Experience

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENGINEER – A2Z DEVELOPMENT (AMAZON.COM), Palo Alto, CA2008 to present
Developing community oriented websites and Facebook applications using Amazon Web Services

Lead developer on http://unspun.amazon.com a community oriented site built in Ruby on Rails.

PRINCIPAL – THE VDG GROUP (http://www.vdggroup.com), Los Altos, CA (September 2005 to present)
Consulting and product development company working with cutting edge software technologies

Developed consumer oriented websites using Ruby on Rails, (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Linux, Apache, Mongrel, & MYSQL, e.g. http://www.5thbar.com, http://contacthero.com, and others listed at http://vdggroup.com/portfolio.

SR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (Contract through Robert Half) – CNET Networks, San Francisco CA. Worked directly with stake holders to take over and enhance an existing Ruby on Rails application for Enterprise Business Systems that manages internal projects at CNET.

Helping companies in the areas of:

• Creating Products– design and implementation of new J2ME, Windows Mobile & Symbian applications
• Existing Product Refinement – user understanding, UI analysis, defining upgrades
• Emergency Demo Creation – quickly prototyped J2ME and Symbian demos for VC presentations
• Product Management using SCRUM and Agile methodologies

Clients include Livescribe, Quickoffice, Anoto Group AB, Splash Data Inc., and others. Client references available.

FOUNDER – IAMBIC, INC. (http://www.iambic.com), Sunnyvale, CA (January 1994 to September 2005)
Innovative developer and marketer of powerful, award-winning, user-friendly productivity-enhancing and entertainment software for handheld devices, smart phones and PCs; integral strategic partner/ supplier to Apple, Sony, Franklin Electronics and Palm

• Grew from start-up, with no outside investment, into a multi-million dollar per year sales company with comprehensive product portfolio and strong presence in the US and international markets (Europe and Japan).
• Hired, trained and developed a multinational workforce, 25+ person team (Silicon Valley, France, Ukraine), involved in design engineering, product management, customer support, and quality assurance.
• Managed state of the art e-Commerce processing 50,000+ transactions per year.
• #1 best selling product for Palm platform. Brought to market 3 top selling products.
• Launched over 12 products from conception through end of life on over 5 different platforms
• Developed and negotiated strategic partnerships with Apple, Sony, Franklin Electronics and Palm.
• Closed lucrative bundling deals, e.g. one Apple deal which licensed 40K units in the first 12 months

Education

• Master of Business Administration – Santa Clara University, 2004
• MS, Computer Engineering – University of Southern California, 1989
• BS, Electrical & Computer Engineering – Carnegie Mellon University, 1988

SELECTED BUSINESS & TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Software Engineering and Engineering Management of local and global outsourced teams
• Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows (all versions), Mac OS X, Ubuntu Linux, Red Hat Linux, et al.
• Mobile Operating Systems: Palm OS, Microsoft Windows Mobile, J2ME, Symbian (Series 60, UIQ), et al.
• Languages:
  • Ruby, Ruby on Rails
  • JavaScript, AJAX
  • C/C++ (senior level)
  • C#, .NET 2.0
  • Java
  • php (Zend certified)
  • (X)HTML, CSS
  • SQL including MYSQL, Postgres, MS Sqlserver
• Object Oriented Design (senior level)
• Experience in building and shipping multiple commercial applications
• User Interface Design
• Extensive experience building mobile GUI applications with the ability to design and program for resource constrained devices
• Wireless technologies (e.g. GPRS, CDMA, EDGE, EVDO, 2.5G, 3G, etc.)
• Handheld devices (Palm, Symbian, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, etc.)
• eCommerce, Internet marketing, and SEO
• Apache, Linux system administration
• Networking protocols and network design

References available on request and also at http://www.linkedin.com/in/vidalgraupera