Experience

Software Engineer @ Clasp

Boston, MA | 2023 - Present

• Designed and optimized Django models to efficiently handle profiles and data relationships for over 46000 users.
• Used Python to enable users to create applications, upload documents, track their progress, and view incoming financial statuses.
• Created secure document upload pipelines, leveraging GCP cloud storage and encryption for sensitive financial documents.
• Developed RESTful APIs in Django to facilitate data exchange with a JavaScript-based React frontend, enhancing user interaction.
• Integrated financial APIs (Plaid/Stripe) for bank account verification and secure payment processing.
• Automated data migration and validation using Python scripts, saving 10+ hours a week.
• Built partner facing UI/UX to track their applicants with a Kanban board, email notification subscriptions, and comment system.
• Enhanced frontend experience with website pages, new UX patterns, and reducing load times by 90%.
• Updated and maintained the marketing site's Sanity based content management studio, saving $1000s in outside contract work.
• Set up monitoring dashboards in Datadog and Sentry to proactively identify performance bottlenecks and errors.

Data Science Engineer @ SimSpace

Boston, MA | 2020 - 2023

• Implemented MITREs ATT&CK matrix as scripts, achieving 100% code coverage of cyberattack tactics.
• Developed interface in JavaScript to control malicious payloads for scenarios like ransomware attacks and antivirus evasion.
• Led development of a Python attack orchestrator, facilitating communication between a malicious payload and a machine learning powered engine using RESTful APIs, achieving response times under 3 seconds.
• Engineered pipelines for client data and generated performance reports, saving 60+ hours per event.
• Improved user emulation code quality, leading to a 15% load time reduction and a 20% file size decrease.
• Played a pivotal role in securing multi-million-dollar contracts from international entities by crafting exfiltration and ransomware attack scenarios and delivering compelling presentations.

Software Engineer @ VocaliD

Belmont, MA | 2020

• Designed software automating voice perception survey creation, reducing design time by 80%.
• Analyzed data, identifying 10+ new voice-feature associations, resulting in more realistic voices.

System Software Engineer @ The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory

Cambridge, MA | 2018 - 2019

• Spearheaded full-stack development of a web app automating company-wide manufacturing tracking, utilizing JavaScript, React, and MongoDB, saving over 400 hours monthly.
• Established API backends with Python (Django), doubling both developer and user efficiency.
• Designed several automation tools, increasing team development speed by 20%.

Skills

Technical

In no particular order, some skills I’ve acquired across the years…

• Languages and frameworks: Python, Node.JS, Django, Flask
• Front end development: JavaScript, TypeScript, HTML/CSS, React, Cypress
• Databases and containers: SQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, MySQL, Docker, AWS Cloud, Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• Version control, Git, GitHub, GitLab, CI/CD
• AGILE/SCRUM

Python

My love for working with Python my entire career stems from its versatility and development speed. There’s a time and place for careful planning, but at a certain point, code needs to hit the editor and Python is excellent for quick iteration that can be later refined. I’ve used most data science/mathematics packages and frameworks like Django and Flask.

Curiosity, learning, action oriented

I could not be where I am now without a drive to learn and better myself. There is still plenty of growth in my career but I truly believe there is nothing I can’t do as I’ll learn and overcome any challenge.

New languages, frameworks, problems, I promise I’ll rise to the challenge. I truly have a bias towards action and need to solve problems as I come across them.

Communication

I pride myself on being able to explain myself clearly, convey ideas, and updating/staying updated about my current projects.

Personal projects

• AlreadyFriends
• Intelligently uses self-reported relationship data to predict pairs of strangers to be used for a “speedfriending” system by cataloguing users and their relationships within a group.
• Automatically generates a list of matches for the current roster of attendees and logging said matches
• Admins can additionally update user relationships based on user submitted data
• OnRead
• Machine learning powered phishing detection, sold in private sale
• Users can upload a database of messages sent to them (Facebook Messenger, Slack, email)
• Model references message patterns, vocabulary, timestamps to probabilistically verify sender
• WilsonBot
• Uses current voice call participants and their gamer tags to produce several “balanced” teams for casual esports matches
• Allow users to share their links to competitive game trackers, like OP.GG or Tracker.GG
• This data can then be used with a list of participating users to create "balanced" teams within Discord such that opposing teams have an even mix of higher and lower skilled members

Education

Computational Mathematics

Bachelor of Science

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

2016 - 2019

Computer Science and Economics

Minor

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

2016 - 2019

Computational Mathematics

I studied abroad!

Korea University

2019 - 2019

Languages

English 🇺🇸

Native speaker

Korean 🇰🇷

Learning :)

Contact

📧 chris@llaga.xyz

🔗 linkedin.com/in/chrisllaga