Alther Alves

Backend Developer with 10+ years of experience designing, scaling, and maintaining Ruby on Rails platforms in high-traffic, Agile environments. Expert in REST APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and distributed systems. Proven track record improving performance, reliability, and developer velocity with cloud-native solutions, Docker, and IaC.

Experienced in mentoring engineers, leading technical design decisions, and delivering maintainable, production-grade code under fast-paced release cycles. In addition, particularly interested in AI, machine learning, LLM, reinforcement learning, IoT, Go, Rust, cloud, scalable architectures and best practices.

Backend Developer - Fast Forward Advisors - Remote, Seattle, WA

(2024-06)

• Designed and deployed Rails microservices for payment and analytics modules, improving modularity and scalability.
• Migrated critical services to AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service with autoscaling and load balancing, enabling 3x traffic spikes with 99.9% uptime.
• Implemented event-driven Node.js API to handle asynchronous workflows, improving throughput by 35%.
• Optimized database queries and caching, increasing platform throughput by 40% under peak load.
• Mentored junior developers on Rails best practices, code quality, and test coverage.

Backend Developer - GetSmart Solutions - Victoria, BC

(2020-01 - 2024-04)

• Developed backend features for a recycling logistics CRM using Rails-inspired RESTful patterns and Django.
• Built a SQL + crontab microservice consolidating warehouse data nightly and indexing it via Elasticsearch, reducing query times by 50%.
• Implemented database optimization strategies including advanced indexing, stored procedures, and caching.
• Contributed to Agile sprints, peer code reviews, and cross-team collaboration to deliver high-quality backend solutions.

Backend Developer - MolecularYou - Vancouver, BC

(2022 - 2023)

• Developed Rails microservices for personalized healthcare analytics; designed GraphQL APIs integrated with Snowflake and AWS pipelines.
• Containerized services with Docker, deployed via AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and managed infrastructure with Terraform and Chef.
• Increased backend test coverage from 62% → 91% using RSpec and Selenium.
• Monitored performance and errors with Datadog and Sentry, improving reliability for production workloads.

Backend Developer - Redstamp - Port Moody/Vancouver, BC

(2019 - 2022)

• Refactored legacy monolithic Rails SaaS into modular services.
• Built a Sinatra management system integrated via RESTful API with internal e-signature service, reducing administrative turnaround by 45%.
• Automated CI/CD pipelines with Docker and GitHub Actions, improving deployment speed and reliability.

Backend Developer - RH Software - São Paulo, Brazil

(2017 - 2018)

• Migrated healthcare SaaS from on-premises to AWS microservices, adding Docker orchestration and load balancing.
• Improved system reliability and reduced downtime, achieving 30% faster response times.
• Reinforced CI/CD and automated testing pipelines (RSpec, Selenium, GitHub Actions).

Backend Developer - ESPN Channel - São Paulo, Brazil

(2016 - 2017)

• Built Rails APIs serving millions of daily requests for sports data distribution.
• Developed AWS Lambda functions (Node.js) to automate news ingestion, improving data freshness and reliability.
• Implemented AWS CloudWatch monitoring for Lambda functions and backend services, setting up alarms and dashboards to proactively detect errors, latency issues, and performance bottlenecks.

B.Sc. - Computer Science - UNIP (2009)

Post-Degree Diploma - Business Administration (Leadership Focus) - Camosun College (2020)