Charbel Ghossain

I'm an engineering leader with a passion for getting things done. Welcome to my corner of the internet.

About Me

I started writing code at the young age of 9 in an attempt to make my very own video games. I still remember dabbling in QBASIC to create text-based RPGs, then graduating to Flash & ActionScript to make more visually rewarding mini-games. At that time, I never imagined where my little hobby would take me.

After earning a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Windsor, and working as a software engineer in Toronto Canada for several years, my journey led me to Silicon Valley, where I worked as a software engineer at IBM, then joined Chartboost, where I built several ad-tech products, including an ad-mediation product that outperformed Google's Admob, managed multiple engineering teams, and oversaw the acquisition of the company by Zynga.

I am fortunate to have worked with some amazing people and built products that have been used by millions of people around the world.

Skills

Core Skills

Software EngineeringDistributed SystemsScalabilityClient-Server ArchitectureSDK DevelopmentAPI DevelopmentWeb DevelopmentData PipelinesCloud servicesContainerizationTesting & AutomationLeadership

Languages & Technologies

PythonGolangJavaJavascriptTypescriptNodeJSSQLMongoDBRedisMemcacheBigQueryBigTableDockerKubernetesTravisJenkinsFastAPIFlaskReactTensorflowNumpyAWS / GCP

Ad-Tech

OpenRTBAd-MediationProgrammatic AdvertisingSSPsDSPsMMPsDMPsAd-LifecycleViewability (OMSDK)Ad-RankingAttributionPrivacy & Consent managementAB Testing & optimization

Experience

Chartboost acquired by Zynga / T2
JULY 2022 - PRESENT

  • Director of Engineering

    • Directed a department of 40 engineers across 5 teams to build our next generation Ad-Mediation and Monetization platform.
    • Oversaw the migration of core Zynga titles to Chartboost Mediation, driving 23% ARPDAU increase, and a major performance lift across all metrics for titles such as Words with Friends, Game of Thrones Slots, Empires & Puzzles, Farmville 3, CSR, Zynga Poker.
    • Led complex projects spanning our entire advertising stack (SDK → SSP → DSP), scaling high QPS services (2.3M+ QPS), and bridging the gap across departments.

Chartboost acquired by Zynga
SEP 2020 - JULY 2022

  • Engineering Manager

    • Focused on improving scalability, performance, and quality of our real-time bidding solution, culminating in a product that outperformed Google's Admob and Applovin's Max.
    • Oversaw the OpenRTB integration with several Ad-Networks including Google Bidding, Meta Audience Network, Amazon APS, and Lift-off.
    • Led the team’s engineering efforts throughout our acquisition by Zynga.

Chartboost
MAY 2018 - SEP 2020

  • Senior Software Engineer

    • Built the company’s first Ad-Mediation solution, focusing on backend servers using Golang + Python.
    • Collaborated closely with the Mobile SDK team to define SLAs and build the product from the ground up.
    • Built the entire self-serve and customer facing dashboard, providing configuration and analytics reporting to our beta customers.

IBM Tealeaf
NOV 2015 - MAY 2018

  • Software Engineer

    • Developed new features and enhancements for the Tealeaf session capture SDK.
    • Built configuration tools for the session capture product.
    • Built custom SDK solutions for high profile clients including Wells Fargo, Delta Airlines, Fidelity, and others.
    • Set up a CI/CD and testing automation pipeline using Jenkins, Ant, and Selenium Webdriver.
    • Researched new ideas, POCs, conducted feasibility studies, and created documentation for new features and enhancements to the SDK.

Questrade
SEP 2014 - APR 2015

  • Senior Software Engineer

    • Developed rich interactive UI components for client facing wealth management software.
    • Created SVG animations using Javascript, CSS3, and GreenSockJS for the PortfolioIQ product lunch marketing campaign.
    • Developed features for the AngularJS based PortfolioIQ wizard ( an automated wealth management software )

Avid Life Media
JAN 2013 - SEP 2014
APR 2015 - NOV 2015

  • Javascript Developer

    • Built a real-time chat system for our mobile app using NodeJS and Socket.io that scaled to support the app's 40 million users
    • Reworked the entire legacy app into a modern mobile web app using Backbone JS, Underscore JS, JQuery, Handlebars, Twitter-Bootstrap, LESS css, and HTML5 on the front-end.
    • Introduced new concepts such as MVC, dependency injection, and modularization to the codebase.
    • Transitioned from a backend PHP role to a JS developer role on the newly created mobile team

Tandis Software
JAN 2010 - SEP 2011

  • Flash ActionScript 3.0 developer

    • Developed educational games, for the Ontario ministry of education using Flash/Actionscript 3.0, Adobe CS5.
    • Developed custom user controls and GUI interface using VB.NET , and ASP.NET.
    • Focused on reusability while developing modules in order to stay in line with the company's technical goals

Education

Bachelor of Computer Science
SEP 2006 - JUN 2010

    • University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada