Publication
Introduction To PHP 7: What's New And What's Gone
https://www.toptal.com/developers/php/php-7-performance-features
Vilson is currently unavailable
Vilson Duka
Verified Expert in Engineering
PHP Developer
Berlin, Germany
Toptal member since August 20, 2015
Bio
Vilson started programming in middle school and instantly knew what he wanted to do for a living. With experience in both back- and front-end and having worked on different projects for desktop, mobile, and web, he now focuses on building awesome real-time applications.
Portfolio
Garn Enterprise Limited
PHP, Symfony, API Integration, Agile Software Development, Pimcore, B2C...
Notch
React, PHP, Symfony, Python 3, Node.js, Responsive Web Apps, Next.js...
y42
Singer ETL, Laravel, Python, ETL, Ratchet, Docker, APIs, Back-end
Experience
- PHP - 15 years
- SQL - 13 years
- JavaScript - 10 years
- MySQL - 9 years
- Symfony - 8 years
- Node.js - 7 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 6 years
- React - 6 years
Work Experience
Back-end Lead
2024 - 2025
Garn Enterprise Limited
- Designed and built core back-end systems powering business-critical operations and APIs.
- Defined system architecture and event-driven data flows across platform integrations (Pimcore).
- Owned payments and billing systems (Stripe), including subscriptions and lifecycle complexity.
- Collaborated closely with product and growth on gamification, referrals, and revenue-driving features.
- Led and coordinated both internal and external teams, ensuring alignment in delivery timelines and quality.
- Acted as a technical lead, providing onboarding, code reviews, pair programming, and RFD reviews.
Technologies: PHP, Symfony, API Integration, Agile Software Development, Pimcore, B2C, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Vue, Jira, Event-driven Design (EDD), eCommerce, Docker, Platform.sh, MySQL, DevOps
CTO
2021 - 2025
Notch
- Implemented the company's tech strategy and tech stack.
- Built internal apps and tools to support workflows.
- Implemented the infrastructure and deployment pipeline of apps and platforms.
- Developed features from conception to design, development, testing, and release.
- Designed and implemented marketplace payment flows supporting customer transactions and split payouts to talent.
- Collaborated with the product team on requirements and prioritized tasks.
- Established partnerships with 3rd-party vendors and tools.
- Implemented platform integrations with external APIs.
Technologies: React, PHP, Symfony, Python 3, Node.js, Responsive Web Apps, Next.js, JavaScript, AWS IAM, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon EC2, PostgreSQL, Docker, Full-stack, Back-end, Front-end, Architecture, Leadership, Management, Web Architecture, Software Architecture, CTO, TypeScript, Full-stack Development
Senior Back-end Engineer
2021 - 2022
y42
- Implemented integrations based on the Singer ETL protocol to fetch and collect data from various services.
- Introduced authentication and authorization based on various protocols.
- Designed and Implemented REST APIs for front-end clients.
Technologies: Singer ETL, Laravel, Python, ETL, Ratchet, Docker, APIs, Back-end
Senior Full-stack Engineer
2020 - 2021
Summin
- Developed and integrated APIs for payments using Sylius as the eCommerce back end to the storefront.
- Built a SaaS web app for customers to manage billing, sales, orders, menus, etc.
- Developed internal apps and tools to manage customer accounts and role management.
- Built internal apps and tools to manage IoT devices and PoS systems deployed across customers.
- Provided technical support, maintenance, and troubleshooting for the IoT PoS system.
- Implemented unit and functional testing, as well as end-to-end testing for hardware.
Technologies: PHP, Symfony, Sylius, JavaScript, RabbitMQ, Redis, Twig, Tailwind CSS, Android, PostgreSQL, HTML, CSS, Full-stack, Back-end, Front-end, Agile Software Development, Scrum, Startups, SaaS, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), SQL, Software Design, Full-stack Development
Senior Full-stack Engineer
2018 - 2020
Berlin Brands Group
- Implemented improvements on the eCommerce website, reducing load time.
- Set up and improved local development using Docker and Docker Compose.
- Implemented improvements to the deployment pipeline of 7+ store websites.
- Developed and integrated APIs for internal use with other teams to build a faster workflow between different departments.
- Implemented a tool to optimize box stacking for shipping with a 3D visualizer for shipments.
- Developed AMP accelerated mobile pages (AMP) sites for Google Search to display rich snippets for product listings.
Technologies: PHP, JavaScript, React, Tailwind CSS, SAP, Three.js, Docker, Node.js, eCommerce, APIs, API Integration, HTML, HTML5, CSS, OXID, Front-end, Back-end, Full-stack, Scrum, Enterprise, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), SQL, Architecture, Web Architecture, Agile, Agile Software Development, IT, IT Services, IT Security, TypeScript
Full-stack Engineer
2016 - 2017
Tripod Technology
- Optimized website performance, reducing load time to under one second for 95% of users.
- Developed a new, faster, and more modern front end while keeping WordPress as the back-end CRM.
- Implemented data and analytics pipeline from internal data to provide insights for the marketing team.
- Implemented dynamic long-tail marketing page creation and management based on internal data.
Technologies: PHP, JavaScript, Docker, Go, MySQL, WordPress, Google Analytics, Python, Back-end, Front-end, Full-stack, Scrum, Responsive Web Design (RWD), SQL, Full-stack Development
Senior Back-end Developer
2015 - 2016
Staffmatch France
- Designed and developed APIs for web and mobile clients.
- Implemented workflow integrations with 3rd-party APIs, Slack, Twilio, and Mailchimp.
- Implemented SaaS multi-user accounts with role and access management for customers.
- Automated financial/legal systems, data extraction using OCR with Python and text extraction with PDFBox (Java), generating and updating contracts/payslips, etc.
- Implemented booking and mission management system supporting the company workflow.
- Implemented logging for developers and audit systems for clients and account managers.
- Implemented a suite of functional and unit tests for critical components, features, and documentation.
Technologies: PHP, Model View Controller (MVC), MySQL, Architecture, RabbitMQ, Elasticsearch, Memcached, Symfony, API Integration, Mailchimp API, Redis, Python, Java, React, HTML, CSS, Startups, Agile Software Development, Scrum, SaaS, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), SQL
Web Developer
2013 - 2015
Manoolia
- Upgraded a system with real-time notifications and messaging with Socket.io and Redis.
- Configured servers for development and deployment.
- Upgraded a system for searching, statistics, and logging by migrating to Elasticsearch, increasing performance and extendibility.
- Analyzed software requirements and set up appropriate tasks and tickets.
- Provided technical assistance to other developers.
Technologies: Redis, MySQL, Socket.IO, Node.js, Symfony, PHP, Angular, HTML, jQuery, CSS, PostgreSQL, Responsive Web Design (RWD), SQL, MongoDB
Full-stack Developer
2012 - 2015
Freelance
- Installed and configured web servers for customers.
- Configured and managed domains and hosting for customer websites.
- Designed, configured, and migrated databases for customers.
Technologies: C#, Android, JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, Responsive Web Design (RWD), SQL, Laravel
Full-stack Developer
2013 - 2013
T-Meeting
- Developed a web app for users to manage their SIP accounts.
- Designed, deployed, and maintained databases for Asterisk VoIP back end.
- Installed software and configured Linux servers to support VoIP infrastructure.
- Handled end-to-end testing and software deployment.
- Installed and configured Asterisk PBX, SIP accounts, and voicemail.
Technologies: Linux, Asterisk, JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, VoIP, SaaS, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), SQL
Project History
POS/Inventory Management System
A point-of-sale system (POS) including functionalities like inventory management, sales management, report generation, and account management. It was built for a local chain store with .NET technologies and SQL Server.
Live Streaming App
This is a mobile game in which teams race to complete objectives. Each team is separated into two groups, one of which would live stream in real time their progress, location, and camera, and the other would guide them.
The implementation included a mobile app game that streams your camera and location to be viewed online using Wowza Media Center on the back end with AWS and Node.js with Socket.io to update the website's info in real time.
The implementation included a mobile app game that streams your camera and location to be viewed online using Wowza Media Center on the back end with AWS and Node.js with Socket.io to update the website's info in real time.
Automated Data Enrichment Tool
A Node.js-based service that would automatically and periodically take entries from an Airtable base and scrape different websites and APIs to enrich the data or notify by email when some rules with new data are triggered.
Education
2012 - 2015
Master's Degree in Computer Science
Polytechnic University of Tirana - Tirana, Albania
2009 - 2012
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering
Polytechnic University of Tirana - Albania
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Node.js, jQuery, React, Socket.IO, Mailchimp API, HTML5 APIs, Stripe, Three.js, Vue, Stripe API, Puppeteer
Tools
GitHub, Git, RabbitMQ, Stripe Checkout, Sublime Text, Atom, Asterisk, NGINX, Bower, NPM, Gulp, Google Analytics, Wowza, AWS SDK, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), AWS IAM, Jira
Languages
JavaScript, CSS3, PHP, HTML5, CSS, TypeScript, HTML, C#, SQL, Python, Sass, Java, Go, Python 3
Frameworks
Symfony, Symfony 2, Express.js, Next.js, Laravel, Jest, ASP.NET, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), PHPUnit, Tailwind CSS, Sylius, Twig, .NET, NestJS, Cypress, Angular, Ratchet
Paradigms
Test-driven Development (TDD), Model View Controller (MVC), Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Web Architecture, Scrum, Unit Testing, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Event-driven Design (EDD), Agile Software Development, Agile, Management, ETL, B2C, DevOps
Platforms
Amazon EC2, Vercel, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, Android, Docker, WordPress, MacOS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Pimcore, Platform.sh
Storage
Elasticsearch, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Redis, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, Memcached, SQL Server 2007
Other
Architecture, API Integration, Back-end, Front-end, Full-stack, Web Development, Web App Development, Startups, Styled-components, SaaS, Responsive Web Apps, Full-stack Development, Design Systems, eCommerce, Integration Testing, Performance Testing, UI Development, Amazon RDS, GitOps, Domain-driven Design (DDD), Mobile First, Airtable, SAP, VoIP, JetBrains IDE, Algorithms, Software, Computer Science, APIs, OXID, GitHub Workflows, Enterprise, IT, IT Services, IT Security, Software Design, Leadership, Software Architecture, CTO, FastAPI, Singer ETL
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