Ekin Sökmen, Developer in London, United Kingdom
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Ekin Sökmen

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
London, United Kingdom
Toptal Member Since
June 4, 2020

Ekin is a hands-on software architect and developer with more than twenty years of professional experience. He's worked for companies in telecommunications, finance, and eCommerce sectors covering a broad spectrum of applications and technologies. Experienced designing and building scalable applications with high throughput and low latency, Ekin also has in-depth knowledge of Java, various database technologies, Linux, and cloud environments.

Portfolio

Gameface
Java, TypeScript, Node.js, Redis, Amazon ElastiCache, PostgreSQL, Microservices...
Byte London
JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, Redis, Heroku, PostgreSQL...
Gumtree / eBay Classifieds Group
Spring Boot, MongoDB, Microservices, Git, Spring, SQL, Linux, PostgreSQL...

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux, Trello, Confluence, Jira, Slack, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Bash, MacOS, IntelliJ IDEA

The most amazing...

...feature I have designed and implemented made a double-digit percentage increase in user sessions for a major eCommerce web site.

Work Experience

Tech Lead/Software Architect

2020 - PRESENT
Gameface
  • Planed and designed the tech system from scratch, including AWS deployment architecture based on infrastructure as code approach, software architecture based on microservices, and designing CI/CD pipeline.
  • Implemented core parts of the system and infrastructure.
  • Led and mentored multiple front-end and back-end developers, guiding them to follow best coding practices and to keep the system maintainable and scalable.
Technologies: Java, TypeScript, Node.js, Redis, Amazon ElastiCache, PostgreSQL, Microservices, Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), AWS CloudFormation, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), Amazon API Gateway, AWS Lambda, Amazon CloudFront CDN, Amazon EC2, Amazon CloudWatch, APIs, Architecture

Senior Software Architect

2020 - 2021
Byte London
  • Rearchitectured and implemented core parts of the in-house Chatbot system to enable horizontal scalability.
  • Added new metrics to the system that made bottlenecks visible and optimized without upgrading the cloud infrastructure.
  • Designed a new approach to easily bring together the conversation design and NLP functionality of the Chatbot.
Technologies: JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, Redis, Heroku, PostgreSQL, Natural Language Processing (NLP), GPT, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Single Sign-on (SSO), Chatbots, Messaging, Architecture

Freelance Senior Software Engineer

2018 - 2020
Gumtree / eBay Classifieds Group
  • Designed and developed a core search microservice including a Kafka-based data pipeline.
  • Integrated web module with eBay Classifieds Group central A/B testing solution.
  • Implemented features for messaging platform to improve security and user engagement.
Technologies: Spring Boot, MongoDB, Microservices, Git, Spring, SQL, Linux, PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, Elasticsearch, Apache Kafka, Scala, Java, APIs

Freelance Senior Software Engineer

2017 - 2018
Lloyds Banking Group
  • Developed and designed a payment solution for the online banking cards section.
  • Designed virtual mock servers to ease the testing process.
  • Helped and mentored the team to launch new processes to extract logic from the monolith.
Technologies: Git, Spring, SQL, React, Node.js, Java

Freelance Senior Software Architect

2016 - 2017
Sahibinden.com
  • Designed and developed an ad display and management solution, including real-time bidding and billing.
  • Helped set up the project from scratch and integrate the solution to the core business flow.
  • Mentored other software engineers and developed infrastructure code to help them.
Technologies: Spring Boot, Microservices, Git, Spring, SQL, Linux, JavaScript, Apache Hive, Impala, Hadoop, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, Cassandra, Java, APIs, Architecture

Senior Software Architect

2015 - 2016
ASPone Limited
  • Designed and developed an FX data microservice integrated to Reuters FX Feed Adapter supporting 5,000 symbol updates per second.
  • Worked on the international payment portal solution added an integration layer using Apache Camel to access legacy components.
  • Designed and developed bank branch lookup microservice using Elasticsearch.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), UX Testing, Spring, SQL, Linux, JavaScript, OpenShift, Apache Camel, JBoss Fuse, Elasticsearch, Java, Architecture

CTO/Partner

2012 - 2015
Bidicin (Penny Auction Based e-Commerce Startup)
  • Led a team consisting of a software engineer and web designer to add a new customer engagement feature and increase scalability.
  • Refactored core parts of the system in C# and moved away from SQL Server stored procedures.
  • Introduced software development methodologies and tools like layered architecture, metering, and monitoring frameworks using GitHub, Pivotal Tracker, and Atlassian Confluence.
Technologies: Git, SQL, JavaScript, Microsoft SQL Server, ASP.NET, C#

Chief Software Architect/Director

2010 - 2012
Telenity
  • Led a team of 13 software engineers and three software architects.
  • Delivered products in a service delivery platform, location-based services, and M2M (IoT) domains.
  • Conducted regular product architecture reviews and developed engineering strategies with the architecture team.
Technologies: SQL, Linux, MySQL, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, Java, Architecture

Senior Software Engineer/Senior Software Architect

2004 - 2010
Telenity
  • Developed core cross-functional features used by all Telenity products.
  • Presented the company in multiple international customer meetings.
  • Led a team of eight developers delivering mobile content delivery products.
Technologies: Spring, SQL, Linux, MySQL, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), Web Services, Java, APIs, Architecture

Founder

2002 - 2004
XISTEM Information Technologies
  • Developed a multi-tenant web content management system based on Java.
  • Created an online property rental search service for a customer.
  • Developed an online classifieds application for construction equipment for a customer.
Technologies: SQL, JavaScript, HTML, Java

IT Supervision/Software Development

1996 - 2002
Project based, Freelance
  • Developed multimedia CD-ROMs; among them, some won international awards.
  • Created static and dynamic internet website development for clients.
  • Supervised and set up servers for multiple clients' offices.
Technologies: SMTP, HTML, Java, Networking

RunJavaScript App

http://runjavascriptapp.com/
A Swift-based application providing a JavaScript development environment directly on your IOS device. You can build, integrate, and automate using RunJavaScript. It is a powerful companion if you integrate it with other apps using the URL scheme.

Call of Duty E-sports Tournament System

https://gamefaced.gg/
Gameface is a Call of Duty Warzone-based online tournament platform. Gamers can set up teams using the platform and join a tournament. Once the tournament is started, gamers play Call of Duty in the set start and end time. Teams will be ranked based on their score on Call of Duty during the Gameface tournament.

Languages

Java, JavaScript, SQL, Scala, Swift, Bash Script, HTML, Kotlin, C#, Python, CSS, Bash, TypeScript

Frameworks

Spring, Spring Boot, Apache Camel, Apache Spark, Hadoop, ASP.NET

Tools

Git, Grafana, Kibana, Jenkins, Jira, Splunk, Impala, Apache ZooKeeper, IntelliJ IDEA, Slack, Confluence, Trello, Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), AWS CloudFormation, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS), Amazon CloudFront CDN, Amazon CloudWatch

Paradigms

Microservices, REST, Agile Software Development, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), E2E Testing, Functional Programming

Platforms

Apache Kafka, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Kubernetes, MacOS, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), OpenShift, Heroku, AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2

Storage

Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Memcached, MongoDB, Cassandra, Apache Hive, Microsoft SQL Server, Redis

Other

APIs, Architecture, Prometheus, JBoss Fuse, XML Web Services, A/B Testing, UX Testing, Consul, Web Services, SMTP, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Single Sign-on (SSO), Chatbots, Messaging, Amazon API Gateway, Networking, Computer Science, GPT, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT)

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, React

1996 - 2004

Master's Degree in Computer Science

University of Leipzig - Germany

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