Michael is available for hire
Hire MichaelMichael James Hobbs
Verified Expert in Engineering
Front-end Developer
Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Toptal member since October 6, 2021
Bio
Michael is a software engineer with eight years of experience, having mainly focused on front-end development. He prefers React and TypeScript and has led a team of remote developers to deliver mission-critical software to some of the largest banking and insurance institutions in Switzerland.
Portfolio
Nordcloud
Redux, Redux-Saga, Redux Form, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, SCSS, ESLint, Webpack...
Boston Children's Hospital
React, TypeScript, APIs, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, REST APIs, Next.js...
Rain Technologies Inc.
React, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), REST APIs...
Experience
- CSS - 6 years
- HTML - 6 years
- JavaScript - 6 years
- Web Development - 6 years
- TypeScript - 4 years
- React - 4 years
- React Redux - 4 years
- React Router - 4 years
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Linux, React, TypeScript
The most amazing...
...thing I've developed won several awards at the Best of Swiss Apps Awards 2015.
Work Experience
Front-end Software Engineer
2023 - PRESENT
Nordcloud
- Drove modernization efforts, including the use of hooks, functional components, integration testing, and TypeScript, leading to improved DX.
- Reported and fixed bugs, UX improvements, and performance issues, including a 10k times speed-up of a search operation.
- Led internal knowledge transfer sessions on testing best practices, using hooks instead of HoCs, and using TypeScript.
- Reviewed code changes and specifications, preventing both technical mistakes and mistakes in business logic from being shipped.
- Designed technical solutions across all layers of the tech stack, for example, revoking a user's consent to be tracked whenever the privacy policy is changed.
Technologies: Redux, Redux-Saga, Redux Form, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, SCSS, ESLint, Webpack, Storybook, Azure DevOps, Git, Figma, React-Intl, Jest, Bootstrap 4, React Testing Library, Reselect, React
Software Engineer
2022 - 2023
Boston Children's Hospital
- Developed, with two other engineers, an app for US citizens to search for nearby providers of antiviral flu medication.
- Worked on a custom component library with styled-components, including packaging and publishing to a private npm registry.
- Contributed to vaccines.gov fixing accessibility issues and integrating an internationalization library.
- Updated the tech stack, addressed technical debt, and wrote automated tests and technical documentation for a clean handover.
- Provided technical guidance and mentoring and evangelized best practices.
Technologies: React, TypeScript, APIs, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, REST APIs, Next.js, Amazon Web Services (AWS), CI/CD Pipelines, Private NPM Modules, NPM, Storybook, Lerna, Styled-components, Rollup.js, GitHub, GitHub API, A11Y, Web Accessibility, i18n, Internationalization, SSG, Jenkins, Redux, React Redux, Mapbox
Senior Front-end Software Engineer
2022 - 2022
Rain Technologies Inc.
- Optimized builds by identifying and fixing critical security issues and halved the build size.
- Implemented new features following best practices, refactoring, and addressing technical debt.
- Reverse-engineered and documented an existing React Native application. Built a proof of concept in React Native web and then ported it to React.
- Performed technical reviews of business requirements, then defined and distributed tickets to his team in Jira.
- Reviewed code and mentored front-end engineers across the company.
- Suggested ways to improve project architecture and stability, such as CI/CD code quality jobs, build promotion, API contract testing, and clean-up of dead-code.
- Wrote a getting started guide and READMEs for quick ramp-up of new developers.
- Documented existing applications as well as new features with technical specifications, diagrams, and flow charts.
- Enforced following the corporate style guide and designed a strategy to align the existing front-end applications with a new design system defined in Figma.
- Designed API contracts with mock responses so the back-end and front-end teams could develop in parallel.
Technologies: React, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), REST APIs, Automated Testing, Cypress, Gatsby, WordPress, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), CI/CD Pipelines, Storybook, Chakra UI, Next.js, Webpack, i18n, React Router, Front-end Architecture, APIs, Jest, Interviewing, API Documentation, Technical Documentation, GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, Task Analysis, Estimations, High Code Quality, Figma, NPM, Private NPM Modules, Yarn, Monorepos, Formik, React Native, React Native for Web, Recharts
Freelance Front-end Software Engineer
2021 - 2021
Quantics Consulting
- Implemented new features and pages, including a drag-and-drop tree list, extending an existing custom data grid and a user menu.
- Reported and fixed bugs, contributing to project stability and production readiness.
- Refactored both TypeScript and style sheets while working on related code, contributing to a clean codebase.
- Proposed front-end architecture changes to improve long-term maintainability.
Technologies: React, REST, REST APIs, JavaScript, TypeScript, NPM, Sass, HTML5, CSS, Web App Development, Web Development, Task Analysis
Software Engineer
2015 - 2020
AdNovum
- Worked on over 10 projects with a broad range of responsibilities.
- Designed and implemented software improvements (change requests) during the software lifecycle.
- Developed and maintained software and software components, databases as well as interfaces to surrounding systems.
- Designed and selected appropriate methods, techniques, standards, guidelines, and tools for software development.
- Designed and implemented models for data, functions, and objects.
- Defined required technical and human resources, software and technical architectures, and interfaces for surrounding systems.
- Wrote and kept documentation up to date, including requirements analysis, data models, database schemas, source code, technical specification, configuration and deployment parameters, and operation guides.
- Planned, evaluated, migrated, developed, configured, and tested systems as well as transitioned these systems to production.
- Collaborated with teams from other companies to resolve issues during development.
Technologies: React, TypeScript, Sass, JSS, HTML, JavaScript, SQL, Java, React Router, Redux, i18n, Jest, Webpack, Enzyme, WireMock, Material UI, Analytical Thinking, Axios, AngularJS, CI/CD Pipelines, Code Review, Cost Estimation, CSS, DevExpress, Docker, APIs, CSS3, ESLint, Estimation & Planning, Front-end, Front-end Architecture, Front-end Development, GoCD, Estimations, Highcharts, H2, HTML5, IntelliJ IDEA, Ionic, Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), JSX, Linux, Formik, Microsoft SQL Server, Integration, NPM, Web Applications, Web App Development, Web Development, Source Code Review, Task Analysis
Experience
Insurance Engine Web App
A React web app for configuring core insurance entities and their relationships. I served as the lead front-end developer in charge of setting up the project using the latest technologies, liaising with the UX team and business analysts to perform feasibility studies and build POCs, planning the REST API interface with the back-end team, and ensuring code quality through code reviews.
Vehicle Insurance Web App
A React web app for managing insured fleets of vehicles, contracts and contract offers. The web app had both internal and external access from employees and clients, respectively. Reference data was loaded from several back ends. I acted as the lead front-end developer tasked with creating and distributing tasks, ensuring code quality, aligning the UI with the corporate style guide, assisting with the REST API design, and selecting the front-end dependencies.
Financial Rating Application
https://www.adnovum.ch/en/solutions/case_studies/finance/ubs-fira.htmlMigration of a financial rating application from JSP to React. I worked on extracting the existing business logic from the old application's source code and the existing technical documentation and translating this into tickets for implementation in the target web framework. I assisted the technical lead to perform code reviews and with task estimations.
• Bootstrapping the application state based on entry-point query parameters.
• Complex masked inputs.
• Data tables with dynamic, editable entries.
• Used by over 3,500 bank employees in their daily work.
• Bootstrapping the application state based on entry-point query parameters.
• Complex masked inputs.
• Data tables with dynamic, editable entries.
• Used by over 3,500 bank employees in their daily work.
Investment Sales App
An Ionic cross-platform app for a major Swiss bank to support their client advisors when selling investment packages. Connecting to multiple internal back-end services, the app allows users to show the historical performance of various investment opportunities as well as to calibrate an investment package for individual clients during meetings. Internationalized for Swiss and APAC clients.
• Packaged for and used on iPads.
• Highcharts and interactive charts.
• Used AngularJS.
• Packaged for and used on iPads.
• Highcharts and interactive charts.
• Used AngularJS.
Gamified Savings App
A Vanilla JS web app for a Swiss bank targeted at younger clients to help them reach their savings goals. Participated in the development of the proof of concept, bringing the project to production readiness with CI/CD, and implementing new features and change requests. The back end was built with the Play framework and written in Java, connecting to a Microsoft SQL Server database.
Case Management Admin Tool
Change requests for two tools for a client in the public sector. The first is a tool for caseworkers to collaborate and track progress on cases. The second tool is for HR and management to track the performance of and to set targets for the caseworkers. Both projects rely heavily on database query optimization, stored procedures, and scheduled jobs. Both use Java and Spring for the business logic and back end. For the front-end components, one project uses JSP and the other uses AngularJS.
Ionic Plugin for Native Payments SDK
An Ionic plugin for an Android and iOS payment solution SDK for a car-sharing app. I implemented the SDK wrappers in Objective C and Java to be used in an Ionic web app. The plugin was fully tested and documented, and the project team managed to integrate it into their application.
Mortgage Web App
An AngularJS mortgage configuration and extension web app for a Swiss bank. The main part of the web app consists of a custom-made interactive SVG allowing users to split and merge mortgages into various types with different rates and different durations. The web app connects to the bank's core systems to always provide up-to-date interest rates as well as to fetch the client's current mortgage or a saved draft.
Client Authentication Integration
Integration and implementation of change requests for a major Swiss bank's client authentication used globally in over twenty countries. Used AdNovum's formerly in-house identity management product Nevis, which is now a separate spin-off company.
Instant Transfer App
A Cordova hybrid web app built for a Swiss Bank. The first of its kind in Switzerland, the app won several awards at the Best of Swiss Apps Awards in 2015. I worked on developing the front end, regularly going to the client's premises to debug issues on their test environments. The app had an onboarding process, including a credit card scanner for which I built a Cordova plugin, and allowed users to instantly send money to other users.
Admin Dashboard Web App
A React Web App that enables Rain employees and customer services to manage and configure their products, investigate incidents, and support clients. The project's highlights include adding testing frameworks to micro front-end monorepo and improving the security of the build.
Employer Dashboard Web App
https://employer.rain.usA React Web App that provides partners with access to usage metrics and details for their signed-up employees and the ability to manage their pool of users. The project's highlights included halving build size, fixing TypeScript usage, identifying and removing dead code, adding API mocks, migrating deprecated code, documenting technical and business specifications, designing new APIs, integrating user metrics, implementing user import/export, and localizing for India.
Sign-up Web App
A Next.js web app for onboarding partner employees, optionally preloading user data. I built a partner-agnostic way to quickly roll out to new partners. The project's highlights included:
• Implementing preloading of user data, reducing user steps and improving UX.
• Documenting technical and business specifications.
• Improving type safety and TypeScript usage.
• Internationalizing for India.
• Implementing preloading of user data, reducing user steps and improving UX.
• Documenting technical and business specifications.
• Improving type safety and TypeScript usage.
• Internationalizing for India.
Early Wage Access Web App
A React web app for providing early access to employees' salaries. I was responsible for translating conceptual mock screens into an implementation plan, assigning development tasks, and enforcing code quality. I led a team of three front-end developers.
Education
2012 - 2014
Master's Degree in Computer Science
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) - Lausanne, Switzerland
2008 - 2012
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) - Lausanne, Switzerland
Certifications
JUNE 2021 - PRESENT
Deep Learning Specialization
Coursera
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, React Router, React Redux, Formik, REST APIs, Highcharts, React Native for Web, Recharts, Rollup.js, GitHub API, Redux-Saga, Redux Form, React-Intl, React Testing Library, Reselect
Tools
JSX, JSS, Visual Studio, Webpack, WireMock, MATLAB, Xcode, Shell, NPM, IntelliJ IDEA, Cordova Plugins, GitLab, GitLab CI/CD, Figma, Babel, Prettier, Jira, Confluence, Lerna, GitHub, Jenkins, Git
Languages
TypeScript, JavaScript, Sass, HTML, CSS, HTML5, CSS3, SQL, Java, Perl, Python, Python 3, Objective-C, SCSS
Frameworks
Redux, Jest, Material UI, Yarn, AngularJS, Ionic, Jakarta Server Pages (JSP), JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Cypress, Next.js, React Native
Paradigms
REST, Web Architecture, Web Application Architecture, Automated Testing, Refactoring, Azure DevOps
Platforms
Linux, Docker, iOS, Android, WordPress, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mapbox
Storage
IBM Db2, Microsoft SQL Server, H2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)
Other
Web Development, Web Applications, Web App Development, Front-end, Code Review, Source Code Review, Task Analysis, Front-end Development, Software Development, APIs, Estimations, Cost Estimation, Estimation & Planning, Front-end Architecture, Analytical Thinking, i18n, Enzyme, DevExpress, ESLint, Axios, TSLint, HSM, Integration, CI/CD Pipelines, GoCD, Storybook, Cordova, Gatsby, Chakra UI, Interviewing, API Documentation, Technical Documentation, High Code Quality, Private NPM Modules, Monorepos, Turborepo, Software Architecture, Remote Team Leadership, UML Diagrams, API Design, UX Flows, Styled-components, A11Y, Web Accessibility, Internationalization, SSG, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Bootstrap 4
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