Resume of Ben Ethridge, a Boston-Based J2EE/Java Financial/Insurance Software Designer/Developer

Resume of Ben Ethridge

2017 Green Gate Place, Grayson GA 30017

ben@eastridgesoftware.com

Currently available for contract work.

SUMMARY

Senior internet software designer/developer/mentor, experienced in engineering J2EE and light-weight container financial/medical/insurance database web applications and web services.

SKILL SUMMARY

Design: Object-Oriented Analysis and Design using UML, Relational Database Design. XML Schema and DTD design.

Operating Systems: Windows XP, Unix (HP-UX, Linux).

Programming Languages: Java (certified), Visual Basic, C, COBOL, FORTRAN, SQL.

Database Systems: Oracle, DB2, MySQL, Sql Server.

Application Servers: WebSphere/Portal, JBoss, Oracle, Tomcat.

Technologies: J2EE (JSP and JSF w/ custom tags, JDBC, EJB), Eclipse, WSAD, RAD, Spring, Hibernate, Struts, Castor, JAXB, XStream, XML Schema and DTD, XSLT, JProfiler, MQ, Regex, TCP/IP sockets, Spring and Axis Web Services, AJAX and Prototype.js.

Application Knowledge: Financial/Investment especially the so-called ”Value Investing“, Defined-Contribution Pension, Residential Real Estate, Property/Casualty Insurance, Medical, Health Care, Aviation, Life Insurance.

Interests: Elegant design patterns, Financial/Investment/Real Estate Applications.

EXPERIENCE

JSF/Ajax/Web Services Portal Developer for a large property/casualty insurance company (Contract: 5/2008 – 12/2008)

From user meetings and emails, independently wrote requirements, designed, developed and deployed to WebSphere, a 9-web page JSF app which compares names of U. S. Treasury Dept. OFAC SDNs (”bad guys“) to names on financial transactions. Coded it to use Levenshtein Distance, Double Metaphone and another custom ”fuzzy“ matching algorithm, which I designed and wrote to emulate human-like name-recognition capabilities. This project also included a nightly batch component, which I totally overhauled into straight java. (It had been previously converted from VB by a conversion program.) I also re-designed several of the Sql Server tables for this 15-table system.
Created a client-side custom JSP tag and a server-side SOAP web service that reads xml content from an IBM WCM repository using IBM WCM API. Essentially, this system emulates portlet behavior in a non-portal (pure WebSphere) JSP. Additionally enhanced the JSP to use AJAX prototype.js, to push (auto-refresh) the WCM xml content into the browser screen every X seconds. As per AJAX design, this allows the user to continue typing in the browser text boxes, while the WCM content is being auto-refreshed.

Senior J2EE Web Services / Struts Developer for large property/casualty insurance company (Contract: 10/2006 - 10/2007)

Coded enhancements to auto and home quote systems to receive xml as a web service. Wrote and tested the xml samples.
Documented the new web service app as a UML Activity Diagram, showing where it integrates into the large, complex Struts app, which I also documented in UML.
With senior management, designed and coded a regex-enabled VIN (Vehicle ID Number) algorithm for web service lookups. For VINs which had been failing, this more than doubled the reliability over the previous algorithm.
Mentored java developers in java and Eclipse concepts, features and syntax.
Installed and used JProfiler to determine the primary performance bottlenecks (called ”hotspots“) in both the Rational (RAD) workspace and the deployed WebSphere app.
Coded enhancements and production fixes to the existing JSP, java and Struts-like templates.

Web Service Technical Lead for medical database vendor (Contract: 2/2006 - 10/2006)

Using Spring Framework, JAXB, Tomcat, Axis, XML Schema, Regex, and Eclipse IDE, designed and coded a set of medical database web services, including design of the XML request/response structure, all Oracle tables and the JdbcTemplate-based DAO layer. Coded all Ant build scripts to enable hot-deployment and seamless remote debugging from Eclipse to Tomcat. Deployed to WinXP and Linux.
Using Visio, wrote all UML Activity and Class diagrams.
Re-coded the Axis Web Services implementation to the new Spring Web Services.
From meetings with end-users, wrote requirements for a new Journal Library Management System. Wrote functional spec. Created screen mockups using Visual Basic. Designed Oracle database tables for this system.
Using JAXB and Regex, parsed pharmaceutical XML for loading into Oracle database using Hibernate ORM.
Installed all software tools, and wrote installation and deployment procedures for other developers to follow.
Using Eclipse/AccuRev, designed, implemented and documented the version control workflow for the development team.
Using Visual Basic, prototyped initial screen mock-ups from user requirements.
Wrote the coding standards document. Except for the security layer, either wrote or reviewed/approved all web service design and coding patterns.

J2EE Designer / Developer for East Ridge Software (12/2005 – 2/2006)

Re-coded a 10-table business referral website in J2EE using JBoss/Eclipse, JSP, Struts/Tiles, Hibernate and MySql.

J2EE/WebSphere Designer / Developer / Administrator for large health insurance company (2/2005 – 12/2005)

Mentored other software engineers on WebSphere Studio Application Developer (WSAD) and J2EE concepts and usage.
From requirements documents and meetings, wrote functional specs, pseudocode and XML-to-database mappings for back-end health insurance claims inquiry application.
Wrote pilot claims inquiry application in WSAD/J2EE/Java using JSP/Struts, MDB (MQ Series Message-Driven Beans), Oracle, SQL, XSLT, XML Schema, with XStream, Castor and JAXB implementations using factory pattern.
Using WSAD/Harvest, wrote several java adapter classes, which received xml requests, transformed them to custom serializable objects, sent the objects to an MQ Series queue, received the response objects from a temporary a queue, and transformed them back to xml for sending to the client queue. Functionality was for Claims and Policy inquiry.
Was the WebSphere administrator for the Adapter App Server, handling all App Server configuration, EAR configuration, and deployments of the Adapter and its associated MQ queues onto the Unix server.
Successfully delivered the Adapter App into production through two release cycles, and was the production support expert for it.
As the project drew to a close, created detailed production support documentation and trained the in-house production support team on the design, coding and WebSphere administration of the App, so that they could seamlessly continue production support.
Was kept on as a consultant longer than any other Adapter App contractor.

J2EE/WebSphere Designer / Developer / Administrator for well-known property/casualty software vendor (7/2004 – 2/2005)

In WSAD, designed and coded a client-custom EJB and its associated java helper classes, which parse XML, read data from other pre-existing session EJBs, and read/write data directly from/to a DB2 database using JDBC, ultimately converting that multi-source data to flat files for upload to a legacy COBOL mainframe system.
In WebSphere, installed the vendor’s J2EE base software, plus the new client-custom EJB, at the client site.
Was the on-site technical support person, putting the vendor’s J2EE base software into production for the first time ever, and performing the white-box testing during the development, integration and production phases.
Trained the client in the use of WebSphere for their new production system.

Life Insurance Agent for well-known life insurance company (2/2004 – 7/2004)

Used company's software to create retirement, education and survivorship projections, and sell life insurance to families in the Boston area.

J2EE Designer / Developer for East Ridge Software (8/2003 – 12/2003)

In NetBeans, designed and developed a database-driven business referral website using a Struts-like MVC pattern (HTML, JSP, Servlet, JDBC), Tomcat and MySQL.
In NetBeans, designed and developed a conference registration website, using that same MVC pattern.

J2EE/WebSphere Technical Lead for well-known financial/insurance software vendor (1/2000 - 8/2003)

On both VisualAge and Oracle JDeveloper, designed and developed the proof-of-concept GUI application using Java, HTML, Servlets, XML, and XSL using n-tier architecture.
Designed and wrote the UML Activity Diagram using Together/J.
Designed and pseudo-coded all the EJBs and supervised the coding of them.
Led meetings with designers and managers from large insurance companies (Prudential, MLC, Canada Life, Fortis, etc.) to gather and define business requirements.
Designed and developed J2EE pension/financial applications, based on those requirements.
Answered technical support questions from clients, relating to J2EE and DTD design and implementation. Debugged/tested J2EE code, as technical support lead.
Installed and maintained WebSphere and Oracle 9iAS Web App Servers.
Made or recommended all strategic decisions relating to internet products.
Attracted new insurance clients (Prudential, Canada Life, MLC, Fortis, etc.) by demonstrating internet software and writing most of the tech sales literature, using MS Powerpoint and Visio. Approx 80% of these sales were successfully closed by our senior sales reps.
Evaluated, purchased and used JProbe (a java performance analysis tool). Demonstrated that our J2EE application ran approx 50% faster on Oracle9iAS than WebSphere. Quickly found and eliminated several performance bottlenecks.
Evaluated, purchased and learned WebSphere Studio App Developer (WSAD) Java IDE. Ported large (1000 java class) J2EE application from VisualAge to WSAD.
Determined and documented the Java coding standards and conventions for the programming team.
Designed and developed most of the large, sophisticated XML DTD, including its standards and conventions.
Accurately and efficiently managed project timelines and resources using MS Project and Scitor PS8.

Senior Mgr / Senior Programmer/Analyst / Oracle DBA / Unix Admin for well-known financial/insurance software vendor (10 / 1983 – 1 / 2000)

Designed and developed pension investment/accounting software for major life insurance companies, including Mutual Of New York, New York Life, NML (AXA), etc.
Taught computer language / database courses for programmer staff of NYL, MONY, etc.
Designed and developed a Software Version Control / Delivery System using C/Unix, Visual Basic, TCP/IP-sockets, and Oracle/Unix database.
Served as part-time Oracle DBA and HP Unix System Administrator.
Designed/developed a Print Spooler/Server using TCP/IP-sockets, C/Unix, Cobol/SQL, and Visual Basic.
Designed and developed a Visual Basic GUI Work-Flow System that graphically displayed the work-flow tasks read from the Oracle database as a flow-chart.
Promoted to senior manager.
Managed and mentored COBOL programming teams (40-60 managers and developers).
Chosen to lead the department's first J2EE project.

INNATE TALENTS AND TRAITS

Communication (understanding the needs of both programmers and users), flexibility, innovation, logical analysis, organization, rapid self-directed learning of complex technical subjects, teaching / mentoring, technical writing, thoroughness.

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATIONS

Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform (SCJP 1.4).

Licensed Life/Health Insurance Agent.

Certified Flight Instructor in single and multi-engine aircraft.

B.A. Degree (Aerospace Technology). Indiana State University.