Ryan is available for hire

Ryan Shillington

Verified Expert in Engineering

Software Developer

Location

Arlington, United States

Toptal Member Since

April 21, 2017

Ryan is a small-time wizard with technology—especially anything Java and SaaS. There's very little about building websites that he doesn't understand at every layer: hardware, databases, networks, app servers, HTML, and more. His confidence comes from building them professionally for over 20 years.

Java Windows Linux MySQL Agile Software Development Node.js Microsoft SQL Server Selenium AWS Lambda IBM Db2 Oracle Amazon Aurora Ruby on Rails (RoR)C#PostgreSQL

Portfolio

Cherry Circle Software

React, Bootstrap, Gradle, Node.js

Versata

C++, C, Java, C#

Oventio

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Web Toolkit, Java

Experience

Java - 20 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

WebStorm, IntelliJ IDEA, Windows

The most amazing...

...thing I've coded is an application that sold +200,000 books to people in 80 countries.

Work Experience

CTO

2016 - PRESENT

Cherry Circle Software

Worked as a partner in a startup—handling all the technical direction.
Created a fully scalable solution that costs less than $1/month on AWS Lambda and Cognito.
Helped pharmaceutical companies get through the FDA regulatory process faster.

Technologies: React, Bootstrap, Gradle, Node.js

Chief Architect

2013 - 2016

Versata

Managed a team of architects who are each responsible for the technical direction of one product in the Versata group of companies.
Made critical calls on technical direction.
Converted 3 data centers to Amazon Web Services (AWS), saving the company $1.3 million annually.
Automated the hiring process which brought in over 300 new employees in the first year.
Redefined the architecture of 3 different products that reduced maintenance costs by at least 50%.
Led the layoffs of more than 50 people total to reduce inefficiencies in slower parts of the business.

Technologies: C++, C, Java, C#

CTO

2012 - 2015

Oventio

Worked as a partner in a startup with 6 employees in North America and 11 in India.
Owned the architectural direction, including meeting with prospects and clients weekly.
Built a SaaS product that had 3 times the revenue every year and was acquired by a Redbooks in 2015.
Designed and built a portal for Data Garden that reduced administrative overhead by 40%.
Helped define an architecture that got them acquired in June 2013.

Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Web Toolkit, Java

Development and QA Manager

2007 - 2012

IBM

Started out as a tech lead for 15 people, then moved to managing a team of 7-10 employees in North America and 10 in India (including recruiting, hiring and firing).
Gave direction, set goals for the team, and tracked those goals to release on time. Supervised critical customer situations when they needed help from my development team.
Won 2 awards: Influential Advocate (for customer service) and Early Tenure Inventor (for patents).
Created, with my team, a product that saw a 50% increase in revenue (an 8-figure increase) year to year.
Provided technical direction to PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP to scale their system from 100 to over 18,000 users.
Created a system for doing estimates that improved accuracy by ~30%.
Managed the development and quality assurance on 3-6 projects at a time—consistently delivering on time and on budget.

Technologies: WebSphere, Java

Technical Lead

2004 - 2007

Troux

Started out owning 3 simultaneous projects in consulting.
Moved later on into development and led and completed 4 separate projects.
Consulted with Weyerhaeuser to bring in $1 million in revenue. Weyerhaeuser signed a renewed $3 million deal for more services before I left for development.
Created 2 new products that generated over $15 million in revenue per year.
Pioneered a new installer that saved several days per project for consultants.

Technologies: Java

Technical Lead

2003 - 2004

Marsh

Acted as the technical lead of a small project, responsible for creating estimates/deadlines, setting expectations, managing quality, and submitting budget proposals.
Crafted a website initially intended for 40 users that executive management later rolled out to over 400 users in every sales office in the U.S.
Earned the nick name “Rock Star” and was invited to come on-site.
Delivered biweekly technical talks about topics such as estimating and improve as a programmer.
Took control of project planning to make sure expectations were met appropriately.

Technologies: Java

Software Developer

2000 - 2003

Trilogy

Acted as the residential expert in Java, XML, and DB2 in both development and consulting at Lands’ End.
Took initiative to create a new DB2 XML database integration product while consulting.
Delivered on very tight deadlines to keep Lands’ End happy.
Made connections at Trilogy that I’ve leveraged in every job afterwards. It's one of the world's most powerful networks.
Worked as a programmer in both development and consulting.

Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, IBM Db2, Java

Experience

The Acquisition of My Last Startup

http://www.prweb.com/releases/redbooks-acquires-oventio/07/prweb12854048.htm

My last startup was acquired by Redbooks for an undisclosed sum. Creating a company and it's initial product from scratch, and working on it until it's something that another company wants to buy, is monumental feat.

Skills

Languages

Java, HTML, C, C++, C#

Frameworks

Serverless Framework, GWT, Selenium, Bootstrap, Google Web Toolkit, Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Libraries/APIs

Node.js, React

Paradigms

Agile Software Development, Lambda Architecture, Concurrent Programming, Functional Programming

Platforms

Windows, Linux, AWS Lambda, Amazon Web Services (AWS), WebSphere, Oracle

Storage

MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, IBM Db2, Amazon Aurora

Tools

IntelliJ IDEA, WebStorm, Gradle

Education

1994 - 1999

Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Mathematics in Computer Science with a minor in IT/Business Management

University of Waterloo - Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

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