Rich Seviora

Rich Seviora

Mentor
5.0
(7 reviews)
US$20.00
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ABOUT ME
Experienced Staff Software Engineer
Experienced Staff Software Engineer

I'm a freelance staff software engineer with a focus on distributed systems. I've developed complex pipelines from scratch, turned around struggling solutions and teams, and delivered complex cross-system cross-team projects.

I'm available for coaching and freelance work! I'm generally available between 9AM and 6PM Pacific Time.

English
Pacific Time (US & Canada) (-07:00)
Joined June 2017
EXPERTISE
6 years experience | 3 endorsements
I've developed and contributed to a number of Rails applications, ranging in scope from pre-seed MVPs to stable mature platforms. I've a...
I've developed and contributed to a number of Rails applications, ranging in scope from pre-seed MVPs to stable mature platforms. I've also contributed to Rails documentation, Selenium Webdriver, Coffee-Rails, and the Shoryuke ActiveJob adapter for AWS SQS.
RSpec
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RSpec
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10 years experience | 4 endorsements
I've built and contributed to numerous JS applications in both the back and front end across multiple industries and client profiles. I'v...
I've built and contributed to numerous JS applications in both the back and front end across multiple industries and client profiles. I've conducted major systems redesigns, upgrades, and more. It is incredibly rare nowadays that I run into a JS problem that I can't solve.
8 years experience | 4 endorsements
I have near-expert level experience with React. I've used it professionally in varied contexts from minor UI widgets through to full SPAs...
I have near-expert level experience with React. I've used it professionally in varied contexts from minor UI widgets through to full SPAs. I've analyzed complex obfuscated React behaviour in archival context to a legal firm. I've even built a separate React renderer implementation that allowed developers to write code for use inside a custom JS runtime.
VelocityVictory charts
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VelocityVictory charts
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12 years experience
As an experienced (and previously PMP certified) project manager I've managed projects in a range of settings, from small pre-seed teams ...
As an experienced (and previously PMP certified) project manager I've managed projects in a range of settings, from small pre-seed teams to large enterprise cross-team initiatives. The projects I manage are consistently delivered faster and more reliably than my peers'.
10 years experience | 3 endorsements
I've developed and managed multiple distributed systems on AWS, scaling from simple Rails applications to complex pipelines using a combi...
I've developed and managed multiple distributed systems on AWS, scaling from simple Rails applications to complex pipelines using a combination of Lambdas and containerized services. I've provided guidance to experienced infrastructure engineers when handling terraform managed upgrades.
8 years experience
I've been responsible for and developed multiple Node js applications (typically with Typescript). It's a great choice when you have a st...
I've been responsible for and developed multiple Node js applications (typically with Typescript). It's a great choice when you have a strong JS bench and allows you to spin up new applications quickly.
3 years experience
I've managed complex system infrastructure needs with Terraform at Lob, and I've also built a Terraform provider from scratch.
I've managed complex system infrastructure needs with Terraform at Lob, and I've also built a Terraform provider from scratch.

REVIEWS FROM CLIENTS

5.0
(7 reviews)
Majid Rahimi
Majid Rahimi
October 2017
Rich helped me debug my code. he was very helpful. I will use his help in future.
Peter
Peter
September 2017
Rich is a great mentor. Really enjoy working with him
Removed User
Removed User
September 2017
Great mentor! Very patient and knowledgeable.
Brendan Kennedy
Brendan Kennedy
September 2017
Incredible.
Brendan Kennedy
Brendan Kennedy
September 2017
Incredible. Rich is helping solve issues in a timely manner. Definitely someone I will continue to work with in the future and recommend.
SOCIAL PRESENCE
EMPLOYMENTS
Staff Software Engineer
Lob Inc
2021-11-01-2024-05-01

Responsible for the overall stability and direction of the Rendering platform, and the next generation ordering platform.

Manage...

Responsible for the overall stability and direction of the Rendering platform, and the next generation ordering platform.

Managed multiple cross-team, cross-system multi-quarter projects including:

  • Order Failures - led the Lob staff engineer group in designing the ability to automatically fail orders across multiple systems and provide actionable information to the customer. This lead to a ~99% reduction in order defects and helped retain a critical enterprise customer.
  • Shadow Pipeline - key contributor to the design and implementation of a shadow ordering pipeline, allowing Lob to identify potential rendering fidelity issues across a wide variety of input creatives in advance of releasing code changes to production. This generated a >95% reduction in rendering fidelity incident frequency and $200K in annual savings.
  • Order Deduplication - designed the ability to identify orders with duplicate creatives and coordinate system and process changes so that print partners can only download one creative. This reduced S3 order costs by approximately 40% and virtually eliminated partner download time for these campaigns.

Iteratively improved the performance and cost effectiveness of a large distributed PDF rendering pipeline across a combination of AWS Lambdas and containerized services (primarily NodeJS, with some Go), handling highly variable input volumes and sources:

  • Reduced per unit rendering compute costs by 30-40% while maintaining a prompt rendering experience (99% rendered in under 60 seconds).
  • Reduced S3 costs by $250K/year.

Key contributor to the upcoming GA launch of the next generation ordering platform with a seamless API experience for existing customers.

Designed the core structure and patterns of the next generation PDF production engine, enabling other engineers to add new features sustainably and quickly.

Node.js
TypeScript
Project management
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Node.js
TypeScript
Project management
Terraform
AWS Lambda
Golang
AWS
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Staff Software Consultant
Test Double
2021-08-01-2022-05-01

Provide coaching and guidance to client engineers, participated in training and development for Test Double consultants.

Provide coaching and guidance to client engineers, participated in training and development for Test Double consultants.

Node.js
Project management
React
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Node.js
Project management
React
Golang
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Senior Software Engineer
Olive AI
2020-09-01-2021-11-01

Lead engineer on the Features and Capability team developing the Olive Helps AI copilot software.

  • Ideated and designed all ...

Lead engineer on the Features and Capability team developing the Olive Helps AI copilot software.

  • Ideated and designed all key desktop sensing capabilities to satisfy prospective developer needs.
  • Created a custom React renderer, allowing Loop developers to create complex user interactions using the full React API within the Olive Helps custom JS runtime. This reduced code required to manage complex interactions by upwards of 50%, enabling Loop developers to produce higher value experiences.
  • Contributed to the development of the Olive Helps design system and UI components made available in Olive Helps Loops.
  • Created and maintained first generation SDKs for multiple frameworks/languages (Node, Go, .Net).
  • Designed the core SDK architecture when Olive AI adopted a secure JS runtime to execute their Loops (customer/vendor provided code).
  • Learned Go on the job to better support the team; becoming proficient within a matter of weeks.
  • Collaborated closely with product management on the design and prioritization of new Olive Helps features and capabilities.
  • Trained and onboarded dozens of engineers to the Olive Helps platform.
  • Created and delivered multiple training sessions on Typescript and Olive Helps to large audiences.
Node.js
TypeScript
React
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Node.js
TypeScript
React
Sdk development
Solutions Engineering
Golang
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PROJECTS
Shadow Pipeline
Lob Inc
2022
Following a major production incident, I led the redesign of our PDF rendering pipeline's development process. As staff software engineer...
Following a major production incident, I led the redesign of our PDF rendering pipeline's development process. As staff software engineer, I analyzed our complex distributed system that generates thousands of customer PDFs daily from varied inputs (HTML/PDF). Our existing test suite couldn't catch edge cases in this user-driven system, where failures meant direct business impact. I designed a shadow rendering pipeline that runs live customer orders against pre-production code, automatically comparing outputs to detect regressions. After creating comprehensive system design documentation and flowcharts, I socialized the solution with engineering teams and staff engineers, gaining unanimous approval. Over one month, I guided a team of 5-6 engineers through implementation while transitioning from CI/CD to controlled release windows. The key technical challenge was accounting for non-deterministic text anti-aliasing in our PNG comparisons—I developed tolerance thresholds that allowed for minor rendering differences while still catching meaningful regressions. The successful launch eliminated similar incidents, saving Lob $200K+ annually while restoring team confidence to make substantial changes without fear of production failures.
Node.js
TypeScript
Terraform
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Node.js
TypeScript
Terraform
Golang
AWS
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Order Deduplication
Lob Inc
2023
At Lob, our PDF rendering system created a critical bottleneck as we scaled to enterprise print campaigns. Our system was designed to ren...
At Lob, our PDF rendering system created a critical bottleneck as we scaled to enterprise print campaigns. Our system was designed to render each order's PDF in isolation, which worked fine for the initial transactional use case, but as Lob acquired customers with print campaigns, this became suboptimal because our print partners would need to download hundreds of thousands of PDFs per campaign, creating bottlenecks that delayed print jobs by 48 hours and threatened our 95% on-time delivery commitment. Engineering Leadership assigned me as technical lead to resolve this critical issue. I conducted discovery through code reviews and team coordination to understand unfamiliar systems. After analysis, I developed two solutions: Campaign Solution: Leverage campaigns service to link identical creatives together. Comprehensive Solution: Implement content-based deduplication using hash identifiers to detect previously processed creatives. Both designs would communicate identities to print partners, allowing them to reference existing files instead of re-downloading. I preferred the comprehensive approach for broader applicability, but we adopted the campaign solution to meet business timelines and reduce complexity. I completed solution design documentation, detailed project planning, and comprehensive testing strategy. The 8-week project required coordinating 8 engineers concurrently. After socializing the plan with wide approval, I led execution through daily standups and cross-team coordination on a system processing millions of orders monthly. Development completed successfully and on-time. Results: Reduced S3 costs by 30%, virtually eliminated download delays, and increased on-time delivery from 95% to 98%.
Node.js
TypeScript
Terraform
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Node.js
TypeScript
Terraform
Golang
AWS
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