Greg Ratajik

Bellevue, WA 98004
(803)/772-2481   greg @ ratajik.net
 
OVERVIEW
  • Passionate and creative technologist with a deep appreciation of business.
  • Demonstrated ability to execute and lead across a wide variety of organizations and projects.
  • Successful, independent small-business owner. Flagship software has an international user-base of several million.
  • Seeking a hands-on technical leadership position.
 
SKILL SET Languages, Methodologies, and Platforms:
 
C#, Azure, REST, MVC 4, WinForm, WPF, ASP.NET,  C++, VB, ASP, MFC, JavaScript, Node.js, HTML, XSLT, Python, Java, OMT, OOD/OOP.  Windows 3.5 to Windows 8, Google AppEngine, Android.  Windows NT to Windows Server 2012.
Development tools and software:
 
Microsoft Development Environment 2012 (.NET), Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Eclipse.
Database: SQL Server(Transact-SQL), GQL, DB/2, and Access.
Other software: Word, Project, Visio, Lotus Notes, Adobe Photoshop, FrontPage, and Outlook. Webmaster of 75 domains (.NET and Linux)

 
EXPERIENCE 4/2010-Current - Senior Research Software Development Engineer / Senior Dev Lead
Microsoft Research/ eXtreme Computer Group / OSD-IPE
  •  Dev lead of the PersonalCloud. Central in the tech transfer of Project Aura, from XCG to IPE/OSD. Led the two dev teams (core and experiences), continuing development of the platform, along with exploration of the new experiences that the platform provides.
  • Dev lead of Project Aura: a cross-company personalization (inference, machine learning, analytics) initiative spanning client + cloud devices and services while preserving rights of individual stakeholders. Developed major portions of the core system and the SDK, in addition to leading the dev team. Worked with many parts of the company (IPE/OSD/Bing, MSR, Office, Windows, Xbox, Windows Phone, etc.) to move the technology from the small research team to a product group in OSD/Bing. (C#, Azure, REST, MVC 4)
 
  9/2001 – 4/2010 - Senior Architect  
Information Providers, Inc.

IPI is a large insurance inspection company with a very small IT staff.  That IT staff runs and develops all aspects of the company’s technology.  My work has included:
  • Lead Developer and Project Manager for a new client/server Commercial Line inspection system. Led a team of 9 developers and support staff in the development of this software, and wrote major portions of the GUI and server. My work on this software has allowed IPI to roll out new product quickly, created a system that allows for a consistent way of dealing with the complexities of the commercial risk business, and better enabled the company to enter that market place. (C#, WinForm, .NET Web Services.)
  • Lead Architect for an Insurance Audit system. Led the 6 person development team in the development and delivery of the software, and wrote portions of the front-end and server. Quick delivery of this system allowed the company to enter a new market place, and has substantially increased revenue over the last 5 years. (ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, .NET Web Services.)
  • Development and release of two .NET/C# web sites. Designed and developed a complex web-based reporting system that is the new standard reporting system for IPI.  Developed a data-entry and management system for Field Staff.  Both of these systems are being used as the basis of all future web development at IPI. (ASP.NET, C#, ADO.NET, XML, COM)
  • Responsibility for the development of, and enhancements to, an existing ASP web site.  While portions of this work are given to other team members, I am ultimately responsible for the various web sites and perform most of the development tasks. (VBScript, XML/XSLT, VB, C++, COM, ATL, SQL Server)
  • Maintenance of several other systems, including a fat VB Client and a COM middle tier (VB 6, COM, COM+, MFC, ATL, C++)
 
  10/1995 – 9/2001 - Chief Architect
Affinity - Columbia, SC

Titles included Lead Programmer, Systems Architect, Senior Systems Architect, and Chief Architect.
  • One of the 6 founding members of the technical staff, driving the growth of the organization to over 180 employees – planning, hiring, and establishing development processes.
  • Involved in all aspects of development, from a developer, team lead, to group lead (multiple teams and projects).
  • Development of a web-based loan system. This prototype system was used to explore a new way of doing web technology at Affinity, and served as the template for future web development projects. (ASP, VB, Microsoft DNA/MSMQ/MTS, COM+, SQL)
  • Developed and deployed a VB/Outlook 2000-based E-Mail Notification System.  (MFC, C++)
  • Development of an eCommerce product for closed-loop decisioning. I was the lead Architect and developer on this small, three man team.  We successfully built this B2B system, leveraging the existing lending system, allowing third-parties to obtain loan decisions via the internet. (C++, MFC)
  • Development and deployment of a distributed, high-volume printing system. (COM/DCOM, ATL, MFC, Visual C++ 6.0.)
  • Development Lead and Senior Architect for the Citibank project. Developed a workflow sub-system. Also managed the project, with a total of six team leads and 32 people reporting to me. (C++, ISAPI, ODBC)
  • Worked on the "NG" (next generation) project. I was trained and led by a trainer/consultant for 8 months in OO-methodologies and techniques. Use-cases, scenarios, object models, state diagrams and object interaction diagrams were used to construct a new distributed architecture. Development of the resulting prototype system was done in Visual C++ 5.0, based on the OMT model we created. (C++, OMT)
  • Led a team of developers in the creation of a prototype for a Visual OAR  Editor (the OAR is the language I created to develop Kiosk screens). (C++, MFC) 
  • Created a new prototype version of the Kiosk, to allow Affinity to sell Video Ad space on the ALM.  This prototype added sound and video to the Kiosk, and was used at several trade shows to demo the new technology. (C++, MFC)
  • Developed, from the ground up, an innovative Loan Kiosk System.  This included the development of an initial prototype and proof of concept for the technology, the development of a new 4GL language for touch-screens on the Kiosk, development of the client software, and architectural and design involvement in the communications and server software.  The success of this project drove the company for the next 6 years, both technically and financially.  Two patents were based on this work (6,105,007- Automatic financial account processing system, and 5,870,721 - System and method for real time loan approval). (C++, MFC)

8/1993 - 10/1995, Lead Programmer
IBM/Keane - Boca Raton, FL
  • (Dec’94 to Oct 95) Lead programmer, IBM POS/PSP Internal Tools. Wrote Several pieces of software, including: a Video Jukebox (used as a video Kiosk in the IBM Boca Lobby, and was shown at computer trade shows such as COMDEX); a distributed compile system, via TCP/IP; CMVC 2.4 modifications (C++); and GroupChat, a TCP/IP based chat program.  Many of these projects began as research into new areas, yet ended up becoming company-sanctioned projects.
  • (Nov’93 to Dec’94) Lead Programmer and Component Owner, in PSP OS/2 Development, for Fixtool (the OS/2 Corrective Service Facility. Fixtool is IBM’s software for applying fixes to OS/2, LAN Requester, LAN Server, DB2/2, and several other products)

10/1991 - 8/1993 - Lead Programmer
PMSC - Columbia, SC
  • Responsible for OS/2, C, and PM development for V 1.0 of the Life Administrations System. Started as a junior programmer and ended leading a team of four ‘C’/OS/2 programmers to develop the project. Work included development of OS/2 PM dialogs, base architecture of a multi-platform client/server system, development of common API and function libraries, and integration of PC and mainframe modules.

 

SOFTWARE
AND COPYRIGHTS
Over the last 15+ years, many smaller pieces of software have been created.  Most of these projects started with an exploration of a new technology or the creation of a tool to do something that no one had developed before.  Many of them were turned into clean, usable, released software.  The most successful application to date is StationRipper, which has an international user-base of several million users.       
 
  2002 -2013
GPSCheat! (Android/Java), PhoneBomber
– Massively multiplayer, location aware game (Android/Java/Google AppEngine/GQL), tagZar - User Tagged Search Engine (C#/ASP.NET), StationRipper (C++/MFC/ASP.NET/SQL), StationPortal.com (C#/ASP.NET), AnnotatedEarth (C#/ASP.NET/SQL/MFC), and NewzNozzl (a social news aggregator-aggregator) (C#/ASP.NET)
 
  1998 - 2001
VisInterface, IPLeash, WebWacker, NetMonitor
 
  1992 - 1995
ChatterBox 3.0, Parallax, Tunnel Wars , EasyPlay, AniButton, VidButton, Pops, DynoHelp, PowerThreads , ChatterBox, NetSend, NetChat, CHKPath, PWhere, DD, Netblast
 
  1990 - 1991
Personal Property Tax Program, for the State of Michigan, written in QBasic

 

Who Should Microsoft Hire?