David Kiss, Developer in Toronto, ON, Canada
David is available for hire
Hire David

David Kiss

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Bio

David is a results-oriented, pragmatic lead software engineer specializing in back end and integrations with a zeal for continuous improvement. He's experienced in helping companies design, build, and grow effective software solutions and performant dev teams. He's well-versed in Agile and Lean methodologies, software design principles, cloud technologies, and aligning stakeholders behind technology outcomes. David thrives on challenging tasks in fast-paced and complex business environments.

Portfolio

WrkSense
TypeScript, LangChain, Azure Cosmos DB, Vector Search, ChatGPT, Llama 3, Groq...
SportEdge
Python, AWS Lambda, PostgreSQL, GitHub Actions, AWS Step Functions...
ArrowHQ
Python, FastAPI, ChatGPT API, ChatGPT, ChatGPT Prompts, Groq, Llama, Deepgram...

Experience

Java - 16 yearsSpring - 10 yearsJavaScript - 8 yearsSQL - 7 yearsArchitecture - 5 yearsSpring Boot - 5 yearsNode.js - 2 yearsReact - 1 year

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Java, Node.js, JavaScript, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Python, AWS Lambda, React, Artificial Intelligence (AI), LangChain, TypeScript

The most amazing...

...decision for my career has been to continuously learn and grow so that I get to work on more challenging and complex tasks and provide more value to my clients.

Work Experience

AI Engineer

2024 - PRESENT
WrkSense
  • Built a feature using AI to quickly parse resumes by extracting names, emails, phone numbers, locations, and time zones from .pdf, .doc, and .docx resume files.
  • Built a feature using AI to parse .pdf, .doc, and .docx resumes, including name, email, URLs, summary, skills, languages, work experiences, education, training, certifications, references, and awards.
  • Generated standardized .pdf resume files using parsed resume details as a feature using AI.
  • Matched resumes with jobs using vector search as a feature using AI.
  • Scored resumes based on recruiters' custom list of criteria (years of experience, skills, location, certifications, etc.) for a specific job as a feature using AI.
Technologies: TypeScript, LangChain, Azure Cosmos DB, Vector Search, ChatGPT, Llama 3, Groq, Gemini, Claude, Node.js, Express.js

CTO

2024 - 2024
SportEdge
  • Designed and led the building of the company's data pipeline to automatically ingest data for golf analytics.
  • Set up infrastructure in AWS using infrastructure as code (IaC).
  • Migrated existing data to a new PostgreSQL DDL structure.
Technologies: Python, AWS Lambda, PostgreSQL, GitHub Actions, AWS Step Functions, Data Pipelines, Pandas, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)

AI Engineer

2024 - 2024
ArrowHQ
  • Reduced latency to enable real-time conversation between bot and IVR menu and customer service rep.
  • Resolved the issue of the IVR bot not "understanding" digits spelled by our bot.
  • Introduced Groq and Llama for faster intent recognition in messages of customer support reps.
  • Added regression tests to help iterate faster on prompt engineering.
Technologies: Python, FastAPI, ChatGPT API, ChatGPT, ChatGPT Prompts, Groq, Llama, Deepgram, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, GitHub Actions, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Aurora

Lead Software Engineer

2023 - 2024
Condor Software
  • Developed the full stack of a complex feature for a SOX-compliant accounting application, including a React front end, back-end Python REST API endpoints, Django SQL queries, and a test suite.
  • Optimized infrastructure, including a GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline and AWS CloudFormation IaC.
  • Mentored other engineers and introduced the DangerJS tool to help automate manual PR review tasks.
Technologies: Python, Django, TypeScript, React, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS CloudFormation, PostgreSQL, GitHub, MUI CSS, CSS, HTML, SQL, Agile Software Development, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), REST, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Architecture, Scrum

Director of Engineering

2022 - 2022
RBC
  • Coordinated deliverables with the product team, 3rd-party software vendor, solution architect, and tech team.
  • Pushed the delivery team to build a project plan fast and collaborated with the delivery and product teams, solution architects, a 3rd-party vendor (LivePerson), and other dev teams to project plans for conversational flows and back-end integrations.
  • Assisted the solution architecture team in exploring an existing solution that could be reused for our project when they faced resource constraints.
  • Aided the back-end team in delivering the back-end integrations a week before a scheduled release date after the team lost one of the two back-end developers.
Technologies: JavaScript, Node.js, IT Strategy, Leadership, Strategic Planning, APIs, SQL, Agile Software Development, Continuous Integration (CI), REST, OpenShift, Scrum, LivePerson

Senior Software Engineer

2021 - 2022
Nuvalence
  • Headed load-testing efforts to sync 5,000 messages per second from Google Cloud to Azure.
  • Built a POC to identify personally identifiable information (PII) in images and PDF files using the Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP) service.
  • Created a Docker container to migrate data from Azure SQL to Google Cloud SQL automatically.
Technologies: Java, Spring Boot, Node.js, Google Cloud, Azure, JavaScript, TypeScript, Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Serverless Framework, Spring MVC, APIs, Spring, Microservices, SQL, Agile Software Development, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), REST, Java 8, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Architecture, Scrum

Lead Java Developer

2021 - 2021
P C Financial
  • Headed a pod of two Java developers on the back-end team.
  • Proposed several solutions to improve the back-end team's velocity and reduce operational costs.
  • Built a prototype for a web application to help the bank's customers earn more loyalty points as part of the bank's hackathon.
Technologies: Spring, Microservices, Java 9, Groovy, Oracle, OpenShift, Jenkins, Gradle, Kubernetes, Helm, Spring MVC, Spring Boot, Architecture, APIs, SQL, Agile Software Development, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), REST, Java 8, Leadership, Scrum

Principal Engineer

2019 - 2020
DrFirst
  • Designed and built a full-stack application that allows customers to retrieve audit records.
  • Integrated the company's mobile app with major electronic medical records (EMR) vendors to help patients import their health records into a single central place.
  • Conducted interviews at the request of other teams to help them hire qualified candidates.
Technologies: Java 8, Spring, PostgreSQL, HL7, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Angular, MongoDB, TypeScript, Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Architecture, APIs, Microservices, CSS, HTML, SQL, Agile Software Development, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), REST, HL7 FHIR Standard, Scrum

Software Developer and Architect

2018 - 2019
Deloitte Canada
  • Worked on several middle-tier projects with both software developer and architect capabilities.
  • Proposed a design for an API gateway for seamless OAuth token exchange between Okta and other identity providers.
  • Suggested reliable communication between the mobile app and the back end for users to enter video conference calls with doctors.
Technologies: Node.js, Firebase, Google Cloud, OAuth, SQL, Spring Boot, Java, Spring MVC, Architecture, APIs, Spring, Microservices, Hibernate, Agile Software Development, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), REST, Apache Maven, Java 8, Kubernetes, Helm, Spring Security, Scrum

Lead Back-end Developer

2015 - 2018
RBC
  • Led the design and development of several middle-tier applications under the RBC reward and loyalty organization.
  • Managed a team of nine Java back-end developers working on 2-3 different middle-tier projects simultaneously.
  • Oversaw the overall application architecture, code quality, and optimal productivity of the back-end team.
Technologies: Cloud, Apache Camel, SQL, Microservices, Spring Boot, Java, Spring MVC, Architecture, APIs, Spring, Hibernate, Agile Software Development, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), REST, Apache Maven, Java 8, Leadership, IT Strategy, Scrum

Senior Java Developer (Contract)

2014 - 2014
Bedside Clinical Systems
  • Worked on the full stack of an application involving HL7 integration with hospitals, performance tuning, and DB optimization.
  • Created several REST APIs and UI screens to manage admin configuration, vital signs, and patient weight data.
  • Migrated a web application (including HL7 integration) from PostgreSQL to Microsoft SQL Server.
  • Optimized DB queries to ensure the return of HTTP requests within a second in a load test environment.
  • Updated online vital sign charts with custom components using SVG and D3.js.
Technologies: JavaScript, CSS, Bootstrap, REST, Apache Tomcat, HL7, SQL, Hibernate, Spring MVC, Java, HTML, Agile Software Development, Unit Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), Apache Maven, Java 8, Spring, Scrum

Senior Java Developer (Contract)

2012 - 2013
QuickPlay Media
  • Built and maintained several modules of the video processing platform to download, transcode, encrypt, package, and publish video content.
  • Created and maintained several workflow components tying together the module of a video processing platform.
  • Built and maintained a REST API for managing the workflow of the video processing platform.
  • Optimized performance of MongoDB queries to ensure they execute fast.
  • Designed integration of the application with a reporting server.
Technologies: Apache Maven, Shell Scripting, JUnit, MongoDB, Spring MVC, REST, Apache Tomcat, Java, Continuous Integration (CI)

Score Your Profile

Score Your Profile is a personalized online tool that helps users generate LinkedIn leads. I've been building this responsive website using Grails, Twitter Bootstrap, AWS, MySQL, OAuth, and LinkedIn API.

KiddieNotes

A notification engine I built that sends out daily notifications from kindergartens to parents, including daily updates, photo and video files, and alerts. The notifications are sent via email and SMS, depending on parent configurations determined through the UI. Technologies used: Grails, Grails Quartz plugin, Grails Asynch Mail plugin, jQuery.

Wupiter

https://wupiter.com
Wupiter is an online app generator platform to help developers bootstrap their projects in a few minutes instead of several days of copy&pasta. Wupiter allows anyone to create their own app generator and share it with the developer community for free.
1997 - 2003

Master's Degree in Computer Science

Budapest University of Technology and Economics - Budapest, Hungary

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, JMS, Vue, LinkedIn API, React, Pandas

Tools

Apache Maven, IntelliJ IDEA, Apache Tomcat, Git, Jenkins, Gradle, Helm, AWS CloudFormation, GitHub, ChatGPT, AWS Step Functions, AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK)

Languages

Java, JavaScript, SQL, Python, HTML, CSS, Groovy, Java 8, TypeScript, Java 9

Frameworks

Spring Boot, Spring MVC, Spring, JUnit, Bootstrap, Apache Camel, Hibernate, Spring Security, Angular, Grails, Serverless Framework, Django, MUI CSS, Express.js

Paradigms

Microservices, REST, Test-driven Development (TDD), Continuous Integration (CI), Agile Software Development, Scrum, Unit Testing, HL7 FHIR Standard

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Firebase, MacOS, Linux, Android, Oracle, OpenShift, Kubernetes, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Azure, AWS Lambda

Storage

MongoDB, Google Cloud, NoSQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Hazelcast, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Cloud Firestore, Amazon Aurora, Azure Cosmos DB, Data Pipelines

Other

Architecture, APIs, HL7, Shell Scripting, Cloud, OAuth, Lean Development, IT Strategy, Leadership, Strategic Planning, Software Development, LivePerson, Artificial Intelligence (AI), LangChain, FastAPI, ChatGPT API, ChatGPT Prompts, Groq, Llama, Deepgram, GitHub Actions, Vector Search, Llama 3, Gemini, Claude

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.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

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