MIKE HALL Senior / Lead Ruby on Rails Developer (Contract / High-Velocity IC) Chicago, IL Email: mike@just3ws.com Phone: (847) 877-3825 Website: https://www.just3ws.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/just3ws/ GitHub: https://github.com/just3ws ================================================================================ PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY ================================================================================ Senior Ruby on Rails contractor with 17+ years of production Rails and PostgreSQL expertise. Delivers immediate, zero-ramp-up business value for legacy upgrades, complex state machine refactorings, database optimization, asynchronous background processing, and third-party API integrations with strict TDD/RSpec discipline. ================================================================================ CORE SKILLS ================================================================================ Ruby on Rails (Full-Lifecycle 2.x through 8.x), PostgreSQL & MySQL Query Optimization & Indexing, Asynchronous Processing (Sidekiq, Resque, Redis), State Machine Refactoring & Data Integrity, Third-Party API & Webhook Integrations, Test-Driven Development (RSpec, Capybara, FactoryBot), Docker, Linux, Git & Zero-Downtime Deployment, Fast Ramp-Up & Autonomous IC Execution ================================================================================ EXPERIENCE ================================================================================ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, STAFF ENGINEER OneMain Financial | Remote January 2021 - February 2026 Refactored multi-step Rails acquisition workflow state machines, eliminating lateral state corruptions in high-volume customer prequalification pipelines. Key Outcomes: * Technical Leadership & Team Consolidation: Progressed from Digital Origination Team Lead to Software Architect for the Acquisition Lane, merging two attrition-impacted teams into a unified, high-functioning engineering unit before converting to Associate Director, Staff Engineer upon corporate architecture track restructuring. * ACQ Enablement Founding & Engineering Mandates: Founded and technically led the ACQ Enablement team to protect core engineering concerns from product feature pressure: driving platform stabilization, legacy modernization, system process mapping, architecture documentation, PII remediation, and fraud investigations. * Observability & Enterprise Trace: Founded and led the OpenTelemetry Working Group (OTel WG) to establish the Enterprise Trace across high-volume customer acquisition flows, connecting a complex Rails distributed monolith, MuleSoft, and IBM mainframe backends to eliminate blind spots and align engineering around real-time service maps. * AI-Augmented Systems Investigation: Introduced privacy-conscious local AI workflows for legacy code analysis and engineering support, expanding investigative capacity while keeping human review, security constraints, and source evidence explicit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SENIOR BACKEND DEVELOPER SK Holdings, Inc. | Chicago, IL January 2019 - December 2020 Sequenced zero-downtime Ruby and Rails version upgrades, optimized MySQL full-text search indices, and built batch Sidekiq/SendGrid delivery pipelines. Key Outcomes: * Search Infrastructure Simplification: Replaced legacy external search clusters (Sphinx) with native MySQL full-text search and optimized relational indices, eliminating external service dependencies and reducing platform infrastructure footprint. * Zero-Downtime Platform Upgrades: Led Ruby and Rails framework upgrades across multiple core applications, sequencing database migrations and dependency updates to maintain uptime during platform modernization. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER ActiveCampaign | Chicago, IL September 2018 - December 2018 Refactored monolithic Rails data layer, executing multi-database partitioning across PostgreSQL and MySQL with dual-write synchronization. Key Outcomes: * Legacy Boundary Isolation: Decoupled critical legacy constraints behind explicit service boundaries, eliminating high-risk direct database dependencies and establishing clean execution paths. * Data Access & Query Optimization: Replaced ad-hoc global state access with structured query patterns and multi-tier caching strategies, accelerating throughput for high-volume database reads. * Frontend Test Hardening: Hardened the Ember.js frontend test suite across complex CRM user workflows, enforcing testable state boundaries and reducing regressions in customer-facing flows. * Test-Driven Observability: Established test-driven observability patterns across legacy PHP codepaths, shortening developer feedback loops during high-risk production debugging. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Upcity | Remote October 2013 - February 2014 Integrated Chargify recurring billing and standardized multi-VM local development environments via Vagrant. Key Outcomes: * Integrated the Chargify subscription payment platform, launching self-service recurring billing and account management. * Standardized local development environments using multi-VM Vagrant orchestration, eliminating developer environment drift against production. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SENIOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Viewpoints | Chicago, IL May 2013 - October 2013 Implemented custom tracking analytics and automated staging/production deployment pipelines for high-traffic consumer web products. Key Outcomes: * Implemented custom tracking and analytics tools, enabling targeted monetization and direct platform revenue. * Standardized automated testing and staging environments, establishing reliable continuous integration across the engineering team. * Streamlined AWS deployment pipelines and server images, eliminating deployment downtime during peak consumer traffic spikes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Senior Software Developer | ReachLocal (March 2015 - November 2016) Owned API design and modernization strategy, leading incremental legacy migration for a high-volume digital marketing platform. * Senior Software Developer | BenchPrep (March 2017 - February 2018) Owned enterprise assessment workflows, leading correctness and platform security in a high-concurrency environment. * Open-Source Transition Lead | Coderwall (January 2014 - December 2014) Hired as a contractor by the founder to lead the open-source transition of the Coderwall developer reputation platform, a Y Combinator-backed professional network for software engineers (856 GitHub stars, 304 forks). Delivered security hardening, proprietary service extraction, infrastructure modernization, and community leadership as the top contributor to the open-source codebase. * Principal Consultant | Tandem (August 2018 - August 2018) Owned strategic technical assessment and on-site operational evaluation, leading architectural realignment and scope correction for a high-risk federal software program (DoD MEPS). Brought in to an over-committed engagement following an engineering-team departure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAREER FOUNDATIONS 1999 - 2011 Built and operated enterprise integrations, transactional systems, and early web products across consulting and product organizations, establishing the production discipline and community-centered craftsmanship that still shape my leadership. * Revenue-critical commerce: Designed real-time inventory, locking, and fulfillment services for a high-volume ticket marketplace later acquired by a major industry operator. * Consulting and software craftsmanship: Delivered systems across client environments while mentoring engineers, adopting Ruby and Rails, and helping build Chicago's craftsmanship community. * Enterprise and operational systems: Built integration and operational software across large organizations, grounded in .NET, SQL, messaging, production support, and direct user needs. ================================================================================