Harish Ravindan

Harish Ravindran

Independent Consultant and Software Developer

Email icon harish@rhrish.com

Phone icon (+33) ** ** ** ** ** (on request)

Paris, Ile-de-France, FR

About

Independent consultant with 15+ years of experience across IT, entertainment and NGO sector, with a range of transferable skills, including but not limited to critical thinking, problem solving, mentoring, and project management. Primary expertise in web application architecture, accessibility, performance engineering, and workplace internal tooling. Mentor for career change directed towards frontend, backend, and fullstack development. Polyglot programmer, and a self-hosting advocate, with a focus on privacy.

Skills

Primary
TailwindSvelteRackRubyRuby on RailsSinatraGitMySQLPostgreSQLRedisMongoDBBash ScriptingServer AdministrationLinuxCaddyNginxMemcachedDockerExpressNodeJSOAuthREST APIsSelf HostingJAMStack
No Code/Quick Tooling
N8N automationsGoogle Apps ScriptingAppsmithBudibaseAppwritePocketbase11tyHugoWordpressStripe APIMinio (S3)
Others
VueReactFlutterPythonJavascriptApacheHAProxyBootstrapApache SparkKafkaOctaveAwkD3jsGNUplotScikit-learn/Pandas/NumpyMachine learningElasticsearchKibanaLogstashVagrantAWS administrationSlackGitlabJenkinsD2L Brightspace administration

Education

Certifications

Languages

English - Native/Bilingual
Tamil - Native/Bilingual
French - Functional

Work Experience

Knowledge Platform Consultant (Remote contract)
Capacity Building Unit, International Disability Alliance Multiple contracts - Dec 2020 to Jul 2022, Nov 2023 to Sep 2024

Paris, France

Knowledge platform consultant, with a focus on accessibility standards; primarily worked with the Capacity Building Unit of the IDA.

  • evaluated multiple vendors and implemented the online learning platform within the IDA, that is currently being used by it and its member organisations to impart online courses
  • co-facilitated new courses for its member organisations, and onboarded new users into the platform
  • acted as the point of contact for all platform support requests
  • managed end-to-end customization of the platform, to comply with IDA's standards
  • additionally, was responsible for the evaluation of vendors for various technology requirements across the organisation
D2L BrightspaceHTMLCSSBlackboard AllyShell scriptingWCAG 2
Mentor (Remote contract)
OpenClassrooms May 2017 - Jun 2024

Paris, France

Career mentor for fullstack, frontend, and backend paths.

  • guides and mentors people desirous of shifting their careers to IT
  • focuses on accessibility, usability, frontend, backend and fullstack technologies
  • experienced in handling over 3500+ hours of one-on-one mentoring sessions and project assessments, completely remote
Ruby on RailsPostgreSQLUMLHTMLCSSReactVueJSGitRDBMS conceptsREST APIsMongoDBNodeJSExpress
Data Analytics Architect
Social Media & Workplace Reimagination, TATA Consultancy Services Aug 2014 - Sep 2016

Chennai, India

Led the development of the analytics platform to measure, analyse and interpret social interactions across multiple enterprise social networking solutions.

  • responsible for system design and the architecture of the data analytics platform
  • managed the analytics team across multiple geographies and coordinated remotely, through Kanban boards and Slack
  • designed process pipelines for data extraction, data cleansing and data correction
  • built and mentored the analytics team from the ground-up, and imparted training to fresh recruits
Ruby on RailsPostgreSQLD3jsPython/Bash scriptsJQApache SparkKafkaMachine LearningNLPAWS provisioning/administration
Data Engineering Team Lead
TCS SaRiGaMa Margazhi App, TATA Consultancy Services Sep 2014 - Dec 2014

Chennai, India

Led a team of data engineers to source, clean, and organize data from various sources for the December music festival in Chennai.

  • implemented a data pipeline and successfully integrated data into a central store for use by the development team
  • accomplished accurate and timely information for the app users
  • designed process pipelines for data extraction, data cleansing and data correction
  • built and mentored the data team from the ground-up
Ruby ScriptingJQCSV ToolsPython/Bash scriptsCron jobsSQLPostgreSQL
Solution Architect
TCS Innovation Labs, TATA Consultancy Services Oct 2010 - Jul 2014

Chennai, India

Held several responsibilities and positions within the team from being a development lead, to leading the performance engineering team, liaising between corporate infrastructure teams, as well as building training programs and imparting training to new developers.

  • co-developed the system design, architecture and co-led the development of the TCS Corporate Social Networking platform
  • developed strategies for integrating various internal legacy systems with the platform
  • led the performance engineering team, and was involved in the tuning and optimization of the application server and PostgreSQL database
  • developed a performance-testing model based on the existing traffic data
  • managed the infrastructure requirements for the platform and liaised with the corporate infrastructure teams
  • developed training programs and training material for new developers on topics including Ruby/Ruby on Rails/MVC concepts
Ruby on RailsPostgreSQLGitHTML/CSSJavascriptMemcachedRedisResqueNginxHAProxyLinux server administrationPython/Shell scriptD3jsPerformance engineeringDatabase optimization
Technology Consultant
TATA Consultancy Services Feb 2011 - Apr 2011

Tampa Bay Area – FL, US, and Chennai - India

Technology Consultant for an American Media Research client(Nielsen Media Research) based in Tampa Bay Area.

  • helped evaluate and validate proof-of-concepts proposed by vendors in the Content Delivery Network space.
AkamaiCDN
Solution Engineer
TATA Consultancy Services Jan 2010 - Sep 2010

Cincinnati – OH, US, and Chennai, India

'Social Enabled'​ Sourcing Platform (for Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati).

  • developed a solution to enable technology-driven social collaboration among the sourcing team of Procter & Gamble and their vendors, in Cincinnati
  • integrated TCS' social networking platform with the customer's sourcing platforms and tools
  • conducted a one-on-one platform usage training session with each member of the sourcing team at the Proctor & Gamble head office
Ruby on RailsPostgreSQLJQueryBootstrapShell script
Technical Lead
TCS Innovation Labs, TATA Consultancy Services Jan 2009 - Dec 2009

Chennai, India

Co-developed a strategy for converting the team's internal social networking platform into a multi-tenant solution.

  • co-developed a strategy and co-designed the architecture for a scalable, distributed, and a multi-tenant version of the team's social networking platform; this involved tackling various challenges with data compartmentalization for each instance, and distributed patch management
  • developed a REST based multi-tenant API for the distributed setup
SAMLRuby on RailsPostgreSQLPython scripting
Developer
TCS Innovation Labs, TATA Consultancy Services May 2008 - Dec 2008

Chennai, India

Primarily responsible for developing proof-of-concept web applications on Ruby on Rails.

  • developed a Web 2.0 debating platform, modelled after the Oxford style of debating, allowing enterprise users to discuss contentious issues
  • co-developed various proof of concept for TCS’ knowledge management platform
  • demonstrated security vulnerabilities within TCS’ intranet portal and provided recommendations
REST APIOAuthRuby on RailsPostgreSQLMySQLHTML/CSSJavascriptPython scriptingLinux administration
Security Analyst
TATA Consultancy Services Sep 2006 - Apr 2008

Chennai, India

Responsible for evaluating and help maintain internal security of intranet and external facing web applications for Motorola.

  • conducted vulnerability assessments, penetration testing of internal and external facing web applications of the customer (Motorola)
  • delivered security assessment reports based on evaluation of the web applications
  • conducted manual security assessment based on OWASP standards for priority web applications
  • developed proof of concepts to demonstrate and highlight the security holes within the organisation’s internal portals
WebInspectOWasp security audit toolsPythonJavascript

Other Engagements/Personal Projects

School Admin Solution
Ecole Philippe Gaulier Oct 2023 - Dec 2023

This solution, built for a renowned theatre school, has transformed existing manual administrative processes to automated processes wherever applicable.

  • customized solution built ground up to meet with school's adaptive policies
  • handles several administrative processes like admissions, reports/certificate generations, courses management, class scheduling, and payments tracking.
  • training for non-technical end users to manage the system
  • continual maintenance and ongoing updates based on COVID/post-pandemic policies
SveltekitTailwindTypescriptGoogle Apps ScriptingMySQLN8N AutomationsLinux server administrationDocker
Spymonkey Website
Spymonkey Sep 2023 - Nov 2023

A Wordpress website built for Spymonkey - UK's leading physical comedy ensemble.

  • designed and built the new website within a quick timeframe aligning with the Client's design and rebranding vision
  • handled migration of old data to the new website
  • added customizations beyond Wordpress's regular features to enable Client to manage workshops, touring information, as well as ability to add Show details
  • continual maintenance and ongoing updates support
WordpressPodsPHPHTMLCSS
Online Book Store
Èditions Filmiko Jul 2020 - Aug 2020

A simple online book store for a private client to be able to sell their books.

  • delivered the entire solution within a short timeframe of 2 weeks
  • trained the site owners(non technical users) to be able to add new products, take care of shipping and taxes
  • integrated payments with Stripe API
HugoSnipcartNetlifyJAMStackStripeLinux server administrationDocker
Casting Newsletter automation
Private Nov 2022

This project, hosted on a private network, declutters a triweekly French newsletter received from a casting agency, into a readable website that is navigable with keyboard, with the ability to filter through different types of casting calls, and has an English translation support as well.

    N8N AutomationsMySQLLibreTranslateSvelteTachyon CSSRackSinatraDockerLinux
    Personal Cloud
    Personal Project Mar 2020 - Present

    This is a private network setup that uses self-hosted services and products, accessible only through secure methods, for daily usage of photos backup, music service, calendar/contacts sync, personal document management, as well as an occasional test ground for testing new self-hosted tools.

      OpenWRTADGuardLibreTranslateNextCloudPaperlessNginxRSyncWireguardDockerLinux