Michael Herold, Software Developer in Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States
Michael Herold

Software Developer in Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States

Member since April 8, 2017
Mike is a talented software engineer with expertise in web application development. He is fluent in JavaScript, Ruby, and Python and takes pride in writing clean, maintainable code. Mike is based in South Florida with years of experience working for small businesses and working for established software companies. Development-wise, Mike has focused on both client and server architecture, and his strengths include relational and non-relational databases and REST APIs.
Michael is now available for hire

Portfolio

Experience

Location

Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Chrome, Git, Visual Studio Code, Linux, MacOS

The most amazing...

...thing I've built is a database architecture to ingest and maintain accurate, accessible data for millions of building contractors.

Employment

  • Senior Software Engineer

    2021 - 2022
    CB Insights
    • Designed an advanced survey system to generate leads between companies and potential investors.
    • Optimized a spreadsheet tool to make column and row management more user-friendly.
    • Build a back-end endpoint to generate data for market profiles, resulting in an increased SEO presence for the company.
    Technologies: Python, Go, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), APIs, REST, Agile, TypeScript, Node.js, Elasticsearch, React
  • Ruby on Rails and React Developer

    2020 - 2021
    Brooklyn Wine Exchange
    • Worked on a major refactoring of the shopping cart, checkout, and payment code. This refactor improved the checkout experience and reduced many major bugs related to inventory errors, order totals, and credit card verification.
    • Redesigned the product search UI, giving the user cascading search filters and sorting abilities.
    • Worked on monthly subscriptions, including everything from the UI to managing subscription statuses on the back end.
    • Created various new UIs for both the mobile and desktop experience.
    • Built a gift card feature, which includes a page to purchase a gift card, the back-end logic to integrate with the financial software that powers the gift cards, and the code to redeem gift cards at checkout.
    Technologies: React, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Heroku, PostgreSQL, Sidekiq, RSpec, Webpack, HTML, APIs, Scraping, REST, CSS, Ruby
  • Database Engineer

    2019 - 2019
    UCSD | University of California San Diego
    • Designed and configured an Elasticsearch cluster. Decided how to analyze and index data to maximize search performance and usability. The performance was key due to the quantity of data.
    • Deployed the Elasticsearch cluster with Docker and docker-compose using best security practices.
    • Ensured that the cluster nodes were distributed on multiple university servers for redundancy and performance.
    • Validated data and streamlined the ingestion of data using Python and PostgreSQL.
    • Configured an interactive Python interface for university faculty to search and export scientific data using Docker and Python.
    • Designed a Python-based data ingestion pipeline to import and index data from many different medical studies.
    Technologies: PostgreSQL, Python, Elasticsearch, Docker, REST
  • Software Engineer

    2018 - 2019
    Yoshi
    • Worked on a mobile app that runs on iOS and Android; it was built with Ionic Cordova. This code was developed in Angular, JavaScript (TypeScript), and CSS. Also, Xcode and Android Studio were used to build and test code.
    • Wrote a scraper in Python, which collects gas station prices from across the US daily. Configured this scraper to use AWS Dynamo for data storage and to run as needed on AWS Lambda.
    • Integrated a mobile app with the Toyota API to access users' vehicles remotely.
    • Used the Google Maps API extensively and WebSockets to track and display vehicle locations in real time. This involved the use of custom Google Maps layovers and pop-ups.
    • Worked on a large Ruby on Rails API server for our mobile app.
    • Integrated with remote command vehicle APIs (Toyota, OnStar, and so on) using Ruby on Rails to give Yoshi remote access to users' vehicles.
    • Wrote extensive unit and integration tests in RSpec; pushed this company to rely heavily on automated testing and increased testing coverage dramatically.
    • Improved our Twilio integration to automatically purchase and enable new Twilio phone numbers, by area code, based on calculations of message delivery latency.
    Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), PostgreSQL, Angular, Ionic, TypeScript, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, Python, RSpec, HTML, Sidekiq, APIs, Scraping, REST, CSS, Agile, React, Web Scraping
  • Software Developer

    2017 - 2018
    Element Group
    • Built a token-sale platform (platform as a service) for companies to sell tokens based on smart contracts on the Ethereum network. This platform included a checkout flow for investors to purchase tokens with Bitcoin, Ether, or fiat currency.
    • Developed the admin side of the token sale platform for companies to see the investment activity, manage email communications with investors, view analytics, set pricing rules for investor groups, distribute tokens, and more.
    • Constructed an onboarding application for customers applying to use Element Group's brokerage services. This app verifies applicants' identities, collects required documents, and integrates with DocuSign for a pleasant user experience.
    • Wrote smart contracts in the Solidity programming language, establishing specifications for the Ethereum-based tokens used in our token sales.
    • Developed automated tests for these smart contracts using the Truffle framework.
    • Built distributed applications (DApps) that use the Ethereum blockchain as the back end and client-side JavaScript as the front end. The JavaScript integrates with the Chrome Metamask plugin to make calls to smart contracts.
    • Worked within an agile team with continuous integration and high automated testing coverage.
    • Worked on numerous frontend features using JavaScript, React, CSS, and HTML.
    Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Solidity, Web3.js, Docker, Node.js, JavaScript, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), RSpec, HTML, APIs, REST, CSS, Ruby
  • Freelance Software Developer

    2017 - 2017
    BookClicker
    • Created an online marketplace for Amazon authors to buy and sell email promotions. Two weeks after its launch the platform had already seen over $10,000 in gross volume of payments.
    • Developed, configured, and deployed a Rails 5 application.
    • Integrated various external APIs such as Stripe, Mailchimp, AWeber, and Amazon's Product Advertising API. This API work included OAuth and OAuth 2 specifications.
    • Handled all of the DevOps work; configured a Passenger and Nginx server on an AWS Linux Ubuntu box. Redis and Sidekiq were used to manage background jobs. Assets were served through Amazon's CDN CloudFront, and site performance was considered heavily.
    • Securely stored and encrypted sensitive user data. Followed best practices for web and data security.
    • Developed the front end using JavaScript, React, and CSS. The front-end code was managed and bundled with NPM and Webpack.
    Technologies: Stripe API, Amazon Web Services (AWS), NGINX, Redis, Webpack, React, ECMAScript (ES6), MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, HTML, Sidekiq, APIs, REST, CSS
  • Software Developer

    2014 - 2017
    BuildZoom
    • Developed with Ruby on Rails and followed best practices to write readable, maintainable code.
    • Managed MySQL and PostgreSQL databases—building out a data ingestion framework, data modeling, and developing a query optimization to increase the performance of our web application.
    • Constructed APIs for our single-page applications and APIs to power our data partnerships.
    • Built user interfaces that allowed BuildZoom contractors to manage their current projects, communicate with clients, visualize project histories, and manage photo galleries (with AngularJS and jQuery).
    • Developed a matching algorithm involving data normalization, stemming, Levenshtein distances, and stop word filtering, which has been at the heart of nearly all of our data partnerships with third parties.
    • Wrote performant data-processing scripts in Ruby and Python.
    • Configured and debugged Elasticsearch (a full-text search engine) indices to improve user search on the site.
    • Implemented Google's machine learning Python module (Scikit-learn) to train a classifier and classify building permit data.
    • Worked on various front-end features using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
    • Worked on a large Python scraping app to intelligently scrape contractor and building permit data from all over the US on an ongoing basis. This also included a data pipeline to sanitize, normalize, and transfer data to our PostgreSQL databases.
    Technologies: CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Python, PostgreSQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby, RSpec, Sidekiq, APIs, Scraping, REST, AngularJS, React, Web Scraping
  • Physics Teacher

    2012 - 2013
    Green Dot Public Schools
    • Helped young minds gain an intuitive sense of the physics of the world around them through lab activities and hands-on learning.
    • Taught physics with algebra, theory, and experiments.
    • Managed behavioral expectations for 20+ adolescents.
    Technologies: Teaching
  • Physics Teaching Assistant

    2010 - 2012
    Auburn University
    • Instructed undergraduate engineering students in the subject of physics.
    • Assisted undergraduate physics students with laboratory assignments.
    • Taught as an assistant for four different physics courses.
    Technologies: MATLAB, Fortran

Experience

  • BookClicker
    https://www.bookclicker.com

    An online marketplace for Amazon authors to buy and sell email promotions. This Ruby on Rails web application leverages Stripe Connect to allow peer-to-peer payments.

    Authors integrate their mailing platform API of choice (Mailchimp, AWeber, MailerLite, or ConvertKit) to validate and share their mailing list information. The site saw great user traction and a healthy volume of payments within the first couple of weeks.

Skills

  • Languages

    Ruby, JavaScript, Python, CSS, TypeScript, Go, HTML, Fortran, ECMAScript (ES6), Solidity
  • Frameworks

    Ruby on Rails (RoR), Flask, AngularJS, Angular, Django, Ionic
  • Tools

    RSpec, Git, Webpack, Xcode, Android Studio
  • Paradigms

    REST, Agile
  • Platforms

    Visual Studio Code, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Heroku, Linux, Docker, Blockchain
  • Storage

    PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, Redis
  • Other

    APIs, Web Scraping, Hardware Design, Numerical Programming, Physics
  • Libraries/APIs

    React, Sidekiq, Node.js, Stripe API
  • Industry Expertise

    Teaching

Education

  • Master's Degree in Physics
    2010 - 2012
    Auburn University - Auburn, AL, USA
  • Bachelor of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering
    2004 - 2008
    University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA, USA

Certifications

  • Toptal Blockchain Academy
    JUNE 2018 - PRESENT
    Toptal

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