Joseph Victor Zammit, Developer in Gozo, Malta
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Joseph Victor Zammit

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
Gozo, Malta
Toptal Member Since
February 24, 2014

Joseph is a software engineer with extensive experience in writing maintainable, test-driven applications. He prefers working with Python and Django. His experience includes creating, releasing, and maintaining web systems as well as command-line scripting.

Software EngineeringData CleaningData CleansingDatabasesSQLDatabase DesignDjangoTest-driven Development (TDD)PythonREST APIsETLJinjaCode ReviewData EngineeringWeb Scraping

Portfolio

Dewaele Vastgoedgroep
Python, Django, Django REST Framework, MySQL, PostgreSQL...
Palletfly.com LLC
SQL, MySQL, Database Migration, PostgreSQL, Google Sheets API, Google Sheets
Caterpillar
OAuth 2, Django REST Framework, Django, Python, Databases, Git, GitHub

Experience

Django - 12 yearsTest-driven Development (TDD) - 11 yearsScrum - 10 yearsBash - 10 yearsPython - 10 yearsPostgreSQL - 7 yearsMySQL - 5 yearsJavaScript - 2 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Git, Virtualenv, PIP, MacOS, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)

The most amazing...

...thing I've built is the entire web back end of Rallygate.com, a SaaS product.

Work Experience

Consultant

2020 - 2022
Dewaele Vastgoedgroep
  • Enforced code standards. Introduced a unit test style guide and put in place CI processes.
  • Focused on bug fixes/performance issues; refactored "hot" parts of the monolith, reworked parts async, and got them to 100% coverage. These efforts more than halved the time the team spends fixing bugs.
  • Onboarded and mentored existing and new team members.
Technologies: Python, Django, Django REST Framework, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Data Migration Specialist

2020 - 2021
Palletfly.com LLC
  • Automated client's manual eCommerce processes away from data on Google Sheets.
  • Designed the relational schema underpinning these tools as the single source of truth.
  • Built a Google Sheets-like interface using WebSockets for these processes.
  • Participated in recruitment and handover to the client's 1st full-time technical hire.
Technologies: SQL, MySQL, Database Migration, PostgreSQL, Google Sheets API, Google Sheets

Back-end Developer

2020 - 2020
Caterpillar
  • Integrated OAuth 2 JWT-based authentication in an existing application.
  • Integrated a custom authorization logic per object type.
  • Leveraged the hooks DRF provides to encapsulate logic per entity type.
Technologies: OAuth 2, Django REST Framework, Django, Python, Databases, Git, GitHub

Back-end Engineer (Contract)

2020 - 2020
Motorola Solutions
  • Delivered a custom mobile device management system to manage internally-used devices.
  • Integrated the system with Google Suite, including background processes to keep data up to date.
  • Liaised with stakeholders to automate reports into a "live" stats dashboard.
Technologies: Ubuntu, PostgreSQL, Django, Python, Databases, Git, GitHub

Technical Lead

2015 - 2019
ConsumerAffairs
  • Automated data collection, report building, and content management processes, eliminating many hours of manual work per week.
  • Achieved significant site-wide performance improvements by auditing and debugging the slowest running code to have our code and queries do less.
  • Reworked synchronous parts of working in part or fully async for improved process management and user experience.
  • Wrote a Python class decorator to automatically retry failed tasks on specific exception types, reducing the overall LOC required to achieve the same effect across the codebase.
  • Halved load time in specific cases by performing a combination of query optimization and DB redesign with consequent migrations and refactoring.
  • Decreased test suite run-time by having unit tests be unit tests instead of part-unit part-integration tests and mocking where appropriate.
  • Liaised with product owners to convert required business functionality into actionable agile user stories improving communication between the business and technical arms of the team.
Technologies: Redshift, Ubuntu, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Celery, Django, Python, Databases, Git, GitHub

Python Contractor

2014 - 2014
Pave
  • Delivered web analytics competitive intelligence scripts to NYC-based startup Pave, eliminating hours of manual work required to achieve the same result.
  • Worked on a set of crawlers and scripts that extracted data from web pages and transformed it into the requested relational form for querying.
  • Automated what manually took a week to a few minutes.
Technologies: Web Scraping, Python, Databases, Git, GitHub

Senior Python Developer

2014 - 2014
Noodle
  • Contributed code that halved load time in several user-facing pages by simplifying the menu bar template's tag rendering algorithm.
  • Improved individual page load time by prefetching data to reduce the overall number of queries required to retrieve the same data.
  • Reworked several processes that needed to be run by admins as management commands via terminal into processes that could be executed using Django's admin interface by logged-in users.
Technologies: MySQL, PostgreSQL, Django, Python, Databases, Git, GitHub

Technical Co-founder

2013 - 2014
Crowdbridge AB
  • Designed, built, and deployed the web back end for a SaaS product for a Swedish startup from scratch. The product was a crowdfunding platform for events.
  • Implemented back-end code unit test coverage for more than 90% of code.
  • Integrated payment flow with PayPal Adaptive Payments API and Stripe API.
Technologies: Ubuntu, PostgreSQL, Django, Python, Databases, Git, GitHub

Freelance Software Developer

2012 - 2013
Cominform gmbh
  • Delivered a single-page application web desktop that leveraged WebSockets to host other single-page applications within it.
  • Developed client-side single-page apps, all based on the Ext JS framework.
  • Implemented the back end with Java Servlets, Google Guice, and Tomcat 7.
Technologies: WebSockets, Apache Tomcat, Java, Ext JS, Databases, JavaScript, Git

Senior Software Developer

2007 - 2011
Uniblue Systems, Ltd.
  • Worked extensively on all systems belonging to the internal systems team, ranging from internal business processes to external customer-facing websites. These systems automated many repetitive pain points for the internal users at Uniblue.
  • Produced systems to interact with payment providers to enable product activation back ends. Managed the Uniblue sales funnel consisting of landing pages, download pages, and product checkout, and variations to improve conversion.
  • Promoted to a technical lead in 2010 after porting existing internal web applications and systems to Amazon AWS. This halved the total cost of ownership for the existing systems in place and improved uptime metrics.
Technologies: Ubuntu, PostgreSQL, Django, Python, Databases, Scrum, Git

Programmer

2006 - 2007
Crimsonwing
  • Worked for Crimsonwing, a UK-owned solutions provider for companies deciding to outsource IT work.
  • Specialized in emergency transportation services and logistics.
  • Involved extensively in all development aspects of the three-tier system, from database design and evolution to database-level programming with T-SQL.
  • Handled application-level programming with C# .NET, web services, and UI development.
Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, IIS, ASP.NET, C#.NET, Databases

Fundsurf

As technical co-founder, I built the entire web back end of this SaaS product from scratch.

This included database design, unit-tested web back-end code, and server setup and deployment.

The startup ran out of runway within a couple of years.

Pharmacy.mt

http://www.pharmacy.mt
I developed this concept from beginning to end. This included setting up and deploying the website's Ubuntu server, writing the Django web app, and writing the jQuery mobile markup and CSS to achieve a responsive web design.

Profile on Stack Overflow

http://stackoverflow.com/users/1211429/
I am helped by and seek to help others on StackOverflow.

As a result, over the years, I answered and asked several questions on this programming Q&A site.

I am ranked in the top 3% in Python, Django, and SQL.

Untangled Development

https://untangled.dev
My personal blog, which is not necessarily technical. Create to consume less, create more. After 15 years in the industry and over 20 years of dabbling with code, I finally got to write for an audience. Example topics by tag:

Django: https://www.untangled.dev/tags/django/
Docker: https://www.untangled.dev/tags/docker/

Languages

Python, SQL, JavaScript, Java, C#.NET, Bash, Bash Script

Frameworks

Django, Jinja, Ext JS, ASP.NET, Django REST Framework, OAuth 2

Libraries/APIs

REST APIs, Jira REST API, Facebook API, PayPal API, Stripe API, Google Sheets API

Paradigms

Database Design, Test-driven Development (TDD), ETL, REST, Scrum, Agile Software Development, Asynchronous Programming

Storage

Databases, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redshift, Redis, Microsoft SQL Server, MariaDB, Database Migration

Other

Software Development, Software Engineering, Data Cleaning, Data Cleansing, Ubuntu Server, Code Review, Data Engineering, Scraping, Web Scraping, WebSockets, IIS, PIP, Content, Technical Writing

Tools

Terminal, Celery, Git, GitHub, Jira, CircleCI, Apache Tomcat, Sublime Text, Virtualenv, Bitbucket, Jekyll, Ansible, Google Sheets

Platforms

Ubuntu, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

2005 - 2008

Master of Science Degree in Informatics

University of Malta - Msida, Malta

2002 - 2005

Bachelor of Science Degree in Business and Computing

University of Malta - Msida, Malta

DECEMBER 2008 - PRESENT

LPIC-1

Linux Professional Institute

Collaboration That Works

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