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Ruairí O'Hare
Software Engineer with 4+ years’ experience designing and building usable, end-to-end systems, specialising in data-focused applications and AI solutions.
Based in Belfast / Edinburgh.
Fun Stats (updated daily)
Current Focus: Data pipelines, microservices, and reliable web systems
Last Night Time Asleep: -- h -- m
Last Film Watched: --
Current Status: Open to new roles

Professional Experience

University of Edinburgh — Digital Preservation Developer

Nov 2022 — Sep 2025
  • Built a new digital preservation system from scratch, now used daily by all archivists across the university, significantly automating their workflow and saving hours of manual work daily.
  • Developed a data pipeline for ingesting large datasets into multiple long-term storage and digital asset management systems; integrating open-source tools, REST APIs, virtual machine management, web interfaces for monitoring ingestion flows and long-term infrastructure planning.
  • Automated data integrity checks with scheduled runs and email summaries, removing a major manual workload for the archivists and ensuring continuous integrity of archived collections.
  • Tech: Python, Docker, Linux/VMs, REST/JSON APIs, SQL, Drupal

Adobe — Software Development Engineer

Mar 2022 — Nov 2022
  • Built internal code analysis tools to generate quality metrics to evaluate pull requests, applying AI-like insights for project managers to track progress, reduce risk and speed up delivery timelines.
  • Integrated these metrics into CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins to automate reporting and enhance deployment speed and reliability using Groovy and Javascript.
  • Collaborated with engineers across teams to embed new analysis tools into existing workflows and improve build stability.
  • Tech: Java, Groovy, Jenkins, Unit Testing, Kubernetes, CI/CD, JavaScript

Visa Inc. — Graduate Java Developer

Sep 2021 — Mar 2022
  • Migrated a large legacy platform to a new Java microservice-based architecture for a new Visa digital ticketing product, rewriting and testing core components in Spring Boot to improve maintainability and performance.
  • Contributed to Agile development workflows using Docker, Maven, and RESTful APIs, gaining experience with enterprise CI/CD and production deployment practices.
  • Tech: Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, Docker, Maven

University of Edinburgh — Technical Support and Media Roles

Jun 2020 — Jun 2021
  • Supported academic departments with technology procurement, setup, and user training across multiple university projects.
  • Edited and published lecture media for online delivery and assisted with large-scale data migration during the transition to remote learning.

The Walt Disney Company — Cast Member

Jun 2019 — Aug 2019
  • Completed the Disney Cultural Exchange Program; worked in the second busiest restaurant in the world in the world’s most popular theme park Magic Kingdom.
  • Gained valuable experience absorbing industry leading work standards and operations and learning how the company delivers first-class entertainment experiences on a global scale.

💻 Projects

rohare.com

2026
Personal

Built and self-hosted a portfolio style website to host my CV, showcase work, and enable people to contact me.

  • Currently running on AWS Lightsail with CloudWatch alarms and a Lambda-based recovery function.
  • Designed and deployed the full site end-to-end, including data polling and UI.
  • Live “fun stats” pulled from Apple Watch health stats exports, the Spotify API, and a Letterboxd RSS feed.

Tech: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Nginx, Docker, Certbot/Let’s Encrypt, AWS Lightsail, CloudWatch, AWS Lambda

Digital Preservation System

2022–2025
Professional

Built an end-to-end digital preservation system that automates archivists’ workflows for long-term heritage collections, covering ingest, access, and monitoring with fixity checks, MD5 hashing, and authenticated access.

  • Designed the ingest, view, and monitor content workflow stages.
  • Implemented integrity and fixity verification via hashing and scheduled checks.
  • Open-source contribution: added Archipelago as a new storage space in Archivematica Storage Service, enabling transfers between Archivematica and Archipelago. Commit

Tech: Python, Docker, Linux/VMs, REST/JSON APIs, SQL (Postgres), Drupal, HTML, open-source tooling

Shape Estimation Of A Concentric Tube Robot Using A Machine Learning Model For Use In Bronchoscopy

2021
Student project Dissertation

Developed a neural network model to predict optimal robot shapes with AI for minimally invasive lung surgery, using curve parameterization and arc-length estimation.

  • Curve parameterization via arc-length reduced data while preserving shape accuracy.
  • Linear regression predicted arc-length with 91.74% accuracy.
  • Neural nets predicted curve coefficients; 70% of the first 10 reconstructions were nearly identical to the originals (trained on 400 samples).

Tech: Python, Keras, TensorFlow, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Excel

SQL Interpreter

2021
Student project

Built a Java-based SQL interpreter that parses and evaluates queries using a relational algebra execution model and writes results to a database.

  • Implemented bag relational algebra operators, including tuple nested join, sort, and duplicate elimination.
  • Built scan operators on a tree-structured execution plan.

Tech: Java

C to MIPS compiler

2019–2020
Student project

Built a Java C-to-MIPS compiler for a third-year university coursework project, implementing the full frontend and code generation pipeline.

  • Implemented compiler modes for lexing, parsing, AST construction, semantic analysis, and MIPS assembly generation.
  • Scored 100% in automated black-box university tests, with progress tracked daily on a course scoreboard.

Tech: Java

Autonomous Parking Robot 2020
Student project

Group project using a camera for license-plate analysis and a Raspberry Pi for driving instructions.

Tech: Python, Java, Jupyter Notebook.

Haskell Tic-Tac-Toe AI 2019
Student project

The project allows a player to play against an agent using a heuristic alpha-beta tree search algorithm to create an AI opponent.

Tech: Functional Programming, Haskell.

AI Drone Game

2018
Student project

Built a Java AI drone game with a browser-based UI that navigates GeoJSON map data to collect targets using optimal routing and obstacle avoidance.

  • Implemented heuristic and backtracking algorithms to search for optimal routes.
  • Parsed and navigated GeoJSON map data for gameplay.
  • Built obstacle-avoidance logic to keep routes valid.

Tech: Java

🛠️ Technical Skills

Languages

Java, Python, C, C++, SQL

Backend

Spring Boot, REST APIs, microservices, secure coding, Drupal

DevOps

Docker, Jenkins, AWS (Lightsail, S3), CI/CD, Linux, virtual machine deployments, Groovy

Databases

MySQL, Postgres, relational databases, schema design

Testing Frameworks

JUnit, pytest, mocking, code reviews
TensorFlow, Keras, Pandas

Web Tools

JavaScript, HTML/CSS

🎓 Education

The University of Edinburgh

2017 — 2021

BSc (Hons) Computer Science, First-Class Honours

  • Dissertation: Developed a neural network model to predict optimal robot shapes with AI for minimally invasive lung surgery.
  • Awarded the Edinburgh Award for outstanding on-campus contribution.

Rathmore Grammar School Belfast

2010 — 2017

A-Levels AAB in Maths, Biology and Chemistry
GCSEs - 7 A* and 3 A’s

🎯 Engineering Strengths

Data-intensive systems & pipelines: ingestion, integrity checks, and SQL-driven workflows for large or messy datasets.

Backend & service development: designing REST APIs, contributing to open-source tooling, and building microservices for production systems.

Quality & delivery mindset: unit testing/mocking, thoughtful code reviews, reliable CI/CD pipelines, and code analysis.

Cloud & operations: AWS (Lightsail, S3), Linux/VMs, and reliability-focused automation for small production systems.

Collaborative delivery: working across teams in agile environments; clear communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders.