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

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Back-end Developer

Location
Snohomish, WA, United States
Toptal 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.

Back-endRubyRuby on Rails (RoR)MacOSMySQLDatabase DesignLinuxAmazon Web Services (AWS)BootstrapPostgreSQLDockerRedisReactElixirSublime Text

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.

Work Experience

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: 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), 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

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.
Image of Hunting Down Memory Issues In Ruby: A Definitive Guide publication
Publication

Hunting Down Memory Issues In Ruby: A Definitive Guide

https://www.toptal.com/ruby/hunting-ruby-memory-issues

Languages

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

Frameworks

Ruby on Rails (RoR), Bootstrap, Sinatra

Other

Back-end

Libraries/APIs

React

Paradigms

Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Functional Programming, Database Design

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), MacOS, Docker, Linux, OS X

Storage

PostgreSQL, Redis, MySQL

Tools

Sublime Text, Git

1996 - 2000

Bachelor of Science Degree in Biochemistry

Western Washington University - Washington