Dany Caissy
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Montreal, QC, Canada
Toptal member since April 27, 2017
Dany is a senior back-end engineer and technical lead with 15+ years of experience designing scalable, high-performance systems across SaaS and consulting engagements. He's specialized in AWS infrastructure, database optimization, and large-scale data platforms, and focused on performance, scalability, and infrastructure efficiency in production environments.
Portfolio
Experience
- PHP - 10 years
- JavaScript - 10 years
- HTML5 - 10 years
- MySQL - 9 years
- Laravel - 6 years
- API Development - 6 years
- Product Management - 4 years
- Project Management - 4 years
Preferred Environment
Postman, Linux, Windows, Git, PhpStorm, PostgreSQL, AWS HA
The most amazing...
...project I've worked on was Quickpages.co—it provides a free service and is now being used by tens of thousands of people!
Work Experience
Lead Engineer
GeneFood
- Designed and deployed a whole cloud infrastructure on AWS (EC2, RDS PostgreSQL, S3, networking, CI/CD), owning the end-to-end deployment and release process.
- Reduced AWS infrastructure costs by 90%+ through rightsizing and architectural optimization.
- Built and launched a customer-facing AI feature powered by OpenAI, implementing rate limiting, usage controls, subscription gating, and a complex Stripe-based billing integration.
- Led a small engineering team, driving technical direction, sprint planning, and production operations.
- Full-stack development using Laravel (PHP, PostgreSQL) and Next.js/React.
- Improved platform security and moved the system toward HIPAA-aligned practices, strengthening data protection and infrastructure compliance.
Senior Development Engineer
Pinpointe On-Demand, Inc
- Optimized a 1TB+ MariaDB database, achieving 50–90% faster execution times on critical production queries through indexing, query refactoring, and selective denormalization.
- Reworked reporting systems operating on terabyte-scale datasets, improving aggregation efficiency and reducing database load.
- Refactored and scaled contact import pipelines handling billions of records per month, improving throughput and reliability in a legacy PHP codebase.
- Implemented automated integration tests covering around 100 API endpoints.
Software Engineer | Product Manager | Talent Screener
Multiple Clients
- Worked with or led a team to develop an application from the ground up, typically with PHP and Laravel but sometimes with Python and Node.js (software engineer).
- Worked with the client to identify stories and epics, created and managed tasks, identified resources needed, and used Scrum or Kanban to deliver the project (technical project manager).
- Managed the transition of projects to the cloud (AWS and Digital Ocean) or other cloud-related tasks.
- Helped various companies in regard to hiring and interviewing candidates. Helped companies like NASA, Nestle, Walmart, Deel, and more find the best candidates for their roles.
Product Manager
ThemeIsle
- Conducted user research including creating surveys and interviewing users.
- Performed multiple competitors and market analyses for multiple projects.
- Managed multiple projects, using the Kanban methodology.
- Defined the product direction including which features to include and in which release.
- Communicated and collaborated with multiple teams (QA, marketing, content, and so on).
- Wrote documentation about new features, including API documentation.
- Managed automated emails to new and existing users, workflows and more.
Technical Interviewer | Mentor
Chegg
- Gave a practice technical interview to programming students (we even use Toptal interview questions sometimes).
- Reviewed student portfolio projects (necessary to pass the course).
- Provided mentorship, tips, and tricks in regards to the job market and interviews in general.
- Guided students through team projects, acting as the product owner (project manager) using the Scrum methodology.
Senior Software Developer
TapClicks
- Integrated complex API providers with our platform (AdWords, Analytics, DFP, Instagram, Pinterest, Bing, Yahoo, and more).
- Optimized the processing of data and queries on large databases (2TB+ Redshift database).
- Led and designed important platform features and used project management tools such as Jira.
- Mentored and code-reviewed newer developers on the platform.
- Wrote the code challenges used during the interview process for potential employees.
Senior Software Developer
SekureCard Services
- Defined the requirements in collaboration with C-level executives of a 500+ person company.
- Implemented major database changes affecting hundreds of pages while maintaining data integrity.
- Optimized complex reports using tables of several million rows.
- Created complex, interactive pages using Ajax and jQuery.
Web Developer
Valnet
- Developed single-handedly an important (featured on the front page) section of a website with 15 million visits a month.
- Optimized several MySQL queries and occasionally used Memcached for a critical, higher-traffic functionality.
- Added major features on a high-traffic review site, Forlocations.com.
Microsoft Dynamics AX Software Consultant
Thinkmax
- Customized the complex ERP software for large customers (+500 million revenue) on large data sets.
- Developed large, complex SQL queries to solve elaborate business requirements for leaders in their respective industries.
- Worked concurrently on multiple projects for multiple clients.
Web Developer
Progi
- Added extended reporting features and contributed to a complex database schema containing over 100 tables.
- Presented to the company (30+) and participated in the implementation of Agile methodologies on the development team.
- Built full-stack features using PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript.
Experience
Quickpages.co
http://quickpages.coIt is hosted on AWS using services such as EC2, S3, RDS, Route53, and more.
Dalle-E Goblin
https://dallegoblin.com/Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières - Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada
Diploma of College Studies (DCS) in Computer Science
Cégep de Shawinigan - Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada
Certifications
Google Ads Search
Skills
Libraries/APIs
API Development, DFP API, X (formerly Twitter) API, Google Analytics API, LinkedIn API, Facebook API, Yahoo! API, Google Ads API, Instagram API, jQuery, Bing API, Pinterest API, Node.js, Nativo API, Facebook Marketing API, DoubleClick API, Twilio API, Vue, React
Tools
Asana, Apache, Claude, ChatGPT, PhpStorm, Git, SQLyog, Postman, GitHub, Amazon CloudFront CDN, Composer, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics
Languages
PHP 7, PHP, SQL, HTML5, HTML, JavaScript, Python, CSS, Java, C++, C
Paradigms
Kanban, Design Patterns, Automation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Agile, Scrum, On-page SEO, Unit Testing, REST
Platforms
LAMP, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Windows, Magento, Amazon EC2, Sizmek, Marketo, Linux, DigitalOcean, Google Ads
Storage
JSON, MySQL, Databases, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Memcached, Redis, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MariaDB, MongoDB
Frameworks
PHPUnit, Laravel, Slim, CodeIgniter, Bootstrap, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Flask, Eloquent, Symfony, Next.js, AWS HA, Express.js
Industry Expertise
Project Management, Marketing
Other
APIs, API Integration, Team Mentoring, Ajax, Back-end, Web Development, Product Management, Writing & Editing, API Documentation, AI Agents, Artificial Intelligence (AI), SOAP, Interviewing, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Semrush, Blade, eCommerce, Web Project Management, Talent Management, Software Engineering, Reporting, Analytics, ChatGPT API
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
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring