KEVIN ZHAO
+1 (646) 494-9401
(U.S. Citizen)
kevin.zhao.career@outlook.com
Education
Carnegie Mellon University, Tepper School of Business
New York, NY
Former Candidate of Master of Science in Computational Finance (Withdrawn)
Carnegie Mellon University, School of Computer Science
2014 – 2017
Pittsburgh, PA
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, Minor in Mathematical Sciences
2007 – 2011
Stuyvesant High School
New York, NY
High School Diploma
2003 – 2007
Skills/Knowledge/Technologies
Computer Science
Finance/Economics
Statistics
Mathematics
Software Engineering
Programming Languages
Application Frameworks
Cloud Computing Services
Databases
Development Tools
Middleware
Operating Systems
Software Frameworks
Testing Frameworks
Web Frameworks and
Technologies
Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Infrastructure, Concurrency, Computer Security, Computer Systems, Complexity Analysis, Data
Structures, Databases (Graph, Relational (SQL), NoSQL), Deep Learning, Distributed Systems, Machine Learning, Memory Management,
Computer Networks, Operating Systems, Parallel Architecture and Programming, Principles of Programming Languages, Software
Architecture, Web Applications
Fixed Income, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Multi-Period Asset Pricing, MSCF Options
Financial Time Series, Financial Data Science, Probability, Statistical Inference
Financial Optimization, Operations Research, Stochastic Calculus, Graph Theory, Principles of Real Analysis, Combinatorics, Numerical
Methods, Calculus, Differential Equations, Probability
Agile, Analysis, Architecture, BDD (Behavior Driven Development), Continuous Integration, Dependency Injection, Debugging, Design
Patterns, Functional Testing, Integration Testing, TDD (Test Driven Development), Microservices, Regression Testing, Scaling,
Troubleshooting, Unit Testing,
x86 Assembly, ActionScript, BASH, C, C++, C#, CoffeeScript, CSS, Haskell, Java, JavaScript, Kotlin, Go, OCAML, Objective-C, MATLAB, Perl,
PowerShell, PHP, Python, R, Ruby, Rust, Scala, Scrum, SML/NJ, SQL, Swift, TypeScript, XML
Spring, .NET Core
Amazon API Gateway, Amazon Athena, Amazon Aurora, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon
CloudWatch, Amazon Connect, Amazon Chime, Amazon DocumentDB, Amazon DynamoDB,
Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store), Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute), Amazon ECS (Elastic Container
Service), Amazon Elastic File System, Amazon ElastiCache, Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes
Service), Amazon Elasticsearch Service, Amazon EMR (Elastic Map-Reduce), AWS Firewall
Manager, Amazon MQ, Amazon RDS, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Route 53, Amazon S3 (Simple
Amazon Web Services
Storage Service), Amazon SES (Simple Email Service), Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service),
Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service), Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud), Amazon WorkDocs,
AWS AutoScaling, AWS Certificate Manager, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline, AWS IAM
(Identity and Access Management), AWS KMS (Key Management Se rvice), AWS Lambda, AWS
Secrets Manager, AWS Secrets Manager, AWS Shield, AWS WAF(Web Application Firewall), Elastic
Load Balancing
API Management, Azure Active Directory, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Data Explorer, Azure Data Lake
Storage, Azure DevOps, Azure Functions, Azure Kubernetes Service, Azure Monitor, Azure
Microsoft Azure
Pipelines, Azure Repos, Cloud Services, Container Instances, HD Insight, Log Analytics, PowerBI
Embedded, Service Bus, Service Fabric, Storage Explorer, Traffic Manager, Virtual Machines, Web
Apps
(Not Available)
Google Cloud Platform
(Not Available)
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Apache Cassandra, Apache CouchDB, CockroachDB, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis
Apache Ant, Apache Maven, Eclipse, Hudson/Jenkins, NuGet, Git, Perforce, SVN (Apache Subversion), Visual Studio
Apache ActiveMQ, Apache Kafka, Apache Thrift, gRPC (Remote Procedure Calls), Protocol Buffers, RabbitMQ
Linux, macOS, OpenVMS, UNIX, Windows
Apache Flex, Apache Hadoop, Apache HBase, Apache HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System), Apache Spark, Apache Storm, Apache
Zookeeper, Intel DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit), Docker, Hibernate ORM, Kubernetes, Oracle Grid Engine, ORM (object-relational
mapping), SQLAlchemy, Terraform
Google Guice, Google Test, Jasmine, jUnit, Selenium
Angular/AngularJS, Apache Tomcat, ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET MVC, Backbone.js, Bootstrap, Django, Ember.js, Google Web Toolkit, jQuery,
Nginx, Lodash, Node.js, React/ReactJS, REST (Representational State Transfer) Api, Ruby on Rails, Underscore.js, web2py
Work Experience
Yieldstreet
Engineering Lead
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Backend/Scala: Working on features for portfolio services
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Documentation: Updating on-boarding documentation with additional instructions and architecture diagrams
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Architecting: Working on architecture improvements for the web application in general
Microsoft
Senior Software Engineer, Microsoft Teams
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Full Stack/C++/JavaScript/TypeScript: Working on feature enhancements and performance enhancements on Teams
desktop client.
New York, NY
2022 – 2022
Redmond, WA
2021 – 2022
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Responsive/Performance Tuning: Worked on improving multi-threading and multi-process features within Teams desktop
client.
Mentoring/Advising/Networking: Mentored and advised individuals (senior and junior engineers inclusive) on both projects
and concepts across the company. Met with, on average, two to three individuals daily.
On-Call: Handled on-call duties of supporting Teams.
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Global Impact Project (continued): Claim for infinite rewards still denied.
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[Stealth Startup]
Staff Software Engineer
Remote
2020 – Present
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Full Stack/Distributed Systems/Application: Focused on migrating both mobile, web, and desktop front-end applications and backend services onto a public cloud
offering (AWS, Azure, etc.). Technology recommendations are proposed, along with redefining domain services and interfaces as needed.
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1:1 Meetings: Regular meetings are held with team members both on existing teams and partner teams to discuss any improvements that can be made
Roadmap Planning: Roadmaps are created with timeline estimates to ensure costs are kept relatively within control and business objectives are achieved in a
timely fashion.
Microsoft
Redmond, WA
Senior Software Engineer, Universal Store – Partner Center
2019 – 2020
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Full Stack/C#/TypeScript: Implementing authentication (Azure Active Directory) support for Listing Service in Partner Center
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On-Call: Handled on-call duties of supporting stuck workflows
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Cloud Services: Researched documentation and usage of Microsoft Azure services
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Continuous Deployment: Made modifications to Azure Pipelines to automatically deploy services and frontend UIs given requirements and restrictions that are met
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Component Selection: Made recommendations based on maintenance, ease-of-hiring, long-term performance.
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Connect Feedback: Wrote a Connect feedback for an engineer the detailed where most software engineering practices have been heading towards along with
industry trends and how to focus on improving as an engineer
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Global Impact Project (continued): As expected, a disaster occurred in the form of a coronavirus pandemic. Understandably, claim for infinite rewards for helping
save the world denied. Business impact detected.
Amazon Web Services, Inc.
Seattle, WA
Software Development Engineer II, Anti-DDOS
2018 – 2019
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Design Document: Proposed software implementations that would speed up existing systems, increase maintainability, reduce technical-debt, and add new
functionality to Anti-DDOS software
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Networking/Backend/C: Handled on on-call duties for Anti-DDOS mitigation
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Cloud Services: Researched documentation and usage of Amazon Web Services
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Mentorship: Mentored other engineers by giving relevant examples from past practices as well as recommendations of reference material.
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Performance Optimization: Researched and implemented performance enhancements from the Intel DPDK documentation
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Global Impact Project: Utilizing techniques taught by a genius Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science professor, launched a small global project that predicted
an imminent disaster. Evidence stored in government entity (Seattle King County). May have defeated a partner attorney at an international law firm. Leave may
be coincidental with the announcement of Amazon NYC HQ-2 bid failure.
Bloomberg L.P.
New York, NY
Senior Software Engineer, MARS – Multi-Asset Risk Systems
2014 – 2017
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Full-Stack/Application Development: Architected and developed front-end UIs and backend reporting services for MARS (Multi-Asset Risk Systems) in MARS
Collateral Management {MARS BCOL<GO>} and MARS Front Office {MARS PNL<GO>}; current products generate a total of $2.1 million annual revenue. Led
development of the collateral optimization project. Designed with reliability, scalability, and maintainability in mind, utilizing a maximum limit of retries and
automatic kick-offs of running jobs in case of failures, where completion is decided by accepting the first result as the winner.
(https://data.bloomberglp.com/professional/sites/10/MARS-Front-Office-Risk-Brochure.pdf)
(https://data.bloomberglp.com/professional/sites/10/MARS-Collateral-Management-Brochure.pdf)
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Independent: Managed and developed the frontend UI and backend C++ service for the Interest Manager.
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Innovative: Integrated link-line calculator into build systems and parallelized builds, effectively decreasing build time by an order of magnitude (10x).
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Mentorship: Mentored junior engineers and interns with design and code reviews and software architecture decisions, maintaining a high bar of quality for
engineering solutions.
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Interview: Interviewed candidates for software engineering positions.
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Libraries and Frameworks: Created C++ libraries and frameworks that reduce service development time by approximately 83.33% by heavily focusing on futureproof designs, robust APIs, and state minimization. Surpassed every other team lead candidate.
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User Base: Successfully delivered multiple high-priority projects simultaneously that increased customer base.
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Project Management: Utilized JIRA and Agile/Scrum methodologies to manage tasks and feature development.
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Software Architecture: Collaborated with product managers and other software engineers, leading architectural designs and proposing business logic solutions.
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Overperformance: Completely outclassed most other engineers who obtained a PhD and/or Master’s and others that attended top schools in other nations. May
have replicated the findings found at [Loyalka, P. (2019) Computer Science skills across China, India, Russia, and the United States]. Peak invention speed roughly
similar to group average learning speed.
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Applied Learnings/Research: Applied learnings from Effective Modern C++, Clean Coder, Designing Data-Intensive Applications, Patterns of Enterprise Application
Architecture, and other books to software engineering projects.
FactSet Research Systems
New York, NY
Software Engineer
2012 – 2014
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Software Design: Designed the first iteration of the GIPs application with support for handling failed Backbone components with limited restarts and independent
Backbone.JS message queues for intercomponent communication.
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Code Reviews: Performed code reviews for two teams.
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Mentorship: Created presentations on best practices for both JavaScript and C++ for sharing knowledge amongst other software engineers.
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Project Management: Utilized JIRA and Agile/Scrum methodologies to manage tasks and feature development.
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Applied Research: Applied learnings from C++ Primer, Accelerated C++, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, JavaScript: The Good
Parts, Code Complete, Working Effectively with Legacy Code, Programming Pearls, The Mythical Man Month, and other books to software engineering projects.
Collaboration: Discussed project requirements with product developers and managed task prioritization between engineering manager, product developer, and
other engineers.
Task Management: Handled distribution and discussion of tasks among fellow engineers, along with negotiating design and requirements with engineering
manager and product developer.
Leadership: Led single-page application development with ten engineers on GIPS (Global Investment Performance Standards) and five developers on SPAR (Style,
Performance, and Risk).
Frontend/Backend: Architected and wrote the backend report service and front-end UI before any additional engineers were added. Created a form builder for
serializing and deserializing JSON to Report Widgets.
Susquehanna International Group, L.L.P.
Bala Cynwd, PA
Technology Associate
2011 – 2012
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Continuous Integration/Distributed Systems: Automated dependency tests and memory leak tests with Jenkins and cron, leading to time savings for engineers
across the organization.
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Exchange Connectivity: Independently developed a C++ NASDAQ simulator that allowed placement of orders and connection of automated trading clients via the
ITCH and OUCH protocols from scratch.
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Self-Improvement: Applied learnings from mandatory readings in Effective C++, More Effective C++, C++ Primer, and other books to software engineering projects.
POW Solutions
Pittsburgh, PA
Software Developer
2011 – 2011
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Power Management/Distributed Systems/Backend: Wrote a simple backend C program that ran across different servers that help set different CPU frequencies
based on workloads. Communicated with a front-end.
IMC Trading
Chicago, IL
Software Developer Intern
2010 –2010
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Backend: Programmed an automatic trader in Java that utilized exchange APIs that traded SPY/ES options with delta hedging and a volatility arbitrage strategy
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Innovative: Created an adaptive layered software cache for storing values of option pricing calls based on various forms of interpolation and reduced average access
latency from 4 seconds to approximately 18 milliseconds for retrieving option prices
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Unit Testing: Wrote the majority of unit tests for our trading platform
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Self-Improvement: Applied learnings from readings in Effective Java, The Pragmatic Programmer, Java Concurrency in Practice, Concurrent Programming in Java,
and other books to software engineering projects.
Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center
Pittsburgh, PA
Software Developer
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Frontend: Ported components in Authoring Tools from ActionScript 2.0 to ActionScript 3.0
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Developer Tools: Created a software tool that allowed electronic tutor creation with Flash
2010 –2010
Software Developer/Research Associate Intern
2009 – 2009
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Frontend: Created a GUI component for editing electronic tutors and lesson plans in CTAT (Cognitive Tutor Authoring Tools)
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Productivity: Implemented features that greatly enhanced and improved user productivity and usability by reusing common editing routines from an average of 13
steps to 3 steps
Ken’s Excellence
Brooklyn, NY
Instructor
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Training: Created original learning materials to help sixth and seventh graders improve their problem-solving skills
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Results Oriented: Increase average test scores over time by approximately 11.4 points (out of 100)
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Public Speaking: Enhanced skills in public speaking, mentoring, and teaching
University of Florida
2008 – 2008
Gainesville, FL
UF SSTP (Student Science Training Program) Laboratory Assistant Intern
2006 – 2006
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Application Development: Increased efficiency of data collection and calculations of Quality Control on perishables (such as produce and organic material) by
utilizing a Java program to collect and extrapolate shelf-life data.
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Frontend/Java/Swing: Created a Java Swing GUI to display interpolated quality over time of various perishables
Course Projects
[15-440] Yet Another File System (YFS)
2011 – 2011
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Distributed File System: Wrote a distributed file system across multiple servers, implementing locking mechanisms. Utilized libfuse (Filesystem in Userspace).
[15-440] Distributed Password Cracker
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Distributed System: Wrote a simple brute force password cracker that distributed jobs across multiple servers.
2011 – 2011
[17-437] Recipe Lookup Web Application
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Web Application/Full Stack: Wrote a web application that allowed for simple recipe lookups.
2011 – 2011
[15-410] Pebbles Kernel
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Operating Systems: Wrote a simple kernel that supported tasks, threads, exception handling, system calls, and console input/output.
2010 – 2010
[15-213] HTTP Proxy
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Backend: Wrote a simple HTTP proxy that handled forwarding requests.
2008 – 2008
[15-213] Dynamic Memory Allocator (malloc)
2008 – 2008
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Operating Systems: Wrote several iterations of a dynamic memory allocator, one that relied on indexing that was less space efficient and highly performant, and
another that utilized existing free space as tree nodes that was highly space efficient and relatively highly performant.
[15-213] tsh (shell)
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Operating Systems: Wrote a simple shell that handled reading input, forking, and executing processes.
2008 – 2008
[15-211] Chess Bot
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Backend: Wrote a bot that competitive played chess and relied on tree pruning for decision making.
2008 – 2008
[15-211] Compression
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Compression: Wrote a Java program that compressed and decompressed files based on Huffman encoding and LZW compressions.
2008 – 2008
External Projects
2012 – 2014
To-Do Applications
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Frontend/Mobile/Web Application: Wrote a to-do list application in Objective C, Java, and JavaScript for Android, iOS, and web application. The intention was to
see what differences were there between the three platforms.
2004 – 2004
Ragnarok Online Bot Extensions
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Backend/Network/Bot: Wrote C# bot extensions to an existing bot to help level up a character. Dealt with garbage packets and dropped network packets. Level 98
Knight character was later lost in a server-wide hack and subsequently banned for being auctioned off.
Graal Online PlayerWorld (http://www.graalonline.com)
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2001 – 2001
Sam’s Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days
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Application Development: Executed every exercise in this particular Java book, obtaining a rudimentary knowledge of programming.
1998 – 1998
Accidental Windows Reinstallation
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2002 – 2003
Frontend: Created approximately 1/3 of an entire player world utilizing .png assets and scripts in a language based roughly on Java. Maximum players on this world
at one point reached 250. Astounded by this one particular script that enabled 2-D Platformer physics in a game that normally supported top-down movement due
to a lack of trigonometry knowledge at the time.
DevOps: In pursuing of entertainment from a borrowed copy of “Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? (Carmen Sandiego’s Great Chase Through Time”) from
Johnathan A. Khusid. May have accidentally “fixed” my father’s Blue Screen of Death by reinstalling Windows without a sufficient understanding of displayed
vocabulary. Never got past the second level of the game.
Additional Information
Interests and Activities
Former Activities
Former Test Scores and
Achievements
Gaming; Hiking; Long Distance Running; Reading Research Papers and Books on Self Improvement, Economics, Software Engineering,
etc.; Swimming; Weight Lifting; Traveling; Volunteering
Former VSA (Vietnamese Student Association) Co-President and Webmaster; Alpha Phi Omega (Service Fraternity)
GRE: Quant – 168/170, Verbal – 159/170; SAT: Math – 800/800, Reading – 750/800, Writing – 750/800; SAT-II: Math-II – 800/800, Physics
– 720/800, Chemistry – 750/800; Former Master’s StarCraft II (Top 2%); National Merit Finalist; AP Scholar with Distinction; National
Honor Roll; Dean’s List (Fall 2007 – Spring 2008, Spring 2009 – Fall 2009); Acceptance to Hunter College High School
DISCLAIMER: Details listed above accurate to the extent of memory and knowledge. Viewpoints may differ.