Bruz Marzolf, Software Developer in Snohomish, WA, United States
Bruz Marzolf

Software Developer in Snohomish, WA, United States

Member since January 14, 2016
Bruz is a full-stack developer who has loved building things for the web since he first started doing it 15 years ago. He's spent a lot of time on the back end building services with Ruby and working with databases and infrastructure, but has also done substantial work on the front end building apps in JavaScript.
Bruz is now available for hire

Portfolio

Experience

Location

Snohomish, WA, United States

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Git, Sublime Text, OS X

The most amazing...

...project I've worked on was setting up a microservice architecture and being able to rapidly build out nearly a dozen microservices to provide new features.

Employment

  • Software Engineer

    2016 - PRESENT
    Habit
    • Built out new features, working across the Ruby on Rails back-end and React front-end.
    Technologies: React, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby
  • Freelance Web Developer

    2010 - PRESENT
    Fat Cork
    • Built the initial eCommerce site for the business using a framework to quickly get to market.
    • Overhauled the initial eCommerce app to provide a custom back-end interface that better matched their business.
    • Included a high level of unit test coverage for the complex business logic in the overhauled app, and a large end-to-end test suite to provide high confidence when making changes.
    • Proactively monitored issues with the site and fixed them.
    • Managed email accounts and other IT needs of the company.
    Technologies: Redis, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby
  • Back-end Ruby on Rails Engineer

    2016 - 2016
    Clustrix (via Toptal)
    • Optimized memory usage extensively to operate within a relatively small memory footprint.
    • Redesigned various database-intensive operations to greatly improve performance while still maintaining the same simple API.
    • Rewrote a key multi-threaded background process to improve speed and reliability.
    • Wrote and maintained Bash utilities used by customers to maintain their installations.
    • Added an API annotation system that provided both parameter validation as well as API documentation.
    Technologies: Bash, SQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby
  • Senior Front-end Engineer

    2016 - 2016
    Luno (via Toptal)
    • Created various new user interfaces in a sophisticated React.js stack that used state management with Redux and universal rendering and data fetching.
    • Implemented the form handling system used throughout the app.
    • Supported a new UI with unit tests for the React.js components.
    Technologies: Redux, React, JavaScript
  • Senior Software Engineer

    2011 - 2016
    AmpX²
    • Led the development of the main Ruby on Rails/Backbone.js customer-facing web app.
    • Built 11 Ruby microservices to support various new features.
    • Helped transition to a Docker infrastructure.
    • Built a service to package microservices with Docker, streamlining the deployment pipeline.
    • Led the development of the web apps for three new rapidly-developed products.
    Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meteor, Backbone.js, JavaScript, Docker, MySQL, Sinatra, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby
  • Lab Manager

    2000 - 2011
    Institute for Systems Biology
    • Developed and supported web applications for lab workflows, primarily using Ruby on Rails.
    • Created data analysis pipelines using the R statistical language.
    • Built image analysis tools using Java.
    • Performed data analysis on data sets for various researchers.
    • Demonstrated strong writing skills, authoring journal publications, grant applications, and internal documentation.
    Technologies: Java, R, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby

Experience

  • My Flare

    Developed a large-scale cloud storage and collaboration service. Built with a Ruby on Rails (RoR) and Backbone.js front end. I utilized many technologies on the back end, including several Ruby microservices and an AWS-based infrastructure with Docker.

  • Fat Cork
    https://fatcork.com

    Created a custom eCommerce app with a sophisticated back end to support the company's champagne club. It's a complex Ruby on Rails (RoR) app with a large suite of unit and end-to-end tests to allow the app to continually improve with high confidence that it will not break existing features.

  • Moment Prints

    Contributed to a service to make it easy to get photo prints monthly by automatically importing and filtering out bad photos. Used React for the front end, Ruby for the back end and Python-based machine learning (ML) to inform the filtering algorithm.

  • Hunting Down Memory Issues In Ruby: A Definitive Guide (Publication)
    Memory issues in programs can be quite frustrating whether you’re the user or the developer attempting to solve the problem. In Ruby, the garbage collector plays a vital role in managing your program's memory so that you can focus on other important things. However, it is often possible to overwhelm the garbage collector or end up with sneaky resources that cannot be freed, which can lead to all sorts of memory issues. In this article, Toptal Freelance Software Engineer Bruz Marzolf explains why certain memory issues arise in Ruby applications and how to tackle them easily.

Skills

  • Languages

    Ruby, ECMAScript (ES6), JavaScript, R, Java, SQL, Bash, Clojure, Python
  • Frameworks

    Ruby on Rails (RoR), Redux, Bootstrap, Sinatra
  • Libraries/APIs

    Backbone.js, React, Sidekiq
  • Paradigms

    Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Functional Programming
  • Platforms

    Amazon Web Services (AWS), MacOS, Docker, Meteor, Linux, OS X, iOS
  • Storage

    PostgreSQL, Redis, MySQL
  • Tools

    Sublime Text, Git

Education

  • Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry
    1996 - 2000
    Western Washington University - Washington

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