Work experience

September 2018 — October 2024

Software Engineer / Automattic (Day One)

●​ Designed and implemented high-performance RESTful APIs capable of processing 2,000+ requests per second for 200+ concurrent users, utilizing Node.js, Express, and PostgreSQL.

●​ Doubled system capacity and eliminated bottlenecks by refactoring synchronous operations to a queue-based processing system using PGBoss, reducing blocked API calls by 120% and improving overall response times by 85%.

●​ Boosted application scalability and maintainability by migrating monolithic legacy applications to containerized microservices architecture on AWS ECS Fargate using Docker, improving deployment flexibility and resource utilization.

●​ Executed cloud optimization initiative, reducing infrastructure costs $120,000/year through systematic audits of EC2 instance types and optimization of S3 storage lifecycle policies.

●​ Accelerated deployment cycles from 60 minutes to five by designing and implementing robust GitHub Actions CI/CD workflows with automated testing; release frequency increased by 400% while maintaining code quality and stability.

●​ Engineered enterprise-grade reliability solutions achieving 99.999% uptime with comprehensive monitoring and alerting systems (CloudWatch, Datadog, PagerDuty), using custom dashboards to support proactive issue resolution across distributed services.

javascript docker AWS PostgreSQL GitHub Actions
April 2015 — September 2018

Software Engineer and Owner / infoMetrix

​●​ Engineered and deployed a high-performance Laravel PHP application for the Emmy Awards nomination process, handling hundreds of daily submissions and securely processing over 11TB of video content with optimized streaming capabilities.

●​ Architected resilient AWS infrastructure utilizing Elastic Beanstalk, CloudWatch, and RDS with automated scaling and failover protocols, maintaining 99.999% uptime during nomination deadlines when platform traffic increased by 1,500%.

●​ Designed and implemented an intuitive Vue.js-powered form management system featuring drag-and-drop functionality and real-time validation, reducing administrative configuration time by 70% and enabling dynamic customization across 150+ award categories.

●​ Optimized MySql database performance through strategic indexing and query optimization, resulting in 60% faster page load times and enhanced user experience during peak submission periods

●​ Developed a genomic visualization service that transformed DNA sequence data into personalized digital avatars through proprietary algorithms, ensuring uniqueness across generated profiles.

Laravel AWS S3 EC2 PHP
October 2013 — April 2015

Software Developer / Change Heroes

●​ Architected and implemented an enterprise-grade donation platform leveraging Java services on AWS Beanstalk, processing over $2M annually across 15+ countries with 99.99% uptime during peak campaign periods.

●​ Engineered a robust, fault-tolerant video processing ecosystem on AWS (utilizing S3, EC2, Lambda) capable of handling 500+ video uploads daily with automatic transcoding to multiple formats, resulting in 40% reduced delivery costs and 65% improved streaming performance.

●​ Optimized cloud infrastructure through auto-scaling groups, load balancing, and caching strategies to reduce operational costs by 30% while maintaining sub-200ms response times during 10x traffic surges.

●​ Spearheaded mentorship program for junior developers, using structured code reviews and pair programming sessions to accelerate team onboarding and reduce production defects by 45% over 12 months.

●​ Established comprehensive GitHub CI/CD pipelines with automated testing suites, enabling multiple daily deployments with zero-downtime, significantly enhancing development velocity and product quality.

Java Grails AWS EC2

Skillset

Core skills

  • API Development
  • Application Design & Architecture
  • Performance Optimization
  • Continuous Integration/DevOps
  • DevOps

Languages

  • Node.js
  • Java
  • PHP
  • C#

Databases

  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL
  • RDS

Cloud Services

  • EC2
  • ECS/Docker
  • RDS
  • S3
  • SQS

CI/CD

  • GitHub Actions/Workflows
  • Jenkins
  • Circle CI

Monitoring & Quality

  • CloudWatch
  • DataDog
  • Semgrep

About me

Hi. I'm Daryl Chymko, a tech enthusiast and outdoor adventurer whose journey with computers began early—so early, in fact, that in Grade 4, I was caught reading a programming book in class instead of paying attention to the lessons. My teacher nearly took it away, but the curiosity of figuring out programming kept me hooked, and I spent my weekends and evenings teaching myself the BASIC language.

That curiosity eventually grew into a career as a software engineer, where I’ve had the chance to develop back-end systems and infrastructure across startups and larger-scale enterprise projects. I thrive in environments where autonomy is the norm, and can quickly adapt to changing needs and evolving requirements. I've worked mostly for remote/distrubuted organizations and have created a site called AsynchronoUs.work to share my experiences and lessons working remotely.

Outside of work, I’m driven by a love for the outdoors. I founded Get Outside, an initiative that encourages people to explore human-powered outdoor adventures and connect with nature. For me, exploring remote landscapes and adapting to changing weather and the unknown is a way to connect deeply with nature, embracing life’s adventures with the same passion and curiosity I have for technology.