Zak Miller
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Engineer and Developer
Cary, NC, United States
Toptal member since April 27, 2021
Zak is a versatile senior software engineer who has built web services, web apps, imaging libraries, and mobile apps specializing in distributed systems. He designed a unique solution to gather statistics of the annual homeless count used by non-profits across the country. He has served as scrum master on teams, as the developer representative on projects, and managed contractors to speed up development.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), WebStorm
The most amazing...
...software solution I've built is used by non-profits across the country to gather and deliver the annual homeless count.
Work Experience
Staff Back-end Software Engineer
Plotly Technologies
- Led a team of five to develop the back end and supporting architecture for Plotly's flagship product https://plotly.com/dash/.
- Architected a fault-tolerant, event-driven system using Kafka, Kubernetes, and CockroachDB.
- Built a fast and reliable GraphQL API that allows users to easily scale their data science and ML dashboards with a click of a button.
- Assisted the product owner to narrow requirements to balance building the product quickly while ensuring a solid foundation for future development.
CEO
Hyperion Data
- Developed a Vue.js web app used by thousands of volunteers across the country for the annual Point In Time (PIT) count.
- Created a Vue.js web app for monitoring the point in time count where administrators can see the data coming in real-time, contacted volunteers, cleaned up data, and exported it to various formats.
- Spoke to non-profits across the country to identify standard practices for the Point In Time (PIT) count.
- Built a Go Web API and back-end functions in TypeScript.
- Collaborated with and managed a contractor to speed up development.
Individual Contributor
Freelance
- Added additional refactoring capability to Nicoespeon and Abracadabra, a JavaScript and TypeScript refactoring VSCode plugin.
- Fixed a bug in Microsoft and TypeScript (some valid refactorings weren't being recognized).
- Added minor functionality to multi-organization Material-UI, one of the most common UI frameworks for React.
- Identified, reported, and diagnosed a bug in HuggingFace tokenizers - a machine learning library written in Rust and Python.
Senior Application Developer
Ultimate Medical Academy
- Identified a pain point (it was difficult to see what data was available, where it was available from, and to manage to query it from different sources), suggested a solution (GraphQL), built an MVP, and shepherded it into mainstream use.
- Served as the developer representative for the architecture team, suggesting broad improvements to the way we were doing things.
- Developed a dynamic rules engine to flexibly and transparently control scheduling outreach to students.
- Introduced unit tests, integration tests, and load testing to a company that desperately needed those ideas.
- Designed and built multiple web service APIs (some by myself, some with others).
- Contributed to the development of an Angular web app to streamline the enrollment process for students.
Software Engineer II
Accusoft
- Standardized the process for handling support requests across five SDK teams.
- Standardized the Git and CI/CD processes across five SDK teams.
- Designed and architected a major new feature (programmatic comparison of PDF files).
- Served as scrum master for a team of five and interfaced with other scrum masters to keep the teams aligned.
- Added functionality to support PDF/A and Acroforms in the PDF imaging library.
Experience
Hyperion
https://pointintimecount.comHistorically, maps were handed out to volunteers showing them where to look for people experiencing homelessness. Each volunteer would bring a small stack of surveys to fill out with pen and paper. The surveys are often fairly complex, and the entire PIT count needs to be completed within 24 hours, and the bulk of the survey is often conducted at night. This led to hurried and often illegible answers, missed questions, and an all-around poor experience.
I wrote an app that tells volunteers where to go with a map (such as Google Maps), shows them exactly the questions they need to ask (hiding the others), and instantly reports answers to the administrators (with geotagging and timestamps attached). The administrative dashboard helps administrators move volunteers around during the count, clean up the data, and more.
Swipebite
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
University of Florida - Gainesville, Florida, United States
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Vue.js, REST API, Node.js, JavaScript, OpenLayers, React.js, Google Maps Development, Yelp API
Tools
Git, WebStorm, Git, Jenkins, Helm, CircleCI, Webpack, NPM
Languages
TypeScript, JavaScript, C#, GraphQL, C++, SQL, Go, Rust, Python, HTML5, CSS3
Platforms
Firebase, Visual Studio Development, Azure, AWS, Docker, Apache Kafka, Kubernetes, iOS, Android, Netlify
Storage
Firestore, Google Cloud Development, PostgreSQL, Database
Frameworks
Flutter, NestJS, Tailwind CSS, Angular, .NET Core, Next.js
Paradigms
Agile Development, DevOps
Other
Startup Development, APIs, Computer Science, Cloud Engineering, SDKs, Digital Imaging, GeoJSON, TypeORM, Service Workers, Leadership, Architecture, Software Architecture, WebSockets, CI/CD Pipelines, Front-end, UX Development
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