Richard Fears
Software Engineer
Ibb
Work Experience
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- Lead developer on integrations with insurance eligibility providers and claim processors. Duties included acting as project lead, writing technical specifications, performing story work, coordinating deployment, and providing ongoing support for product owners. During ongoing support, suggested and implemented solutions to allow product owners to directly handle claim troubleshooting and adjustments without engineer involvement, via Retool integrations.
- Developer on new microservice application. Microservice was written in Python FastAPI and TypeScript React. Coordinated process and standards improvements across teams.
- Developer on a 3rd-party logistics client integration. Integration was written in Python Flask.
- Wrote and presented technical specifications. Major tech specs were on improving integrations with a 3rd-party logistics client, to allow mass orders; and deprecation of tightly-integrated denormalized data solution in favor of better-architected normalized data solution.
- Mentored junior and mid-level engineers, focusing on helping the engineers achieve their SMART goals and preparing them for the challenges of mid-level expectations.
- Suggested and implemented improvements to the team’s scrum rituals, including implementing and running sprint-end demos, improving and running standups and retros, and coordinating and running join sprint-end demos with another team.
- Championed better QA processes (proof-of-functionality, TestRail integration) and coding standards improvements within and without the team.
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- Developed new lockbox implementation, to interface with Wells Fargo’s automated lockbox deposits. ETL scripts written in Python, communicating with Grooper for OCR and pattern recognition and loading compiled data onto IBM i.
- Developed Python scripts to offload IBM i batch jobs from AS/400 servers, as a continuing effort to transition from IBM i to the new microservice architecture.
- Developed and wrote automated tests for microservices and microsites as part of a company-wide rearchitecture initiative. New backend stack written in C#.NET and React.
- Developed and wrote automated tests for the old backend application. Backend stack used Ruby-on-Rails (as REST API) and PostgreSQL. Automated tests used RSpec.
- Participated in and presented architecture discussions regarding model design, interface changes, 3rd-party integration, and API selection.
- Provided and received code reviews between and within teams, in all languages listed above.
- Investigated parts of the SDLC process and implemented changes to speed up automated tests, fix intermittently-failing tests, and resolve data model inconsistencies.
- Acted as subject-matter expert for Postman and sections of the backend API/model.
- Worked on multiple teams, including product development, inter-team mediator, small-target initiatives, and technical support.
- During technical support work, investigated and interpreted backend and frontend code (Angular) to determine root causes and implemented data fixes as needed.
- Participated in Scrum processes, including stand-ups, grooming, and retrospectives.
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- Developed and tested the application for Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS). Backend API written in Ruby-on-Rails and frontend written in Ember. Automated testing was written in RSpec, QUnit, and Cypress.
- Expanded and improved testing process, decreasing runtime of integration tests by a third and changing the int tests to test for relative changes instead of absolute text where relevant.
- Participated in Scrum processes, including stand-ups, grooming, and retrospectives.
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- Contract was for a Python expert to finish the last piece of an SSO project for Vivial's Django-based (Python) Dashboard 360 application. Contract was scheduled for 5-6 weeks, while most code work was complete within 2 weeks.
- Implemented SSO connection from Dashboard 360 to an Auth0 resource and several of Vivial's Node-based REST APIs.
- Implemented new menus and views in Dashboard 360 to communicate with core service applications via REST API.
- Implemented automated unit tests for new Dashboard 360 functionality and fixed existing broken tests.
- Modified core service applications to reduce load on core service from Dashboard 360 account calls by batching calls.
- Dockerized seed scripts for Dashboard 360's Postgres and Mongo databases so developers do not need to install dependencies on local machines.
- Coordinated deployments and testing with QA team.
- Participated in Scrum processes, including stand-ups, grooming, and retrospectives.
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- Developed and maintained customer-facing web applications using Ruby on Rails, Mithril, MySQL, Elasticsearch, and MongoDB
- Developed and maintained Perl driver script for Mimedefang Filter instance
- Set up and maintained Amazon Web Services Content Distribution Networks for web application, with separate buckets for development, staging, and production environments
- Worked on a small team of developers/QAs with an Agile methodology (informal Kanban)
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- Developed JavaScript scripts to perform a variety of imports and exports, including HR imports, payroll exports, general ledger exports, vacation and sick leave imports and exports, worked time imports, and Loose Data/Activity-Based Costing imports and exports
- Formats included CSV flat files, SOAP-based web calls, and direct database interaction
- Analysis and troubleshooting of customer and product issues, including gathering interaction details, analysis of log files, troubleshooting interface code, and deep dives into product (Java) code
- Worked directly with customers to confirm requirements on both sides
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- Provided integration support for other company portal systems and developers
- Wrote and ran unit tests, assembly tests, and system tests
- Communicated with and gathered requirements from internal business customers
- Wrote functional and technical designs based on requirements from internal business customers
- Developer and Solutions Analyst (SA) on PeopleSoft HCM and LMS
- Primary developer and SA on Jive
- Collaborated on several projects to drive wider adoption of internal Jive solution
- Monitored New Relic and Adobe Analytics statistics
- Development of Closure Template and HTML improvements, MS Report Builder reports in SQL, and Python helper scripts to interface with Jive’s REST API
- Coordinated testing for Jive's first-party modifications and plugins
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- Planned, wrote, and executed manual and automatic test scripts for database ETL
- Designed, developed, and maintained a Java Swing application for assisting in contract conversion
- Developer and SA on Jive; same Jive tasks as employment above
- Converted at end of 1 year contract to Optum employee
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- Summers of 2005, 2006, and 2007
- Clinical trials using online forms with data validation. Both QA and developer duties, covering both testing and production environments. Tcl, HTML, Javascript, and SQL queries developed and used.
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Technical Skills
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- Microsoft Windows XP, 7, and 10
- Linux (large variety of distributions)
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- Python
- Ruby
- PeopleCode
- C++
- Java
- Visual BASIC
- Tcl
- JavaScript
- PeopleSoft SQR
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- Bash
- HTML
- LaTeX
- MySQL
- MSSQL
- Oracle SQL
- PostgreSQL
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- Jira
- Git
- BitBucket
- HP Application Lifecycle Management
- Microsoft Sharepoint
- Jive UI and admin console
- PeopleSoft Human Capital Management (HCM)
- PeopleSoft Learning Management System (LMS) 9.0-9.2
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- PeopleSoft
- Rhino
- Elasticsearch
- Ruby on Rails
- React
- Django
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- cloud-based servers (Linode, AWS)
- single-board computers (Raspberry Pi)
Education
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- M.S. in Mathematical Sciences, 2009, focus in numerical analysis
- B.S. in Mathematical Sciences, 2007, Computer Science Minor
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Personal Projects
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- Résumé rewrite (replacing this site eventually): A Django+Mithril SPA to replace the unwieldy RoR MPA below. MVP development in-progress, with all coding being performed on live-stream and following Agile SDLC practices. https://gitlab.com/ibbathon/resume
- WaRT (Warframe Relic Tracker; wart.ibbathon.com): A user inventory tracker for the online game Warframe. Built using Flask, React, Node, and Mongo. Flask acts as a REST API to deliver the data from Mongo to the React frontend. All parts of the server have been dockerized for ease of deployment. Active development with targeted release of July 2019. https://github.com/ibbathon/wart
- Résumé (ibbathon.com): A Ruby-on-Rails application with a planned Django sister-site. Built from the ground up to host my résumé at ibbathon.com. The RoR code itself currently handles breaking the résumé out into sections, experiences, items. It runs on a PostgreSQL database. Active use since October 2018. https://github.com/ibbathon/resume
- YATTi (Yet Another Tracker of Time): Python/Tkinter program to track time on individual projects, written for professional services environments. Tracking and analysis of feature progress performed in a flat database. Active use since July 2017. https://github.com/ibbathon/yatti
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- Raspberry Pi backup computers: Two RPi servers running Nextcloud, acting as backup servers for me and my family. Periodically-run script performs cross-site backup. My backup server also acts as a private Git repository and media server. Active use since 2015.
- Timelapse camera: RPi server with an Arducam periodically taking photos of my hydroponics. Currently in development.
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- TBTT (Task-Based Tracker of Time): A web-based successor to YATTi, intended to solve most of the issues encountered while using that application, while also expanding the scope of the project to be more marketable. Flask/PostgreSQL backend with Mithril frontend, designed to be built using TDD. Early prototyping stage began in September 2019. No public codebase due to the intent of being sold as SaaS.
- Fish Simulation: Excel document with a stepped, incremental simulation of fish flocking behavior. Entire simulation contained in cell formulas, to improve skills in achieving complex goals using limited resources. Completed in March 2015.