I have twenty years of experience building web applications and leading software engineering teams. Read on to find out more about my skills/experiences.
- Full name: Najaf Ali
- Email: ali.najaf@gmail.com
- Phone: 080-9629-1806
- Location: Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan (visa type: ๅฎไฝๆจฉ, sponsorship not required, can attend interviews/meetings in Tokyo)
- Timezone: JST (UTC+9) (can usually find a time to speak during US/EU work hours).
2023 - Present (2 years)
I manage a team of engineers in the product development organization of Givery, focusing on HRTech SaaS products.
2018 - 2024 (4 years)
I plan work, build features, and consult for remote technical teams from my office in Sendai, Japan. Primarily using Rails but usually a mix of different technologies as required. Some recent and ongoing clients include:
- GOAT - High-traffic e-commerce site, where I work primarily on upgrades and software quality.
- CaptionHub - Video captioning workflow application where I worked on integrating with automated translation services
- IndustrialML - Work on a proprietary machine learning platform that collects, cleans, displays and analyses factory data
- CoverageBook - A PR reporting tool that automatically generates metrics for URLs
- ReallyEnglish - An English language education platform for enterprise customers
January 2012 - September 2018 - 6 years and 8 months
Happy Bear Software was a Ruby on Rails development consultancy that I started and ran for almost seven years. Some highlights include:
- I worked hands-on and managed more than thirty projects, using Ruby, Rails, modern JavaScript, and a large variety of back-end technologies to deliver software for our clients.
- I hired and trained multiple apprentice developers from raw beginners to senior developers.
- I created technical/communication processes and guides for the team in order to maintain a consistently high standard of software and client experience
2006 - 2012 - 6 years
I began teaching myself web-development technologies at university and started freelancing afterwards while teaching English in Japan.
Following that I worked at many companies in the UK while developing my skills and delivering software. They included moo.com, Webgains, and Thoughtbot London (then called New Bamboo).
For a full work-history with details of specific employment please see my profile on LinkedIn .
- Ability to plan, create, modify, and debug web application software, primarily using Ruby, Rails, common gems, and modern JavaScript.
- Managing web application development teams, maintaining effective communication, project reporting, one-to-one meetings, retros, conflict resolution, and running an effective hiring process.
- BSc in Computer Science at University College London (2003 - 2006)
- Fluent spoken Japanese
Iโve spoken at a number of Ruby conferences and have given many presentations at the London Ruby User Group :
- Better security for your Rails applications - RubyConf Uruguay 2014
- Debugging for new developers - Brighton Ruby 2017
- Mental Models for Better Code - Bath Ruby 2018
- How to grow a small development team - LRUG June 2018