Tim Cools, Developer in Antwerp, Belgium
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Tim Cools

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
Antwerp, Belgium
Toptal Member Since
June 11, 2014

Tim is a self-taught developer working professionally since 2000 on a broad range of software development projects and with a strong focus on scalability and quality. He looks at software development as a craft and constantly works on improving his own skills. He builds cloud-based full-stack web systems from the ground up that best suit clients' needs. Tim's also able to incrementally upgrade existing architecture to improve usability, quality, scalability, and availability.

Microsoft Visual StudioC#Microsoft SQL ServerWindowsJavaScriptMicroservicesReactNode.js.NET CoreDevOpsAngularJSAmazon Web Services (AWS)ReduxTypeScriptSOAP

Portfolio

MindManifest
Amazon Web Services (AWS), PostgreSQL, CQRS, Git, Docker, React, TypeScript...
Teal-Partners
Automated Testing, Visual Studio Online (VSO), Elasticsearch, Git, RabbitMQ...
Gominga
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Confluence, Jira, Git, RabbitMQ, Automated Testing...

Experience

C# - 18 yearsJavaScript - 11 yearsAngularJS - 8 yearsAmazon Web Services (AWS) - 7 yearsReact - 6 yearsNode.js - 6 years.NET Core - 4 yearsJetBrains Rider - 4 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Angular, React, NoSQL, SQL, Azure, .NET Core, Node.js, Git, WebStorm

The most amazing...

...system I've built is a high-availability distributed IoT system used to process data for smart-homes in the European market.

Work Experience

Architect | Senior Lead Developer (Remote)

2016 - PRESENT
MindManifest
  • Developed a full-stack social network website and custom CRM for a mental healthcare startup (React/Redux/.NET Core/Node.js).
  • Led a remote team of up to five people (East Europe, Spain, and Pakistan).
  • Designed a scalable architecture deployed in the cloud.
  • Implemented automated testing and continuous integration/deployment.
  • Ensured code quality and code-review of work-off team members.
  • Wrote requirements and functional and technical analysis.
  • Design and implement event-driven CQRS back end over PostgreSQL.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), PostgreSQL, CQRS, Git, Docker, React, TypeScript, Node.js, Marten, .NET Core, ASP.NET MVC

Architect | Senior Developer

2017 - 2018
Teal-Partners
  • Developed a cloud-based configurable payroll calculation engine used by the biggest Belgian payroll provider.
  • Implemented cloud infrastructure (Azure) automated deployment.
  • Profiled, optimized, and debugged distributed concurrent calculation processes and database access in the cloud to up 20k calculations/second.
  • Designed distributed and dynamically scalable architecture in the cloud.
  • Implemented automated testing and continuous deployment in the cloud (Azure).
  • Defined code guidelines and code reviews of team members.
  • Developed the management portal's full-stack (.NET Core/AngularJS).
  • Redesigned existing application into domain-specific bounded contexts and implement as microservices.
Technologies: Automated Testing, Visual Studio Online (VSO), Elasticsearch, Git, RabbitMQ, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure, MongoDB, AngularJS, TypeScript, TypeScript 3, ASP.NET MVC

Senior Developer (Remote)

2017 - 2017
Gominga
  • Developed a SaaS cloud platform providing review management on various eBusiness platforms (Node.js).
  • Defined code guidelines and code reviews of team members.
  • Designed and implemented asynchronous processing services.
  • Implemented automated deployment of the cloud infrastructure (Azure).
  • Implemented scraping of various eCommerce platforms.
  • Built automated testing and continuous deployment in the cloud (AWS).
  • Developed the full-stack of a Node.js/AngularJS management portal.
  • Development of asynchronous microservices (Node.js) with the separated data store.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Confluence, Jira, Git, RabbitMQ, Automated Testing, AngularJS, Node.js

Senior Developer (Partly Remote)

2016 - 2017
iChoosr
  • Developed a multi-tenant full-stack web platform to provide group buying schemes for west European customers.
  • Defined code guidelines and code reviews of team members.
  • Implemented automated testing and continuous deployment in the cloud (Azure).
  • Redesign existing codebase (monolith) into separated domain-specific microservices.
Technologies: Azure, Git, Elasticsearch, MariaDB, RabbitMQ, Automated Testing, JavaScript, ASP.NET

Senior Lead Developer

2015 - 2016
Zetes
  • Led the development of a logistic application for the Belgian pharmacy market.
  • Defined code guidelines and code reviews of team members.
  • Implemented automated deployment of the cloud infrastructure (Azure).
Technologies: SQL Server 2014, Azure, Domain-driven Design (DDD), Web API, ASP.NET

Founder and Lead Developer

2014 - 2016
slash9.tv
  • Designed and developed an online marketing tool for the event industry (Node.js).
  • Created a scalable event-driven CQRS+ES (event sourcing) system.
  • Hosted and automatically deployed in the cloud (EC2).
  • Performed unit and integration tests with Jasmine.
  • Integrated the platform with social media (Facebook and Twitter).
Technologies: Mongoose, MongoDB, EventStore, Jasmine, Express.js, Node.js

Full-stack Developer (Remote)

2014 - 2015
Travelife
  • Developed the prototype of a full-stack travel planning and sharing tool in Node.js and AngularJS.
  • Implemented automated testing and continuous integration/deployment.
  • Implemented an event-sourced system on top of MongoDB and EventStore.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Node.js, AngularJS, WebStorm, Jasmine, Gulp, MongoDB, CQRS, Event Sourcing, Socket.IO, Sockets, Git

Senior Developer

2014 - 2014
PItco
  • Assisted with the development of a Home Banking application for a prepaid credit card system provided by a main retail concern in Belgium.
  • The system was built with a .NET/MassTransit back-end with an AngularJS UI.
  • Development of asynchronous microservices connecting multiple domains.
Technologies: Microservices, Git, RabbitMQ, MassTransit, Microsoft SQL Server, Entity Framework, REST APIs, AngularJS, .NET

Team Lead / Senior .NET Developer

2012 - 2014
Fifthplay NV
  • Designed and developed an asynchronous event-driven back end.
  • Introduced TDD & BDD to the development team, through presentations and coaching.
  • Set up continuous integration and delivery on Jenkins, for the .NET environment.
  • Defined the architecture and designed the back end.
  • Developed secure SOAP (xml) and REST (json) api web-services.
  • Lead the .NET development team (variable five to eight people teams, including remote workers from Spain).
  • Performed low-level profiling for memory leaks and performance improvement.
  • Split existing monolith in domain-specific microservices for maintainability and scalability.
Technologies: Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Test-driven Development (TDD), Event-driven Architecture, Microsoft SQL Server, Entity Framework, NServiceBus, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), .NET

Senior Software Developer / Mentor

2011 - 2011
Metallo Chimique NV
  • Developed an Incident management business application.
  • Defined the architectures of the Front-End and Back-End.
  • Implemented automated testing and deployment.
  • Created functional and technical requirements.
  • Mentored juniors.
Technologies: Microsoft SQL Server, Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), Entity Framework, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), WCF RIA Services, Microsoft Silverlight, .NET 4

Senior Developer / Coach

2011 - 2011
Xerius
  • Developed and designed a Document Management System.
  • Performed Code reviews to ensure code quality.
  • Created a Silverlight 4 User Interface Design.
  • Integrated with legacy systems.
  • Mentored junior developers.
Technologies: Microsoft Silverlight, AOP, IoC, Test-driven Development (TDD), DevExpress Controls, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Enterprise Library, Unity, Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), Entity Framework, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Prism, .NET 4

Senior Software Developer / Architect

2008 - 2010
NMBS .NET Competence Center
  • Acted as the architect in charge of the NDCC (.NET Competence Centre), which supports and defines the guidelines for the projects ,on which approximately 120 .NET developers worked on.
  • Defined the standards and guidelines document, “Ensuring Software Quality”, concerning software quality, continuous integration, TFS usage and (Unit) testing and ASP.NET State Management.
  • Secured web-service interoperability with PHP and Java.
  • Organized presentations/workshops about Unit Testing and Mocking / TDD , Unity IoC Container and interception (AOP), and nHibernate Profiler.
  • Performed research on usage of WPF, Silverlight and MEF in future projects.
  • Responsible for TFS migration from 2005 to 2010.
  • Performed code reviews to ensure everything is developed following the defined standards.
  • Acted as Lead Developer for the code-generation tool part of the application framework, used by the .NET developers at NMBS.
  • Acted as Architect for the Mandarin web project: Defined architecture, performed code reviews and development support.
Technologies: NHibernate, Ajax, ASP.NET, Oracle, Windows Forms (WinForms), Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), TFS, .NET 4

Software Architect

2008 - 2008
Care
  • Defined architecture of an office business application.
  • Designed the data-model.
  • Implemented core functionality of the framework.
  • Created functional and technical requirements togheter with business.
  • Migrated a VB6 application to .NET.
Technologies: Visual SourceSafe, SQL Server 2005, LINQ to SQL, CSLA, Windows Forms (WinForms), .NET 3

Software Engineer

2004 - 2007
Fabricom-Gti
  • Performed Hardware Integration on multiple different hardware devices.
  • Developed multiple kiosk applications in WinForms and WPF.
  • Developed a distributed service framework based on .NET Remoting.
  • Created functional and technical requirements.
  • Developed and maintened an ASP.NET web-portal.
Technologies: Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes), OPC Data Access, Remoting, Microsoft SQL Server, NHibernate, .NET

Software Application Developer

2001 - 2004
Solid System Solutions
  • Developed an Enigeering Process desktop application in VB6 and .NET.
  • Developed a broadcast application for live sport results display on TV, using .NET WinForms.
  • Developed several administration tools in VB6, VBA and Office.
  • Developed multiple C and C++ components, used to integrate different applications.
  • Developed an ASP and JavaScript portal, used to display live results from Honeywell Process Systems.
  • Integrated with MS Visio: created new documents with advanced routing between shapes and objects.
Technologies: JavaScript, Active Server Pages (ASP), Microsoft Visio, C, C++, .NET, Visual Basic 6 (VB6)

Software Application Developer

2000 - 2001
INEOS nv
  • Developed multiple administrative tools in VB6 and VBA.
  • Developed code generation tools.
  • Developed a generic data-access layer.
  • Developed a graphics generating tool in Access and VBA.
  • Developed a DCOM component, used to integrate multiple applications.
Technologies: JavaScript, Active Server Pages (ASP), ActiveX, DCOM, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), Visual Basic 6 (VB6)

Fifthplay

Fifthplay implements Smart Home solutions for the European market. I led the back-end NET development team.

Soloco Blog

I'm the owner of Soloco and blog about different software development topics.

GitHub Account

http://github.com/tim-cools/
On my GitHub account you can find some code samples, which showcase my development style and quality.

Conference Speaker: Road to Polyglot Persistence, Tim Cools

https://buildstuff16lithuania.sched.com/speaker/tim431
Speaker at two internation conferences with a talk about database integration, CQRS, and database integrity.

With the rise of many new types of databases in the last decade, present-day architects have powerful solutions for building modern software systems. These databases solve specific problems and have many advantages. But using and integrating these databases also has pitfalls and can be challenging putting into practice. In this talk, you learn about different databases and their use-cases and solutions to integrate them. You also hear about the strengths and the weaknesses of combining several types of databases in the same system, a polyglot persistence practice.

Languages

C#, JavaScript, Go, PHP, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, Visual Basic 6 (VB6), Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), SQL, TypeScript 3, A, C, C++

Frameworks

.NET Core, Entity, ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), .NET, Angular, Redux, Express.js, AngularJS, NHibernate, .NET 4, ASP.NET, .NET 3, CSLA, Jasmine, Unity, ActiveX

Libraries/APIs

React, Node.js, NServiceBus, Socket.IO, jQuery, Entity Framework, Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), Windows Forms (WinForms), Microsoft Enterprise Library, REST APIs, Web API, Sockets

Tools

Gulp, WebStorm, Microsoft Visual Studio, Reflector, JetBrains Rider, Mongoose, Adobe Fireworks, Microsoft Silverlight, WCF RIA Services, TFS, LINQ to SQL, Visual SourceSafe, Microsoft Visio, Prism, RabbitMQ, Git, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Online (VSO), Jira, Confluence

Paradigms

Microservices, Continuous Integration (CI), Object-oriented Design (OOD), Continuous Deployment, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Event-driven Programming, Aspect-oriented Programming, Test-driven Development (TDD), App Development, Event Sourcing, DevOps, Agile Software Development, Inversion of Control, REST, Event-driven Architecture, AOP, CQRS, Automated Testing

Platforms

Windows, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, MacOS, Oracle, Amazon EC2, Docker, Linux

Storage

EventStore, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Oracle PL/SQL, SQL Server 2005, NoSQL, PostgreSQL, Azure Cosmos DB, Elasticsearch, MariaDB, SQL Server 2014

Other

Architecture, SOAP, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Remote Work, Remote Developer, SOLID Principles, Domain-driven Design (DDD), Web Services Enhancements (WSE) 3.0, Ajax, Remoting, OPC Data Access, Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes), Web MVC, DevExpress Controls, IoC, DCOM, MassTransit, Marten

2000 - 2003

Graduate Degree in Informatics (evening course)

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