James Bechet
Verified Expert in Engineering
Full-stack Software Engineer and Developer
Toronto, ON, Canada
Toptal member since March 25, 2021
James is a lead senior full-stack software engineer who enjoys creating innovative products. He has over a decade of experience building web and mobile apps. At RBC Capital Markets, he developed products and tools that improved the algorithmic trading platform. James has worked with startups on open-source projects and enterprises. He excels with TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Redux, Node.js, React Native, and PostgreSQL.
Portfolio
Experience
- JavaScript - 12 years
- Adobe Creative Suite - 11 years
- Node.js - 10 years
- React - 8 years
- PostgreSQL - 7 years
- Redux - 7 years
- React Native - 5 years
- TypeScript - 5 years
Preferred Environment
React, Redux, React Native, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Agile, JavaScript, TypeScript
The most amazing...
...product I've built is a fitness app called Gymaholic Fitness for both iOS and Android. It helps thousands of people achieve their fitness goals.
Work Experience
Chief Executive Officer
Gymaholic
- Built a fitness app that helps people achieve their health goals, which is used by thousands of monthly users. It uses technologies similar to the website's (React Native and Redux) to share data and components across projects.
- Architected and built a Node.js REST API to handle the projects' data logic. It uses various AWS services, such as RDS, S3, CloudFront, and Lambda.
- Led a team of developers, designers, and coaches to provide the best training experience on mobile and desktop.
Senior Full-stack Software Engineer (via Toptal)
Deliverr, Inc
- Developed a Shopify app to allow store owners to create shipping rates and estimated delivery dates based on certain conditions.
- Extended an existing Shopify extension to show customers estimated delivery dates on product pages according to the rules set by the store owner.
- Created a service that interacted with Shopify's GraphQL Admin API to provide customers with shipping options based on the products available in the cart and the conditions set by the store owner.
Lead Full-stack Software Engineer (Freelance)
ReUp: Social Shopping
- Worked closely with senior engineers to prioritize tasks and release the apps and websites on time.
- Built the Sell On ReUp app, which helps vendors sell their products online using live streaming and video clips as marketing tools.
- Created a payout system to allow vendors to get paid through the platform in a timely manner, similar to Etsy or Amazon.
- Led the transition from using WooCommerce to building a custom multi-vendor marketplace.
- Developed processes to make the platform more performant and reliable.
Senior Full-stack Software Engineer (Freelance)
Priceline
- Helped with the Priceline website migration from Apollo Client v1 to v3, which made the platform faster, easier to work with, and increased revenue.
- Worked closely with the Apollo Client team to fix various issues identified in their codebase.
- Developed various proof of concepts to move away from Redux and use Apollo Client's local state and reactive variables.
Senior Front-end Software Engineer (Freelance)
Klick
- Assisted with designing and building the career website, which has a very exciting user experience.
- Extended and improved the shared library of components.
- Contributed to making the career website responsive and accessible.
Senior Full-stack Software Engineer
Polymath
- Contributed to a platform built to create and manage digital securities on the blockchain.
- Extended the administration platform to create and manage security tokens.
- Assisted with building the investor's platform to create accounts and provide KYC information.
Full-stack Software Engineer
RBC Capital Markets
- Created products and common tools to improve the algorithmic trading platform.
- Collaborated with traders and client support to help improve their workflow.
- Helped build the new AI insights platform with a back end using Node.js with PM2 and MongoDB cluster and React on the front end.
Full-stack Software Engineer
EventMobi
- Architected and implemented the offline-first mobile app using state-of-the-art web technologies.
- Created additional features to improve the in-house CMS.
- Guided the prototyping of a "universal app" that allowed event attendees to access any white-label app using a single platform.
Front-end Software Engineer
Pumpup
- Migrated the mobile app from Backbone.js to React and Redux. Developed features enjoyed by millions of users.
- Prototyped and maintained the start workout experience.
- Created robust test suits for creating models on the front end.
Full-stack Engineer Software Intern
Geckoboard
- Implemented and optimized several 3rd-party integrations, which enable businesses to visualize their relevant data in real time.
- Added to the analytics widget with the Google Analytics REST API.
- Improved and maintained the web platform and its components.
Front-end Software Engineer Intern
Jolicloud
- Deployed and maintained the navigation across cloud storage and social media.
- Built the custom photo/video player that worked for cloud storage, such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
- Contributed to the overall platform to help thousands of users to manage their files online.
Data Engineer Intern
Capital Fund Management
- Researched ways to improve the current low-latency storage system.
- Prototyped and developed a cloud-like cluster storage.
- Used hashing algorithms to improve the current storage system.
Software Engineer Intern
Survision
- Researched and built a system to gather data from the current system (e.g., fp/s, mbp/s, and more).
- Developed a module to communicate with a high-definition camera on an embedded system.
- Integrated the camera module to the rest of the platform.
Experience
Gymaholic Website
https://bit.ly/top-gymaholicOpen Source JavaScript Element Picker
https://bit.ly/top-pickerOpen Source Tumblr Post Tags Chrome Extension
https://bit.ly/top-tumblrEducation
Master's Degree in Computer Science
Supinfo - San Francisco, USA; London, England; Paris, France
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Epitech - Paris, France
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, Backbone.js, Socket.IO, Stripe, REST APIs, Shopify API, Vue, WebGL, Three.js, jQuery, Stripe API, Stripe Connect API, PayPal API, WordPress API
Tools
Adobe Creative Suite, Git, PM2, WebView, GitHub, Subversion (SVN), CircleCI, Amazon CloudWatch, React Apollo, ChatGPT, Expo, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Languages
JavaScript, HTML5, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, SQL, Java, C#, Python, C++, GraphQL, PHP, PHP 7
Frameworks
Redux, React Native, Jest, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Express.js, Material UI, Vanilla JS, OAuth 2, AngularJS, Next.js, Angular, Tailwind CSS, Spring Boot
Paradigms
Agile, REST, RESTful Development, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), UX Design
Platforms
Docker, Heroku, Shopify, WordPress, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), AWS Lambda, Mobile, Apple TV, Android TV
Industry Expertise
Project Management, Healthcare
Storage
Redis, NoSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)
Other
Responsive UI, Software Development, Chrome Extensions, Back-end, Front-end, PayPal, Mobile Payments, Stripe Payments, Styled-components, User Experience (UX), Full-stack, Web Development, Architecture, WebSockets, Stripe Subscriptions, OAuth, Extensions, Manifest V3, Gatsby, Animation, Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), Serverless, eCommerce, User Interface (UI), Servers, Dokan, Apollo, A/B Testing, Stamps, Shipping, Leadership, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Software Architecture, Technical Leadership, CI/CD Pipelines, Offline Data Synchronization, API Integration, APIs, Custom Shopify Apps, Integration, Label Generation, Third-party Integration, Labeling, Crypto, Bitcoin, Algorithms, Amazon RDS, CTO, Code Review, Software Design, App Infrastructure, Payment APIs
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