Michael James Erwin
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Engineer and Developer
Knoxville, TN, United States
Toptal member since November 4, 2024
Michael is a senior software engineer with over 10 years of experience specializing in back-end systems. He has architected and implemented scalable solutions using diverse technologies and excels in autonomous environments, focusing on complex problem-solving. With a strong background in functional programming, Rust, and Java, Michael is adept at mentoring peers and driving technical excellence.
Portfolio
Experience
- Java - 10 years
- Linux - 10 years
- JVM - 10 years
- PostgreSQL - 10 years
- Functional Programming - 7 years
- Clojure - 6 years
- Rust - 2 years
- Haskell - 2 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
Linux, Rust, Functional Programming, Clojure, Java, JVM, PostgreSQL, Haskell
The most amazing...
...user feedback I've received is "Are you sure this is 100% machine generated?"—demonstrating the high-quality output of a human-readable transcript program.
Work Experience
Staff Software Engineer
Truly International Trading
- Developed complex microservices to power a full communications platform for revenue-generating teams at companies like Square, Wix, and The Princeton Review.
- Led architecture and implementation of several major features from concept to release, mentoring team members throughout the development lifecycle.
- Spearheaded the early-stage Rust rewrite of performance-critical services.
- Played a key role in evolving and maintaining the microservice architecture on AWS, improving system scalability and enabling user event replayability.
- Increased platform reach by developing and maintaining integrations with Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, OpenAI, Zoom, and multiple VoIP and SMS providers.
- Engineered and maintained core functionality, including VoIP, SMS, meeting recording, transcription, and email synchronization, creating a comprehensive customer interaction data ecosystem.
Lead Software Developer
Common Edge
- Led full-stack development for three monolithic applications, managing a globally distributed team while maintaining a 90% hands-on coding focus.
- Architected and implemented custom solutions, including project management, order management, CRM, checkout, and glass design from concept to release.
- Established coding standards, best practices, and technical roadmaps, aligning development efforts with organizational goals and business needs.
Experience
SaaS Communications Platform
https://truly.co/Education
Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy
Calvary College - Southern California & York, England
Skills
Libraries/APIs
REST APIs, Node.js
Tools
Docker Compose, Odoo, RabbitMQ, Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Git
Languages
Clojure, Java, JavaScript, HTML, Rust, Python, SQL, TypeScript, Haskell, OCaml, PHP, Go
Paradigms
API Architecture, Event-driven Architecture, Functional Programming, Microservices, Database Design
Platforms
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, JVM, Docker, AWS Lambda, Amazon EC2, Heroku
Storage
PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, Redis, NoSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB
Frameworks
Redux
Other
Back-end Development, APIs, API Integration, System Architecture, Back-end, Architecture, Software Architecture, Software as a Service (SaaS), API Design, Solution Architecture, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Distributed Systems, Full-stack Development, Relational Database Services (RDS), Algorithms, Technical Leadership, NixOS, Amazon RDS, OpenAI, Philosophy, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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