Yilu is available for hire
Hire YiluYilu Zhu
Verified Expert in Engineering
API Developer
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since October 19, 2020
Bio
Yilu is a back-end developer who has been using Python for over 15 years. During his career, he has gained invaluable experience within the software industry and worked with leading companies such as JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, and UBS. Besides the financial sector, Yilu is keen on data science and AI.
Portfolio
Shell
Python, Kubernetes, Azure, Azure DevOps, FastAPI, Finance, Equities...
CF Partners
Python, Pydantic, SQLAlchemy, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, TypeScript...
Wayfair
Python, GraphQL, APIs, Git, Unit Testing, Google Cloud, SQL, Front-end...
Experience
- Python - 18 years
- APIs - 12 years
- REST APIs - 10 years
- Back-end - 10 years
- Microservices - 7 years
- SQL - 5 years
- Data Science - 5 years
- Cloud - 3 years
Availability
Part-time
Preferred Environment
Linux, Windows
The most amazing...
...thing I've developed is an AI that can play Gomoku at a professional level.
Work Experience
Senior Developer
2024 - PRESENT
Shell
- Developed an application to capture trading data in databases for risk management.
- Supported traders to investigate various problems in our trading system.
- Mentored junior team members and shared knowledge in software engineering.
Technologies: Python, Kubernetes, Azure, Azure DevOps, FastAPI, Finance, Equities, Equity Trading, Fund Management, Stock Exchange, Tickers, Stock Market, Trade Finance, Profit & Loss (P&L), Options Trading, Accounting, Logging, API Design, Grafana, Banking & Finance, NumPy, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Cloud Infrastructure, Solution Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Futures & Options, Integration, Docker Compose, CI/CD Pipelines
Senior Python Developer
2022 - 2024
CF Partners
- Developed an application to collect market data from various sources, including BBG and some stock exchanges.
- Created an application to book trades in our trading system.
- Helped traders to investigate various problems in our trading system.
Technologies: Python, Pydantic, SQLAlchemy, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, TypeScript, Software Architecture, Technical Architecture, .NET, Bloomberg API, Data Modeling, Microsoft Excel, FastAPI, Celery, Redis, Finance, Tickers, Trade Finance, Profit & Loss (P&L), Options Trading, Hedge Funds, Full-stack Development, NoSQL, Logging, API Design, Grafana, Bloomberg, Banking & Finance, Fintech, NumPy, Time Series Data, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Apache Airflow, System Architecture, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS SDK, Solution Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Futures & Options, React Native, Integration, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Large Language Models (LLMs), Docker Compose, CI/CD Pipelines, Asyncio, Aiohttp, OAuth 2
Senior Python Developer
2021 - 2022
Wayfair
- Developed various tools to migrate in-house ERP systems together.
- Hosted Python training sessions for people with different levels of expertise with the system.
- Built various internal APIs using GraphQL and REST.
Technologies: Python, GraphQL, APIs, Git, Unit Testing, Google Cloud, SQL, Front-end, Back-end Architecture, Pytest, SQLAlchemy, SQLite, Algorithms, Quantitative Analysis, GitHub, Containerization, API Integration, Cron, Search Engines, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), MongoDB, API Development, Design Patterns, Technical Leadership, CSS3, Back-end Development, Google App Engine, Data Transformation, C#, Databases, Pydantic, FastAPI, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Software Architecture, Technical Architecture, Data Modeling, Desktop App Development, wxPython, Tkinter, Microsoft Excel, Celery, Redis, NoSQL, Logging, API Design, Grafana, NumPy, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), RabbitMQ, GitHub Actions, System Architecture, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS SDK, Solution Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Amazon RDS, ECS, Integration, Docker Compose, CI/CD Pipelines, Cryptography, Asyncio, Aiohttp, OAuth 2
Senior Python Developer
2021 - 2021
Marks and Spencer
- Worked in the recommendation team, maintained and developed the product recommendation system.
- Monitored and maintained development, testing, and production environments using Kubernetes.
- Mentored junior team members and ran training sessions for them.
Technologies: Python, FastAPI, Back-end Architecture, Algorithms, Quantitative Analysis, Business Intelligence (BI), GitHub, Proof of Concept (POC), Containerization, Multitenancy, Cron, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), API Development, Design Patterns, Back-end Development, OpenAI GPT-3 API, Data Transformation, Pydantic, SQLAlchemy, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Software Architecture, Technical Architecture, Microsoft Excel, Redis, NoSQL, Logging, API Design, Machine Learning, PyTorch, GitHub Actions, System Architecture, Cloud Infrastructure, AWS SDK, Solution Architecture, Cloud Architecture, Amazon RDS, ECS, Large Language Models (LLMs), CI/CD Pipelines, Asyncio, Aiohttp, OAuth 2
Quant Developer
2019 - 2021
UBS
- Developed an equity index engine working with an equity derivative team for a European bank. The engine was an index calculation system used by traders and trading operations to balance UBS trading books.
- Designed and implemented analytics systems to help trading desks perform various data analytics and generate multiple reports automatically.
- Migrated internal systems from Linux machines to an Azure Kubernetes Service cloud.
Technologies: Pandas, Data Science, Docker, Microservices, Linux, Java, React, Back-end, Flask, Python 3, Kubernetes, Azure, Python, Full-stack, APIs, Git, Unit Testing, Data Engineering, Financial Software, DevOps, Tableau, Front-end, Financial Modeling, Back-end Architecture, Algorithms, Data Visualization, Business Intelligence (BI), Dashboards, GitHub, Quantitative Finance, Data Processing Automation, Windows, API Integration, Cron, API Development, Design Patterns, Software Architecture, Back-end Development, Stock Trading, TradingView, Data Extraction, Data Transformation, Web Services, Pydantic, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Technical Architecture, Financial Data, Matplotlib, Data Modeling, Desktop App Development, wxPython, Tkinter, Microsoft Excel, Azure DevOps, Redis, Finance, Equities, Equity Trading, Stock Exchange, Stock Market, Accounting, NoSQL, Logging, API Design, Investments, Bloomberg, Banking & Finance, NumPy, SciPy, Cloud Architecture, Futures & Options, Trading Bots, Integration, CI/CD Pipelines, Asyncio
Team Lead
2017 - 2019
Fidelity International
- Led a development team of nine people in fixed income to design and implement a portfolio optimization system, which helped fund managers handle portfolios by suggesting buying or selling bonds based on various client preferences.
- Designed and implemented a quant analytics platform in microservices architecture, which ran on Cloud.
- Mentored less experienced team members and hosted regular internal python training seminars. Conducted technical interviews for recruitment.
Technologies: SQL, Data Science, Pandas, Back-end, Microservices, Flask, Python 3, Oracle, Cloud, JavaScript, Python, Leadership, Architecture, Relational Databases, PostgreSQL, APIs, Git, Unit Testing, Data Engineering, Financial Software, DevOps, Front-end, Back-end Architecture, Pytest, Algorithms, GitHub, Quantitative Finance, Data Processing Automation, Windows, API Integration, API Development, Design Patterns, Software Architecture, Technical Leadership, Angular, Back-end Development, Data Extraction, Data Transformation, Web Services, SQLAlchemy, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Technical Architecture, Financial Data, Data Modeling, wxPython, Tkinter, Finance, Fund Management, Accounting, Logging, API Design, Investments, Banking & Finance, NumPy, Integration
Python Developer
2016 - 2017
JP Morgan Chase
- Built and implemented a dashboard system used by traders for data virtualization and risk analytics, working with the credit technology team.
- Created and implemented a message recording system for MiFid's two pre-trade and post-trade transparency regulations.
- Designed and implemented various data source feeds for credit trading data and reference data and different internal systems for data normalizing, processing, and recording.
Technologies: Testing, Test-driven Development (TDD), Pandas, Python, CSS, Elasticsearch, HTML, Architecture, Relational Databases, WebSockets, Jira, Redis, ETL Development, ETL, APIs, Git, Unit Testing, Data Engineering, Financial Software, Back-end Architecture, Pytest, Algorithms, Automation, CSV File Processing, Data Visualization, Dashboards, GitHub, Quantitative Finance, Data Processing Automation, API Integration, API Development, Design Patterns, Software Architecture, Back-end Development, Stock Trading, Data Extraction, Data Transformation, Web Services, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Financial Data, Data Modeling, wxPython, Tkinter, Finance, Logging, Banking & Finance, NumPy, Integration
Python Developer
2013 - 2016
Bank of America Merrill Lynch
- Made a reconciliation framework to ensure that trading data on the Quartz platform were of high quality, used by all lines of business across the bank.
- Built and maintained systems and tools to meet regulatory requirements for transaction reporting, such as MiFid, EMIR, and Dodd-Frank. Analyzed data in transaction reports, derived rules, and patterns to model data from all classes of assets.
- Developed documentation models to automatically generate documents that matched the data processing workflow.
- Designed and implemented a reconciliation monitoring system for daily global operation business. The system was used worldwide by front office users and risk managers and at the core of the bank's front office control strategy.
Technologies: Testing, Test-driven Development (TDD), Pandas, Python, CSS, HTML, Architecture, Relational Databases, Jira, ETL Development, ETL, APIs, Unit Testing, Data Engineering, Financial Software, Back-end Architecture, Pytest, Algorithms, Automation, CSV File Processing, Data Visualization, Dashboards, GitHub, Proof of Concept (POC), Data Processing Automation, API Integration, Stock Trading, Data Extraction, Data Transformation, Web Services, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Financial Data, Data Modeling, wxPython, Tkinter, Finance, API Design, Banking & Finance, Integration
Python Developer
2010 - 2013
IHS Market
- Developed and maintained a Python simulation platform working with the MarkitWire team. The platform was connected to C++ API and simulated various workflows for the MarkitWire trading confirmation system.
- Built the integration tests system and maintained those tests by investigating and fixing test errors in the test build.
- Developed tools to allow users to call workflows and recorded users' actions to generate corresponding tests automatically. The tool enabled business analysts to test system functions without writing any code.
Technologies: Python, Relational Databases, ETL Development, ETL, Unit Testing, Financial Software, Algorithms, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Finance, API Design, Fintech
Python Developer
2007 - 2010
Nokia
- Developed Nokia’s parallel building system to build Symbian OS, which significantly improved building performance by using concurrency technology.
- Maintained various internal systems written in Python.
- Migrated different internal systems from Perl to Python.
Technologies: Python, Algorithms, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, C++
Trader and Developer
2006 - 2007
Samvo Entertainment
- Monitored the football betting market and reported big market movements to senior traders.
- Developed a series of models and calculation engines to calculate fair prices for running balls in the football betting market.
- Mentored the junior team members and ran training sessions for them.
Technologies: Trading, Algorithmic Trading, Data Structures
Experience
Sports Betting User Management System
Solely designed and implemented a user management system. It queried user databases with various of criteria on users' gambling data. The system contained a rule engine with over 30 rules to easily manage different SQL queries. The system was deployed to Azure and made use of Azure functions.
Trust Lab - Internet Security
Acted as a back-end developer for Trust Lab, I designed and implemented a variety of APIs to apply AI to check for potential security risks on the internet.
Working on the project, I heavily used Python and AWS.
Working on the project, I heavily used Python and AWS.
Football Betting App
https://github.com/yiluzhu/arbiThe app is based on an algorithmic trading system that generates arbitrage opportunities on the football betting market.
The system connects to live data feeds and calculates odds to discover arbitrage opportunities. It then sends the trading signal to downstream systems to place bets.
The system connects to live data feeds and calculates odds to discover arbitrage opportunities. It then sends the trading signal to downstream systems to place bets.
Ship Insurance
Developed an app for a ship insurance company. I was the leading developer and liaised with a front-end developer to integrate external data sources to display ship information, calculate risks, and provide price estimates.
Jogging Recording API
https://github.com/yiluzhu/joggingThis API can manage user accounts as well as jogging details for each user. There are three roles with different permission levels, including a regular user, staff member, and admin.
A jogging record has a date, distance, time, and location. Based on the provided date and location, the weather conditions are added automatically. However, history only supports up to five days at the moment.
The API creates a report on average speed and distance per week and provides the filter capabilities for endpoints that return a list and support pagination. Filtering allows using parentheses.
All user and admin actions can be performed via the API, including authentication.
A jogging record has a date, distance, time, and location. Based on the provided date and location, the weather conditions are added automatically. However, history only supports up to five days at the moment.
The API creates a report on average speed and distance per week and provides the filter capabilities for endpoints that return a list and support pagination. Filtering allows using parentheses.
All user and admin actions can be performed via the API, including authentication.
Teaching in Master School
https://www.masterschool.com/Teaching software engineering in master school to a group of students with various experiences and backgrounds. The content mainly focuses on Python but contains a variety of topics, including JavaScript, databases, and AI.
Investment Algorithms
I maintained various algorithms to invest in the US S&P 500 stock market. They run daily and suggest adjustments in portfolio constituents based on daily price changes. I also developed an API layer to access data from FactSet and Bloomberg.
Investment Management System
I developed an investment management system to automatically optimize investment in the S&P 500. It connected to BBG API and FactSet API to get market data, then ran various statistics models to calculate market efficiency. The system was then used to indicate what industry to buy or sell.
Pension Optimization
I optimized the client's existing code for a pension optimization system. The system used Python to run non-linear optimizations on pension portfolios to help clients decide how to manage their pensions.
Education
2004 - 2005
Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering
Queen Mary University of London - London, UK
2000 - 2004
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications - Beijing, China
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Pandas, REST APIs, SQLAlchemy, API Development, Pydantic, NumPy, Asyncio, React, PIL, Beautiful Soup, Matplotlib, SciPy, PyQt, PyTorch, Node.js, Bloomberg API, PySpark, MoviePy
Tools
Git, GitHub, Microsoft Excel, Logging, Bitbucket, Jira, Pytest, ChatGPT, Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), Cron, wxPython, Celery, Grafana, Bloomberg, Tableau, Apache Airflow, Google Sheets, Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), RabbitMQ, AWS SDK, Docker Compose, Plotly, BigQuery
Languages
Python, SQL, Python 3, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, GraphQL, XML, HTML5, Java, C#, CSS3, TypeScript, R, C++
Frameworks
Flask, Django, Selenium, Django REST Framework, Scrapy, OAuth 2, Angular, .NET, React Native, Qt
Paradigms
Microservices, Test-driven Development (TDD), Testing, Unit Testing, ETL, Back-end Architecture, Automation, Desktop App Development, DevOps, Design Patterns, Azure DevOps, Business Intelligence (BI), Serverless Architecture
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance, Trading Systems, Accounting
Platforms
Kubernetes, Linux, Docker, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, Oracle, NVIDIA CUDA, Windows, Google App Engine
Storage
MySQL, Google Cloud, NoSQL, Elasticsearch, Relational Databases, PostgreSQL, Redis, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), SQLite, MongoDB, Data Lakes, MariaDB, Databases
Other
Back-end, APIs, Architecture, Computer Science, Web Scraping, ETL Development, FastAPI, Scraping, Algorithms, Quantitative Analysis, Data Visualization, Proof of Concept (POC), Data Processing Automation, Web Crawlers, API Integration, Software Architecture, Back-end Development, Stock Trading, Data Extraction, Data Transformation, Web Services, Sorting Algorithms, Data Structures, Technical Architecture, Financial Data, Data Modeling, Finance, API Design, Integration, Data Science, Cloud, Data Engineering, Financial Software, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Screen Scraping, SaaS, WebSockets, Full-stack, Front-end, Trading, Financial Modeling, PDF Scraping, Algorithmic Trading, CSV File Processing, Data Scraping, Bots, Dashboards, Quantitative Finance, Graphical User Interface (GUI), Chatbots, Web Development, Technical Leadership, Tkinter, Equities, Equity Trading, Stock Exchange, Tickers, Stock Market, Trade Finance, Profit & Loss (P&L), Options Trading, Investments, Fintech, Nonlinear Optimization, Optimization, Time Series Data, System Architecture, Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Architecture, Amazon RDS, Futures & Options, Large Language Models (LLMs), CI/CD Pipelines, Aiohttp, Directed Acrylic Graphs (DAG), Google BigQuery, Leadership, Discord Bots, Reinforcement Learning, Parsers, OpenAI GPT-4 API, SVG, Handwriting Recognition, Bluetooth, Containerization, Multitenancy, Search Engines, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), OpenAI GPT-3 API, TradingView, Image Annotation, OpenAI, Data Mining, Fund Management, Hedge Funds, Full-stack Development, FactSet, Statistics, Linear Optimization, GitHub Actions, Morningstar, Solution Architecture, ECS, Trading Bots, Startups, Dash, Modin, Cryptography
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