Mike Sukmanowsky, Developer in Mississauga, Canada
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Mike Sukmanowsky

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
Mississauga, Canada
Toptal Member Since
September 12, 2022

Mike is a senior technologist with over a decade of experience building and scaling products. Over the past ten years, he has specialized in data engineering, full-stack web development, and product management. Mike is a natural problem solver capable of mastering complex subjects quickly and focusing on delivering real value.

Portfolio

ReturnBear
B2B Product Management, Django, React Native, React, Sales
Parse.ly
Product Management, B2B Product Management, Data Engineering...
Globe and Mail
Apache Pig, Hadoop, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), Web Analytics...

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Python, Django, React, TypeScript, MacOS

The most amazing...

...thing I've helped build is Parse.ly, a content analytics platform where I had various roles while primarily focusing on engineering and product management.

Work Experience

Interim CPO | Full-stack Developer

2020 - 2021
ReturnBear
  • Developed the initial product strategy and concept after an intensive customer discovery process with merchants and secured funding from institutional investors.
  • Created initial prototypes of some of ReturnBear's early software, including a returns processing app built in React Native and using a Django back end.
  • Launched a SaaS product in less than three months, with an in-person returns drop-off pilot shortly after. Secured initial customers and made strides toward achieving a product market fit.
Technologies: B2B Product Management, Django, React Native, React, Sales

VP Product | Data Engineer | Full-stack Developer

2012 - 2020
Parse.ly
  • Created and executed a product strategy and roadmap in collaboration with other senior leadership, allowing Parse.ly to enlarge its market share among North America's media and entertainment companies.
  • Helped rearchitect the back-end and data-processing infrastructure, unlocking the next stage of B2B growth and the company's feature development. This involved a complete rewrite from state mutations to a lambda architecture.
  • Headed the homepage analytics project by researching, designing, developing, and launching it. The result helped homepage editors understand the performance of articles featured on their high-traffic home page's valuable real estate.
  • Researched, designed, developed, and launched Currents with a small team. Currents is a network insights tool that helped Parse.ly expand its total addressable market and allows users to view the attention a particular topic is getting online.
  • Assisted in managing and mentoring product managers, software developers, and support staff in earlier stages of their careers.
  • Built wp-parsely, a WordPress plugin that allowed owners of WordPress blogs to easily install Parse.ly to their sites and provide Parse.ly with the appropriate metadata for their content.
Technologies: Product Management, B2B Product Management, Data Engineering, Full-stack Development, Engineering Management, Apache Airflow, Apache Spark, Apache Storm, Python, Django, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), Apache Cassandra, Elasticsearch, Redshift, Big Data, Big Data Architecture, Data Architecture, Data Analytics, Apache Kafka, PySpark, Data Visualization, Google Search Console

Product Manager, Analytics

2010 - 2012
Globe and Mail
  • Provided analysis and recommendations for Globe and Mail's paywall, including which sections are most lucrative and when paywall offers should be provided, leading to the creation of Canada's most successful news paywall.
  • Headed SEO efforts that led to double-digit traffic increases.
  • Designed and developed an open-source JavaScript plugin for Adobe Analytics, resulting in more detailed and accurate traffic source reporting.
Technologies: Apache Pig, Hadoop, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), Web Analytics, Google Data Studio, Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Data Visualization

Manager, Digital Analytics and Insights

2007 - 2010
Rogers Communications
  • Developed a growth, engagement, and loyalty analysis framework for digital media and presented it at eMetrics, an industry conference.
  • Created and presented numerous scheduled and ad-hoc analyses that resulted in UI/UX improvements to various media properties and helped assess the performance of initiatives.
  • Led the selection, negotiation, and implementation of Adobe Analytics across 100+ properties.
  • Headed the technical and process implementation for Solbright, a contract and revenue management system.
Technologies: Adobe Analytics, JavaScript, Web Analytics, Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, Data Visualization

Parse.ly

https://www.parse.ly/
Collaborated on a web analytics platform for media and entertainment companies that produce large volumes of content and experience high traffic volumes. I was an early-stage employee and wore multiple hats, including product management, data engineering, sales, and support, to help build and shape a company that Automattic, the creators of WordPress, eventually acquired.

ReturnBear

https://www.returnbear.com/
Acted as the interim CPO for ReturnBear, a reverse logistics company for eCommerce retailers and consumers. This meant developing the company from idea to initial inception and hiring a permanent leadership team.

ReturnBear makes returns easy for customers and retailers and provides software that lets retailers automate return requests and enforce specific rules. It also enables consumers control over how they want to return, including an in-person drop-off option to a participating partner powered by ReturnBear.

At first, I led research efforts with a small design team to understand forward and reverse logistics. Speaking to many experts and retailers, we found returns to be a consistent pain point and created ReturnBear as the solution.

I led the build of the MVP, often creating the first versions of the software and helping to find and work with initial customers to iterate on the first version. Per Koru's model, I helped find the permanent leadership team to run ReturnBear, leading to continued growth and new retailers added.

Streamparse

https://github.com/Parsely/streamparse
Developed streamparse, an open source library that lets users run Python code against real-time data streams using Apache Storm. With streamparse, users can create Apache Storm bolts and spouts in Python without writing a single line of Java code. It also provides handy command-line interface utilities for managing Apache Storm clusters and projects.

Serpextract

https://github.com/Parsely/serpextract
Built serpextact, an open-source Python library that extracts search keywords from the URLs of search engine results pages. It's particularly useful when analyzing clickstream data that contains URLs that could be from search engines.

Parse.ly WordPress Plugin

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-parsely/
Enabled WordPress site owners to easily install Parse.ly to their sites by developing the Parse.ly WordPress plugin. It also allows users to send Parse.ly the appropriate metadata for their content and configure specific settings, including the content that should be ignored.

Languages

Python, TypeScript, PHP, JavaScript

Other

Software Engineering, Product Management, B2B Product Management, Data Engineering, Web Analytics, Engineering Management, Google BigQuery, Data Visualization, Full-stack Development, Design, Scrum Product Owner, Apache Cassandra, WordPress Plugins, Google Data Studio, Sales, Tech Sales, Startups, Lean Startups, UX Research, Strategy, Big Data, Big Data Architecture, Data Architecture, Data Analytics, Google Search Console

Frameworks

Django, Apache Spark, React Native, Hadoop, Spark

Libraries/APIs

React, PySpark

Tools

Apache Storm, Apache Airflow, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), Adobe Analytics, Google Analytics, Spark SQL, Microsoft Excel

Platforms

Apache Kafka, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Apache Pig, MacOS, WordPress, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Storage

Elasticsearch, Redshift, Redis

Paradigms

Web UI Design, Web UX Design, Scrum

2002 - 2006

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Wilfrid Laurier University - Waterloo, ON, Canada

AUGUST 2020 - PRESENT

Certified Generalist Software Engineer

An Online Freelance Agency

AUGUST 2017 - PRESENT

Design 101: Product & Web Design Course for Beginners

Designlab

JUNE 2011 - PRESENT

Certified Scrum Product Owner

Berteig

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