toptal.com
Contact us: +1.888.604.3188
Kevin Read, Reverse Engineering Developer in Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Kevin Read

Reverse Engineering Developer in Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Member since February 11, 2018
Kevin has been working on front- and back-end projects since joining an internet startup in 1998. He's been developing with Android since its very early days and had made significant contributions to several large and small projects. Kevin enjoys working in teams of all sizes, digging into legacy code, and communicates exceptionally well.
Kevin is now available for hire
Hire Kevin

Portfolio

  • Om7Sense GmbH
    Kotlin, Webpack 4, Webpack 3, MySQL Server, HTML5, Git, JavaScript, SQL...
  • Yinkozi
    Android NDK, C, Git, Android SDK, Android, Linux, Bash, Java, C++, Gradle
  • Microsoft
    Git, Android, Continuous Integration (CI), Angular, JavaScript, Java

Experience

Location

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Firefox, Chrome, MacOS, Linux, Bash, Sublime Text, IntelliJ

The most amazing...

...thing I’ve done was to embed Google's version 8 JavaScript runtime into a mobile app—combining Java, C++, and JS abstractions to create an awesome product.

Employment

  • CEO | Co-founder

    2015 - PRESENT
    Om7Sense GmbH
    • Created the architecture, back ends, and front ends for Om7Sense, an IoT startup focusing on data centers using React for the front end.
    • Developed back ends consisting of high-availability OSGi containers written in Java running in Eclipse Kura on embedded Linux.
    • Stored data in MySQL in a hierarchical fashion that can support years of high-resolution usage data on a 32 GB device.
    • Implemented real-time communication using MQTT between the front end and back end.
    • Built a mesh of nodes with distributed permissions according to the IoT gateway/concentrator concept.
    Technologies: Kotlin, Webpack 4, Webpack 3, MySQL Server, HTML5, Git, JavaScript, SQL, REST APIs, Web, Java, Linux, Embedded Linux, MySQL, Node.js, OSGi, Eclipse, React

  • Android Security Engineer

    2019 - 2020
    Yinkozi
    • Maintained and extended a low-level security library for Android, containing encryption, device integrity checks, and anti-tampering.
    • Migrated an Android app from Jetpack/Android X to the Android Support library.
    • Supported an app by creating an installer for the Android library.
    • Wrote a Gradle plugin for SDK/library for Android.
    • Improved documentation and wrote quick-start documentation.
    Technologies: Android NDK, C, Git, Android SDK, Android, Linux, Bash, Java, C++, Gradle

  • Consultant

    2018 - 2018
    Microsoft
    • Consulted on technical due diligence.
    • Interviewed developers to judge experience and team workflow.
    • Reviewed code and source code history for quality.
    • Reviewed the IP and licensing.
    • Analyzed an Android app's architecture, security, and resilience.
    Technologies: Git, Android, Continuous Integration (CI), Angular, JavaScript, Java

  • Freelance Mobile Developer

    2014 - 2018
    Börse Go AG
    • Created a strong-but-fast library for embedding v8 into Android apps to use web-based libraries without resorting to web views. V8 runtime uses OpenGL ES to expose JavaScript canvas, WebSockets, AJAX, and more to the JavaScript side.
    • Helped develop a rich phone/tablet app that shows real-time financial data in a comprehensive but visually striking way.
    • Integrated a client's powerful finance JavaScript charting library into the app.
    • Migrated a large legacy Java codebase to Gradle, Kotlin, and RxJava.
    • Implemented strong Material UI in cooperation with the design team and iOS team.
    Technologies: Android NDK, RxJava 2, C, Git, JavaScript, SQL, Android SDK, REST APIs, Linux, OpenGL, V8, C++, RxJava, Kotlin, Java, Android

  • Web Developer

    2016 - 2016
    ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE
    • Developed multiple landing sites.
    • Integrated streaming video into a web page.
    • Conducted rapid prototyping and worked with a visual designer.
    Technologies: MySQL Server, Git, Web, JavaScript, Sass, HTML5

  • Android Developer

    2016 - 2016
    Amphiro AG
    • Created an Android app from scratch that collects and visualizes data from a client's IoT water usage measuring device.
    • Implemented the background and a power-efficient Bluetooth LE data retrieval feature that was compatible with the maximum number of Android devices.
    • Conducted large-scale matrix testing of devices and OS versions.
    • Executed real-time synchronization with the back-end, supporting multiple data sources updating together.
    • Created a graph visualization of the water usage.
    Technologies: Git, Java, Android, Bluetooth LE

  • Software Engineer

    2015 - 2015
    Cliqz GmbH
    • Created a mobile browser based on an open-source framework in Java and JavaScript; also helped with the iOS version (Objective-C).
    • Converted a search engine UI that only ran as a Firefox extension to run as a Chrome extension; both in the mobile app and stand-alone website, migrating from ES2015 to ES5 JavaScript.
    • Extended the open-source mobile messenger, Telegram, with a search interface and multi-modal photo sharing while working closely with the product designer.
    • Created the Places API's infrastructure including the document schema, storage, and REST API.
    • Researched search engine data sources for the mobile web.
    Technologies: Git, SQL, REST APIs, Web, CSS, HTML, Android, JavaScript, Java

  • Mobile Developer

    2014 - 2014
    Purelabs UG
    • Developed an in-car navigation experience that coupled sound and video the points of interest.
    • Implemented a Google Maps API with geofences downloaded from a REST API to activate the audio/video scenes while driving.
    • Used Android Multimedia APIs to play multiple sounds in parallel and move the stereocenter point.
    • Simulated 2D positional audio by using accelerometer sensor data.
    • Stored and replayed geodata from a live drive so that customer can work on simulation outside of a car.
    Technologies: Git, Geofencing, Java, Android, Google Maps

  • Mobile/Web Developer

    2009 - 2014
    BörseGo AG
    • Developed the company's Android apps in the financial sector with a focus on real-time data and on-device charting using Java. The app was featured in the Play Store twice.
    • Led a team of three in developing a single-page HTML5/JavaScript app that showcases chart patterns. Worked with clients on customizing the white-label version of this product.
    • Worked in a small team rebuilding the main web franchise that sees multiple million visits per month from static HTML to a mixed statically/dynamically rendered version written in JavaScript and a REST API in PHP/MySQL.
    • Developed a custom blogging engine with cascading comments as a REST API in PHP/MySQL with a custom web cache for performance and a PHP front-end. Also integrated it with the in-house WordPress CMS.
    • Written and optimized multiple REST APIs in PHP and their corresponding MySQL queries using KCachegrind and other profilers.
    • Supported and extended a customer webshop written in Django/Python.
    • Maintained multiple customer websites in PHP/MySQL.
    Technologies: Android NDK, MySQL Server, C, HTML5, Git, SQL, REST APIs, Web, Linux, CSS, HTML, MySQL, PHP, JavaScript, Java, Android

  • Student Researcher

    2006 - 2009
    University of Koblenz and Landau
    • Built a campuswide news broadcast system that sent the news to feature phones via Bluetooth; it was implemented in Java EE on OSGi embedded devices.
    • Developed a back-end service and for campus news network in C++.
    • Designed the protocol for bidirectional communication through Bluetooth and running over a GPRS connection so minimal data use and resiliency was required.
    • Created a multiscreen ticker-on-TV interface for campus news shown on TV monitors in Python/OpenGL.
    • Worked on multiple research papers and proof-of-concepts in the area of AI.
    Technologies: Web, Bluetooth, OSGi, Java EE

  • Software Engineer

    2005 - 2006
    wizAI GmbH
    • Extended and maintained a news-clipping service that implemented full-text indexing of news articles running on Java EE.
    • Migrated a news clipper from MySQL to a Lucene full-text search engine for a better performance.
    • Optimized the clipping engine's performance for scaling up to 10x.
    • Worked on the website and database using PHP and MySQL.
    • Maintained and managed the Linux servers.
    Technologies: MySQL Server, C, REST APIs, Web, Java, MySQL, Apache Lucene, Java EE

  • Co-founder | CTO

    2002 - 2003
    Selador
    • Co-founded and incepted a web-based multiplayer game using PHP and MySQL.
    • Optimized the game for high concurrency, low-latency server-side rendering using a custom event pipeline.
    Technologies: CSS, MySQL Server, HTML5, SQL, Web, JavaScript, HTML, MySQL, PHP

  • DevOps | SysAdmin

    1998 - 2002
    InnNet GmbH
    • Built and maintained Linux servers for an internet service provider with web servers (Apache), databases (MySQL), and mail services (Sendmail/Courier).
    • Set up an internet infrastructure and routing using Cisco and Bintec routers (OSPF).
    • Installed the dial-in infrastructure (ISDN, GSM).
    Technologies: Web, Sendmail, TCP/IP, MySQL, Apache, Linux

Experience

  • Guidants Android
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.boersego.gmt.android

    Guidants gives you real-time financial market data, analyses, and access to a community of pro traders. I created this app and its predecessors and have worked on it for many years.

    A technical highlight is the use of real-time stock data and the powerful stock chart analysis package that the client also uses on the web. It is driven by ejecta-v8, my project that embeds Google's v8 JavaScript engine into Android apps similar to how Node.js works.

  • Ejecta-v8 Library
    https://github.com/godmodelabs/ejecta-v8

    To reuse the existing code that was written in JavaScript, a client commissioned me to write a library similar to Ejecta.js for Android.

    With the help of colleagues, I wrapped Google's v8, added Canvas, AJAX, and WebSocket APIs, and created a layer for the easy wrapping of both C++ and Java/Kotlin functions to be used by JavaScript.

  • Om7Sense Energy Management

    I co-founded Om7Sense, a startup focusing on energy management. Using IoT technologies and an intuitive front-end written in React, energy usage can be easily quantified. The back-end was developed in high-availability Java EE using Eclipse Kura and communicates via the MQTT protocol standard.

Skills

  • Languages

    CSS3, JavaScript 6, Kotlin, HTML5, Java, C, SQL, JavaScript, ES7, JavaScript 5, Python, Less, Sass, Embedded C, C++, Bash, HTML, CSS, PHP 5, XML/XSLT, PHP, XML, Dart

  • Frameworks

    Android SDK, OSGi, Redux, Chrome, Angular, Django, Flutter

  • Libraries/APIs

    OpenGL ES, HTML5 Canvas, React, REST APIs, Jackson, Google Maps SDK, RxJava 2, Redux-saga, Node.js, Google Maps, Apache Lucene, OpenGL, jQuery, jQuery UI, Facebook API, Facebook Login, RxJava

  • Tools

    Chrome Developer Tools, MQTT, Tcpdump, Crashlytics, Android Studio, Android NDK, Git, Babel, JavaScript Debugging, Webpack 3, Nginx, Webpack 4, IntelliJ, Sublime Text, V8, Apache, Sendmail, Gradle, Docker Hub, Mercurial, Apache Solr, InVision, Xcode

  • Paradigms

    Class-based OOP, Concurrent Programming, Mobile Development, Functional Programming, Prototype-based OOP, Testing, Continuous Integration (CI), Agile, Pair Programming

  • Platforms

    MacOS, Linux, Android, Web, Docker, Embedded Linux, Apache2, Bluetooth LE, Firefox, Eclipse, Java EE, iOS, Firebase

  • Storage

    MySQL Server, MariaDB, SQLite, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NoSQL, Memcached, MongoDB

  • Other

    GitFlow, Reverse Engineering, API Design, Crash Fixing, TCP/IP, Routing, Google Play Store, Embedded Java, Mobile App Development, Nginx Expert, Scraping, Web Scraping, Mobile Security, Interviews, Technical Hiring, WebSockets, Bash Scripting, Bluetooth, Embedded Systems, Linux Internals, Requirements & Specifications, Android Emulators, OkHttp, API Testing, Google In-app Billing, Geofencing, Obfuscation, Security Analysis, App UI, SVG, Chromecast, Fire TV, Android Wearables, WiFi, XML RPC, Google Ads, Mockups, A/B Testing, UX Testing, Google Sign-in

  • Industry Expertise

    IT Security

Education

  • Certificate in Introduction to AI (Artificial Intelligence)
    2011 - 2011
    Stanford University via Udacity - Online
  • Master's degree (diploma) in Computational Visualistics
    2004 - 2010
    University of Koblenz and Landau - Koblenz, Germany

Certifications

  • Project Manager Basis
    JULY 2014 - PRESENT
    Staufen Akademie
  • LPIC-1: System Administrator
    AUGUST 2008 - PRESENT
    Linux Professional Institute

To view more profiles

Join Toptal
Share it with others
Hire the top 3% of freelance developers TM