Thilo Rusche, Developer in Dublin, Ireland
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Thilo Rusche

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Ruby on Rails Developer

Location
Dublin, Ireland
Toptal Member Since
March 23, 2017

Thilo has helped startups succeed with technology for almost two decades as an early-stage employee, consultant, and co-founder. His specialty is building web applications, but he has extensive experience and interest in many other fields, from text messaging to mobile apps and user experience.

Portfolio

Optimise Logistics
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Twilio, Ansible, Sidekiq, PostgreSQL, JavaScript...
Travel Mobile, LLC
Amazon Web Services (AWS), i18n, Redis, MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby
LegitScript, LLC
PostgreSQL, MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

GitHub, Git, Sublime Text, Vim Text Editor, Linux, OS X

The most amazing...

...system I've built is a text message exchange platform that gained astounding reach, ultimately handling billions of cross-carrier messages per month in the US.

Work Experience

Co-Founder & CTO

2016 - PRESENT
Optimise Logistics
  • Built the web platform from the ground up using Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL.
  • Designed, specified, and managed the development of our first version mobile app by a contractor.
  • Designed and built a secure API to connect the mobile app.
  • Defined and managed the technical product roadmap.
  • Built and managed a small technical team of two developers and one designer.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Twilio, Ansible, Sidekiq, PostgreSQL, JavaScript, Ionic, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby

Co-Founder & CTO

2012 - PRESENT
Travel Mobile, LLC
  • Designed and developed a Ruby on Rails application to facilitate the sale and activation of SIM cards.
  • Configured and maintained staging and production environments on Rackspace and later on AWS EC2.
  • Performed continuous Rails upgrades from v3.2 through to the latest version at the time (5.0).
  • Integrated with payment gateways from Stripe and Braintree Payments.
  • Implemented multi-language support with full editing capability for non-technical team members.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), i18n, Redis, MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby

Co-founder & CTO

2008 - 2016
LegitScript, LLC
  • Built the initial platform for tracking illegal online pharmacies from scratch, learning Ruby on Rails along the way.
  • Designed and developed multiple features and ancillary applications to support the growing internal analyst staff.
  • Supervised a team of up to fifteen software developers and sysadmins.
  • Provided product development and project management for all technical products and projects.
Technologies: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby

Software Development Consultant

2008 - 2011
Self-employed
  • Designed, built, and maintained a Ruby on Rails application to manage recordings of telephone calls. Included full-stack system administration of a high-availability platform hosted with Rackspace.
  • Evaluated and presented findings on a web application built in PHP by a third party for security and quality.
  • Built, deployed, and maintained a custom data processing web application in Ruby on Rails, deployed with Apache on my private cloud-based Linux server.
Technologies: Asterisk, MySQL, PHP, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Ruby

Web Manager

2007 - 2008
Unity 08
  • Helped scale the Drupal-based platform to support tens of thousands of concurrent users.
  • Involved in all parts of the system, including writing my first and only Facebook app.
Technologies: Facebook API, Drupal, PHP, MySQL, Apache, Linux

Lead Software Engineer

2006 - 2007
Hook Mobile
  • Built the initial platform for this provider of multimedia messaging services, a trading card system, from scratch to production launch with a campaign for CBS’ Survivor, on a LAMP stack.
Technologies: PHP, MySQL, Apache, Linux

Chief Technologist

2005 - 2006
762 Wireless
  • Took over an existing PHP codebase from a consultant and revamped it to modern production standards.
  • Built up a small team.
Technologies: PHP, MySQL, Apache, Linux

Director, Application Development

2001 - 2005
Mobile 365
  • Led the design and system architecture of the core technology platform as well as several rapid prototypes exploring new areas of business.
  • Wrote and maintained software to extend and adapt the licensed technology for the particulars of the US market.
  • Led a team of five developers in maintaining and extending the platform.
  • Performed technical evaluation and due diligence in preparation of a merge with another company.
  • Implemented low-level protocol stacks (SMPP, EMI/UCP) in C++ and Java cross-platform for Windows, Solaris, and Linux.
Technologies: CSS, SwiftMQ, MySQL, Oracle, PHP, HTML, Java, C++, Linux, Solaris, Windows

Software Developer

1998 - 2000
Netlife AG
  • Developed web interfaces for several banks, using a custom CGI stack written in C++.
  • Created back-end elements, including the first of many verbose log files developed throughout my career.
Technologies: CSS, Solaris, Apache, Python, Tcl/Tk, Oracle, HTML, C++

Httplog (Open source)

https://github.com/trusche/httplog
An open source Ruby library for logging outgoing HTTP requests made by your application.

Languages

CSS, HTML, SQL, Haml, Ruby, JavaScript, Tcl/Tk, Python, PHP, Java, C++

Frameworks

Bootstrap, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Factory Girl, Ionic, Sinatra

Libraries/APIs

ActiveRecord, Ruby on Rails API, Devise, Pundit, Facebook API, Sidekiq, jQuery, Stripe

Tools

RSpec, MySQL Performance Tuning, Vagrant, Git, Apache, GitHub, Vim Text Editor, Sublime Text, Asterisk, SwiftMQ, NGINX, Puppet, Ansible

Paradigms

Agile Software Development, Rapid Prototyping, REST, Test-driven Development (TDD), DevOps, Agile Product Management

Other

Web Servers, Web App Security, i18n, Technical Project Management, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Software Architecture, Proof of Concept (POC), CTO, Technical Product Management, Software Development, API Design, Internationalization, UX Prototyping, Security

Platforms

Linux, Amazon EC2, MacOS, OS X, Oracle, Solaris, Drupal, Windows, Twilio, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Storage

MySQL, Elasticsearch, Redis, PostgreSQL

2000 - 2000

Master of Science Degree in Software Engineering

George Mason University - Fairfax, VA

1993 - 1999

Bachelor of Science Degree in Informatics

Universität Hamburg - Hamburg, Germany

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