Howard Wang
Senior Backend Engineer · Python · Distributed Systems · AWS
Jersey City, NJ · howardwhw.py@gmail.com · U.S. Permanent Resident · No sponsorship required
Senior Backend Engineer with 8+ years of experience building production APIs, event-driven services, data pipelines, internal platforms, and cloud infrastructure. Strong Python background across Flask/FastAPI services, strong Scala background across Akka/Pekko services, third-party integrations, automation, and AI-assisted workflows, complemented by deep distributed-systems experience with Kafka, Redis, SQL databases, Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS. Experienced in financial platforms, KYC/compliance, and 24/7 production operations.
experience
- ▸Built and maintained production backend services from scratch in Python and FastAPI for KYC onboarding, copy-trading, broker and agent management, user registry, compliance operations, external data ingestion, and internal administrative tooling.
- ▸Designed asynchronous Python workflows using Kafka, Redis, PostgreSQL, and MySQL, with idempotent event processing, retry and backoff policies, audit trails, and explicit failure handling for unreliable third-party dependencies.
- ▸Led the design and implementation of copy-trading workflows, including strategy enrollment, follower management, allocation rules, order lifecycle coordination, execution-status tracking, reconciliation, and operational controls; integrated with Scala (Akka/Pekko) trading services responsible for low-latency order execution.
- ▸Built Python-based KYC onboarding and compliance workflows integrating Jumio and other identity providers, and developed an AI-assisted review tool that normalized external data, summarized applicant histories, extracted risk signals, classified rejection reasons, and generated reviewer-ready investigation summaries with human approval.
- ▸Covered 50% ownership of production infrastructure across AWS and Linux environments, including Docker deployments, container registries, CI/CD pipelines, monitoring, incident response, release automation, and production troubleshooting.
- ▸Built React and TypeScript frontend pages for the agent and broker management system, copy-trading onboarding, and employee-facing admin portal, integrating backend APIs and supporting operational, compliance, and customer-service workflows.
- ▸Served as the primary backend engineer for offerbang.io and weetok.com, owning architecture, API development, database design, cloud infrastructure, deployments, and production support.
- ▸Designed and implemented Python Flask APIs backed by MySQL and MongoDB, including authentication, business workflows, internal operations tools, and integrations with external services.
- ▸Built data-processing and tagging logic for user segmentation, targeted promotions, campaign operations, and follow-up workflows.
- ▸Developed Vue.js administrative applications for content management, user operations, promotions, and business analytics.
- ▸Managed AWS and Alibaba Cloud infrastructure, Linux servers, Docker/Kubernetes deployments, CI/CD, monitoring, and 24/7 production maintenance.
skills
Languages: Python, SQL, Scala, TypeScript/JavaScript, Go
Backend: FastAPI, Flask, REST/OpenAPI, Asynchronous Processing, Microservices
Data & Messaging: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka
Cloud & DevOps: AWS (EC2, S3, SQS, Lambda, ECR), Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CI/CD, Monitoring
AI Engineering: LLM API Integration, RAG, Prompt Engineering, Embedding Search, Structured Extraction, Human-in-the-Loop Workflows
education
coursework: Software Engineering, Web Developing, Big Data, Distributed Systems, Cloud Native