Hannes is available for hire
Hire HannesHannes Benson
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Toptal member since April 15, 2019
Bio
Hannes has been developing with Ruby on Rails since 2010. He has experience working on both small and large scale applications and dealing with various scaling issues ranging from API optimization to the set up of a more performant Redis cluster. He excels at finding solutions to challenging problems, communicates well, and has worked in teams of all sizes. Hannes also enjoys focusing his energy on creating elegant back-end solutions.
Portfolio
MagicBell
Ruby on Rails (RoR), APIs, PostgreSQL, Sidekiq, React, HTML...
Course Guide Inc
JavaScript, HTML, Ruby on Rails 5, Front-end, RailsAdmin, Ruby on Rails (RoR)...
Jack Zerby
Ruby on Rails (RoR), APIs, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, Stripe, SendGrid, Testing...
Experience
- Ruby on Rails (RoR) - 10 years
- Test-driven Development (TDD) - 9 years
- JavaScript - 9 years
- Redis - 9 years
- PostgreSQL - 6 years
- minitest - 6 years
- MySQL - 5 years
- RSpec - 4 years
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Chrome, Firefox, Vim Text Editor, Git, Ubuntu Linux
The most amazing...
...project I've worked on is an eCommerce marketing app that can connect to multiple stores and provide lifecycle emails.
Work Experience
Founding Back-end Developer
2022 - PRESENT
MagicBell
- Developed a cross-platform notification system for email, SMS, Slack, and push notifications.
- Ensured that notifications already seen/read were not delivered a second time.
- Wrote the Twilio and Slack integrations, ensuring that users could be reached on these platforms.
- Handled performance improvements to ensure that users could access their data quickly and that the system responded efficiently.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), APIs, PostgreSQL, Sidekiq, React, HTML, Amazon Web Services (AWS), CSS
Full-stack Developer
2021 - PRESENT
Course Guide Inc
- Rebuilt the existing site using an old version of Ruby on Rails to a new version using Tailwind.
- Replaced the jQuery JavaScript with plain JavaScript across the site.
- Made use of stimulus controllers for easily reusable components.
Technologies: JavaScript, HTML, Ruby on Rails 5, Front-end, RailsAdmin, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Tailwind CSS, Slim, Stimulus, Webpack, Amazon Web Services (AWS), CSS
Back-End Rails Engineer for an Architecture Planning Platform
2020 - PRESENT
Jack Zerby
- Helped the customer deliver high-quality software to enable end users to publish their projects for public participation.
- Implement back-end processing tools to ensure notifications were sent to the correct people at the right time.
- Constantly monitored and fixed all bugs as soon as possible.
- Monitored the servers to ensure that response times were as low as possible.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), APIs, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, Stripe, SendGrid, Testing, DevOps, Twilio, Optimization, Server Management, Tailwind CSS, Stimulus, HTML, Amazon Web Services (AWS), CSS
Rails Engineer
2019 - 2021
Bellroy
- Developed the custom eCommerce application that processed all the orders from different sources responsible for shipping all of Bellroy's projects.
- Oversaw the launch of many successful projects, including gift cards, discounts, and variable shipping rates to an updated UX.
- Integrated with Amazon's Seller Central, along with multiple other platforms, to allow third-party orders to be shipped and accounted for correctly.
Technologies: Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, Redis, Sidekiq, APIs, Elm, HTML, Amazon Web Services (AWS), CSS
Senior Rails Developer
2016 - 2019
SkyVerge
- Developed Ruby on Rails applications that interacted with eCommerce platforms.
- Reduced the amount of legacy code and improved performance across the board.
- Enabled faster searches with Elasticsearch.
- Implemented load testing and ensured availability across high-demand periods like Black Friday.
- Assisted with escalated customer support queries.
Technologies: Sidekiq, Elasticsearch, Heroku, Redis, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Full-stack, Tailwind CSS, Shopify, HTML, CSS
Senior Rails Developer
2014 - 2015
GoDaddy
- Developed a Ruby on Rails application used for sending marketing emails.
- Focused on implementing new features as well as fixing any existing bugs or updating legacy code.
- Owned the email-rendering section to ensure that the emails generated by the application looked the same across all devices/clients.
- Assisted with escalated support queries.
- Automated server deployment/maintenance with Puppet.
Technologies: Puppet, Apache, HAProxy, Zabbix, PowerMTA, Resque, Redis, MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Full-stack, HTML, CSS
Rails Developer
2012 - 2014
Mad Mimi
- Developed a Ruby on Rails application used for sending marketing emails.
- Focused on implementing new features as well as fixing any existing bugs or updating legacy code.
- Owned the email rendering section to ensure that the emails generated by the application looks the same across all devices/clients.
- Assisted with escalated support queries.
- Automated server deployment/maintenance with Chef.
Technologies: Chef, Apache, HAProxy, Zabbix, PowerMTA, Resque, Redis, MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Full-stack, HTML, CSS
Rails Developer
2010 - 2012
Mpowered Business Solutions
- Developed Ruby on Rails applications to assist companies with legal requirements for BBBEE.
- Focused on reducing legacy code and improving performance across the board.
- Assisted with escalated customer support queries.
- Handled server backup and restore procedures as well as any other server maintenance required.
- Implemented new features as per legal requirement/customer requests.
Technologies: Apache, Resque, Redis, MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Full-stack, HTML, CSS
Experience
Mad Mimi
https://madmimi.com/Mad Mimi is an email marketing tool used by thousands of people daily. With a great interface, Mad Mimi simplifies HTML email creation.
Jilt
Jilt is an eCommerce marketing platform that integrates into WooCommerce, EDD, and Shopify. It allows merchants access to lifecycle emails as well as sending custom campaigns to specific customer groups.
Notification Sending Application
https://www.magicbell.com/MagicBell is a platform that aims to make sending notifications as simple as possible. If you'd like an in-app inbox, add some JavaScript to your site; the rest is history. MagicBell allows you to send notifications on various channels, customizing each to suit your needs.
Education
2010 - 2015
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
University of South Africa - Pretoria, South Africa
Skills
Libraries/APIs
jQuery, Devise, Sidekiq, Resque, React, Underscore.js, Stripe
Tools
GitHub, Puppet, Vim Text Editor, RSpec, Mocha, NGINX, Git, PowerMTA, Zabbix, Chef, Apache, SendGrid, Webpack
Languages
Ruby, JavaScript, Bash, HTML, CSS, C#, Bash Script, Elm
Frameworks
Ruby on Rails (RoR), minitest, Tailwind CSS, Chrome, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Ruby on Rails 5, RailsAdmin, Slim, Stimulus
Paradigms
Test-driven Development (TDD), Agile, Concurrent Programming, Testing, DevOps
Platforms
Linux, Windows, Heroku, Shopify, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ubuntu Linux, Firefox, MacOS, Twilio
Storage
MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch, Riak
Other
Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Full-stack, Redis Clusters, APIs, HAProxy, Optimization, Server Management, Front-end
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