Peter Goodspeed-Niklaus
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany
Toptal member since October 19, 2015
Peter received a B.S. in Computer Science, with distinction, from WPI in 2005. Immediately after, he took a decade to broaden himself professionally. He's spent that time as an English teacher in Japan and a Blackhawk pilot for the US Army, and has recently left the Army. He writes computer games in his free time.
Portfolio
Experience
- Python - 7 years
- GitHub - 2 years
- Git - 2 years
- Rust - 1 year
Availability
Preferred Environment
Cygwin, Git, Linux, Windows
The most amazing...
...thing I've written in the last year was an exotic-architecture processor emulator, in Rust.
Work Experience
Freelance Back-end Developer
Cardamom (via Toptal)
- Implemented the back-end for a social network using Django and Django REST Framework. This involved duplicating all features of the client's 37 KLOC PHP project, as well as adding new features, in 17 KLOC of Python.
- Integrated Google+ and Facebook authentication for this social network.
- Managed all staging and production environments on AWS, including ElasticBeanstalk hosting, RDS DB hosting, SQS communications queues, and SES email services for communication with users.
- Analyzed the client's prototype database and usage needs. Designed new, more rational DB schema. Built an ETL tool which could move and rationalize all data from the old DB to the new.
- Wrote comprehensive unit and integration tests.
- Prototyped a serverless Lambda implementation of the back-end.
Freelance Back-end Developer
Bauxy (now Patch; via Toptal)
- Implemented a core API used by the flagship app using Python, Django, and the Django REST Framework. This app eased out-of-network medical insurance claims, and the back-end I wrote did all the work.
- Implemented several hundred unit and integration tests, testing both new and existing functionality.
- Ported the company's existing web app Flask to Django. This app handled third-party site scraping using customer-provided authentication.
- Prototyped continuous integration for the company.
- Testimonial: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B093VsNivBgUYV93cmw3SjQ4eFVYbGpubEFYRC04UDIxQUNJ/view?usp=sharing.
Blackhawk Pilot
US Army
- Logged approximately 650 hours of accident/incident-free flight.
- Spent 4 years in MEDEVAC.
- Deployed on 1 tour in Afghanistan.
- Based in Alabama, Korea, Germany, and Texas.
- Never fired a weapon in anger.
Experience
Street.py | Building Generator for Gaming
The game for which this code was written was to use a custom game engine, not provided for the application process. For speed of development, I used ASCII art and ensured that the code architecture allowed for a simple pivot when I gained access to that engine.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Worcester, Massachusetts
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Django ORM, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs
Tools
GitHub, Git, Microsoft Excel, Cygwin, Microsoft Access, LaTeX
Languages
Python, Rust, C#, PHP, SQL, Java, CSS, Haskell, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), HTML, Python 3
Frameworks
Django REST Framework, Django, Unity3D
Paradigms
Object-relational Mapping (ORM), Agile Software Development, Test-driven Development (TDD), Unit Testing, HIPAA Compliance, Functional Programming
Platforms
Aptible, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Windows, Linux
Storage
PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite
Other
Integration Testing, petl, Gaming, Game Engine Programming
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring