Ludvig Kihlman

Profile

Software engineer and technology leader with a Ph.D. in Computer Science and more than a decade of experience spanning research, full-stack development, and engineering management. Currently Chief Technology Officer at Bonusway, leading the engineering function and maintaining the company's software stack. Experienced across Python, JavaScript, PHP, and Java, with a background in domain-specific languages, data mining, and teaching.

Experience

• Chief Technology Officer · Bonusway Oy

  Dec 2022 – Present · Helsinki, Finland

  Cashback platform with 5 million active users. Own the engineering function and the technology roadmap across an Angular web app, a React app, and a PHP backend.

  • Reduced AWS costs by 60% across two rounds of auditing usage, removing unused resources, and re-provisioning over-provisioned resources.
  • Lead the engineering team and own end-to-end delivery across web, mobile, and backend.
  • Own and evolve the recommender system, built on natural language processing and co-training.
  • Drive the shift to an AI-first development process.

  JavaScript · CSS · HTML · PHP · Angular · React · NodeJS · Git · GitLab/GitHub CI/CD · AWS · MySQL

• Senior Software Developer · Bonusway Oy

  Oct 2021 – Nov 2022 · Helsinki, Finland

  Joined the engineering team as a senior developer and moved into the Chief Technology Officer role within a year.

  • Oversaw the deployment of the new Bonusway platform.
  • Extended the service with paid surveys.

  JavaScript · PHP · Angular · React · AWS · MySQL

• Full Stack Engineer · Edina, University of Edinburgh

  May 2018 – Sept 2021 · Edinburgh, UK

  Research software group at the University of Edinburgh building tools for teaching and research.

  • Contributed the exchange plugin for Noteable that was accepted upstream into Jupyter's nbgrader project (github.com/jupyter/nbgrader).
  • Delivered and maintained services across the stack, including Text and Data Mining, Noteable (cloud notebooks for teaching), and Digimap (mapping software for research and education).
  • Worked primarily in Python and Java, with Django behind the services and Kubernetes for deployment.

  Python · Java · JavaScript · CSS · HTML · Django · Git · GitLab/GitHub CI/CD · Kubernetes · MySQL · PostgreSQL

• Junior Database Developer · GFM Holdings Ltd

  Oct 2017 – May 2018 · Colchester, UK
  • Contributed to the redesign of a legacy database system.
  • Handled day-to-day database maintenance, including loading new data and producing data extracts.

  Python · JavaScript · PHP · Oracle DBMS · Git

• Full-Stack Engineer · Independent Contractor

  Oct 2016 – Mar 2017 · Colchester, UK
  • Designed and built a car-park ticketing website in PHP, JavaScript, and MySQL, integrated with Google Maps.

  PHP · JavaScript · MySQL · Google Maps

• Team Manager · School of Social Sciences, University of Essex

  Jul 2016 – Jan 2017 · Colchester, UK
  • Led a small team building an ASP.NET community-engagement site connecting local residents with university researchers.

  C# · ASP.NET · Microsoft SQL Server

• Application Programmer · Independent Contractor

  Jun 2015 – Mar 2016 · Colchester, UK
  • Extended a psychology-experiment application in Delphi/RAD Studio, then ported it to Java and added further features.

  Delphi · Java · RAD Studio

• Embedded Systems Developer · Independent Contractor

  Mar 2015 – Dec 2015 · Colchester, UK
  • Built a C++ user interface for an ARM/MBED embedded system used in psychology experiments.

  C++ · MBED

• Graduate Teaching Assistant · CSEE, University of Essex

  Oct 2013 – Mar 2017 · Colchester, UK
  • Taught and assessed undergraduates across programming, databases, and formal methods (Java, Python, JSP/Tomcat).

  Java · Python · JSP · Tomcat

• Student Programmer · Department of Mathematics, University of Essex

  Jun 2013 – Feb 2014 · Colchester, UK
  • Built a Moodle quiz-authoring plugin that was adopted by several lecturers across the university, plus a standalone web version.

  PHP · JavaScript · HTML · Moodle

Education

• Ph.D., Computer Science · University of Essex

  Sept 2021 · Colchester, UK
  • Topic: Framework for composition of domain-specific languages and the effect of composition on reuse.

• B.Sc., Computer Science · University of Essex

  Jun 2013 · Colchester, UK
  • Modules included: Advanced Programming (Java, Scala), Operating Systems, C and Embedded Programming, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence.
  • Grade: 1st

Publications

• Kihlman, L.(2017). “A test model for domain-specific language development”. In: 2017 9th Computer Science and Electronic Engineering (CEEC), pp. 207-212. doi: 10.1109/CEEC.2017.8101626
• Kihlman, L.(2015). “Producing domain-specific languages from strategy patterns”. In: 2015 7th Computer Science and Electronic Engineering Conference (CEEC), pp. 9-12. doi: 10.1109/CEEC.2015.7332691

Skills