Timothy Chan, Developer in Mountain View, CA, United States
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Timothy Chan

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Software Developer

Location
Mountain View, CA, United States
Toptal Member Since
August 26, 2015

Tim has over ten years of experience developing across the web stack and is deeply immersed in Python, JavaScript, and AWS. He spent over half of his career with fast-growing startups and solved fun scaling problems. Tim holds a degree in Computer Science from MIT and is both a strong communicator and a fast learner.

Portfolio

NerdWallet
Backbone.js, Flask, Python
InstaVest
Heroku, Django
Minted
Amazon Web Services (AWS), Backbone.js, Python

Experience

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Git, Vim Text Editor, Linux

The most amazing...

...project I've led included 20k+ lines of JavaScript, required a team of 8, and was delivered early.

Work Experience

Freelance Engineer

2015 - PRESENT
NerdWallet
  • Develop a front-end app to help employees choose the the best health plan for them and their family.
  • Iterate quickly, move fast, and safeguard sensitive logic with thorough unit testing.
Technologies: Backbone.js, Flask, Python

Freelance Software Engineer

2015 - 2015
InstaVest
  • Implemented a security fix to move an encryption key off of GitHub to a secured location.
  • Included a procedure to rotate keys which involves migrating data from key A to B, and made sure to cover edge cases that could leave the database in a corrupted state.
Technologies: Heroku, Django

Software Engineering Manager

2011 - 2013
Minted
  • Led the rewrite of the front-end “customizer” app in Python and Backbone.js, producing an immediate +15% in conversion.
  • Led multiple product launches and worked closely with multiple engineer and non-engineer teams.
  • Co­-led the effort to enable daytime deployments and return Thursday evenings to engineers.
Technologies: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Backbone.js, Python

Software Engineer

2008 - 2010
Chegg
  • Built a warehouse system from scratch with PHP, MySQL, and hundreds of barcode scanners. A huge 100+ team used WMS to ship and receive millions of books per year.
  • Recommended changes to software and human procedures to triple return throughput.
  • Co­ded load testing and recommended/implemented solutions to meet projected peak volumes.
Technologies: MySQL, jQuery, PHP

Software Engineer

2008 - 2008
Yahoo!
  • Added features to the ad publisher's ability to manage their assets.
  • Completed a 1-week front-end training course with Juku-lite.
  • Recognized for the most bug fixes in Q2.
Technologies: YUI, Java

Applying Tutorials

https://github.com/macrotim/tutorials-applied
My favorite way to peek into new tech is to work through tutorials and get my hands dirty. Nothing groundbreaking here but it showcases all the tutorials I've worked through and what interests me.

Languages

JavaScript, Python, PHP, Java, Go

Frameworks

Flask, Django, Alembic

Libraries/APIs

jQuery, YUI, React, Pandas, Backbone.js, Handlebars, NumPy

Paradigms

Agile Software Development, REST

Platforms

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Heroku

Storage

MySQL

Tools

Vim Text Editor, Git, uWSGI, NGINX

2000 - 2004

Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science

Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Cambridge, MA

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