CV - David Laban
Experience
Open Source Software Maintainer
2009 - Present
Highlights:
- cargo-quickinstall
- Installer for pre-compiled binary packages.
- Repo: https://github.com/alsuren/cargo-quickinstall
- Blog post: https://alsuren.github.io/2022/07/10/cargo-quickinstall.html
- Automated package builder (using Github Actions Cronjobs to build untrusted code).
- Feedback loop (via stats server) to make sure we build the packages that people are asking for.
- Package repository is also used by popular
cargo-binstall
project. - Many
good first issue
tickets addressed, and a few repeat contributors. - I also have a Work-In-Progress project cargo-quickbuild to extend this idea to your entire dependency tree (see above blog post for rationale).
- mijia-homie
- Set of daemons for enabling Temperature Sensor Data -> Bluetooth -> Raspberry Pi -> MQTT (homie) -> InfluxDB -> Grafana
- Repo: https://github.com/alsuren/mijia-homie
- Blog post/presentation: https://alsuren.github.io/2022/02/19/mijia-homie-presentation.html
- hoverkite
- Embedded rust project, to fly a kite using a gamepad.
- Repo: https://github.com/hoverkite/hoverkite
Tably
Senior Software Engineer - 10/2021 - 07/2022
Tably is an early stage startup. The core idea is very similar to Google Sheets, but with key insights that allow it to be taken in a different direction.
- Worked in a Full Stack Rust codebase.
- Created our long-tail import pipeline, working closely with a junior engineer (based on Airbyte and some JSONSchema magic - read more at https://tably.com/blog/connecting-people-with-their-data).
- Drove the selection of a frontend web framework (sycamore).
- Worked with CEO on designing direction-setting workshops.
- Mentored junior engineers on sometimes orthogonal projects, and with senior engineers on mentoring junior engineers.
Red Badger
Senior Software Engineer - 10/2019 - 10/2021
Red Badger is a software consultancy, deploying product led teams into blue-chip companies.
Things I did at Red Badger:
- Worked on a TransferWise clone for Santander:
- Refactored ledger logic, to prevent webhook retries from causing data inconsistency (Typescript helped a lot here).
- Implemented multi-tenant support, and enabled compliance testing ready for launch.
- Handed over key pieces of technology and ways of working to incoming supplier.
- Wrote an unsuccessful communication and file sharing platform for NHS England:
- Mentored junior team members on Rust (sqlx + async-graphql) and Kubernetes.
- Learned a lot about complexity, stakeholder management, and unrealistic projects.
- Wrote a successful integration for NHS Wales’ covid response.
- Learned a lot about scope reduction, and executing on short timescales with external dependencies.
- Wrote wasmCloud demo for Cloud Native Compute Foundation conference:
- Distributed NATS/NGS lattice for automatic failover + Kubernetes for scaling.
- Multi-Cloud cluster setup across AWS and GCP, using Pulumi
- Learned a lot about Developer Experience design, through the lens of Employee Experience design.
- Line Managed two other engineers:
- Facilitated a career change from Test Lead to Software Engineer
- Managed skills progression and advocated for promotions (using a “ladder” based framework)
Conversocial
Senior Software Engineer - 12/2015 - 07/2019
Conversocial is a SaaS company, providing call-centre software for dealing with queries on social media.
Things I did at Conversocial
- Integrated with Twitter and Facebook APIs for real-time messaging.
- Consumed from the Twitter and Facebook firehoses.
- Debugged MongoDB and RabbitMQ outages at scale.
- Brought the platform (previously delete-nothing) into GDPR compliance.
- Led a team to deal with compliance fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
- Rewrote core app frontend from knockout to React + Redux + CSSModules.
- Migrated our local development environment from Vagrant to Docker For Mac
Truphone
Software Engineer - 09/2012 - 03/2014
Truphone is a “small” mobile network. I worked in their labs team.
- Deployed and maintained the SIP and XMPP servers that support the Truphone app.
- Shared knowledge with others on XMPP and git.
- Applied DevOps reliability/scalability and deployability principles (puppet, monitoring and process supervision).
Collabora
Software Engineer - 09/2009 - 09/2011
Collabora is an Open Source Software Consultancy which maintains many core pieces of technology for Desktop Linux.
- Developed and maintained APIs and protocol implementations for the Telepathy VoIP/IM framework.
- Developed XMPP<->SIP bridge, and debugged GStreamer<->SIP Phone RTP incompatibilities using WireShark
- Wrote asynchronous networking/D-Bus code in C, for resource-constrained Linux systems (Nokia N900)
Education
Master of Engineering, Information Engineering - 2005 - 2009
- General foundation in all engineering disciplines.
- Specialised in signal processing, with a masters project in music visualisation.