Ilan Arad: CV/Résumé

Cloud Architect, Web Technologies and Software Engineering Expert, Dev and DevOps, serial entrepreneur/CTO

Expertise

Cloud and Web-scale

1. R&D: investigating unique architectural and implementation challenges, custom solutions
2. Cloud Native: ecosystem and practices
3. DevSecOps (emphasis on dev)

Disruptive software startups

1. Extensive experience as CTO and with startups as clients
2. Deep understanding of business aspects of starting up
3. Entrepreneurial personality

Software Engineering

1. Particularly interested in SDLC methodologies, programming language theory, Unix…
2. Opinionated. Engineering needs to return to first principles.

Graybeard

1. Been programming since 1980, on the Internet since 1983, WWW development since 1995, too many programming languages, wide-ranging domains — mainframes to embedded, sound synthesis to networking, soldering to sysadmin, lifecycle methodologies to UI/UX…

Following are some highlights…

Experience

Cloud Architect, Arctop; 2019

1. Contracted to "productize" AI workloads. Cloudifying the complex app meant containerization, programmatic (ad hoc, per session) provisioning on AWS ECS via API (SDK).
2. Handcrafted AWS configurations (no Beanstalk, Lightsail), Dockerfiles, ECR, ECS, volumes (EFS), WebSockets (server affinity), polling async APIs, POC alternative implementations, Python, Bash, Node or AJAX, CoffeeScript…

CTO, co-founder, multiple startups; past 10 years

1. Planning and architecting, from implementation to deployment, of joy-sparking and disruptive web apps. MVPs, lean.
2. Bleeding edge of _web native_ technologies and practices, featuring Express, CoffeeScript, Cake, PWA technologies, promisified LevelDB, jQuery(!), Stylus for living styleguide/design system…

Web Technologies Expert, Adience (adtech startup); 2015

1. Contracted to research and develop cross-platform, highly responsive, MRAID capabilities for a diversity of target devices.
2. Lots of rapid prototyping, reverse engineering and debugging, to demo feasibility and lay foundations for product development.
3. Nasty browser (in)compatibilities, XHR, CORS (circumventions), CSS hacks, reverse engineering (obfuscated JS) GWD, hacking Polymer events, RUM, logging, SDKs (eg, MoPub, PocketMath), DoubleClick, GAID and RTB stuff, Weinre, Pagespeed, AWS S3 (boto) and EC2, scraping, Pointer Events, touch… GreenSock?
4. POCs in Django, Flask, WSGI, Node, vanilla DOM and jQuery, obviously CoffeeScript and Stylus, Teacup…

Free/Libre Open Source Hacker, with Open Knesset community; 2015

1. Hacked, quick-and-dirty, bchirometer.oknesset.org — a wizard for confounded voters, based on pre-digested analyses of parliamentarians law making records.
2. Pure client-side Web app (SPA, neat History API wrapper), shareable permalinks; CoffeeScript, Stylus, Cake, jQuery… obviously.

Node Evangelist, Web apps studio; 2013

1. Transformed an archaic (PHP, ר"ל) studio into a modern shop, opening up opportunities, raising profile.
2. Modern technologies and practices: Node, single page apps, WebSockets, semantic HTML, Python, Gitflow… Linux.

Web Technologies Expert, Comigo; 2013

1. Researched and developed platform and tools, SDK, for creating POC web apps on a Set Top Box.
2. jQuery Mobile, Express, some POCs in Meteor, debugging (workarounds) Android's Webkit, remote instrumentation w/ Weinre, RequireJS, polyfills, H5BP, binding to Java based API…

Web Technologies Expert, NICE Systems; 2013

1. Intense, around the clock, quick-and-dirty development of a demo, caught small window of business opportunity.
2. Contracted to provide expertise in technologies new to the team: Rails, Bootstrap, Kendo UI, Git (sic), CSS, DOM API…

Consultant, multiple WordPress based studios; –2012

1. Taught developers, designed more efficient lifecycles, from RFP writing to deployment and maintenance, introduced automation, Web technologies, best practices, etc, to scale agencies' profitability.
2. WP offers a wider range of facilities and features than most developers know how to use: eg, hooks, template hierarchy, shortcodes, child themes, multisite, feeds, REST API, RDFa, microformats…
3. Some Drupal, et al, too.

Embedded & Software Engineer, Be4; 2006–2008

1. Developed MIDI/sound processing algorithms, libraries and applications, for various mobile and embedded (cellphones, MP3 players, arcade game consoles…) platforms.
2. Astonishingly performant and portable, thru bitwise wizardry, mathematical trickery, psychoaccoustics insight.
3. ISO C99 (excessively macroed), C++, GCC, ARM and GNU Assembly, Symbian, MontaVista/µCLinux… and lots of inverse/FFTing.

Lecturer, Sela Group; 1997–1999

1. Taught many and varied — 20-80 hours, beginners to advanced, classes of 6 to 40 students — programming courses, C/C++.
2. Audience typically professional, advanced programmers, in need of fast tracking onto C/C++ as newcomers, or advanced language features.
3. Graduated over 1,000 students. Hebrew and English. Internationally, even.
4. Developed own syllabi. Became a "language lawyer" thru researching language specific (C90, Rationale, DMJ's Commentary, CLC FAQ…) and general PL theory. And didactics, pedagogy.

OS/2 devoutee; 1994–1996

1. Had high hopes for SOM, OpenDoc, CORBA, Workplace OS… but IBM dropped the ball! Been a Linux adherent since.

Developer, Digital Equipment Corp; 1995

1. SQLWindows developer. Also some PowerBuilder, Win32…
2. (Note to self: avoid corporations in future.)

Developer, electronics engineering co; 1994

1. Low-level "system programming", device driver, C/C++, OS/2 (2.1, pre-Warp), IBM C Set/2, C Set++, KASE:Set…
2. (Tried to) refactor the app to be more Unix-like.

Programmer, for Civil Eng student; 1992

1. Developed app for modeling industrial water treatment processes, to analyze and calculate optimal configurations, for a dissertation.
2. GUI (text) in Borland's Turbo Vision.
3. Also: Unix scripting in tcsh, scripting in 4DOS, NDOS…

Programmer, for local NGO; 1987

1. App to manage subscribers list and print hundreds of envelope labels, for a (snail) mailing list. Text-based GUI, bi-lingual (ISO 8859-8i) and bi-directional support, UX affordances…
2. Borland Object Pascal, DOS, 5¼" floppies… thus overlays.

Programmer, for researchers at immunology lab, Weizmann Institute; 1984

1. Programmed in REXX and EXEC2, Xedit macros, tools to manage inventory of hundreds of samples in test tubes and vials stored in multiple refrigerators. Replaced tedious paper-based practice.
2. Also studied: System/360's MVS, Unix (csh), Pascal, (Concurrent) Prolog, graph algorithms, structured programming…

Education

Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt Scopus libraries

1. A decade reading everything continental philosophy, critical theory… I'm also a bibliophile. Books and the form of knowledge…

Technion: Israel Institute of Technology; 1991–1993­­

1. Spent two years there, mostly in the library and on green-on-black VT220 terminals. Ended up needing glasses. Till finally dawned on me: I'm autodidactic. Dropped out.

Languages

1. עברית, español, English: fluent
2. français: reading, comme ci comme ça