Nicholas Wakeman
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Saratoga Springs, NY, United States
Toptal member since November 12, 2017
Nick's been developing, architecting, and leading software projects for well over a decade. In addition to a rich full-stack skill set, his business acumen and ability to communicate effectively with clients and stakeholders regardless of their technical knowledge set him apart from the rest. Though focused on tech leadership for the last few years, Nick still enjoys developing early-stage prototypes and products.
Portfolio
Experience
- MySQL - 14 years
- PHP - 12 years
- Python - 10 years
- Twilio - 7 years
- Enterprise - 6 years
- Symfony - 6 years
- Laravel - 5 years
- React - 3 years
Availability
Preferred Environment
React, Prototyping, Early-stage Startups, REST APIs
The most amazing...
...aspect of my work is my ability to synthesize business needs and priorities with a rich experience building and directing tech projects.
Work Experience
Full-stack Developer
Teachers Development Group
- Collaborated with the TDG leadership to understand their business, client needs, and goals. Architected and proposed a SaaS platform and API, greatly expanding their capabilities, service offerings, and ROI for themselves and their clients.
- Developed an API and accompanying platform to serve mobile and web app users, providing a hub for all app-generated data where users can visualize and interpret it via charts, infographics, and other interfaces.
- Coordinated with the TDG leadership, a mobile app developer, and other stakeholders to launch a successful product that exceeded client expectations and did so on time and within budget.
Lead Developer
Process Sciences, Inc.
- Maintained and expanded upon a purpose-built CRM/ERP that manages a variety of the client's core business processes, especially those which ensure and document its implementation of business practices and standards (e.g., ASTM).
- Designed and developed an application component that manages and documents the maintenance and standards compliance of facilities and equipment in accordance with a variety of standards.
- Created and designed a custom inventory component that manages a stock of all consumable goods, including perishables.
- Improved the existing code and infrastructure across the whole technology stack, coordinating maintenance and new features with the client COO.
Engineering Lead
ASU Prep Digital
- Rescued and revived a multimillion-dollar initiative.
- Educated C-suite and stakeholders on how to improve their decision-making for technology projects.
- Hired and managed tech team members with a range of experience and ability levels.
- Directed the creation of some new, exceptionally well-built technology.
CTO | Lead Developer
Evolution Labs/Navigate360
- Interacted with C-suite executives and clients, assessing legacy technology and managing expectations for developing all-new services.
- Led and managed the design and development of the all-new microservice-based technology, leveraging the client's existing content assets to deliver to new platforms.
- Hired, managed, and mentored tech team members, guiding the technology through an acquisition.
PHP Developer
Triton Capital
- Designed and developed a custom DocuSign integration that allowed users to apply, get approval for, and sign all required documents for small business loans in a single user flow.
- Developed new RESTful APIs and microservices to support new functionality.
- Advised and implemented numerous improvements to codebase, architecture, and infrastructure to better align them with best practices.
Twilio Expert
Tratta
- Developed an app that leveraged Twilio's Voice API to accept payments by phone, a first for the debt-collection industry.
- Designed a complete telephone-based (IVR/DTMF) user flow that allowed callers to securely access their accounts and then make and validate a payment toward their balance.
- Implemented best practices and coordinated with the CEO and a consultant to ensure PCI compliance.
Multi-application Architecture Consultant
RefundLabs
- Used my expertise in enterprise multi-application environments to enhance the client's development processes and improve the robustness of their applications.
- Architected a collection of middleware which dramatically improved the client's codebases, making them more DRY ("do not repeat yourself"), more secure, and more efficient to develop further.
- Established a set of code style guidelines and best practices for the client's developers, making the codebases more readable, consistent, and maintainable.
Enterprise Data-Visualization Design and Development
DecisionIQ
- Designed and developed new data visualizations, infographics, and interfaces for an enterprise AI/IoT application using HighCharts and D3.js.
- Redesigned existing interfaces—improving navigation and readability while reducing clutter and eliminating unnecessary elements.
- Refactored Django/Python code—reducing bugs, making it reusable, and altering it to provide new data utilized by the new data-visualization interfaces.
Tech Lead
Meisterline Analytics
- Provided leadership to and enhanced communication between technical and non-technical team members around the globe.
- Collaborated closely with the founder to bring shape to the project, giving it a clear direction and enabling its further progress.
- Cooperated with and guided the technical team through a variety of challenges as the project progressed.
Freelance Senior Enterprise Software Developer
Friendemic
- Led the enterprise team in the architecture and development of an SDK for their primary data source, focusing on enforcing best practices while making developers' jobs easier.
- Refactored a single-database software platform into a multitenant one to enable lucrative new clients to come on board while respecting their data-center requirements.
- Consulted on and developed a new RESTful versioned API to be used as a single source of truth for a host of enterprise applications used by some of the most distinguished automotive manufacturers.
- Played a leadership role for the enterprise team, using my experience and expertise to inform and guide less senior members.
Freelance Lead Enterprise Software Developer
Next Wave Communications
- Designed and developed a dynamic, real-time D3.js/C3.js interface that enables engineers to visualize engineering trials and results. This application and interface were featured at Twilio Engage Sydney 2018, garnering investor interest.
- Architected and developed an enterprise SaaS platform for the emerging CPaaS/UCaaS sector. Featured enterprise-grade controls for customers and their users, along with intuitive user interfaces.
- Collaborated closely with founders in the technology and business spheres within an environment of mutual respect and on a level playing field, resulting in an extraordinarily gratifying and productive relationship.
Freelance Software Developer
GeneCentrix
- Developed a new functionality, incorporating and refactoring the client's Perl scripts.
- Implemented the Marvin-JS plugin according to the client's specifications and added a jQuery-driven front-end functionality to tie it into their UI. Installed Apache Tomcat and the vendor's app/API to extend the functionality of the Marvin-JS plugin.
- Redesigned the primary interface to incorporate new functionality and refined the existing functionality.
- Refined a variety of interfaces to enhance the look-and-feel and user experience.
Web Application Developer
Personal Growth Organization
- Architected and developed a HIPAA-compliant application with a suite of features for both clients and staff, which connects to and exchanges data with the organization's ERP.
- Collaborated closely with the director of worldwide communications, the IT director, in-house developers, and various other staff and stakeholders on a variety of projects ranging from eCommerce and marketing sites to internal and client-facing apps.
- Led and mentored in-house developers to improve the quality and efficacy of their work, reviewing code, pair-programming, and providing guidance as they built up their experience.
Web Developer (Contract)
Vermont Public Radio
- Performed full-stack development work on VPR's home page, an entirely API-driven Silex application, implementing new APIs or redeveloping existing connections and functionality and designing new interfaces to interact with new APIs or functionality.
- Collaborated closely with the director of digital services and in-house developers.
- Built app components in Python to be consumed by VPR's mobile applications.
- Developed apps in Python to interact with voice and SMS channels via Twilio and TwiML.
CTO, Software Architect, and Developer
The Alumni Sprints League
- Collaborated closely with CEO and CFO to help refine a business model and translate it into an easy-to-use web application for staff and clients.
- Architected and developed systems and interfaces for clients to easily view and manage data for a sport (rowing) that has complex data needs and yet few, if any, good precedents for either the process or interface design.
- Designed and implemented algorithms that rank individual rowers and teams based on participation and performance.
- Negotiated with third parties to gain access to crucial data resources, and to co-create novel, mutually-beneficial software and resources.
Enterprise Application Developer (Contract)
Jane Iredale Mineral Cosmetics
- Coordinated with the solutions architect, developers, and other staff members in a tightly-knit team environment to develop and maintain various internal and client-facing Symfony applications.
- Built various new features for multiple users and roles using Symfony, Doctrine, Twig, and Bootstrap.
- Upgraded the applications and bundles with many dependency tiers, past a BC break from Symfony 2.8 to Symfony 3.
Web Developer
eEuroparts.com
- Worked closely with the CEO to refine and upgrade a variety of aspects of the business's primary application.
- Introduced and configured the application to use Git for both version-control and deployment.
- Cleaned up, refined, and redesigned numerous front-end features for improved aesthetics and user experience.
- Designed and developed new functionality including features that improved sales and staff-productivity.
- Suggested and directed architectural changes to the application to improve efficiency and performance.
Experience
Loadify
After refactoring their Python and Django proof of concept to bring it up to enterprise standards, I designed an interface using D3.js and C3.js, which displayed—in real-time—the progress of the ongoing load test. Engineers could then visualize when failures were occurring, get the details of each failed call, then use that information to diagnose and resolve the issues in their technology.
The client presented Loadify at the Twilio Engage conference in Sydney, where it garnered much interest. We then used it as the first service of their SaaS platform while complementing it with a few additional capabilities like load-test scheduling, whitelisting, and Slack notifications. In this project, we used Twilio, Python, Django, data visualization, MySQL, Apache, AWS, D3.js, C3.js, jQuery, Ajax, and Bootstrap.
Email SaaS Platform
How much time have you wasted trying to find an attachment you were sent or a conversation you had with someone? Yet despite this, and despite the development of new communication channels such as SMS, MMS, WhatsApp, and Slack, email is and will remain the gold standard for inter-business communication.
I designed a modern, messaging-style interface and application for email, then architected and developed a SaaS platform to support it. For individuals, the interface is a dramatic improvement for reading, filtering, and searching folders, threads, and messages, while delivery—and read—receipts provide users with intelligence on each message's status after they hit the send button. On an organizational level, admin management of a domain's accounts and users is the best and easiest to use in the industry. It's currently in beta. Technologies used were SaaS, PHP, MySQL, Symfony, email, user interfaces, architecture, and APIs.
Mint
https://github.com/thehiredgun/mintMint is designed to fit perfectly in this approach, allowing users to quickly and easily execute MySQL and SQLite queries using PHP. It's simple, lightweight, fast, and secure. There are shorthand methods for all of the basic CRUD operations, e.g., $mint->selectOneById('tablename', {id}).
For complex and custom requests, users can hand in their parameterized query and an associative array of values. It will bind parameters, execute the query, and return the requested result. Technologies used include PHP, MySQL, SQLite, and PDO.
Enterprise SDK
Education
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Analytic Philosophy
Tufts University - Medford, MA, USA
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Twilio API, REST APIs, Doctrine, Doctrine 2, jQuery, React, D3.js, C3.js, Google Translate API, Cesium.js, Google Maps, Stripe API, SoundCloud API, Google Drive API, Handlebars, AMQP, jQuery DataTables, Swift Mailer, Highcharts, Facebook API, Facebook Messenger API, Mapbox GL, Mapbox API, Google Street View, Leaflet, OpenStreetMap API, X (formerly Twitter) API, Reddit API, SQLAlchemy, Vuex, Vue 2, Stripe, Turf.js, Flexbox, OpenAPI, Preact, Vue, Node.js, Google Sheets API, SendGrid API, Authorize.net
Tools
Sequel Pro, Git, Composer, Celery, Apache, GitLab, Jira, Envoyer, RabbitMQ, NGINX, Webpack, Vagrant, Ansible, GitHub, Canvas LMS, Amazon Polly, Apache Tomcat, Google Sheets, SugarCRM, SendGrid, Chatbox
Languages
JavaScript, CSS, HTML, PHP, Python, PHP 7, PHP 5, SQL, Twilio Markup Language (TwiML), Python 3, XHTML, HTML5, YAML, Python 2, XML, ECMAScript (ES6), C, Perl, CSS3
Frameworks
Swagger, Bootstrap, Laravel 5, Symfony 3, Symfony 2, Twig, Eloquent, Bootstrap 3, Symfony, Laravel, Web Frameworks, Redux, Flask, Django, Silex, Symfony 4, CakePHP 2, CakePHP, CodeIgniter, PHPUnit, Dropzone.js, Responsive Frameworks, Lumen, JSON Web Tokens (JWT), Angular, Ruby on Rails (RoR)
Paradigms
Microservices, RESTful Development, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Refactoring, API Architecture, Application Architecture, Web Application Architecture, Enterprise Application Architecture, Requirements Analysis, Database Design, E2E Testing, Acceptance Testing, Unit Testing, REST, Asynchronous Programming, Test-driven Development (TDD), Scrum, Agile, Responsive, Responsive Layout, Responsive Development, Management, B2B, Interface Design, Best Practices
Platforms
LAMP, Twilio, Mailgun, Apache2, Mapbox, Docker, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu, Linux, DigitalOcean, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Heroku, Algolia, SoundCloud
Storage
PHP Data Objects (PDO), JSON, MySQL, MySQLi, MySQL Server, Databases, Relational Databases, Data Synchronization, SQLite, PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), NoSQL, Database Architecture, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Doctrine MongoDB ODM
Industry Expertise
E-learning, Telecommunications
Other
Architecture, Proof of Concept (POC), Early-stage Startups, Education Technology (Edtech), Education, K-12 Education, Ajax, Normalization, Semantic Versioning, FontAwesome, HTTP REST, MVC Frameworks, RESTful Web Services, Front-end, Back-end, Full-stack, APIs, Transactional Emails, Email, Enterprise, Enterprise Architecture, Software as a Service (SaaS), Software, Web Applications, Web App Testing, Web App Deployment, Web Application Forms, Business Requirements, Business, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), SDKs, Omnichannel Marketing, Unified Communications, Freelancing, API Integration, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), IVR, Voice, Web Development, Web App Development, Front-end Development, Technical Leadership, Full-stack Development, Software Development Management, IT Management, Engineering Management, Software Engineering, Integration, Symphony, Educational Portals, Prototyping, Visualization, Laravel Forge, Queuing Systems, Queue Management, Multitenancy, Middleware, Blade, Documentation, Writing & Editing, CPaaS, Unified Communications as a Service (UCaas), Data Visualization, User Interface (UI), User Experience (UX), Information Design, Enterprise SaaS, Enterprise Software, SaaS, Business Analysis, Data Architecture, Code Architecture, Enterprise Design, Mentorship, Team Leadership, Leadership, Project Planning, Sprints, Sprint Planning, Agile Sprints, Message Queues, Task Scheduling, Task Automation, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), CTO, eCommerce, eCommerce Development, Requirements, System Requirements, User Requirements, Requirements & Specifications, Responsive Design, CRM Systems, Chatbots, DocuSign, Mapbox Styling, Overpass, GeoJSON, OpenStreetMap, Fintech, Finance, Loans, GitFlow, Insurance Technology (Insurtech), Finance APIs, Business Loans, SMS, VoIP, Geospatial Data, Software Architecture, Nonprofits, Solution Architecture, Team Management, Command-line Interface (CLI), Marvin JS, Styled-components, Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), Learning Management Systems (LMS), Content Management Systems (CMS), Mail Servers, Axios, Business Management, RESTful Microservices, Sugar ORM, Live Chat, Credit Card Processing, Phone Support, PCI, Dual tone multi frequency (DTMF)
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