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Piotr Kowalski, Financial Markets Developer in Tokyo, Japan
Piotr Kowalski

Financial Markets Developer in Tokyo, Japan

Member since July 11, 2017
Piotr has been developing a wide range of software for investment managers and fintech—covering enterprise-grade platforms, tactical solutions, real-time systems, and batch processing. He's very experienced in all aspects of the software lifecycle from requirement analysis and project management to full-stack development, deployment, and maintenance. He's successfully implemented a number of greenfield projects in high-pressure environments.
Piotr is now available for hire
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Portfolio

Experience

Location

Tokyo, Japan

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Git, Visual Studio, Windows

The most amazing...

...system I've built is a dependency graph-based distributed processing framework—enabling rapid data-centered application development.

Employment

  • Software Developer

    2012 - PRESENT
    Senrigan Capital (Contract)
    • Designed and developed a greenfield database and workflow management system for an event-driven hedge fund.
    • Implemented multiple integrations with client's counterparties and third-party systems for a data and transaction flow.
    • Migrated a range of operational workflows from spreadsheets onto the system including regulatory and compliance approvals, internal and investor reporting, counterparty reconciliations, and market risk calculations.
    • Set up a complete development, regression testing, deployment, and monitoring framework from scratch.
    • Conducted requirement discovery.
    • Managed and implemented the project directly with stakeholders from all the beneficiary teams.
    Technologies: Bloomberg, TypeScript, HTML5, Microsoft SQL Server, ASP.NET MVC, C#, .NET

  • Software Developer

    2015 - 2017
    Guard Capital (Contract)
    • Designed and developed a greenflow workflow and reporting system for a global macro hedge fund.
    • Implemented a bespoke value-at-risk calculation framework based on a client's mathematical model.
    • Migrated a range of operational workflows onto the system platform including P&L approvals, counterparty reconciliations, and investor information management.
    • Worked on full-stack development, deployment, and ongoing system maintenance.
    • Interacted directly with the top management and project stakeholders for prioritization and progress reviews.
    Technologies: Bloomberg, TypeScript, HTML5, MSMQ, Microsoft SQL Server, ASP.NET MVC, C#, .NET

  • Head of Technology

    2011 - 2012
    Sequence Asset Management
    • Complete the technology oversight within the firm including in-house systems and vendor relationships.
    • Set up from-scratch the system's infrastructure ahead of the firm’s relocation from Tokyo to Hong Kong—from physical networks to outsourced software providers.
    • Introduced a range of technical initiatives including a company intranet and a central database system.
    • Developed hands-on in-house applets for fund performance reporting, automated reconciliation, and market risk calculation.
    • Designed and implemented a shadow accounting system for the verification and audit of firm's valuations.
    Technologies: XML, LINQ, Microsoft SQL Server, HTML5, ASP.NET MVC, C#, .NET

  • Assistant Vice President

    2010 - 2011
    Barclays Capital
    • Acted as the regional development team lead for the Asian fixed income trading desk’s pricing and risk system.
    • Built out and managed a team of 4 full-time developers and 2 rotating graduates.
    • Implemented a business analysis and prioritization with stakeholders, project, and delivery management.
    • Introduced formal testing and release procedures and tightened integration with global sister teams.
    • Implemented the system enhancements supporting a new offshore trading desk.
    Technologies: XML, TIBCO, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC), Win32, C++

  • Software Developer

    2008 - 2009
    TFG Fund Services
    • Acted as the team lead—focusing on scaling an in-house hedge fund portfolio management system onto a wider client base after a spin-out from a parent company.
    • Developed a valuation and risk model of the interest rate and currency derivatives.
    • Worked as the technical contact for external clients responsible for their on-boarding and dedicated development pipelines.
    • Coordinated the development work—ensuring delivery of features requested by company’s clients and recruiting new engineers.
    • Deployed new client installations and ongoing systems.
    • Provided user support.
    Technologies: RemoteApp, MATLAB, XML, Microsoft SQL Server, C#, WinForms, .NET, Win32, Boost, Standard Template Library (STL), C++

  • Systems Developer

    2005 - 2008
    Nylon Capital
    • Developed the financial markets pricing, analytics, and execution tools for a global macro hedge fund.
    • Worked as the greenfield development lead of an in-house middle office accounting and cash-management application.
    • Implemented a range of cross-product real-time risk calculators (VaR, scenario, covariance) based on mathematical models.
    • Worked as part of a small development team building a complete in-house platform supporting hedge fund’s operations.
    • Worked on full-stack development, deployment, and ongoing systems.
    • Provided user support.
    Technologies: Bloomberg, Financial Information Exchange (FIX) Protocol, Amazon Ion, Microsoft SQL Server, C#, WinForms, .NET, Win32, Boost, Standard Template Library (STL), C++

Experience

  • RIFF Framework
    https://github.com/rohatsu/riff

    A dependency graph-based distributed data processing framework enabling rapid development of data-centric applications and accelerating the build-outs of client solutions.

    Targeted at developers, the framework provides an environment for programming logic processors that are automatically arranged and triggered in dependency order. It also exposes a range of ready-to-use technical interfaces for common integrations (FTP, Excel import, etc.) and system tasks (logging, permissions, etc.) as well as a key-value data store.

    Its goal is to eliminate code repetition between similar projects and reduce their development time and effort. The framework is targeted at modeling processes and workflows that amalgamate data from multiple sources and has been successfully incorporated in multiple clients' production systems.

  • Email Traffic Scanner

    A prototype of a system scanning email traffic within an organization for compliance and sentiment analysis with plugins for Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, and a web-based management interface.

  • Mnemostudio

    A web-based application for learning Japanese characters utilizing simple puzzle games to help memorize new material.

  • LANChat

    A Windows desktop local area network chat application which has gained significant popularity among neighborhood networks and dormitories in the early days of internet adoption in Poland.

  • Asystent Pracowni Komputerowej

    A Windows desktop application, intended for classrooms, that allows the teacher to broadcast the contents of their computer screen onto students' desktops as well as monitor and review their work remotely.

Skills

  • Languages

    C#.NET, SQL, C++, HTML, C#, XML, Less, TypeScript, XML/XSLT, HTML5, JavaScript, XPath, CSS, F#

  • Frameworks

    ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, Razor, .NET, .NET Core, Entity Framework Core, Knockout.js, ASP.NET Core, Entity, Bootstrap, Newtonsoft JSON, Boost, Angular

  • Tools

    Logging, Microsoft Visual Studio, Bloomberg, Microsoft Excel, Perforce, YouTrack, Git, Jira, Atlassian Confluence, Visual Studio, MATLAB, RemoteApp, Excel-DNA, C#.NET WinForms, SSRS, Ninject, Autofac, TortoiseSVN

  • Paradigms

    Requirements Analysis, DevOps, Unit Testing, Model View Viewmodel (MVVM), Agile Software Development, Real-time Systems, Event-driven Architecture, Concurrent Programming, Financial Information Exchange (FIX) Protocol, Test-driven Development (TDD), Dependency Injection

  • Platforms

    Windows Server, Windows, Win32, Azure, Linux

  • Industry Expertise

    Project Management

  • Storage

    Microsoft SQL Server, Databases, JSON

  • Other

    Investment Banking Technology, Hedge Funds, Debugging, APIs, Full-stack, Investment Banking, Quantitative Finance, Integration, Pricing Models, Web-based Interface, Reporting System Design, DevExpress, Integration Testing, Regression Testing, Windows Services, Financial Markets, State Machines, Workflow Modeling, SaaS Monitoring, Multithreading, Risk Analysis, Amazon Ion, TIBCO, SSL, FIX Protocol, Investor Relations, Release Management, WCF Web Services, MSMQ, Single-page Applications (SPA)

  • Libraries/APIs

    Web API, Bloomberg API, Log4Net, REST APIs, Standard Template Library (STL), LINQ, Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC), WinForms, jQuery

Education

  • Master's degree in Computer Science
    2000 - 2005
    Warsaw University - Warsaw, Poland
  • Bachelor's degree in Mathematics
    2000 - 2004
    Warsaw University - Warsaw, Poland

Certifications

  • Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level N2
    JULY 2011 - PRESENT
    The Japan Foundation

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