Hi! I'm Mike!

I am a Software/Cloud Solutions Architect at Inertialbox.

Tackling challenging problems is my passion and I am driven to deliver well-engineered pragmatic solutions daily.

With the title of "Software/Cloud Solutions Architect" at Inertialbox, I am working within the Cloud Ops team. Core focus is on building scalable services within AWS; this involves creating automated pipelines (with AWS CodePipeline), many of which that interface either with workloads in Fargate (k8s), or Lambda functions with RDS/DynamoDB/Redis as data stores.

I have developed multiple services in Python, Rust, and NodeJS including a high-performance crawler that parses data from AWS IOT Core / IOT Shadow Classic for a fleet over > 200,000 Helium Hotspots.

My background in Electronics/Embedded Firmware has been useful in working with the WisBlock core API, as this allowed me to program sensor devices directly and test connectivity with a custom Helium Console (and router) — such that troubleshooting LoRAWAN connectivity was much quicker when able to make changes to the underlying library itself, and re-flashing sensor devices directly, for example the RAK4631 Nordic nRF52840 BLE Core.

My previous role was with E-Accent BV based in the Netherlands as a consultant to their remote team for Rails application development and architectural support for their cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines. This opportunity allowed me to closely work with the product owner and a close-nit team of highly talented group of individuals, to continually raise the bar in terms of software development, project management, transparent sharing of knowledge, training and assisting junior team members whilst providing their client with considerable value.

Professionally my advice has been sought by small to mature startups, corporate organisations to large brands such as Autoglym UK, and agencies from different parts of the globe. As a consultant, I am engaged for Application development, Architecture, Design, and Implementation of Cloud infrastructure covering end-to-end Continuous Integration (CI)/Continuous Development (CD) and development lifecycle — having founded Inertialbox.

My background is that of an engineer in the truest sense — I've achieved a BEng (Hons) 2.ii in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Leeds and a MSc (with Distinction) in Mechatronics from King's College London, United Kingdom.

Work preferences

Here are my preferences:

  • 100% Remote only. There is absolutely no reason to be tied to a cubicle and I can work from anywhere on Earth; this concept has now been proven to be quite effective in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. I always maintain a high-speed Fibre uplink and 10G LAN in my home-office to ensure this is never a barrier.
  • I do not work with jerks, Rockstars, Ninjas, or the elusive 10X developer. My goal every morning is not to "show off" as the smartest person on Zoom. I absolutely love working with humble, smart, and caring people.
  • For short-term contract work, feel free to contact me for my hourly rate.
  • I charge US$95,000/annum (40 hours/week) for full-time work with an annual contract. This is open to reaasonable negotiation of course.
    • Including paid vacation leave, typically 1-month.
    • Including sick leave, within reason. I will always provide a medical letter/invoice for any sick leave taken.
  • For those looking to exploit workers in Asia for a cheaper rate, this simply will not fly. My location is by no means a reflection of the quality of my work.

Screening Calls & Interviews

I am happy to provide letters of reference from my past role, that clearly establish my working experience as a Senior Developer working on web-application development and CloudOps.

Furthermore, I can also provide demo projects that I have built, with attached screencasts (or a live presentation over a video call). If you would like me to solve a _real world_ problem as a pair-programming exercise, that works for me too.

If you absolutely feel the need to give me a test, I prefer a "live" simulation of a real world issue, where details are provided as you normally work to any developer - typically in the form of a "ticket" with as much context and detail around the task at hand.

However, if you decide to ask pointless trivia questions, such as writing a sorting algorithm from scratch, or take a Hackerrank test please do not waste our collective time. I do not accept such requests, period.

Want to contact me about a job?

If you're contacting me about a job: please include the phrase "Bravo Tintin, Bravo", just so I know that you've done your research. It at least lets me know you reached this page and read this far.

The best way to contact me is via email or Twitter (@bsodmike).

Hi! I'm Mike!

I am a Software/Cloud Solutions Architect at Inertialbox.

Tackling challenging problems is my passion and I am driven to deliver well-engineered pragmatic solutions daily.

With the title of "Software/Cloud Solutions Architect" at Inertialbox, I am working within the Cloud Ops team. Core focus is on building scalable services within AWS; this involves creating automated pipelines (with AWS CodePipeline), many of which that interface either with workloads in Fargate (k8s), or Lambda functions with RDS/DynamoDB/Redis as data stores.

I have developed multiple services in Python, Rust, and NodeJS including a high-performance crawler that parses data from AWS IOT Core / IOT Shadow Classic for a fleet over > 200,000 Helium Hotspots.

My background in Electronics/Embedded Firmware has been useful in working with the WisBlock core API, as this allowed me to program sensor devices directly and test connectivity with a custom Helium Console (and router) — such that troubleshooting LoRAWAN connectivity was much quicker when able to make changes to the underlying library itself, and re-flashing sensor devices directly, for example the RAK4631 Nordic nRF52840 BLE Core.

My previous role was with E-Accent BV based in the Netherlands as a consultant to their remote team for Rails application development and architectural support for their cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines. This opportunity allowed me to closely work with the product owner and a close-nit team of highly talented group of individuals, to continually raise the bar in terms of software development, project management, transparent sharing of knowledge, training and assisting junior team members whilst providing their client with considerable value.

Professionally my advice has been sought by small to mature startups, corporate organisations to large brands such as Autoglym UK, and agencies from different parts of the globe. As a consultant, I am engaged for Application development, Architecture, Design, and Implementation of Cloud infrastructure covering end-to-end Continuous Integration (CI)/Continuous Development (CD) and development lifecycle — having founded Inertialbox.

My background is that of an engineer in the truest sense — I've achieved a BEng (Hons) 2.ii in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Leeds and a MSc (with Distinction) in Mechatronics from King's College London, United Kingdom.

Work preferences

Here are my preferences:

  • 100% Remote only. There is absolutely no reason to be tied to a cubicle and I can work from anywhere on Earth; this concept has now been proven to be quite effective in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. I always maintain a high-speed Fibre uplink and 10G LAN in my home-office to ensure this is never a barrier.
  • I do not work with jerks, Rockstars, Ninjas, or the elusive 10X developer. My goal every morning is not to "show off" as the smartest person on Zoom. I absolutely love working with humble, smart, and caring people.
  • For short-term contract work, feel free to contact me for my hourly rate.
  • I charge US$95,000/annum (40 hours/week) for full-time work with an annual contract. This is open to reaasonable negotiation of course.
    • Including paid vacation leave, typically 1-month.
    • Including sick leave, within reason. I will always provide a medical letter/invoice for any sick leave taken.
  • For those looking to exploit workers in Asia for a cheaper rate, this simply will not fly. My location is by no means a reflection of the quality of my work.

Screening Calls & Interviews

I am happy to provide letters of reference from my past role, that clearly establish my working experience as a Senior Developer working on web-application development and CloudOps.

Furthermore, I can also provide demo projects that I have built, with attached screencasts (or a live presentation over a video call). If you would like me to solve a _real world_ problem as a pair-programming exercise, that works for me too.

If you absolutely feel the need to give me a test, I prefer a "live" simulation of a real world issue, where details are provided as you normally work to any developer - typically in the form of a "ticket" with as much context and detail around the task at hand.

However, if you decide to ask pointless trivia questions, such as writing a sorting algorithm from scratch, or take a Hackerrank test please do not waste our collective time. I do not accept such requests, period.

Want to contact me about a job?

If you're contacting me about a job: please include the phrase "Bravo Tintin, Bravo", just so I know that you've done your research. It at least lets me know you reached this page and read this far.

The best way to contact me is via email or Twitter (@bsodmike).

  • "Mike has been performing a wide range of tasks including software development in Ruby on Rails and ReactJS, as well as configuration management and SRE operations.

    He has been consistently performing outstanding work, and has been a very pleasant colleague.

    I would be happy to talk with future clients and employers about Mike’s contributions and our experience of working with him."

    General Director at E-Accent BV
  • "I had the pleasure of working with Michael for a year remotely. We worked on a project [Dotpedia] and he was responsible for maintaining and to continue to develop the backend system in Ruby on Rails. Given the different time zones, we were able to collaborate well together and communication was not a problem.

    His abilities and knowledge in DevOps are vast and I have learned a lot from him while also taking interest in the subject myself. He really is the expert in providing system and software solutions for any project to operate efficiently and scale properly.

    It’s hard to find someone who is really passionate about technology and software solutions and I’m glad to have worked with him and look forward to working again together on future projects."

    Senior UX Designer & Developer at Nano Magnetics Ltd
  • I have had the pleasure of working remotely with Michael for over a year. His ingenuity, drive and problem solving are exemplary. When Michael is given a problem, you know he will solve it, in a methodical and tidy manner. He doesn't hack code, he hones solutions. I look forward to working with him in the future.

    Senior Developer, Love To Ride
  • Michael's attention to detail, knowledge and professionalism made working with him a pleasure. Michael has excellent proficiency in web development and e-commerce and I hope to work with him again soon.

    Software Developer, SelectGroup.co.uk
  • Michael developed several innovative solutions for our eCommerce site & CMS. His work was finished to a high standard and any time I had to correspond with him he was very quick to reply and explained things in a way that I (as a non technical person) could understand. Michael really does know his stuff and lives up to his reputation as a problem solver.

    PR & Events Executive, Autoglym UK
  • "I have worked with Michael for almost a year and will continue to do so. He's such a talented, knowledgeable and technical guy, is extremely eager to learn more and can't thank him enough for all the help he's provided. Keep it up!"

    Digital Manager at Vivid Creative & Creative Director, GrilledPixels, UK.

Selected Work

  • When I started out in April 2017 and was handed over Dotpedia — at the time I received a single EC2 instance in AWS with a development stack powered by Rails and Capistrano.

    Dotpedia

    At launch, having taken a 12factor inspired approach, the hand-built stack spanned 8 nodes for production alone. The goal I had been given was to build a system that used AWS but was also "for the most part" Cloud-provider agnostic.

    The front-end is very modern and decoupled from the Rails asset-pipeline; it is Webpack powered (with a light wrapper in Gulp) and AngularJS driven. All credit is due to Walter Dumlao for the frontend wizardry as he is a master with Angular & UI/UX.

    April 2017 - April 2018 — Dotpedia for Nano Magnetics (Remote)

    Rails, C++14 (over IPC), AngularJS, Webpack, AWS, Docker, DevOps & SaaS Architecting at Scale.

  • Bootstrapped initial Rails & Sinatra apps for Raden's internal API. Implemented all mobile-API end-points including Facebook OAuth (server-side for iOS) via TDD/BDD with RSpec, Capybara & PhantomJS.

    Tied the bag inventory withing Solidus (Spree) handling the shipping life-cyle within the app as state-machines. Tracking notifications from UPS were handled as webhooks (from EasyPost/Segment.io) post to the internal API, and in turn sending iOS push notifications to authenticated user devices.

    Raden

    October 2015 - January 2016 — Stembolt (Remote)

    Rails, Sinatra, Solidus, RSpec, Capybara, Poltergeist & PhantomJS

  • Managed Autoglym's global-eCommerce platform — both Rails app development and DevOps via Chef to manage app infrastructure.

    November 2013 - September 2015 — Whitespace UK (Remote)

    Rails, RefineryCMS, Spree, ThinkingSphinx

  • Delivered PhoneGap integrated Rails/Spree platform for Autoglym Professional for their launch into the Chinese market with multi-lingual (i18n) iPad app support along with DevOps (Chef).

    Rails, RefineryCMS, Spree, ThinkingSphinx, PhoneGap, Ember.js

Resume

Now — Tuesday, 19th March 2024

An IoT Company

Software/Cloud Solutions Architect (Remote/Full-time)

April 2022 (Ongoing)

Rustlang (Rust), Python, NodeJS, Advanced bash-scripting, Advanced AWS, Advanced DevOps with Terraform/Ansible etc.

iot-analytics-crawler-rs
- Crawler written in Rust(lang) to process CSV files from AWS IOT Core / IOT Shadow Classic with a Parser to perform JSON reconstruction from a string-payload (malformed format).
- Crawler has to reconstruct JSON data and filter row-entries by Hotspot serial numbers.
- Per-customer CSV files are pushed to S3 with the filtered results.
- Customers with filtering disabled are given the parsed data (with reconstructed JSON data).

Helium Onboarding server
- Deploy Helium's Onboarding server into AWS Fargate with CodePipeline for CI/CD.
- Design a Terraform (IaS) approach to deploying workloads into Fargate.
- Deploy a production instance of Helium's Console and Router (LoRa Network Server (LNS) backend) into AWS
- Use virtual devices (written in Rust!) to test blockchain connectivity.
- Run Router benchmarking and further performance tuning

Helium Console/Router
- Deploying a custom OUI with Console and Router fully registered on the blockchain.
- Making payments (burning DC) to ensure router is operational.
- Advanced router analysis with Prometheus/Grafana
- Deploying Data Only hotspots (Light hotspots) with `gateway-rs`.

RAK TrackIt
- Configuring sensor devices to push data into Console server (see above)
- MQTT integration to push data into ActiveMQ in AWS.
- Testing hardware RAK4630 (nRF52840 MCU) connectivity with RAK7268C (WisGate Edge Lite 2) configured as a Data only hotspot, to push packets into ActiveMQ.

MNTD
- Collaborating with the MNTD team (TBD).

Advanced AWS
- Serverless APIs with API Gateway, Lambda functions with Python
- Designing and deploying IaaS (with Terraform) to deploy containers to CodePipeline and Fargate
- Configuring and deploying cross-region peering (across CIDR blocks)
- Securing private access within subnets and external access via VPN endpoints and OVPN client access. Each client gets their own unique crt/key certificates.

E-Accent BV

Senior Software Engineer (Remote/Full-time)

August 2019 - July 2021

Rails, ES6/Vanilla JS, React/Webpack, Rustlang (Rust), Python, Advanced bash-scripting, AWS/GCP/DigitalOcean/Upcloud, Advanced DevOps with Ansible & GoCD for CI/CD Pipelines

Responsible for Rails application development and management of Cloud infrastructure consisting of configuration management via Ansible, GoCD CI/CD pipeline and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE).

Cloud infrastructure was upgraded for Ruby & Python dependencies and to Ubuntu LTS 20.04. Each upgrade consisted of creating a separate isolated testing stack, to perform the upgrade and safely make changes as required. Once testing was completed, these updates were then applied to the production stack in co-ordination with the product owner and development team. The same approach was applied for the maintenance of the GoCD CI/CD stack.

Dotpedia.com — Nano Magnetics

CTO Secure Cloud Solutions

April 2017 - April 2018

Rails, C++14 (over IPC), AngularJS, Webpack, AWS, Docker, DevOps & SaaS Architecting at Scale.

Inertialbox

Founder & CTO

June 2012 - present

"Our clients come first and we build their products. Focusing on user experience and simplicity, we write code for mobile and web" — inertialbox.com

WHAT I DO
I specialise in agile development of responsive apps in Rails with a keen focus on business value and user experience. With a mobile-first approach, most clients with a moderate budget (such as startups looking for rapid-prototyping of MVPs) are recommended to take the responsive app approach, expanding to native mobile applications, connecting to the main site via carefully crafted APIs.

Having shipped apps for big, small, and medium-sized companies we also take fault-tolerant cloud deployment seriously and as such leverage DevOps solutions in all our production environments with some of the leading tools and technologies such as Ansible & Docker.

Our mantra is to ship-it-fast with best TDD/BDD practices and CI (Continuous Integration) aiding in minimising bugs and keeping technical debt to a minimum.

RATES & BOOKING
I offer design, architecture, and development services for US$100 - $200/hour for consultancy work. I am open to offering a competitive rate for long-term engagements, those typically lasting beyond 2-months.

Your development time is not confirmed until the minimum has been received and we've both signed my contract, and other contractual matters are arranged (such as NDAs etc). We rely on satisfied clients and repeat projects and therefore always do our utmost in ensuring your expectations are exceeded, every time.

"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur."
---- Red Adair, Firefighter.. for oil wells

Research Group (Under NDA), Yorkshire, United Kingdom

CTO Inertialbox

August 2016 - February 2017

Android (Native) SDK, Retrofit, Eventbus.

The client's organisation approached us with an iOS app for iPad (under Beta) and wanted the same app replicated for Android.

The training tool developed was fairly substantial, with over 60+ views, we tailored these for 600dp/720dp mdpi tablet devices.

Retrofit was used to interface with the client's backend API for authenticated user login; Furthermore, the training tool also contained multiple forms that allow persisting data to the local SQLite DB and allowing users to share the form as a PDF for printing or via email.

Dansk Orienterings-Forbund

CTO Inertialbox

April 2016 - August 2016

Ruby on Rails, RefineryCMS, Ansible, DigitalOcean, AWS.

Contracted as a referral for specialist work with RefineryCMS and to assist in upgrading to a newer version of Rails.

DevOps work including moving to a bespoke Ansible based-stack on Digital Ocean, along with improvements.

Stembolt

Senior Software Developer (Remote)

October 2015 - January 2016

We Build Scalable Web and eCommerce Software Applications, Leveraging Ruby on Rails and Solidus (the future of the Spree open source project).

Solidus -- "An open source, eCommerce application for high volume retailers. Built with Ruby on Rails, this mountable engine provides a scalable, stable, and highly customisable platform for online commerce"

White Space Central Limited

Consulting Senior Rails Developer (Remote)

November 2013 - September 2015

Responsible for full lifecycle development of web-related projects, including full-stack Rails CMS & eCommerce apps, and Developer Operations (DevOps) for cloud-based deployment, maintenance, and management.

Daily responsibilities include:

Scoping: Jobs from clients are internally scoped and estimated; these vary from features, to complete overhauls, or bootstrapping new applications.

Development: Involves feature development, bug fixing, bootstrapping new applications, overhauling legacy Rails 2.x CMS/eCommerce apps, integration of responsive frontend markup, and implementing all Javascript aspects from AJAX/PJAX to ES6 Promises, and client-side JS such as Backbone & Ember.js.

Responsive frontend work involves SASS updates, with a mobile-first approach for media-queries, with Sprockets (Asset Pipeline) and build-tools such as Grunt/Gulp.

Domain-modelling and working with databases, caches, background jobs and full-text search are part of the development process, as well as managing data (state) between production and staging app environments.

eCommerce: There’s a high focus in eCommerce value delivery to our customers involving aspects such as payment gateway integrations with SagePay and implementations with Spree or bespoke. These apps are API heavy integrating with warehouse services via Microsoft Dynamics NAV (SOAP) or Opera (XML).

DevOps: Application deployment via existing Opscode Chef infrastructure, developing and upgrading cookbooks, and rolling out new applications. Git hooks, AWS services are examples of tools and services used.

Capabilities

  • Ruby, Javascript (ES6), Node.js, Rust, Python, C++14/17/Cmake
    * I also hack with Advanced Shell scripting, Java, and other languages.
    * My mantra is to use the right tool for the job.
  • Advanced Cloud Security Services & Solutions
    * Offering end-to-end PKI infrastructure, TLS encryption.
    * Secret storage in HA Vault Cluster & AWS KMS integration
  • Ruby on Rails, Sinatra / RefineryCMS
  • Node.js / PassportJS / Express & Koa.js
  • Mobile-first Responsive Frontend UI/UX / HTML5, CSS3, SASS
  • Javascript, jQuery, ES6 (Promises) / React & Webpack
  • MySQL/PostgreSQL, MongoDB & Redis
  • Solr, Memcached, ElasticSearch
  • Advanced AWS / OpsWorks / CloudFormation
  • DevOps with Docker & Ansible/Chef
  • SEO & Analytics to Tracking Conversions
  • Advance Linux Expertise (20+ Years Experience)
  • Security Penetration Testing (with Kali Linux, Metasploit etc.)
  • Advanced Virtualisation Stack with Citrix XenServer, Fedora (qemu/kvm), pfSense/Suricata.
    * LAB Stack used for Research & Development of production-grade solutions
  • eCommerce Solutions with Spree/Solidus
  • Stripe & Bespoke Payment Gateway Integration