# Ril van Buren

> Senior Software Engineer at HOVER Inc.

Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/ril

## Work Experience
### Senior Software Engineer @ HOVER Inc.
Jan 2021 – Present
Modernized and extended the core image processing pipeline.  Utilized Python, event streaming, FastAPI, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, PubSub, ProtoBuff, Rails/Ruby, Javascript/TypeScript, etc..

### Senior Software Engineer @ One Health Company
Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Engineered data pipeline to support canine oncology researchers using Ruby, Rails, PostgreSQL, Heroku, S3, Algolia, InstantSearch.js, and legacy AirTable.  The new system maps and normalizes legacy veterinary, genetic, and business records.  Created a search interface to accelerate data exploration and statistical analysis.  
- Led team of engineers to build a patient outcomes portal, new sign-up flow, and fully-searchable user dashboard using Rails, Wicked, PostgreSQL, Slim, Stimulus, Hotjar, Algolia, Sidkiq, and Sendgrid.  Enrollment rates increased by 100%+.  
- Built service to support cost-effective internal and external dynamic, searchable maps for customers and sales team.  Implemented scrapers to gather supplemental data.
- Performed statistical analysis to model cohort survival times and inform business decisions.

### Senior Software Engineer @ One Health Company
Jan 2019 – Jan 2020

### Senior Software Engineer @ Gradeful Inc.
Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area
- Led team of engineers to build alpha OCR pipeline to automate grading and marking of student work using Python, Boto, AWS (S3, EC2), OpenCV, Docker, MTurk, and Django; increased pipeline throughput 10X.
- Integrated funnel analytics, drip email system, and ran advertising campaigns; optimized advertising spend, and customer sign-up funnel, with Google Analytics, tags, HotJar, and Drip ECRM, growing signup rate by 20X.
- Created customer facing pages and dashboard utilizing Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Heroku, and TailwindCSS.

### Software Engineer @ HealthSherpa
Jan 2017 – Jan 2018
- Built prescription drug search engine with Ruby on Rails, Elasticsearch, and PIG/EMR allowing 100K+ visitors shopping for health insurance to see what individual plans covered and expected drug prices in the area.
- Researched and developed pipeline incorporating insurance plan drug prices, MEPS national drug prices, drug inflation data, and plan coverage data using AWS S3, Rails on Ruby, Elasticsearch, and PIG/EMR.
- Rebuilt enrollment portal to integrate with US government (CMS) APIs to comply with standards and improve the customer experience using Ruby on Rails, React, and PostgreSQL, lifting enrollment rates by 30% as part of a 5 person engineering team.
- Optimized intake funnel by reviewing literature on consumer insurance behavior, designing/implementing AB tests, and tracking/analyzing test outcomes using JavaScript, React, Ruby on Rails, R, and PostgreSQL.
- Improved lead scoring system to give real-time predictions on lead behavior utilizing Ruby on Rails and R.

### Software Engineer @ EdSurge
Jan 2015 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area
• Increased deal processing capacity by over 500% to handle $250000 through architecting CMS/RMS to automate communication channels utilizing Ruby on Rails, ReactJS and Redux.
•Crafted smooth UI/UX using ReactJS, Redux, Immutable.js and BASS to eliminate page wait times and seamlessly integrate many AJAX calls to Ruby on Rails and Phoenix servers.
•Optimized email marketing campaign process with detailed analytics tracking and message templating built in ReactJS and Mailgun. 
•Engineered internal search engine using PostgreSQL and faceted Algolia index to improve accuracy and search times through 2000+ product database by over 50%.
•Reduced Hubspot integration errors by > 80% by incorporating RabbitMQ into Elixir and Phoenix RESTful API.
•Followed scrum agile development on team of 3 engineers with daily standups and Git for version control.

### Teaching Assistant @ Boston University
Jan 2013 – Jan 2014
-- Researched, analyzed, and graded invention logs/patent reports for Invention: Technology Creation, Protection, and Commercialization class. 
-- Revised grading rubric and mentored students. 
-- Became a core member of the professor’s weekly patent brainstorming and research group. Developed novel, low-cost sanitizing technologies.


## Education
### Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy
University of Chicago
Jan 2003 – Jan 2007

### Master of Engineering (MEng) in Electrical Engineering
Boston University
Jan 2011 – Jan 2014

### Master of Science - MS in Computer Science
Georgia Institute of Technology
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/rilkevb

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Source: https://flows.cv/ril
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/ril/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-03-22