Curriculum Vitae

Alex Zavalny

Senior Ruby Developer

alex@zavalny.com +371 29135163 Latvia 37 years old

About Me

I am a Senior Ruby Developer with over 8+ years of experience in Ruby and 18+ years in web development. I am a team player, a good communicator, and a fast learner. I am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to improve my skills.

Values

I believe in clean code, good design, and simple solutions. I favor OOP principles without over-engineering. Balancing between code architecture and client needs is essential, but I lean towards clean code for long-term sustainability.

I also encourage my team to stay open-minded and always ready to learn.

Skills

Programming Languages

  • Ruby — 8+ years, great
  • Javascript — good
  • Swift — a little
  • C# — great
  • Rust — learning

Technologies & Tools

Rails, RSpec, GraphQL, Sinatra, ElasticSearch, Redis, PostgreSQL, Memcached, Kafka, Sentry, Solargraph, Google Optimize, Google PageSpeed, SideQik, VSCode, Rubocop/Standardrb.

Design Patterns

Singleton, Factory, Strategy, Builder, Adapter.

Work Experience

2024 — present

GoCardless

Senior Ruby Backend Developer

  • Writing clean Ruby code
  • Tech used: Ruby, Rails, Rubocop, RSpec, Grafana, PromQL, Que, DeadmansSnitch, Google Cloud, Looker, BigQuery
2022 — 2023

Workday

Senior Ruby Backend Developer

  • Writing clean Ruby code
  • API endpoints via GraphQL
  • SideQik jobs for Docx file processing
  • Using Karafka messaging
  • Integration of OpenAI GPT-3.5 LLM API for document metadata recognition
  • Tech used: Ruby, Rails, Rubocop, GraphQL, Apache Kafka, RSpec, Zeitwerk
2012 — 2022

RGM Distributions

Senior .NET Developer

  • Built the e-commerce system decorplanet.com with a 3-person team
  • Integrated third-party systems: Affirm, Mulberry, Paypal, Amazon, Apple Pay, SearchSpring
  • Report generation using Azure Queues
  • Worked on website performance using Google PageSpeed/LightHouse
  • Tech used: .NET, Asp.NET, Azure, MS SQL, Ruby, Rails, Sinatra
2011 — 2012

Datorzinibas Centrs

Senior .NET Developer

  • Created National Health Card System WebServices
  • Tech used: .NET, Asp.NET, MS SQL, WCF
2007 — 2011

Lattelecom Technologies

Junior — Middle .NET Developer

  • Developed National Visa System, Latvia Gas, and Balta Insurance system integration
  • Tech used: .NET, Asp.NET, MS SQL, WCF
2007 — 2011

Arcus Electronica

Junior Developer

  • Built COM/DCOM components for sensor data integration
  • Tech used: Delphi/Pascal, COM/DCOM, OPC

Projects

Holygym Fitness App iOS Unravel Game iOS FishAway Game Apple Watch MyDailyNewsBot Telegram

Education

University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Masters Degree in Computer Science, with distinction.

University of Latvia, Latvia

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science.

Courses & Conferences

  • Introduction to Machine Learning in Python, HarvardX — 2023
  • Ruby on Rails Global Summit 23, Geekle — January 2023

Personal Interests

  • Tech, traveling, and riding electric unicycles
  • Family website: FoodForLife, about cooking
  • Fun Coding: LeetCoding and solving 2021 AoC in Rust