# Jamie (@jamie.schembri.me)

Profile: https://sifa.id/p/jamie.schembri.me
Headline: Full-Stack Ruby Specialist, Software Engineer
Location: Deurne, North Brabant, Netherlands

## About

Results-oriented software engineer with 15 years of experience spanning architecture, code, devops, and everything in-between. I help my peers do their best work, taking on whatever needs doing, be it writing code, leading the team, or making coffee. I use AI tools like Claude Code to improve productivity, drawing on my extensive experience to guide their use safely and effectively.

## Experience

- **Senior Software Engineer at PDM Automotive** (2021 – 2021)
  Ruby developer for a leading VC-funded, data-heavy app in the automotive space.
  • Sustained a complex Sinatra/Padrino application;
  • Improved a Shopify app with Elasticsearch and React;
  • Advised on separation of a monolith into a microservices architecture.
- **Senior Software Engineer at Initforthe** (2021 – 2022)
  Engineered full-stack apps for small to medium businesses with Ruby on Railsand Hotwire; worked very closely with clients to extract requirements and implement high impact features.
  • Used PostGIS, Google Maps and JavaScript with Stimulus to build highly interactive maps used for GPS queries;
  • Optimised slow and unreliable CI/CD pipelines, using paralellism to decrease test run-time by up to 95%, and leading to substantial productivity gains and lower time to delivery across the team;
  • Took over administration of several EOL Windows Server machines, writing Powershell scripts for legacy data consumption and synchronization over APIs.
- **Software Developer at LICO Innovations** (2020 – 2021)
  I returned to Lico Innovations during this period; please see the previous listing below.
- **Senior Software Engineer at OnTheGoSystems** (2019 – 2019)
  Worked on WPML, one of the largest premium WordPress plugins. Primary focus was on the Rails backend and communication with other services in the SOA.
- **Lead Engineer at Plug in Useful** (2018 – 2019)
  Built SaaS applications in Ruby on Rails & React for the Shopify e-commerce platform.
  • Spearheaded workflow improvements, DevOps, and communication, resulting in quicker feature delivery and a sense of teamwork;
  • Took ownership of code and infrastructure following a restructure, whilst keeping systems running and customers happy;
  • Worked closely with sales and customer service to prioritise and resolve concrete, customer-facing issues.
- **Software Developer at Lico Innovations** (2014 – 2018)
  Architected web applications of various sizes under demanding time constraints.
  • Developed a large enterprise SaaS application for global corporations in the catering industry, pivoting for survival early in the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • Leveraged Artificial Intelligence to generate rich metadata for a Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool used by film festivals, agencies, and educational institutions;
  • Implemented custom in-house tooling with Elixir to increase engineer productivity and reduce friction around a new, Docker-based development environment.
- **Full-stack Developer at Codebath** (2012 – 2014)
  Partnered with a designer to build high-quality, UX-focused websites for small businesses.
- **Full-Stack Developer at Keezze** (2011 – 2012)
  Designed and developed websites from specifications with an in-house PHP CMS.
- **Interim Tech Lead at Nedap** (2026 – present)
- **Senior Software Engineer at New Work SE** (2025 – 2026)
  Migrating several critical on-premises applications to AWS.
- **Senior Software Engineer at Nedap Healthcare** (2022 – 2024)
  Maintained and improved a large set of Ruby libraries in use across many independent (micro-)services, melding them into a cohesive framework as part of the new application platform, whilst providing support and upgrade paths for other teams.
  • Maintained a number of internal dependencies which together made up the legacy Ruby / Rails application platform;
  • Implemented reusable, shared CI/CD components, resulting in greater consistency and a more "plug-and-play" developer experience across teams;
  • Automated dependency monitoring, providing actionable insights over hundreds of projects.
- **Senior Software Engineer at Menuez International** (2024 – 2025)
  Delivered crucial features and handled key maintenance tasks.
  • Created two related flagship feature, using OpenAI, Gemini, and other LLM providers to infer data from photographs and pre-fill forms with React, saving customers significant time;
  • Built deep integration with a newly selected, third-party print editor using modern JavaScript via Stimulus;
  • Designed and implemented new cloud deployment strategies with Docker, Kamal, Terraform, and GitLab CI/CD;
  • Upgraded and replaced components of the existing platform, patching vulnerable software and increasing overall reliability.

## Education

- **The Open University** — Diploma (2009 – 2013)

## Skills

- Writing
- PHP
- Web Applications
- React.js
- Git
- REST APIs
- Redis
- Prompt Engineering
- Stimulus
- DevOps
- Ruby on Rails
- Kamal
- Ruby
- Javascript
- JavaScript
- CoffeeScript
- Web Development
- Linux
- Hotwire
- Elasticsearch
- Powershell
- SQL
- WordPress
- CSS
- Elixir
- Software Development
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Technical Writing
- Python (Programming Language)
- Rails
- Large Language Models (LLM)
- Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)
- docker
- Sinatra
- Bash
- Shopify
- HTML
- Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

## Certifications

- Generative AI with Large Language Models — Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/account/accomplishments/certificate/WPRJUV4QVEC2)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate — Amazon Web Services (AWS) (https://www.credly.com/badges/6b43d68f-31c7-40e8-9850-dae3a7962635/linked_in_profile)

## Projects

- **Enummer**
  An open-source Ruby gem I built to scratch an itch. Augments Rails with ergonomic, multi-value enum fields via bitwise operations.

The meta-programming required to tack this onto ActiveRecord was the most challenging, which also proves it a little tricky to maintain.
- **Schembri on Software**
  My software blog. I'm trying to write more to develop the skill, whilst sharing interesting and hopefully useful things with others.
- **Wordvine**
  A language-learning tool I built to improve my Dutch skills. Currently in the MVP phase, in that it works well enough for learning Dutch vocabulary from English.

The biggest challenge was engineering LLM prompts for meaningful content generation. This was then seeded into the app as JSON.

Built with Ruby on Rails, Python, OpenAI, Hotwire, Docker, GitHub (code + container registry) and deployed with Kamal.

## Publications

- Popping the Filter Bubble — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/popping-the-filter-bubble/)
- New Experiences at Friendly.rb — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/new-experiences-at-friendly-rb/)
- SOLID: Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP) — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/solid-dependency-inversion-principle-dip/)
- SOLID: Interface Segregation Principle (ISP) — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/solid-interface-segregation-principle-isp/)
- SOLID: Liskov Substitution Principle (LSP) — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/solid-liskov-substitution-principle-lsp/)
- SOLID: The Open–Closed Principle (OCP) — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/solid-the-open-closed-principle-ocp/)
- SOLID: The Single-Responsibility Principle (SRP) — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/solid-the-single-responsibility-principle/)
- SOLID for Ruby Engineers — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/the-solid-principles/)
- Your Dependencies Are Not Free — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/your-dependencies-are-not-free/)
- Start a Blog With Ghost & PikaPods — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/start-a-blog-with-ghost-and-pikapods/)
- Complexity — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/complexity/)
- Remove the 'Choose Your Search Engine' Dialog in Capybara — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/remove-the-choose-your-search-engine-dialog-in-capybara/)
- A Better Gitconfig — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/a-better-gitconfig/)
- Eleventy Tricks — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/eleventy-tricks/)
- My App is Slow. Who Cares? — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/my-app-is-slow-who-cares/)
- Debugging Software and Coffee — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/debugging-software-and-coffee/)
- RubyMine with Docker — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/rubymine-with-docker/)
- Faster Excel Parsing in Ruby — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/faster-excel-parsing-in-ruby/)
- Powering a Windows PC via HomeAssistant — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/powering-a-windows-pc-via-homeassistant/)
- Sidekiq and Logrotate: Why Is My Disk Usage Increasing? — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/sidekiq-and-logrotate-why-is-my-disk-usage-increasing/)
- Testing APIs in Ruby with RSpec — schembri.me (https://schembri.me/writing/testing-apis-in-ruby-with-rspec/)

## Volunteering

- IT Assistant at Discover IT

## Languages

- English (native)
- Dutch (full_professional)

## Other profiles

- github: https://github.com/shkm
- website: https://schembri.me