Software Engineer (Freelance Contract)
During a series of engagements that spanned over 25 years, my work afforded this privately-owned multi-location self-storage company many benefits, most of which flowed through to their tenants.* Support EMV chip card tags for cards that have them, maintaining backwards compatibility for magnetic stripe cards* Seamlessly integrated event driven payment processing application around a data base that lacks native support for events or a message pump, so that it behaves as though it has both* Support signature capture and generation of signed documents for archiving and printing, using a robust mail merge engine implemented as a VBA macro that runs when a new document is created, eliminating paper document storage requirements* Generic interface for a physical access control system which, with virtually no changes, supports access control systems from two additional vendors. Key customer benefits for about a month’s worth of work, at a cost of about $20,000: eliminate data entry errors, shorter move-in time* Data driven algorithm to implement an endless array of move-in promotion programs including free months, discounts, and other incentives to support lease-up of new properties. Key customer benefits, for about a month of architecture and development work, at a cost of about $20,000: reduced lease-up from 3 years to 1* Automated mechanism for transferring transaction files in whole, as ZIP archives, over a network. Key customer benefits, for about a week of effort, costing about $5,000: no partial batches to roll back* Designed and implemented a custom CI/CD pipeline that delivers virtually all new and upgraded software to distributed offices fully automatically. Key customer benefits, in exchange for about two weeks of effort, at a cost of about $10,000: error-free setup as part of daily operationsTechnologies Used: EMV Card Processing Specification, VB.NET, C#, C++, C, DOS Basic WIL, CASLSee Summary of Significant Accomplishments for more details.