Thomas Kovacs

Software Architect, Webgears GmbH

In order to further the needs of the business and boost developer productivity, implemented update of all 12 of our frontend products from NextJS v10 to v14 app router. The update included rewriting our pages to be statically generated in order to properly serve cached data, designing a routing system based on AWS DynamoDB that integrated into NextJS middleware, and leveraging React Server Components as well as context to provide client side interactivity in a way that maintains a high level of SEO performance.

Designed and executed three month plan for migrating updated websites to AWS. Responsibilities included coordinating testing of newly updated and migrated websites, coordinating management of AWS CloudFront and Route53, ensuring currently developed features were ported over properly to new system, coordinating external contractors to help with various UI improvements, as well as directly coding critical functionality as required. The migration was a complete success, with no downtime, increased website performance and stability for our millions of monthly visitors, reduction of monthly expenditure by 60%, as well as improved developer team productivity and morale.

Conducted 1-1 sessions with the development team members, identifying areas to focus on and improve as well as implementing action plans to promote career development. Additionally, organised team event to promote migration plan to AWS as well as share knowledge and provide an overall development vision for the team that relied on a transformational leadership style.

Designed frontend migration plan to AWS, identifying opportunities to cancel expensive services which would no longer be required after migration, as well as identifying a migration partner which utilises SaaS to ensure a high quality automation of the deployments, all with the aim to improve developer productivity and strengthen the business.

Founder, astateful e.U.

Designed and implemented concept for a modern personal matching platform "personly" that aims to be a suitable alternative to photo matching style applications. The foundational concept is a "tokenized personal" in which the user assigns a token amount to a new personal which determines how many other personals that personal can match. Tokens can be purchased on the platform for small amounts of fiat currency, allowing for traditional market dynamics to manage personal creation and matching.

Implemented several features critical for the functioning of the platform, such as the user registration system, personal management system including matching algorithm, image upload functionality, chat functionality, and others. The features are implemented across a set of web applications written using ReactJS as well as NextJS with backend connectivity and streaming powered by grpc with data storage in MongoDB.

Designed custom build system in order to automatically generate both Docker images as well as Kubernetes service, PVC and deployment files which integrate into the cloud provider DNS via external DNS Kubernetes service. The build system also generates PM2 process files for use during development as well as Docker Compose files for use in a staging environment.

Lead Developer, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna

Working for the Vienna University of Music International Summer Academy (ISA), implemented a website which allowed students to log in and view upcoming and current events for the annual two week summer academy program. Students were also able to share links with their selected course professors. The associated student, professor and event data was imported from the front page CMS.

Designed and implemented a separate admin program which allowed users with the correct scope to manage both events and students. Both student and admin apps were implemented using React/Redux/NextJS for the GUI as well as GRPC/MongoDB/NodeJS for the backend architecture.

Created a release process using Lerna monorepo management tool along with NPM and Yarn workspaces package management to upload and maintain the private packages and their semantic versions. Created build process which automates Docker image creation by downloading, configuring, and building the private NPM packages into relevant Docker images.

Lead Developer, Vaultoro Limited

Working as the lead developer for Vaultoro, designed and implemented the structures necessary to ensure the successful relaunch of the Vaultoro cryptocurrency and asset trading platform. The application backend is based on a micro service architecture relying on a popular protocol format used to facilitate both streaming and unary requests in order to facilitate order matching, price fetching, and wallet transactions processing. The front-end is based on ReactJS via NextJS with Redux as the data model. Additionally, developed and maintained the build system which allows for automatic generation of Docker images.

Working as the lead developer for Bar9 GmbH, designed and implemented the structures necessary to ensure the successful launch of the Bar9 web application for buying and selling metal assets at current market price. The application is written in Javascript and based on the widely available MeteorJS which provides both a backend runtime environment as well as frontend bindings for ReactJS where its custom socket protocol is used for data transfer.

Maintained product backlog for Bar9 using Jira via Github integration and worked closely with product owners to provide difficulty estimates regarding feature implementation length and complexity, as well as the relationship between features for the Vaultoro trading product. Was able to relate features to each other in a highly abstract way and provide critical feedback regarding feature dependencies. Performed code reviews as well as functioned as the unofficial team lead in a limited leadership capacity.

Software Developer, microDimensions GmbH

Main functions as a software programmer included designing and implementing C++ code relating to image IO, specifically reading image data from disk and writing image data to disk in an optimal way. Additionally implemented features related to image processing, such as Qt widgets for performing image export tasks as well as importing of large image files.

Created a prototype web application using Angular2, Typescript, OpenSeadragon, and Bootstrap, in order to view very large images online. The images and their associated metadata, as well as session information and image annotations, were accessible via a REST API implemented using Express, which asynchronously acquired image data via a NodeJS module that contained V8 engine bindings to our underlying image processing DLLs.

Played major role in bringing our desktop application functionality to the Internet via web applications. Main tasks included development of backend architecture such as a RESTful API designed using NodeJS as well as postgresql database interaction. Additional tasks included GUI development using Polymer 2.0 as well as Redux to provide the foundation for a single page application written in Javascript.

Software Developer, Transact GmbH, a division of epay

As a software developer working within the Back Office team, assisted in the creation of reports to assist in customer invoicing. The reporting application front-end was created and maintained in C++ using Borland compiler suite, while thereporting data was generated using complex SQL queries.

Assisted in development of new web based customer facing portal to provide our customers with better control regarding their accounts with the company as well as to view reports. The system was designed using Zend 2 framework (PHP) along with Angular 1 as well as Bootstrap. A restful API was implemented using SOAP to access the critical customer data.

Software Developer, University of Graz

As a software developer working within the Business Informatics department at the university, oversaw the implementation of a “Digital Almanac” website which provides information on digital communications such as historical data as a metric used to identify upcoming trends. The website was implemented using Wordpress.

Created an application in C++ to transform raw CSV data files into a format suitable for use with Google Public Data. The application also generated optimised Javascript from a Google DSPL XML file in order to provide an optimal navigation experience for users viewing the visualisations embedded in the Almanac website.

Created a small custom Javascript framework to power the Digital Almanac website. The framework was able to dynamically load content via AJAX, and allow a user to share link parameters describing a current visualisation state. It also handled mobile device use cases such as bandwidth constraints and various screen sizes.

Software Developer, Identum Communications GmbH

Lead development effort for a Facebook social media management tool called fimpl. fimpl, short for "Facebook. Simple" was able to manage multiple pages and profiles on Facebook before such functionality on Facebook existed. Additionally, it was possible to schedule posts, comments and likes for publication across multiple pages and profiles at a future date, thus allowing agencies to better schedule and manage their clients Facebook social media presence.

The product was implemented using jQuery and vanilla JS for the frontend, while the backend was implemented using PHP and MongoDB, as well as Gearman job scheduler to schedule and execute tasks for updating Facebook pages and profiles via the Facebook graph API.

Junior Software Developer, Globalstar Canada Satellite Co.

Assisted in development and maintenance of Globalstar e-commerce shopping cart platform which included both the satellite phone as well as SPOT products. The shopping cart was developed using Zencart and was integrated into the main Globalstar website in preparation for the relaunch of the entire Globalstar worldwide website network. The work was primarily PHP focused with additional client side functionality written in vanilla JS and jQuery.

Support Technician, Magna Steyr

Worked closely with management at the Magna IT Global Help Desk to create a small ERP tool which assisted the support team in tracking status of fulfillment requests, such as procurement of key fobs for various employees across the Magna campus. The small system, written using PHP and MySQL in the backend as well as vanilla JS and jQuery in the frontend, contained a basic interface for managing the status of the requests including a small user specific area.

Assisted the IT Help Desk in supporting various employees across the worldwide Magna network in solving issues relating to usage of the Magna network, such as problems with email, Blackberry activation, system login, etc. Typically assistance was provided via phone, internal chat tools provided by Lotus notes and on occasion on-site assistance in terms of key fob delivery.

Junior Software Engineer, Magna Electronics

Implemented a Visual Basic application to tag videos with attributes. Users could save attributes for later tagging, view the tagged videos, and construct an attribute tree to group similar attributes.

Designed and implemented a C++ DLL to search specific keywords within the tagged videos. The DLL was able to perform AND, OR, and comparison operations, and used regular expression syntax for attribute matching.

Used the GNU open source tools LEX and YACC to design the grammar and generate the C code necessary to parse the search string.

Junior Research Assistant, Magna Electronics

Wrote various C and MATLAB programs related to image processing, including "edge trees", head finding, and edge linking.

Assisted a Research Engineer in algorithm testing, such as writing simple scripts to retrieve test data, grouping the test data into bins, and analyzing the test results.

Gained exposure to the positive and negative benefits of certain image processing methods, as well as their usefulness in test situations and live situations.

Junior Software Engineer, Magna Electronics

Programmed various C/C++/MATLAB file-parsing utilities to automate algorithm testing. Implemented and tested algorithms that attempted to isolate static regions in dynamic motion video.

Gained a very rough understanding of the mathematical concepts underlying image processing, including convolution kernels and Fourier transformations. Designed various types of filters, including Gaussian smoothing kernels, median filters, and noise filters.

Exposure to advanced topics such as Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition and their usefulness in image processing.

Quality Assurance Tester, Magna Electronics

Video captured test dummies in various positions and with various objects in order to test occupant classification software.

Kept track of an Excel database containing all test videos, and was frequently relied upon to provide videos with certain features (outside, sunny, male, etc).

Obtained a basic knowledge of software testing procedures, including software design, documentation procedures, and software development roadmaps.

Network Help Assistant, Magna International Inc.

Assembled new computers, installed and configured a set of applications, and delivered them to employees around Magna Headquarters.

Answered help phone calls from employees and fixed hardware and software related issues.

Performed routine maintenance on computers, such as labeling them with their proper network address and configuring employees' email accounts.