Damir Zekić, Developer in Málaga, Spain
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Damir Zekić

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Ruby Developer

Málaga, Spain

Toptal member since November 12, 2014

Expertise
CSSAgile DevelopmentJavaScriptRubyGitHubRuby on RailsGitMacOSjQueryHerokuCoffeeScriptEmber.js
Bio

Damir is a full-stack web developer who has been writing web applications for eighteen years using a variety of languages and technologies, but since 2008 he has been focusing largely on Ruby and Ruby on Rails. He has a good sense for UX and is committed to every detail when implementing user interface designs with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Portfolio

Freedom.to
ECMAScript (ES6), Pair Programming, Kanban, Technical Project Management, SCSS...
Totpal, LLC
ECMAScript (ES6), Pair Programming, Kanban, Technical Project Management, SCSS...
Blue River Technology (via Toptal)
ECMAScript (ES6), HTML5, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Git, GitHub, JavaScript...

Experience

  • Test-driven Development (TDD) - 11 years
  • JavaScript - 11 years
  • Ruby - 10 years
  • Ruby on Rails (RoR) - 9 years
  • Agile Software Development - 7 years
  • Git - 7 years
  • Heroku - 4 years
  • Technical Project Management - 2 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Git, Vim Text Editor, Tmux, OS X

The most amazing...

...optimization I've made was to embed images into a cached piece of HTML to reduce CDN costs for a client who had a widget on a high-traffic website.

Work Experience

Software Engineer

2018 - PRESENT
Freedom.to
  • Added support for blocking international domain names.
  • Maintained an API developed with Ruby on Rails.
  • Implemented a mechanism for upgrading user accounts with codes that open new business opportunities for volume licensing.
Technologies: ECMAScript (ES6), Pair Programming, Kanban, Technical Project Management, SCSS, Agile Software Development, PostgreSQL, Test-driven Development (TDD), Heroku, Git, Ruby on Rails (RoR), GitHub, Ruby, JavaScript, CSS, React

Software Engineer, Team Lead

2015 - 2018
Totpal, LLC
  • Led a remote team that worked on improving development ergonomics (improving speed and quality of tests and CI pipeline; overseeing a migration to Granite—a framework developed within the company).
  • Debugged a problem between an internal framework and Ruby language that was causing a slowdown for about 80 other developers in the team when running the application locally.
  • Migrated images stored on a local filesystem to Amazon S3 and upgraded the codebase to work with the new storage seamlessly.
  • Led a remote team that worked on new features inside a big monolithic Ruby on Rails application with Granite and a custom programming environment/language to describe business processes.
  • Maintained a billing system implemented inside a big monolithic Ruby on Rails codebase.
  • Conducted live technical interviews with candidates for Ruby engineer roles. Contributed to the content of the interview process.
  • Maintained and added new features to an API implemented with Grape on top of Ruby on Rails.
  • Launched TopTracker, a time tracking software for freelancers. Co-ordinated stress tests of the API with a QA engineer and production machine setup with an infrastructure engineer ensuring a smooth launch.
Technologies: ECMAScript (ES6), Pair Programming, Kanban, Technical Project Management, SCSS, PL/pgSQL, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Agile Software Development, PostgreSQL, Test-driven Development (TDD), RSpec, Git, Ruby on Rails (RoR), GitHub, Ruby, Granite, GrapesJS, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), React

Developer

2014 - 2015
Blue River Technology (via Toptal)
  • Created a UI that allows Mechanical Turk workers to label images using point-and-click interface with HTML5 and JavaScript.
  • Developed a Broccoli plugin that allows embedding JavaScript code into the HTML template for distribution.
  • Wrote a web app that allows importing of CSV files with a drag-and-drop interface.
  • Designed and implemented an algorithm for clustering data from multiple Mechanical Turk workers.
Technologies: ECMAScript (ES6), HTML5, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Git, GitHub, JavaScript, Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)

Contractor

2014 - 2015
Nehemia Consulting
  • Developed a Windows application using WPF.
  • Wrote an application combining C# and F#, using C# for user interface and F# for calculation-heavy logic.
  • Created a robust UI that allows importing from Excel and plaintext files in various formats.
  • Implemented training of MLR models with validation and prediction.
Technologies: Caliburn.Micro, Git, F#, C#, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

Lead Developer

2013 - 2014
Starting Point
  • Created a fashion eCommerce website with CMS implemented using Ember.js.
  • Integrated the checkout process with Authorize.net API for processing customer payments.
  • Integrated the application with DHL API to support drop shipping from sellers directly to customers.
  • Developed a flexible web-based tool to import data from Excel and CSV files with prediction to guess a correct file format.
  • Led a team of three developers.
  • Designed an algorithm for dynamic pricing of goods.
Technologies: Adobe Photoshop, Mocha, Chai, Pair Programming, Kanban, Technical Project Management, SCSS, HTML5, PL/pgSQL, Authorize.net, Agile Software Development, Scrum, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), PostgreSQL, Test-driven Development (TDD), Ember.js, Heroku, jQuery, RSpec, Git, Ruby on Rails (RoR), GitHub, Ruby, JavaScript, CSS, HTML

Full-stack Web Developer and Co-founder

2010 - 2013
Ganxy
  • Created an embeddable widget allowing preview and purchase of ebooks and audio/video materials.
  • Integrated the application with Stripe to process customer payments.
  • Maintained and refactored a large Ruby on Rails application.
  • Conducted BDD with RSpec, Mocha, and Chai.
  • Worked in a geographically distributed team.
  • Collaborated closely with a UI/UX designer to faithfully implement designs with HTML and JavaScript.
Technologies: Adobe Photoshop, Mocha, Chai, Pair Programming, SCSS, HTML5, PL/pgSQL, Agile Software Development, Stripe, jQuery UI, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), PostgreSQL, Test-driven Development (TDD), Ember.js, Heroku, jQuery, RSpec, Git, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, JavaScript, CSS, CoffeeScript

Software Engineer

2004 - 2007
Orka.ba
  • Implemented a web application for stock trading.
  • Developed a student information system for the largest university in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • Created a workflow management system used by several government institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • Conducted TDD with NUnit.
  • Wrote and maintained stored procedures.
Technologies: T-SQL (Transact-SQL), Microsoft Visual Studio, JavaScript, CSS, Microsoft SQL Server, ASP.NET, Windows Forms (WinForms), C#, Visual Basic, PHP

Intern Web Developer

2004 - 2005
BH Telecom
  • Implemented a new version of an online phone book for the biggest telecom company in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
  • Created a domain-specific CMS for a gaming website with PHP.
  • Used Ajax to check the availability of user names.
  • Made a plugin for TYPO3.
  • Developed a search engine based on data stored in an Oracle database.
Technologies: MySQL, JavaScript, CSS, Oracle, PHP

A Toolbelt of a Seasoned Bug Hunter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11Z4Fx8dXhc
Presented a talk on debugging performance issues and memory problems in Ruby applications at wroc_love.rb 2018, Ruby Meditation #19, and Minsk.rb.

Ruby on Rails and programming courses

http://www.academy387.com/lecturers/damir-zekic
Introductory courses to Ruby on Rails and programming for beginners.

BH Telecom Phone Book Search

A TYPO3 plugin that searches Oracle DB.

Ganxy

A digital content distribution startup with embeddable widgets for previewing and buying content.
2007 - 2010

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Graz University of Technology - Graz, Austria

Libraries/APIs

jQuery, React, Chai, jQuery UI, Stripe, Windows Forms (WinForms), Authorize.net

Tools

GitHub, Git, RSpec, Shell, Vim Text Editor, Mocha, Tmux, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Visual Studio

Languages

Ruby, JavaScript, SCSS, CoffeeScript, CSS, HTML, C#, Visual Basic, HTML5, ECMAScript (ES6), PHP, T-SQL (Transact-SQL), PL/pgSQL, F#

Frameworks

Granite, Ember.js, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Caliburn.Micro, ASP.NET, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), GrapesJS

Paradigms

Test-driven Development (TDD), Agile Software Development, Kanban, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Pair Programming, Scrum, Functional Programming

Platforms

Heroku, MacOS, Oracle, OS X, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Storage

PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), SQLite, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server

Other

Technical Project Management, Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk)

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