Florian-Robert is available for hire
Hire Florian-RobertFlorian-Robert Dobre
Verified Expert in Engineering
Full-stack Developer
Berceni, Ilfov County, Romania
Toptal member since June 22, 2021
Bio
Robert is a software engineer with a passion for delivering scalable, highly performant, and stable projects. Thanks to a background in cybersecurity, Robert takes building applications very seriously and ensures that projects follow best patterns and practices. Leveraging state-of-the-art technology stacks, Robert can hit the ground running on a project—adapting quickly to new environments and teams and ready to implement the critical features which make a product stand out from the crowd.
Portfolio
The San Francisco Standard
Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Next.js...
Fortune 200 Healthcare Enterprise
Vue, React, Shopify, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Node.js, Nuxt.js, Sails.js...
Phase Services
JavaScript, React, Express.js, Koa, Flask, HAProxy, React Native, MongoDB...
Experience
- JavaScript - 5 years
- Web Security - 5 years
- Full-stack - 5 years
- Git - 5 years
- Python - 4 years
- Optimization - 4 years
- Node.js - 4 years
- React - 3 years
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Windows, Linux, MacOS, Git, Jira, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Cloud
The most amazing...
...project I've developed was a real estate platform in which I integrated open-source routing services to find the best listings for optimized commutes.
Work Experience
Full-stack Engineer
2022 - PRESENT
The San Francisco Standard
- Built a custom article creation CMS with Next.js to implement the key features from WordPress while offering custom integrations, article versioning, and media management.
- Developed a proprietary pipeline for processing large quantities of physical documents (as images) and processing the text using NLP techniques (NER) to extract persons and organizations (cross-referenced online) and addresses (geoparsing).
- Devised a proprietary platform to leverage Elasticsearch's performance to perform subject-based and full-text searches on the processed data in under 30 ms, empowering the company's investigative journalism team.
- Established a set of GitHub Actions to automate deployments on multiple repositories with a set of component and E2E test suites (as actions) using Jest and Cypress to ensure key functionalities are working.
- Migrated the company's email service provider to a new platform which involved retagging news articles, migrating existing subscription lists, and automating the newsletter creation and delivery using a responsive email-building framework.
- Created powerful integrations with SSOs to replace existing email-based authentication services, allowing company members to rapidly set up accounts on other proprietary websites with just a click.
- Crafted automated jobs to generate newsletters based on dynamic website content while tracking user engagement omnichannel.
- Set up multiple monorepos with linting pipelines and pre-commit safeguards (such as unit tests and code quality checks) to minimize developer error.
- Improved accessibility of multiple sites, which led to increased SEO friendliness.
- Implemented strict guidelines for code contributions, unit, and end-to-end testing (for different testing frameworks) to best mimic user interaction.
Technologies: Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Next.js, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), DevOps, GitHub, Docker, Docker Swarm, WordPress, WordPress VIP, Tailwind CSS, Sailthru, Google Cloud, CI/CD Pipelines, TypeScript, JavaScript, Cypress, Jest, Unit Testing, E2E Testing, Python 3, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Prisma, MJML, Yoast SEO, Server-side Rendering (SSR)
Full-stack Engineer
2021 - 2022
Fortune 200 Healthcare Enterprise
- Configured a microservice-based project to run via Docker, which greatly reduced the time it took for new developers to get up to speed while enabling the team to run the project cross-platform without further effort.
- Implemented an alternative commission payment method to Stripe through Amazon Incentives, significantly increasing customer retention and decreasing churn.
- Oversaw the database redesign process, enabling existing affiliate partners to choose between multiple commission payment methods. The new structure is scalable as it allows multi-region stores and transactions to keep independent of currencies.
- Redesigned the main store with Nuxt.js, which was initially a Shopify store, which provided excellent rendering times and interactivity for customers, increasing sales and retention. Shopify Storefront API was leveraged for purchases, taxes, etc.
- Implemented a Docker Directus CMS instance to enable easy customization of products, quantities, and discounts, on top of what Shopify offers. The CMS was kept in sync with Shopify and was a vital feature for the marketing and business teams.
- Integrated an image optimization layer to optimize dynamic content—images from the CMS stored in Google Cloud— on demand and configured Akamai to cache the optimized images, improving loading times for page content, even on data-heavy pages.
- Implemented a back-end agnostic ecommerce API designed to support multiple providers such as Shopify, Magento, ZenCart, and others. This allows the business to easily transition between ecommerce partners, making the website future-proof.
- Reworked the data caching policy for both server-side and client-side caching for greatly improved page speed scores. Redis and Akamai were leveraged for server-side caching (of pages and data) and used vuex-persist for client-side caching.
- Implemented an on-demand client-side Markdown renderer to render styled content from the CMS. The content is cached and invalidated every hour. This measure greatly improves performance scores on data-heavy pages such as product pages.
- Discovered several security issues regarding the company's existing websites. Remediated the problems and implemented measures to prevent reoccurrences.
Technologies: Vue, React, Shopify, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Node.js, Nuxt.js, Sails.js, PostgreSQL, Docker, Akamai, Git, Redis, Directus, Content Management Systems (CMS), GraphQL, Apollo Server, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google Optimize, Google Cloud Storage, ZenCart
Founder | Full-stack Developer
2020 - 2021
Phase Services
- Developed a logistics management solution that integrates with clients' infrastructure to automatically order supplies and predict demand for certain products.
- Developed a React Native application for a startup to allow customers to order food at restaurants. The app supplied important metrics for restaurant management teams to assess the conversion efficiency of marketing campaigns.
- Created landing pages using AWS, Express.js, and React for multiple clients in the law industry to increase reach; also integrated Intercom chatbots to increase conversion rate.
- Assisted over 10 clients by providing software consulting services.
- Scaled a client's infrastructure by replacing moving the back-end on AWS and transitioning to serverless using the following Amazon products—Terraform, Cognito, DynamoDB, Lambda, and S3.
Technologies: JavaScript, React, Express.js, Koa, Flask, HAProxy, React Native, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, Docker, Docker Swarm, Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM), Load Balancers, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Next.js
Cybersecurity Consultant
2019 - 2020
KPMG Romania
- Developed software solutions for website cloning (bypassing security features of Android applications); also automated cybersecurity exploitation for faster cybersecurity testing, both online and on-premises.
- Constructed JavaScript client-side exploits which would identify certain types of vulnerabilities on a client's machine—allowing them to bypass the same-origin policy in order to fetch local content.
- Took part in multiple projects which resulted in identifying critical vulnerabilities in online banking and mobile banking software solutions as well as performing cybersecurity tests on ATM machines and physical servers.
- Devised training courses (under the form of capture the flag contests) for cybersecurity personnel to introduce new exploitation methodologies as well as state-of-the-art research; over 50 active cybersecurity experts attended the courses.
- Contributed to the development of a scalable architecture that was able to handle millions of requests per hour, for monitoring the success of simulated phishing attacks (the cloud infrastructure was leveraged).
- Contributed to multiple engagements in which confidential information was accessed and the client was immediately informed. The damages included but were not limited to API keys, payment credentials, and internal database entries.
- Met with the boards of executives of multiple companies to showcase and work towards resolving the vulnerabilities that were found during cybersecurity tests.
- Held internal webinars to showcase the potential dangers of browsing rogue websites whilst connected to the company's network via VPN; over 100 people attended the webinar.
- Performed regular internal cybersecurity audits to determine if certain applications were GDPR-compliant.
- Identified critical vulnerabilities in the default configuration of clients' reverse proxies and load balancers.
Technologies: JavaScript, HTTP, Proxies, Networking, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes, VMware ESXi, Cloud Infrastructure, IT Infrastructure, Online Banking, Hacking, Vulnerability Assessment, DevOps, AWS DevOps, Web Security
Software Engineer
2018 - 2019
Bitdefender
- Reduced the performance impact of the scanning engine on end-user machines through selective thread prioritization and congestion management.
- Fixed bugs which allowed bypassing the scanning process in certain conditions.
- Worked with multiple teams to integrate cutting-edge low-level detection technology into the base SDKs.
- Rewrote deprecated scanning components to improve code quality.
- Wrote detection integration tests for certain behaviors.
- Contributed to the development of a testing kit for the QA team which allowed rapid testing of critical functionalities.
- Rewrote certain functionalities to support the latest C++ standard.
- Worked with the integration teams to solve issues which did not allow the product to run on certain Windows configurations.
- Contributed to creating a smoke test pipeline which validates the integrity of new builds.
- Collaborated with multiple teams to develop additional scanning components which expanded the monitoring capacity of the base product and enhanced malware detection.
Technologies: C, C++, Go, JavaScript, Docker, Kernel, Thread Scheduling, Windows Services, Windows API, JSON
Experience
Stradal
A real-estate platform for finding the best listings, optimizing commute times for customers, and providing value in the form of relevant metrics.
I am a co-founder of this company and the primary software developer for this product. This product leverages, among others, real-time traffic data and routing mechanisms to determine the best properties for the user's requirements. District data such as air quality, rent metrics, nearby points of interest, and earthquake statistics were also collected to provide full transparency for potential buyers. We are currently looking for venture capital investors.
The project is currently a WIP and built using Express.js with MongoDB on the back end (along with custom-built routing services) and Next.js with React on the front end to optimize SEO. We also integrated Stripe for payment processing, used Recurly for subscription management, and implemented analytics collection through LogRocket and Heap.
I am a co-founder of this company and the primary software developer for this product. This product leverages, among others, real-time traffic data and routing mechanisms to determine the best properties for the user's requirements. District data such as air quality, rent metrics, nearby points of interest, and earthquake statistics were also collected to provide full transparency for potential buyers. We are currently looking for venture capital investors.
The project is currently a WIP and built using Express.js with MongoDB on the back end (along with custom-built routing services) and Next.js with React on the front end to optimize SEO. We also integrated Stripe for payment processing, used Recurly for subscription management, and implemented analytics collection through LogRocket and Heap.
Landing Page for a Software Company
I developed a React-based landing page with a contact form for my software company; it serves as the first impression for potential clients. This project showcases my areas of expertise and uses Google Analytics to collect information about user visits. It also contains an email form and is fully responsive.
Food Ordering Platform
A platform consisting of a mobile application built with React Native which allows customers to order food while at a restaurant; the back-end architecture was developed in FastAPI with Python.
I was the founder and a software developer on this project. The app integrates with the back end and records important metrics which allowed the restaurant management teams to observe hourly conversion rates, most popular products, consumption per ingredient, and track purchase patterns.
The back end is scalable via Docker Swarm and we built the front-end dashboard with React to display live orders, feedback, and metrics for restaurant management teams. The back end and the front end communicate via WebSockets to provide live feed information.
The project did not receive funding as restaurants were closed at the time due to the pandemic.
I was the founder and a software developer on this project. The app integrates with the back end and records important metrics which allowed the restaurant management teams to observe hourly conversion rates, most popular products, consumption per ingredient, and track purchase patterns.
The back end is scalable via Docker Swarm and we built the front-end dashboard with React to display live orders, feedback, and metrics for restaurant management teams. The back end and the front end communicate via WebSockets to provide live feed information.
The project did not receive funding as restaurants were closed at the time due to the pandemic.
Education
2018 - 2021
Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science
University of Bucharest - Bucharest, Romania
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, REST APIs, Windows API, Mapbox API, Flask-RESTful, Vue
Tools
Git, Jira, RabbitMQ, Docker Swarm, Mongoose, Recurly, Google Analytics, Google Optimize, GitHub, Prisma
Storage
JSON, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Google Cloud Storage, Google Cloud
Languages
JavaScript, C, C++, Python, Go, GraphQL, TypeScript, Python 3
Frameworks
Express.js, Flask, Swagger, OAuth 2, Koa, React Native, Next.js, Material UI, Nuxt.js, Sails.js, Tailwind CSS, Cypress, Jest, MJML
Paradigms
Design Patterns, Microservices, Agile Software Development, DevOps, Unit Testing, E2E Testing
Platforms
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Docker, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Windows, Linux, MacOS, Kernel, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mailgun, Shopify, Directus, WordPress, WordPress VIP
Other
Web Security, Full-stack, Algorithms, Data Structures, Optimization, Scaling, Back-end, Cloud, Thread Scheduling, Windows Services, HTTP, Proxies, Networking, VMware ESXi, Cloud Infrastructure, IT Infrastructure, Online Banking, Hacking, Vulnerability Assessment, AWS DevOps, HAProxy, Open Source Routing Machine (OSRM), Load Balancers, Heap, LogRocket, SEO Tools, Recommendation Systems, Intercom, Responsive UI, WebSockets, Startups, Akamai, Content Management Systems (CMS), Apollo Server, Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Sailthru, CI/CD Pipelines, Yoast SEO, Server-side Rendering (SSR), ZenCart
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