Richard Kolkovich, Developer in Denver, CO, United States
Richard is available for hire
Hire Richard

Richard Kolkovich

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Denver, CO, United States

Toptal member since August 10, 2015

Expertise
Software DevelopmentLinuxJavaREST APIAgile DevelopmentNode.jsNoSQLJavaScriptTypeScriptHTML5KubernetesAndroidJavaFX
Bio

Richard has run the gamut from technical support to co-founder. Over his career, Richard has accumulated both a deep level of technical understanding as well as a broad comprehension of the other requisite elements of building and growing a successful business. His breadth of experience and technical expertise make him uniquely suited to solve business problems with technology.

Portfolio

Neverfail
Docker, VMware, REST, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, REST APIs...
Vertiscale
Apache Maven, AngularJS, Guice, PostgreSQL, JDBI, REST, JAX-RS, Java, REST APIs
Cloud Elements
PostgreSQL, JAXB, Spring, REST, Java, REST APIs

Experience

  • Linux - 15 years
  • Object-oriented Design (OOD) - 10 years
  • Java - 10 years
  • Agile Software Development - 6 years
  • JavaScript - 6 years
  • REST - 5 years
  • HTML5 - 4 years
  • TypeScript - 4 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Git, IntelliJ IDEA, Vim Text Editor, FreeBSD, Linux, OS X

The most amazing...

...technology I've built is a real-time, fault-tolerant framework to serve a highly-collaborative application on old browsers and terrible networks.

Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer

2016 - PRESENT
Neverfail
  • Continued development of the Vertiscale WaaS (Workspace as a Service) product under the new company's direction.
  • Designed a highly scalable, event-driven workflow engine for performing asynchronous, long-running provisioning tasks.
  • Analyzed product catalog to find overlaps and increase efficiency and quality through pooling and sharing development resources.
Technologies: Docker, VMware, REST, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, Node.js, REST APIs, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Terraform, Auth0, Helm, CI/CD Pipelines, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)

Senior Software Engineer

2015 - 2016
Vertiscale
  • Designed a schema for modeling data models, errors, synchronous services, and asynchronous services.
  • Created a code generation utility to leverage the aforementioned schema to generate models, interfaces, and security interceptors.
  • Defined a complex interaction structure for a secure, hybrid-cloud application.
  • Designed reusable components for asynchronous messaging, database interaction, and security.
  • Designed the architecture for a multi-project, multi-module environment.
  • Assisted in driving product from idea to beta, allowing the company to be purchased by Neverfail.
Technologies: Apache Maven, AngularJS, Guice, PostgreSQL, JDBI, REST, JAX-RS, Java, REST APIs

Principal Software Engineer

2014 - 2015
Cloud Elements
  • Provided technical expertise and support with scoping of consulting projects.
  • Developed consulting solutions which incorporated the Cloud Elements platform and SaaS product.
  • Managed and mentored a team of junior developers.
  • Designed a workflow engine to serve immediate consulting customer needs as well as to be provided as a future platform feature.
  • Created a RESTful API definition and project structure allowing pluggable implementations and strict versioning.
Technologies: PostgreSQL, JAXB, Spring, REST, Java, REST APIs

Co-founder

2012 - 2014
nuvosSDK
  • Participated in an incubator with emphasis on Lean Startup methodology, vetting and refining the nuvos business model.
  • Co-designed and implemented a GUI toolkit allowing true write-once, run anywhere Java code through abstraction of drawing and event handling. Target platforms include desktop applications (AWT, SWT, JOGL), modern browsers (HTML5 Canvas via GWT), outdated browsers (FlashCanvas, JNLP, or Java Applets), and Android native.
  • Built a set of device-agnostic APIs for accessing device features such as Contacts, GPS, and Accelerometer.
  • Designed a SaaS product to create executables for various target devices (HTML5, Android, iOS) from a single Java codebase.
  • Built an SDK focused on ease of use by developers including simple, asynchronous APIs and code generation.
  • Designed and built an asynchronous NoSQL object database with abstract backing stores allowing pluggable storage systems.
Technologies: PhoneGap, Java 2D, JavaFX, Android, iOS, HTML5, GWT, Java, NoSQL

Senior Software Architect

2008 - 2012
ThinkTank
  • Designed and built an application from the ground up enabling a highly collaborative workflow.
  • Developed and maintained a library of event-driven and resilient pieces including network libraries and databases.
  • Designed an in-browser storage mechanism to facilitate a thick-client application with full offline support in browsers not supporting modern browser storage technologies.
  • Developed custom GWT components to provide speed and flexibility while building a web application which felt like a desktop app.
  • Managed a team of junior developers providing mentorship and training in the highly-specialized software stack.
Technologies: GWT, Java

Senior Software Developer

2006 - 2008
IntraMeta Corporation
  • Architected and implemented server architectures for building highly scalable Internet-based applications using Java. Solutions include a versioned and concurrently-accessible database, a network communication framework capable of ensuring ordered delivery of messages over unreliable networks, and a publish-subscribe framework distributing filtered results to thousands of clients in near real-time.
  • Designed and built a corresponding client architecture to deliver a highly-collaborative and real-time application in a web browser using the Google Web Toolkit. Solutions include a client-side database designed to allow full offline use of the application and provide convergence upon reconnection and a modified MVC framework allowing any Java UI implementation without duplicating business logic.
  • Assisted in design, implementation, and maintenance of Nuvos, a software library designed to be simple, scalable, event-driven, and programmer-friendly. Modules implemented include an asynchronous database architecture with pluggable back-ends, event-driven TCP and UDP channel socket services, a kernel framework for parallel and ordered execution of tasks with fine-grained locking, code generation utilities with both XML (used via Ant) and Java bindings, and both DNS and HTTP clients and servers using the aforementioned channel services.
  • Co-drafted a specification for a simple and powerful web-based API framework translating XML endpoint definitions into Java interfaces and beans. Implemented server translating inputs such as JSON, XML, and web forms into Java objects (with validation) to be passed to the endpoint’s Java or JavaScript (via Rhino) implementation.
  • Built a workflow-management framework with XML-defined workflows containing logical branching and looping, resilient error handling (for external dependencies), and utilizing pluggable task handlers including compiled (Java) handlers, JavaScript handlers (via Rhino), and human handlers (i.e. mechanical turk).
  • Orchestrated several release cycles of hosted applications. Responsibilities included organizing regression testing, managing build and deploy scripts, and managing actual deployment to servers.
Technologies: DNS, HTTP, DHCP, HTML, MySQL, Java

ThinkTank

http://www.thinktank.net
At it’s simplest, ThinkTank™ is used in workshops as a powerful crowdsourcing, crowd-computing, and group decision support platform that wows participants. The product significantly accelerates and enhances outcomes while creating a profound collective experience for participants.

py-trello

https://github.com/sarumont/py-trello/
py-trello is an open-source python library for accessing Trello. I originally wrote it to serve a need building another project, and I now maintain and improve it to allow others to utilize it.

Twellio

I built an integration between Twilio and Trello which ended up winning a developer competition that Twilio ran. I have recently shut it down, as IFTTT now has a better version of the integration.
2003 - 2006

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Southern Polytechnic State University - Marietta, GA

2001 - 2002

Unfinished Degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science

Middle Georgia College - Cochran, GA

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, REST APIs, JAX-RS, JAXB, JDBI, Android API, HTML5 Canvas, JDBC, Java 2D

Tools

Vim Text Editor, Apache Ant, Apache Maven, IntelliJ IDEA, Java Concurrency, Javadoc, Subversion (SVN), Terraform, Auth0, Git, VMware, Gradle, Helm

Languages

Java, TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML5, HTML, Python, CSS

Paradigms

Agile Software Development, Object-oriented Design (OOD), REST, Concurrent Programming, Test-driven Development (TDD)

Platforms

FreeBSD, Linux, MacOS, OS X, iOS, Docker, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), Android, JavaFX, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EC2

Frameworks

Ionic, Guice, GWT, AngularJS, Spring, PhoneGap

Storage

NoSQL, PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), MySQL, Memcached

Other

Software Development, CI/CD Pipelines, DHCP, HTTP, DNS

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring