Lukas C. Eklund

lukas@eklund.io 419 Jean Street, Madison, WI 53703 240.601.2974

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summary

I am a Senior Software Developer with 10 years of solid experience with Ruby, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Javascript, Perl and a host of other technologies. My experience covers the full stack of software development from the server layer, data model, application layer, to the user interface. I’m passionate about building well-tested, quality software.

The first piece of software I ever wrote, in the sixth grade, was a graphical adventure game set in the age of dinosaurs written in Applesoft BASIC. These days I get excited about building scalable RESTful API’s and responsive web applications in Rails (and I still like dinosaurs).

experience

Fastly – San Francisco, CA (remote)

Principal Engineer (7/2016 – current) Software Engineer (7/2015 – 7/2016)

• Design, build, and update Ruby applications to support external APIs
• Work with corss-functional teams to deliver features to customers

KaBOOM! – Washington, DC

Lead Software Engineer / Director Software Engineering (01/2014 – 6/2015) Manager, Software Engineering (05/2012 – 01/2014)

• Conceptualize, design, development, and maintain new and existing Rails-based web products and applications in an Agile (two-week iterations, bug-days & pair programming) environment.
• Manage PostgreSQL databases and provide query support for reporting and data analysis.
• Work with a GIS manager to support mapping initiatives and implement data-based work-flows in PostGIS.
• Maintain and support the back-end infrastructure running on Heroku and Heroku Postgres.
• Manage a small team of developers to be a constructive, productive, well-oiled machine.

Specific accomplishments:

• Lead development of custom Rails 4 based CMS from idea to functioning product in 4 months.
• Migrated existing Drupal data from MySQL to new custom PostgreSQL-based CMS.
• Moved rails applications off of Rackspaca and Slicehost and on to the Heroku platform.
• Migrated 3 legacy MySQL databases to a single multi-schema PostgreSQL database
• Converted map data to PostGIS tables utilizing table inheritance to provide multiple geometries per record.

Vetstreet (VCA Antech) – Silver Spring, MD

Senior Application Developer (08/2011 – 05/2012)

• Lead development of large scale marketing campaigns using Perl, Java, SQL, PL/pgSQL.
• Optimize campaigns to run efficiently and quickly against a massive dataset.
• Design, test, and build Sinatra applications to provide functionality that may not require the full Rails stack.
• Develop and support large-sacle Ruby on Rails consumer pet portal that provides access to pet data, a notification/request framework, and other tools.
• Develop Ruby on Rails based API used to provide and accept data from external partners and internal applications.

Specific accomplishments:

• Developed test framework to simulate email marketing campaigns to run over 90-days in 2-3 hours to allow for comprehensive testing.
• Refactored a legacy Perl application to SQL, PL/pgSQL, and a touch of Perl reducing total run time by over 24 hours
• Developed and rapidly deployed a Sinatra application in under 24 hours to provide vital functionality (that had been erroneously left out of the requirements) to a newly launched application

Media Matters for America – Washington, DC

Senior Systems Developer (04/2011 – 08/2011) Systems Developer (05/2007 – 08/2011)

• Develop, test, deploy, and maintain web-based applications for research, analysis, video processing and archiving usy Ruby on Rails and Perl-based frameworks.
• Write and optimize SQL schemas, queries, and stored procedures using PostgreSQL
• Maintain the Media Matters for America website and develop new features as needed — including front-end development with HTML, Javascript, jQuery, and CSS as well as back-end development in the Perl-based HTML::Mason framework
• Develop and deploy internal applications for research, analysis, video processing/ archiving, and other functions using Ruby on Rails
• Install and support back-end and front-end webservers for development and production in an nginx/apache2/mod_perl environment
• Support and administer custom video recording and archiving applications
• Administer multiple servers running Ubuntu 8.0.4 / 10.0.4 and Windows Server 2003
• Provide database support and light administration of PostgreSQL (8.4) databases

Specific accomplishments:

• Developed and deployed an internal CMS for drafting, proofing, and publishing items to the Media Matters website using the Perl-based Catalyst framework
• Worked with development team to convert the Media Matters website from a file- based XML::Comma system to a PostgreSQL backed system
• Rapidly developed and deployed several Ruby on Rails applications for internal usage

Media Matters for America – Washington, DC

Web Producer (04/2006 – 05/2007)

• Publish content to the Media Matters website using a custom CMS
• Clip, compile, and edit video and audio for the web
• Design and create images, badges, and buttons
• Develop, test, and implement CSS and Javascript

Aspen Systems Corporation – Rockville, MD

Management Analyst (01/2002 – 03/2006)

• Develop budgets, analyze and track current financial data, and prepare reports
• Prepare and write cost proposals for new business and existing contracts
• Manage daily project costs while working directly with management to ensure that all costs are necessary and allowable
• Maintain contract files and work directly with contract department to ensure that all projects are properly funded

North Park University – Chicago, Illinois

Electronic Publications Manager (12/1998 – 08/2001)

• Oversaw all aspects of external University website including structure, design, content, layout, coding, and database integration
• Developed unified strategy for the University’s web publications
• Developed, maintained, and updated all sections of the University website

skills and tools

• Highly proficient in Ruby, Javascript, and Perl. I have some experience with Python and Java as well.
• I’m quite skilled with SQL and have much experience with PostgreSQL, PostGIS, PL/pgSQL, PL/v8. This includes experience with large datasets (one table has over 7.5e8 rows). I’ve worked with MySQL but my preferred RDBMS is PostgreSQL.
• Editor of choice: vim.
• My current web development stack experience is mainly Ruby on Rails (3 & 4) or Sinatra + Sequel. I’ve also developed using the Perl-based Catalyst framework and HTML::Mason.
• Test framework: MiniTest because it’s so simple but I am beginning to lean towards rspec because it’s so much more readable.
• I’m also well-versed in JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. This includes working with coffescript and Sass/SCSS.
• Strong unix knowlegde — I’m feel at home when given a bash prompt.
• Experienced with AWS services including S3, Cloudfront, EC2, ELB, RDS
• Some other tools in my kit: Redis, Google Maps API, Mapbox, Unicorn, Passenger, nginx, Bootstrap, jQuery, bash
• I’m an efficient problem solver and skilled at troubleshooting. I’m also a self-starter and a fast learner — I love learning new technologies and methodologies and have begun learning Scala and Clojure to really wrap my head around functional programming.

education

Bachelors of Science in Physics (05/1997) North Park College, Chicago, Illinois