Saad Abdullah, Developer in Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Saad is available for hire
Hire Saad

Saad Abdullah

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Python Developer

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Toptal member since June 15, 2017

Bio

Saad has been developing web-based applications in Python and JavaScript-based frameworks since 2014. Throughout his career, he has worked remotely for big firms like Reddit and IDS as a full-stack web developer. Python is the primary language that he works in, and he communicates extremely well.

Portfolio

Rady Children's Hospital
Python, Django, Flask, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, Git, REST, MySQL, PostgreSQL...
Luova Education (via Toptal)
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Machine Learning, WebRTC, Face.com API, Node.js...
Reddit, Inc. (via Toptal)
PostgreSQL, Cassandra, Apache Thrift, Docker, Vagrant, REST, Kubernetes...

Experience

  • Python - 9 years
  • REST APIs - 8 years
  • JavaScript - 5 years
  • AngularJS - 4 years
  • React - 4 years
  • C# - 4 years
  • Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) - 3 years
  • WebRTC - 1 year

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Trello, Jira, Bitbucket, GitHub, WebStorm, PyCharm, Linux

The most amazing...

...things I've worked on are natural language and digital image processing algorithms while implementing research papers.

Work Experience

Full-stack Engineer

2020 - PRESENT
Rady Children's Hospital
  • Developed a tracking system to help track patient cases.
  • Involved in a research-based project to identify patients with rare genetic diseases.
  • Worked on genomics data related to ClinVar, ensemble, genes, VEP, and samples. It included parsing out large VCF files and post-processing various sets of sources.
  • Gained experience in working with data science tools like Pandas, Apache Arrow, and Parquet and building airflow genomic pipelines.
Technologies: Python, Django, Flask, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, Git, REST, MySQL, PostgreSQL, React, Apache Airflow, Pandas, Arrow, PostgreSQL 10, MongoDB, FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs

Software Engineer

2020 - 2020
Luova Education (via Toptal)
  • Built a proctoring tool for teachers to invigilate students during exams and automated the process using facial or voice recognition for minimum user intervention.
  • Worked on a face-recognition feature for authenticating students during exams.
  • Designed and developed a complete workflow for registration and login with face authentication.
  • Developed a dashboard for different users like admin, proctor, and student to see their exam schedules.
  • Automated the generation of student reports with webcam and screen recording and suspicious alerts like movement during exams, multiple faces or no face detection, microphone noise, and browser activity.
  • Worked on an offline proctoring where teachers can see recordings of all students taking the exam and their live alerts after the exam is finished.
  • Developed proctor admin tools to initiate video calls or chat messages to particular or all students during a live exam session and ban or send warning messages for cheating.
  • Set up a complete workflow for CI to deploy apps to staging and production with Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS).
  • Performed the exam scheduler to trigger or end an exam when exam time starts or ends.
  • Worked on 3rd-party tools integration like OpenVidu and Ant Media for video streaming and recording. Used Moodle and Google Forms for exam taking.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Machine Learning, WebRTC, Face.com API, Node.js, React, Python, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs

Software Engineer

2019 - 2020
Reddit, Inc. (via Toptal)
  • Developed a pipeline for a series of tasks using REST.
  • Created Airflow visualizations for the pipeline status.
  • Worked on analytics and monitoring tools to show user activities.
  • Developed admin tools to take action against reported content on a social platform.
  • Designed data export chains and tasks in Apache Airflow. Tasks were using Kubernetes pods.
  • Developed several tools like Vagrant, Puppet, Kubernetes, and Minikube.
  • Wrote automated scripts for the development environment to make frequent tasks easier.
  • Worked on tools that use Zendesk and Jira integration for data exports and handling user reports.
  • Built a crowd control feature on Reddit that hides spam comments on a post and can be turned visible via moderator tools.
  • Worked on DMCA and child safety workflows where reported content can be actioned.
Technologies: PostgreSQL, Cassandra, Apache Thrift, Docker, Vagrant, REST, Kubernetes, Apache Airflow, Node.js, React, Python, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs

Software Engineer

2017 - 2019
Integrated Digital Solutions (via Toptal)
  • Developed streaming media content and a log management setup to support Dash and HLS live streams.
  • Implemented federation architecture for Consul, Nomad, Elasticsearch, and a REST API.
  • Worked on processing large amounts of data using optimized Elasticsearch queries.
  • Developed a RESTful API with Flask and the UI with Angular.
  • Worked on an alert and alarm generation system to show real-time alerts and alarms for live streams or a video-on-demand catalog.
  • Performed on tools like Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Filebeat to create an end-to-end monitoring system.
  • Used Dash and HLS live stream file parsing to generate alerts and alarms.
  • Worked on validating live streams and a video-on-demand catalog and generating priority alerts for the admin user.
Technologies: Docker, Nomad, Consul, Kibana, Filebeat, Logstash, Elasticsearch, Angular, LDAP, Django, Flask, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs

Flask Developer

2016 - 2017
Self-employed
  • Set up a Jenkins-CI process to automated builds for staging and production.
  • Worked on a hotel management system where users can book a room and see the details.
  • Worked on uploading the bulk customers CSV file and dumping data to the database via a background task.
  • Wrote unit tests to improve the overall quality of the web app.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Jinja, Angular, Flask, Python, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs

Full-stack Web Developer

2016 - 2017
Learning Dollars
  • Led the team on web apps and project management.
  • Set up a generic continuous integration for multiple web apps and logging setup.
  • Conducted automation testing and wrote scripts.
Technologies: GitLab CI/CD, Django REST Framework, Django, Node.js, Express.js, Gulp, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Angular, Python, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs

Web Developer

2015 - 2016
getTalent
  • Implemented automation testing with Pytest and unit tests.
  • Worked with automatic scripts while providing web development services.
  • Conducted quality assurance and worked within a team.
Technologies: Docker, Loggly, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Jenkins, Django, Angular, Flask, SQLAlchemy, REST APIs

WPF Developer

2014 - 2015
ITB, Inc.
  • Developed a hybrid desktop app in WPF/XAML.
  • Encoded and decoded video, webcam, and images using FFmpeg and libVLC for medical purposes.
  • Handled the polls using web service and SignalR.
Technologies: XAML, C#, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

GetTalent

While working at GetTalent, I worked on projects involving Django and Flask microservices. I also conducted automation testing (Pytest, unit test) and worked on AngularJS, CI (Jenkins), AWS Services, and Loggly.

Learning Dollars

For Learning Dollars, I acted as a team lead on web apps and project management. I also conducted a generic continuous integration setup for multiple web apps and a logging setup. In addition, I implemented automation testing and wrote automation scripts.

Technologies: Django/DRF, AngularJS, GitLab CI, AWS, Docker, Gulp, Express.js, Node.js

Eleven-WiFi

For Eleven-WiFi, Implemented a Jenkins-CI setup, Docker, and automated scripts. I also worked on Flask, Jinja template, and web app development.

ITB, Inc.

http://www.itbinc.com/
ITB, Inc. creates medical applications for practitioners and students. I developed a hybrid desktop app in WPF/XAML for the company. I also encoded and decoded videos, web cameras, and images using FFmpeg and libVLC. I also handled the polls using web services and SignalR.

ASSIST and PFE Grant Application

This is an app that was developed for Southern Adventist University. I set up the continuous integration, Docker, and automated scripts. I worked on AngularJS, Django/DRF, Gulp, and app deployment (SES, ECR, Beanstalk).

ColorSpot

This is a project for the fast conversion of grayscale images to colored images using color transfer, optimization, and chrominance blending. All the algorithms were extracted from research papers.

Educational App for a Web Evangelist

This was a project for the school staff to be able to manage the history and records of students.
2011 - 2015

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore - Lahore, Pakistan

Libraries/APIs

REST APIs, jQuery, React, SQLAlchemy, Scikit-learn, Flask-RESTful, PiLLoW, NumPy, Google APIs, WebRTC, Face.com API, Node.js, Flask-Marshmallow, Pandas

Tools

Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Celery, RabbitMQ, Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Simple Email Service (SES), Bitbucket, GitHub, Git, Slack, PyCharm, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Logstash, WebStorm, Jira, Trello, Jenkins, Gulp, GitLab CI/CD, Kibana, Vagrant, Apache Airflow, WPF 3D

Languages

JavaScript, Python, Python 3, C#, XAML, CSS, HTML

Frameworks

Flask, Django REST Framework, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Django, AngularJS, Angular, Express.js, Jinja, Apache Thrift, Pyramid, Selenium, Redux

Paradigms

Continuous Integration (CI), Testing, Agile, Test-driven Development (TDD), Agile Software Development, REST

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, AWS Lambda, Visual Studio 2016, Ubuntu, Linux, DigitalOcean, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Kubernetes, Jupyter Notebook, Amazon

Storage

SQLite, PostgreSQL, MSSQLCE, Redis, NoSQL, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Cassandra, PostgreSQL 10, MongoDB

Other

Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Web Development, Streaming, Nomad, Consul, FastAPI, Loggly, LDAP, Filebeat, Machine Learning, HTTP Live Streaming (HLS), Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), Arrow

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