment cluster containing roughly 4,000 terminals.

Rove: Online Vagrant Configurator

https://github.com/aderyabin/rove/

A service that allows the pregeneration of typical Vagrant builds. I co-authored this project, aiming to create ease and popularize the provisioning of development environments using Vagrant and corresponding tools.

WashOut

https://github.com/inossidabile/wash_out/

The only available modern Rails-based SOAP server implementation. I co-authored this project, which supported Rails versions starting from 3, utilizing a new server engine framework. It supports Matz's Ruby Interpreter and JRuby.

Codo Tool

https://github.com/netzpirat/codo/

A CoffeeScript automatic documentation generator. Within the first year of the project's emergence, I took over maintenance as a core team member of Codo. Currently, I continue to be the project's lead maintainer.

Education

2003 - 2008

Master's Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science

MGAPI - Remote

Skills

Libraries/APIs

Joosy, AMQP, D3.js, Node.js, React, POSIX

Tools

RabbitMQ, Stylus, Terraform, Sublime Text, Vim Text Editor, Terminal, Git, Elastic, Zipkin

Frameworks

ASP.NET MVC, Ruby on Rails (RoR), .NET, Angular, Django

Languages

JavaScript, SQL, C#, Python, Ruby, Haml, TypeScript, Elixir, Python 3, Rust, Go, UML, C, C++, Java, Clojure

Paradigms

Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Concurrent Programming, Scrum, DevOps, Agile Software Development, Functional Programming

Platforms

Google Cloud SDK, Kubernetes, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), MacOS, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BigBlueButton, AWS IoT, Docker

Storage

Redis, Google Cloud, Cassandra, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Azure Active Directory, MongoDB, InfluxDB

Other

APIs, Full-stack, API Integration, Web Scraping, Fintech, RPC, AirWatch, Networking, Device Drivers, SOAP, Programming Languages, Internet of Things (IoT)

Collaboration That Works

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

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring