profile

About Me

My name is João Rodolfo Suárez de Oliveira, also known as Rod Oliveira. I am a Senior Software Developer based in Halifax, Canada, with more than 20 years of experience building enterprise applications, integration solutions, and proof-of-concept systems. My core expertise includes Java, Spring Boot, Microservices, AWS Cloud, React, and messaging/integration technologies such as Solace, Apache Kafka, and Apache Camel. More recently, I have expanded my work into artificial intelligence, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Large Language Models, and my Local GenAI Lab project on GitHub.

Contact Details

Rod Oliveira
Halifax, Canada
jrodolfo@gmail.com

Download Resume

Education

Dalhousie University

Master's studies in Electronic Commerce (MEC)• 70% completed

Canada's first Master's program in Electronic Commerce, delivered jointly by the Faculties of Law, Management, and Computer Science. The program combined coursework, applied research, and business experience in e-commerce and digital business. It later evolved into Dalhousie's Master of Digital Innovation (MDI).

State University of Campinas (UNICAMP)

Bachelor of Computer Engineering

Unicamp is one of Brazil's leading public universities, internationally recognized for excellence in engineering, science, and research.

Credentials

Solace Certified Developer Practitioner• 2026

AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate• 2024

AWS Certified AI Practitioner• 2024

AWS Certified Developer - Associate• 2022

IBM Banking Insights and Solutions (Silver)• 2022

Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka• 2021

MuleSoft Certified Developer• 2019

Work

IBM

Software Developer | Bedford, Canada |2016 - 2025

Department of National Defence (Canada) - Developed an open-source proof-of-concept demonstrating how isolated systems could communicate through an Event-Driven Architecture (EDA) using Solace PubSub+, Spring Boot, Java, Docker, MySQL, React, Vite, and Axios.

Resources:
• Source code on GitHub
• Message-flow diagram
• System runtime diagram

IBM WatsonX Challenge 2024 - Participated in the IBM watsonx Challenge 2024, gaining hands-on experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) by implementing and testing a solution using Jupyter Notebook, Python, Milvus vector database, watsonx.ai, and watsonx.data.

PNC Bank - Contributed to an enterprise event-driven platform built on Confluent Kafka. Developed Kafka Streams applications in Java, supported production deployments with OpenShift, Jenkins, and Git, and created 7+ hours of knowledge transfer videos to help onboard new Kafka developers.

Your Career at IBM - Developed RESTful APIs using Java and Spring Boot to support IBM's internal career development platform. Implemented stress tests with JMeter, documented APIs using Swagger, and created knowledge transfer material to support the development team.

Northern Trust - Developed a Spring Boot proof-of-concept application that processed Apache Kafka messages according to business rules and generated email notifications based on message content. The solution received positive client feedback.

U.S. Law Enforcement Agency - Developed a Node.js REST API and designed an IBM DB2 database schema hosted on IBM Cloud, enabling secure mobile access to law enforcement information.

Enterprise Rent-A-Car - Developed a proof-of-concept in-car application using General Motors' Driver First Framework (DFF). The prototype received highly positive client feedback.

Spruce Meadows, Alberta - Developed Android features for a fan engagement mobile application that provides navigation and event information for visitors. Integrated Java-based API calls to external services.

Panorama, Public Health System - Maintained and enhanced a large-scale Java application supporting preventive care and public health operations, including outbreak management and emergency response.

Earned IBM Super Learner recognition annually from 2019 to 2025 for a sustained commitment to continuous learning and professional development.

 

CGI

Software Developer | Halifax, Canada |2013 - 2016

Deutsche Bank - Developed enterprise integration solutions using Apache Camel, Java, Hibernate, and Oracle to support pricing and trading systems. Designed and implemented an Elasticsearch proof-of-concept, using JMeter to demonstrate significant improvements in trading history search performance.

CIBC - Developed an Informatica Master Data Management User Exit using Java and REST APIs. Enhanced a remote banking application for the Business Banking Technology team.

CGI Corporate - Contributed to the technical planning of a global JIRA implementation involving CGI teams from North America and Europe. Participated in design workshops in Fairfax (USA), Bordeaux (France), and Cardiff (Wales), evaluated technical feasibility, created entity relationship diagrams (ERDs) to support system design discussions, and developed a Java application to load Professional Services Automation (PSA) data into a Master Data file.

 

Mariner Partners

Software Developer | Halifax, Canada |2011 - 2012

Bell Aliant - Contributed to the development and enhancement of the FibreOP front-end website using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.

 

NTT Data

Software Developer | Halifax, Canada |2007 - 2011

Pason - Developed a RESTful API providing access to real-time drilling data. Maintained and enhanced a BlackBerry application that enabled users to monitor active drilling operations remotely.

TIAA - Enhanced the enrolment component of a financial services platform using Java and Apache Struts, improving the presentation and clarity of product risks and benefits.

 

Motorola

Software Developer |Jaguariúna, Brazil | 2006

Contributed to the Warehouse Management System by developing the Information Manager module using Perl. The module enabled production managers to monitor and control warehouse and production line operations, supporting data-driven decision-making.

 

MRO Software - IBM

Software Developer | São Paulo, Brazil | 2004 - 2006

Developed the Service Provider module for the Maximo enterprise asset management platform using Java. The module supported contractor management, service level agreements (SLAs), and related business processes.

 

Bireme - World Health Organization

Software Developer | São Paulo, Brazil | 1999 - 2004

Primary developer responsible for implementing, testing, and maintaining DeCS (Health Sciences Descriptors), a multilingual structured vocabulary created by BIREME for indexing and retrieving biomedical literature through the Virtual Health Library (VHL). DeCS is based on the U.S. National Library of Medicine's MeSH vocabulary and is updated annually. This work contributed to software that organizes and retrieves biomedical literature across the Virtual Health Library. The following publications provide additional information about DeCS:
• Research in Health Area: 1 - DeCS Database (Health Sciences Descriptors)
• Pesquisa na Área da Saúde: 1 - Base de Dados DeCS (Descritores em Ciências da Saúde)

Developed SOAP web services supporting user authentication and retrieval of biomedical information.

Implemented the U.S. National Library of Medicine's Journal Descriptor Indexing (JDI) algorithm and other vector-based indexing methods using controlled vocabularies and thesauri. Configured and maintained the Collexis semantic search platform.

Designed and developed server-side and client-side components for The Cochrane Library and the Portal of Journals on Health Sciences.

 

UNDP - United Nations

Consultant | Brasília, Brazil | 2002

Served as a consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at Brazil's Ministry of the Environment. Evaluated the Brazilian Biodiversity Information Network (BINBR), including its information architecture, hardware infrastructure, access statistics, and database structure. Delivered a technical report to the Ministry of the Environment to support decisions regarding the future of BINBR.

 

University of Manchester (UK)

Software Developer | Manchester, England | 1998

Selected through the IAESTE international student exchange program as a summer software developer at the University of Manchester. Helped migrate an AVS5 module of the Molecular Animation and Visualization System (MAVIS) to AVS/Express as part of the project's migration to the newer visualization platform. Reference: MAVIS scientific publication.

 

Biological Computing - UNICAMP

Researcher | Campinas, Brazil | 1996 - 1998

Awarded a FAPESP research scholarship at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) to conduct research on algorithms for general sequence comparison problems applicable to bioinformatics. The research was supervised by Professor João Carlos Setubal as part of a research group and is documented on my FAPESP researcher profile.

 

IMECC - UNICAMP

Researcher | Campinas, Brazil | 1992

Awarded a FAPESP research scholarship at the Institute of Mathematics, Statistics and Scientific Computing (IMECC) of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) to study Paraconsistent Logic from both theoretical and applied perspectives. The individual research project was supervised by Professor Walter Carnielli and included supplementary studies in Computability, Set Theory, and Classical Logic. The research is documented on my FAPESP researcher profile.

 

Coworkers Testimonials

  • I have known Rod since 2010 when he took my graduate course in IT Project Management at Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University. I came to know him as a person with excellent knowledge of his field, great skills in applying his knowledge in developing demanding applications, and fantastic attitude as a team player/leader. His ability to connect with people from diverse professional and ethnic backgrounds to create a functional team environment is really amazing. During his studies in the IT Project Management course, he thoroughly impressed me and his classmates.

    Abdul-Rahim Nasir Ahmad, Professor of Business Strategy/Supply Chain Analytics

  • Rod was a key resource to the success of a critical project at CGI. In addition to his excellent Java development skills he was able to learn new technologies in a very short timeframe during the project. This was critical to finish the project successfully. His deliverables are high quality. He was an engaged and professional team member.

    Jussara Cacula, PMP - Project Manager at IBM

  • I worked with Rod for more than one year on Java based systems for the financial sector. He is a dedicated and reliable software developer who strives for quality results.
    Holding a range of Java certifications and having more than 8 years experience with Java based technologies, Rod is well-versed in the full software development life-cycle and familiar with practices like requirements analysis, unit testing, clean code, build automation, design visualization, technical documentation and peer reviews.

    Oliver Doepner - Software Engineer at IMP Solutions

  • Rod was part of my team at MRO. At the time we worked closely for more than a year in the development of a brand new application. During this time Rod demonstrated tremendous drive, facility in learning new technologies, ownership of his work and bias for delivering results.

    Diueine Monteiro - Software Engineer at Google

  • Rod is a loyal and dedicated software developer who is enjoyable to work with. He was an effective contributor to the team and regularly took initiative to learn new supporting technologies and showed a willingness to undertake additional work as required.

    Stephen Greene - Account Executive - Energy Sector at Microsoft

  • Rod is a very details oriented person who always followed process and procedures exactly. He would never hesitate to ask questions or make recommendations when it was necessary. Rod worked well within the team and was well liked by everyone.

    Gary Ogden - Lead Software Engineer at Salesforce

  • Rod Oliveira was responsible for the development of DeCS web interface, an important system for regional health centers of Latin American. Applied and focused, Rod was devoted diligently not only for the project launching, but in its maintenance.

    Rodrigo Ferrari - Research Assistant at University of Cologne

  • Rod was a hard working, dedicated student in the MEC program at Dalhousie University. It is clear that his strengths are in data mining and software engineering. While working with Rod on group projects, Rod demonstrated his IT expertise and was always willing to share his knowledge with less experienced group members.

    Kelly Blair - Service Office Manager at Gil-Son Construction

  • Rod is a team player and among those few ones who exchange information to empower the team. He is meticulous and a strong java developer. Given the opportunity, I look forward to working with him again.

    Mousbah Barake - Data Scientist and Optimisation Practitioner at Legato Health Ireland