Holden Karau
San Francisco, CA , (425) 233 8271
Highlight of Achievements
Apache Spark Committer & PMC member
Frequent Conference Speaker - publicly available Spark talks on Youtube.
Received IBM OTAA award and Google Open Source Peer Bonus for work on Apache Spark
Co-author of O'Reilly's Learning Spark and High Performance Spark, and Scaling Python with Ray
Updated linux kernel wireless drivers
Proposed, developed and implemented source code search engine: All The Code and lead Foursquare's search migration
Created plt-scheme web application feature on Slashdot and other media
Created and managed a consulting services company, Pigs Can Fly Computing. Facilitated and led teams of specialists/programmers/developers. Provided ongoing liaison between specialists and clients in order to clearly define client needs, ensure technical feasibility of solutions, and produce customized software solutions
For more see my github or some selected talks
Skills and Proficiencies
Programming Languages
Scala, Java, Python, SQL
Not So Recent Programming Languages
Scheme, Perl, C, C++
Markup Languages
LaTeX, HTML, XML
Development Tools
Spark, Emacs, SVN, GIT
Work Experience
Netflix
Software Enginer Apache Spark [June 2021 - Present]
Lead Spark-Upgrade Project to automate Spark Migrations
Improve Spark dynamic scaling and Kubernetes integration
Created internal and external training material for big data users.
Apple
Software Enginer, TL Apache Spark [August 2019 - June 2021]
Improve Spark dynamic scaling and Kubernetes integration
Shared best practices and mentored new contributors.
Open Source Big Data Developer Advocate [October 2017 - August 2019]
Worked on improvements for Apache Spark focused in Core, ML, and Python
Provided steering and guidance for OSS based big data products including Dataproc and Apache Beam.
Helped grow external Beam and Spark contributors and community.
Gave talks and training sessions for Spark, Beam, Kafka, and related technologies
IBM - Spark Technology Center (Analytics, Watson Data Platform, and OTG)
Principal Software Engineer [October 2015 - October 2017]
Worked on improvements for Spark focused in Core, ML, and Python
Helped other developers get up to speed and contribute to Spark (both in code & community)
Gave talks and training sessions for Spark
Alpine Data Labs
Senior Software Development Engineer [May 2015 - October 2015]
Worked on improvements to Alpine's Spark integration
Worked on improvements to Spark
Databricks
Senior Software Development Engineer [February 2014 - May 2015]
Worked on backend improvements for Databricks cloud
Worked on improvements for Spark
Taught and Assisted Spark Trainings
Software Development Engineer [August 2012-February 2014]
Worked on improvements to the Google+ storage backend
Worked on different methods to improve recommendations on Google+
Foursquare
Software Development Engineer [March 2011-August 2012]
Improved venue & user search using Elastic Search and Solr
Amazon
Software Development Engineer [September 2009-March 2011]
Software Development Intern [Summer 2008]
Created product miss-classification detection system using AI techniques
Improvements to classification tools
Helped create a system to recommend browse nodes for keywords
Microsoft
Program Manager Intern [Winter 2008]
Spec-d and costed various performance improvements
Summer of Code [Summer 2007]
Created bindings for Subversion in Scheme (both mzscheme and stalin scheme)
Gained commit access to Subversion repository
Xandros - Linux Distribution
Software Developer, Core-OS [work-term Fall 2006]
Improved wireless signal strength reporting in numerous drivers
Forward ported numerous wireless card drivers
Improved fat32 sync performance
Pigs Can Fly Computing and Totally Legit Co.
Owner, Programmer, Systems Administrator [Summer 2002 - Present]
Employed, supervised, and lead teams of programmers in software development
Worked collaboratively with clients to specify their objectives and interpret these goals to the team
Project management: estimated time lines and overall financial costs in order to successfully bid on projects
Proposed, developed, and implemented source code search engine, All The Code
Scaled Ruby on Rails application in collaboration with AideRSS
Created LLM for generating health insurance appeals
Net Integration - Linux based intelligent servers
"Evil Death Ray" [work-term Winter 2006]
Created a transparent dynamic mirror selection Apache module
Wrote Perl library for automated testing
Developed automated tests and reviewed test results
Department of Housing Technology Waterloo - Residence computer network
Senior Residence Computer Consultant [Fall 2005, May 2006 - September 2007]
Technical Support Specialist [work-term Summer 2005]
Trained and supported ResNet computer consultants in maintaining and utilizing networking tools for residence users.
Wrote virus removal tools to handle viruses not properly removed by Norton Anti-Virus
Organizations
University of Waterloo Computer Science Club
Systems Administrator: Fall 2005, Summer 2006, and Winter 2007
Administered Linux machines
Organized Systems Committee
Treasurer: Winter 2005
Prepared and presented budget
President: Fall 2007
Decide overall club policies
Organize computing contest preparation resources
IEEE Computer Society
Student Member 2004 - to present
Participated in programming contests
Kept up to date with Intelligent Systems developments, and overall industry
Education
Bachelor of Math , Computer Science Business Option, Co-Op Program University of Waterloo, Waterloo , Ont. 2004-2009
Completed CS444 [Compilers] & CS452 [Real Time Operating Systems]