Afrim Kacaj's Email Addresses & Phone Numbers

Founder @ DaeVue New York, New YorkSr. Technical Manager (Oyster.com) @ TripAdvisor • Tasked to oversee both product and engineering for Oyster.com. I worked with the team leads to re-imagine Oysters vision and then developed a 3-year strategy, along with a financial model, that would see the company’s EBITA grow at a healthy rate.• Audited the technology...

Founder @ DaeVue New York, New YorkSr. Technical Manager (Oyster.com) @ TripAdvisor • Tasked to oversee both product and engineering for Oyster.com. I worked with the team leads to re-imagine Oysters vision and then developed a 3-year strategy, along with a financial model, that would see the company’s EBITA grow at a healthy rate.• Audited the technology stack and began a long-term initiative with the goal of improving site performance and moving away from a monolithic python application to a scalable service-oriented architecture. Projects include the development of a Hotel Info service, Hotel Meta service, HTTP caching via Nginx, fuzzy search via Elastic Search, responsive redesign built on React, real-time image processing via AWS Lambda, lazy loading images that are below the fold, switching to progressive jpeg and more.• Streamlined team efficiency and development process by moving engineers out of silos, improving team communications through daily standup and Kanban workflow, introduced a regular release cycle, established a release/on-call engineer and more. From November 2017 to February 2019 (1 year 4 months) New York, NYMobile Technical Manager (Flights) @ TripAdvisor • Led the development of TripAdvisor’s Flights, SeatGuru and GateGuru iOS and Android products. Architected solutions using well-established design patterns and best practices with emphasis on testability, modularity, extensibility, and scalability.• Streamlined the development process by introducing Agile methodologies. User Stories, Poker Planning, Daily Standup, and Retrospective Meetings lead to improved specifications, accurate estimates, better communication and collaboration amongst stakeholders. • Established the Mobile Leadership Guild, a forum where for the first time, mobile leads from various teams can come together to discuss important issues. Ensured that important issues were on the agenda, and lead the conversations to reach consensus.• Maintained regular 1:1 meetings with my direct reports, as an opportunity to set expectations, provide coaching, motivation and career guidance.• Participated in campus recruiting events and meet-ups in an effort to identify and reach out to local talent. Successfully filled 8 positions in my team over the course of 2 years while maintaining a high bar for entry.• Worked cross-functionally to contribute multiple product ideas, leading to improved user experience, as well as a modest 300% increase in user acquisition. From November 2014 to November 2017 (3 years 1 month) New York, NYLead iOS Engineer @ acision • Worked on a complex WebRTC/RCS compatible mobile messaging application with Text, Voice, Video Chat, Media sharing abilities and more.• Performed a technical audit on the entire application and re-engineered core application components to improve the user experience, battery optimization, network bandwidth optimization, voice and video quality, peer to peer connectivity and more.
• Implemented a continuous integration environment based on Git-flow using Jira, Stash, and Jenkins to include automated testing of pull request's as well as automated distribution via HockeyApp. Ensuring that only high-quality code would be accepted, and gave the stakeholders real-time access to the latest features; thereby allowing collaboration and ensuring a truly Agile development process.• Helped design and improve the Agile/Kanban process. Wrote user stories and held poker planning sessions for effort estimation. From April 2014 to November 2014 (8 months) new york, new yorkSenior iOS Engineer @ Weight Watchers (Consultant via Mobiquity, Inc.) • Developed a time-sensitive application for Weight Watchers with a highly customized interface to mimic iOS 7 while remaining backward compatible with iOS 5. All while remaining ADA compliant and localized for 12 regions. Achieved 94% ADA compliance in the first round of testing. Ranked #1 in Health and Fitness within 2 days of launch with a 4.5-star average user rating.• Worked on a massive code base as part of the Weight Watchers retainer team to integrate a Unit Testing framework, In-App Purchasing, iOS 7 SDK migration, ARC, code modernization to latest Objective C standards, best practices, common design patterns, and general code maintenance.• Participated in the Unified Design phase of projects to ensure that the proposed design is attainable within budget constraints and that it adheres to the platform standards and best practices.• Received an Innovation Award. Recognized by the client and my teammates as being creative, taking initiative and approaching the product with original ideas. From July 2013 to April 2014 (10 months) New York, NYSenior Mobile Engineer @ Tingalin, LLC. • Developed innovative, first of a kind, and top-rated mobile applications for iOS and Android. One of which I've had the opportunity to present to the President of Albania, and witness him cheerfully play it in front of his staff and notable people of the Albanian community.• Innovations include detecting a human pulse through a mobile device camera. Simulating the strumming of a musical instrument through the device accelerometer. An algorithm to generate usable guitar chords with variable tunings. Sound activated flashlight and more.• Provided consulting services and solutions to outside firms such as DraftFCB Healthcare, which allowed them to bring their existing technology and resources to the mobile platform.• Managed day-to-day marketing and PR efforts for TV, web, and traditional media.• Researched, developed and tested new ideas based on 3D Environments, GPS and Augmented Reality, Music Instruments, MMO games. From August 2008 to July 2013 (5 years) Technology Manager @ rockwellgroup • Manage the firm’s information technology vision to include application development, network design, infrastructure management/deployment and staff supervision across headquarters and branch offices.• Developed .NET web applications for the firm’s intranet which include a large-file sharing utility with download tracking, book library, asset inventory, phone list, HR employee database, and file system search engine.• Upgraded IT systems to include deployment of new AD Domain Controllers, Fault Tolerant Exchange Servers, SAN, SQL Server, File Servers, VoIP phone system, CAT6 cabling, and climate controlled data room environment.• Maintain a network of 270 computers, 19 servers, data backup plans, peripherals, and routers/switches; manage all user services including email, printing, file sharing and privileges using Active Directory.• Managed three major renovation projects and four major office moves to include cost-benefit analysis and deployment with minimal business interruption; fully deployed two new branches. From June 2004 to June 2009 (5 years 1 month) New York, NYIT Consultant @ Fixabyte • Started successful venture to offer technology-consulting services to small businesses without IT staff and home office users using a “virtual” helpdesk approach to maintain computing resources. • Developed .NET based websites for clients requiring an internet presence.• Designed turnkey solutions for file sharing, backup, email, and virus protection, and trained client staff on use of systems and procedures. From 2002 to 2004 (2 years) New York, NYNetwork Administrator @ Rockwell Group • Hired to fill an entry level help desk position and rapidly grew into a Network Administrator position with responsibility for all aspects of the firm’s technology infrastructure.• Designed custom databases for HR, accounting, and IT departments and provided user desktop installations and configurations.• Designed and developed the firm’s first intranet website with archival databases for architectural drawings and assets; initiated disk imaging (Ghost) to deploy new desktops. From 1997 to 2002 (5 years) New York, NY