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Reto H

About

Senior/Lead Backend Software Engineer

I am a passionate Senior Software Engineer with more than a decade of experience ranging from developing backend systems in several languages to setting up complex build and delivery pipelines.

Some my past highlights include being the backend lead engineer at FedEx to help rollout their new shipment system globally and scale it 10x, help migrate large portions of FedEx's build pipelines from GitLab/Jenkins to GitHub Actions, and build a scalable booking orchestrator for Nezasa using the Saga pattern.

Throughout my career, I have used several mostly statically typed languages such as Java, Scala, Kotlin and TypeScript to name a few. Having worked for large multinationals as well as fast-paced startups, I bring a set of diverse viewpoints and expertise to projects. While I am a strong believer in a user-focussed approach I am also deeply technical and happiest when tasked to solve difficult challenges. Furthermore, I am a big believer in automation and/or documentation. I like motivating people to help contribute to internal docs and I'm often the go-to guy when it comes to scripting smaller tasks using my skills in Bash and Python.
In my free time, I dabble with other languages such as Rust, Haskell and AWK. Some of my projects can be found on
github.com/rethab

Social Media:

GitHub

GitHub

Skills

AWS

Akka

Architecture

Azure

Docker

Github

Gradle

Heroku

Java

Kotlin

Linux

Maven

MongoDB

Node Package Manager

Node.js

PostgreSQL

Python

Redis

SBT

Scala

Scalability

Spring

Spring Boot

TypeScript

Open for

fulltime

cofounder

Work Experience

FedEx

2023-10 -

Workplace
Lead Backend Developer
Location

Remote

Employement type

fulltime

Lead backend developer for the online shipping application. Our microservice based application processes several 100k shipments per day and is globally available as one of the critical applications at FedEx. As the lead backend developer, I advise teams on technology, help prototype and implement new features, and make architectural decisions. All services are based on Spring Boot (Java) and run on Kubernetes (AKS). We use Postgres as the primary storage, ElasticSearch for search, and Redis for both caching and pub/sub.

FedEx

2021-05 - 2022-09

Workplace
Senior Software Developer in CI/CD Tooling
Location

Remote

Employement type

fulltime

In 2021, FedEx has started the transition to GitHub Enterprise Cloud. I have implemented the workflows to be used in FedEx EU, which served as the basis for the enterprise standard. As part of this, I have implemented 10+ GitHub actions, multiple TypeScript libraries and a handful of GitHub apps (also TypeScript/Node.js)

Nezasa AG

2015-08 - 2019-11

Workplace
Lead Backend Engineer
Location

Zürich

Employement type

fulltime

Nezasa is a Zurich-based startup creating the most sophisticated trip planner that is sold as a SaaS whitelabeled solution. As the first backend engineer (apart from the founders), I have implemented critical components such as the booking backend (SAGA-based orchestration using the actor model), trip scheduling business logic, and several external APIs for booking/pricing/availabilities among others. As the lead backend engineer, I have helped growing the engineering team to around 30 people. The backend was written in Scala (Play framework, Akka, Cats), deployed to Heroku, MongoDB was used as the primary DB, and ElasticSearch was used for searching.

Self-Employed

2019-12 - 2021-04

Workplace
Senior Software Engineer
Location

Netherlands

Employement type

freelancer

I have contracted with several companies based in the Netherlands to help them implement web backend systems. At SpronQ in Zeist, I have implemented a backend system to plan the ordering, reservation, and installation of EV chargers in residential areas. This was implemented in Scala using Akka.Http. At ING in Amsterdam, I have implemented the backend system for a news-based early warning system. The idea was that customers of ING would learn, based on news sources, that a supply chain risk might be coming up (e.g. storm in India could lead to shortage of supply). This was implemented based on Spring Boot and Kotlin. Postgres was used as the DB.

Futuretek AG

2013-05 - 2015-07

Workplace
Senior Software Engineer
Location

Zürich

Employement type

fulltime

Worked in a team of three on an ERP solution for freight forwarding. The backend was written in PHP and Java.

Credit Suisse AG

2011-08 - 2013-04

Workplace
Software Engineer
Location

Zürich

Employement type

fulltime

Worked in the java frameworks team. We developed the bank's java frameworks for logging, threading, and other utilities. As part of this, I also gave training on new java recruits.

Credit Suisse AG

2007-08 - 2011-07

Workplace
Apprentice
Location

Zürich

Employement type

internship

Apprenticeship as Java Developer

Academic Experience

Zurich University of Applied Sciences -

 

2011.09 - 2015.09

Bachelor of Science, BSc in Computer Science