About

Albert O'Connor is a seasoned software engineer with over 10 years of experience in web development, specializing in Python and Django. He is currently serving as a Senior Staff Software Engineer at Bungalow, where he is leading the backend development of their listings website and integrating it with Salesforce using Django Rest Framework. He is also responsible for the front-end development in Vue.js and uses Docker for development and ECS on AWS for deployment. Albert has worked with and advised early-stage startups, non-profit institutions, and small businesses, making awesome web apps using user-focused design, short iteration development cycles, and building on the best available open-source software. His tech stack includes Python, Django, Django Rest Framework, Postgres, Accessible HTML5, Bootstrap, CSS, FontAwesome, Javascript/jQuery/React, Amazon Web Services, Sentry, Docker, C/C++, and Java. Albert is a passionate advocate for open source and supporting fellow developers. He is the organizer of WatPy, the Waterloo-based Python Meetup focused on building community, education, and advocacy. He is also the founding organizer of GO Open Data, the first Ontario-wide conference on open data. His founding board membership and development work for The Avocado Co-op, which makes living more sustainably easier, have helped fulfill over 400 orders in the first two years of operation. Albert holds a BMath degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. He is a research scientist and has worked on various projects, including developing and extending Wagtail-based CMSes at CIGI and updating a large-scale legacy Django codebase to 1.8 and learning and building React components at CanadaHelps. He has also presented a talk on Django Channels at PyCon Canada 2016 and has built a complete CMS for the Ontario College of Pharmacists to power their revamped website.