Jake Varghese, Developer in Dallas, TX, United States

Jake Varghese

Full-stack Developer

Location
Dallas, TX, United States
Toptal Member Since
October 17, 2013

As an architect, Jake understands the process of solving complex problems that plague enterprise and medium size businesses. He is a full-stack problem solver who can build entire apps from scratch or optimize an existing app already in the field.

Jake is available for hire
Hire Jake

Portfolio

Compose @ IBM
React, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Go, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby
Ve-Go Technologies
iOS, Solr, Redis, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, Ruby
Box.es
Solr, Redis, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, Ruby

Experience

MacOS - 20 yearsFull-stack - 15 yearsSQL - 14 yearsRuby on Rails (RoR) - 14 yearsRuby - 14 yearsJavaScript - 12 yearsHTML5 - 6 yearsBackbone.js - 3 years

Location

Dallas, TX, United States

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

TextMate, MacOS

The most amazing...

...thing I've created is a multi app deployment that operates almost like an OS in the cloud.

Work Experience

2016 - PRESENT

Senior Architect

Compose @ IBM
  • Helped re-architect the app UI.
  • Worked on stabilizing the data layer.
  • Helped with HIPAA, GDPR, and international tax compliance.
  • Led the growth team to increase conversion of our signup to 32% from 15%.
  • Helped streamline on-call processes.
  • Worked on the payment layer and integrating Stripe.
Technologies: React, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Go, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby
2015 - 2016

CTO

Ve-Go Technologies
  • Created entire dashboard system and optimized the entire stack for scale.
  • Re-engineered the algorithm for determining availability for hotel rooms to be 100x faster.
  • Tuned PG calls to increase throughput by 13x.
  • Integrated Twilio phone, sms and IP messaging services into system allowing for instant notifications via mobile or web.
Technologies: iOS, Solr, Redis, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, Ruby
2014 - 2015

CTO

Box.es
  • Re-engineered the entire back end and web front end for speed and simplicity.
  • Led the development of all critical systems and added a full shopping system with payment integration through Stripe.
  • Added full text search through Solr and deep configuration to get the search characteristics to flow with the user experience of the application.
Technologies: Solr, Redis, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, Ruby
2011 - 2014

Digital Architect

McKinsey & Company
  • Created an an application that streamlined deployment for the entire firm from a four-day deployment schedule to a five-minute deployment schedule.
  • Helped re-architect an internal LinkedIn type solution for firm alumni.
  • Created a data storage service that simplified access to legacy Oracle and Notes databases.
  • Created an application that allowed any application to quickly drop an authentication scheme into their app regardless of which language it was created in.
  • Created an application for the partners at the firm so they could see the real connections that the firm has through 40 years of legacy data.
  • Optimized current applications and added new features utilizing various technologies including Oracle, MySQL, Redis, Solr, Apache, Phusion, Unicorn, Nginx, AngularJS, Backbone.js, jQuery, and many other apps.
  • Aided in firm client presentations from the technical side.
  • Trained and mentored new developers.
Technologies: Java, CSS3, HTML5, JavaScript, Ruby
2008 - 2011

VP Software Development

Orgsync
  • Led development on main application.
  • Optimized current application so that it could scale.
  • Created new applications to maximize revenue potential of master app.
  • Trained and mentored several developers.
  • Continued helping the CEO add new features to our core business model.
  • Was the technical representative in high level meetings.
Technologies: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ruby
2004 - 2008

Chief Technology Officer

Volusion
  • Maintained over 22 internal apps originally written in PHP and then migrated to Rails to control and streamline ALL of our business processes: Payroll System, Marketing System, Resellers System, SEO Clientele System, Custom Design System, PPC System, Customer Service System, PCI Compliance System, Billing System
  • Created our new Merchant Account technical infrastructure utilizing APIs from fortune 10 company GlobalPay and helped develop the process of taking merchant applications.
  • Continued to create marketing strategies and tech support strategies to increase profitability.
  • Continued helping the CEO/Lead Developer add new features to our core software written in ASP (and even developed some of the major parts myself),
  • Working with our larger clients to setup their online store as well as provided technical/marketing/design counseling
Technologies: JavaScript, HTML, CSS, ASP, PHP, Ruby

Experience

Giving Your Heroku App Highly-available PostgreSQL

A talk I gave at RailsConf 2018.

Clear Access IP

Patent management and docketing system.

Toys & Books Club

Uber for toys and books.

Appstros

An app discovery tool that was built for Android using PhoneGap, jQuery Mobile, and Backbone for the front end with Rails on the back.

ActsAsKeywordable (Rails Gem)

https://github.com/jake3030/acts_as_keywordable
Gem that allows the user to add keywords (like tags) polymorphically to any ActiveRecord model.

Flvorful

A fully functioning ad network built long before YouTube started delivering video ads.

Super InPlace Controls

https://github.com/flvorful/super_inplace_controls
A drop in replacement for the old inplace_edit plugin that added several features as well as cleaned up the HTML.

Easy HTML (jQuery Plugin)

https://github.com/flvorful/jQuery-Plugins/tree/master/easy_html
A quick plugin that allowed devs to create HTML as easily as we can in Rails.

ActsAsNoteable

https://github.com/flvorful/ActsAsNoteable
A plugin that allowed you to quickly add notes polymorphically to any objects.

Rack IP Whitelist

https://github.com/jake3030/rack-ip-whitelist
A very simple IP Whitelisting for rack apps (Rails included).

Skills

Languages

Ruby, CSS3, SQL, HTML5, Sass, JavaScript, Bash Script, Haml, C#, Java, Objective-C, CSS, HTML, PHP, Go, C

Frameworks

Ruby on Rails (RoR), RubyMotion, Cocoa, AngularJS, ASP

Libraries/APIs

jQuery, Facebook API, jQuery Mobile, Backbone.js, Marionette.js, Facebook SDK, jQuery UI, Volusion, React

Tools

Eclipse IDE, GitHub, Git, TextMate, Solr, TokBox, Subversion (SVN), GDB

Paradigms

Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Functional Programming, Agile Software Development, Test-driven Development (TDD), Concurrent Programming, Prototype-based OOP, Scrum, Behavior-driven Development (BDD)

Platforms

MacOS, Amazon Web Services (AWS), iOS, Android, Heroku, Oracle, Ubuntu Linux, WordPress

Storage

MySQL, Memcached, Redis, PostgreSQL, NoSQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch

Other

Software Development, Webhooks, Full-stack, APIs, Front-end Development

Education

1996 - 2002

Bachelor Degree in Computer Science

Univ of Texas at Austin - Austin, TX