Isabel Chen

Isabel Chen

Software engineer with experience across backend services, distributed systems, and full-stack web tools—from contest platforms and search infra to analytics pipelines and research tooling.

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor · B.S. Computer Science · Graduated August 2025.

Experience

Julius AI

Software Engineer · YC Startup · Remote · May 6, 2026 - Present

OmegaUp

Software Developer · PHP · MySQL · Redis · Python · Remote · Oct 2025 – May 2026

Education platform

  • Resolved cross-stack production issues across backend services, MySQL, and Redis on Linux, improving reliability for a coding contest platform serving 100K+ users with large-scale concurrent code runs.
  • Designed and implemented a secure multi-language code execution platform using ephemeral Docker sandboxes (network / file-system isolation, CPU and memory limits, timeouts) for untrusted code, delivering sub-second to seconds-level execution feedback.
  • Persistence-layer reliability engineering (query optimization, transaction boundaries, schema constraint remediation): 60% reduction in database error rates and 35% lower MTTR.

Springer Capital

Full Stack Developer Intern · Python · TypeScript · WebSocket · Chicago, IL · Aug 2025 – Oct 2025

Financial services

  • Re-architected analytics pipelines (Python, Redis, ClickHouse) on a small team: 85% API latency reduction (300ms → 50ms) and real-time data dashboards.
  • Shipped TypeScript workflow features and real-time views using REST and WebSocket APIs for latency-sensitive internal tools.
  • End-to-end analytics dashboards (React, TypeScript) handling 50K+ monthly queries for enterprise decision-making.
  • CI/CD consolidating 12 microservices into a monorepo with automated GKE deployments: release cycles from 30 minutes → 5 minutes.

University of Michigan

Software Engineering Intern & Research Assistant · Ann Arbor, MI · Aug 2024 – Mar 2025

  • Optimized backend data retrieval with TypeScript and state management improvements: 15% faster server response times.
  • Led 5 interns building a web-based email management platform (React, Node.js) with Google OAuth 2.0 and Gmail API integration.
  • AWS Lambda pipeline (Python, DynamoDB, API Gateway) for research activity logging—saved researchers 50+ hours per month.

Temu

Software Engineer Intern · C++ · Redis · Shanghai, China · Jun 2024 – Sep 2024

E-commerce

  • C++ distributed crawler/indexer with 16 worker threads: ~10K docs/sec index-build throughput via segment-based indexing.
  • Low-latency search at scale with Redis caching: P50 5ms / P95 20ms / P99 50ms, 85–95% cache hit rate on hot URLs.
  • Crawl deduplication cut redundant fetches by 60–80%, reducing bandwidth and processing overhead.
  • Linear-scaling indexing/storage pipelines: ~2GB memory per 1M docs, stable 60–70% CPU under multicore load.

Projects

All repositories on GitHub →

CartographIn progress

Headless commerce core (Vendure-style kernel)

TypeScript · Node.js · Drizzle ORM · SQLite · REST · plugin/kernel · BullMQ-ready workers

Monorepo commerce backend inspired by Vendure: catalog, carts, checkout with inventory reservation, Stripe, multi-tenant admin vs shop APIs, transactional outbox, and optional OIDC—with a slim core-api composition layer and domain logic in shared packages.

View on GitHub →

Meridian 2026

Edge-style HTTP proxy · systems programming challenge

Systems · networking · HTTP · concurrency · observability-minded design

A from-scratch exploration of what sits between clients and upstreams: connection lifecycle, request forwarding, back-pressure, and the sharp edges where correctness meets performance. Built as a focused systems challenge—tight scope, clear contracts, and room to iterate on routing, resilience, and how the proxy behaves under load.

View on GitHub →

PortCheck 2026

Disclosure documents · DAG approvals · compliance demo

Next.js · React · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · Drizzle ORM · Turborepo · Server Actions · React Flow

Monorepo demo for versioned fund disclosure documents: parallel review workflows modeled as a DAG (React Flow), server-enforced QA and sign-off gates, filing workspace with checklists and redlines, and an append-only audit trail—business rules enforced in Server Actions, not UI-only.

port-check.vercel.app/documents
Open

Open live demo →View on GitHub →

terilearn 2025

TypeScript · full stack · learning / AI product

Learning-focused product work in TypeScript—content workflows, quizzes, and tooling aimed at making study and review faster (aligned with Trilearn-style AI learning features).

View on GitHub →

web-crawler 2025

C++ · multithreading · search / indexing

C++ crawler and indexing-oriented codebase (MIT)—pairs well with distributed search and high-throughput crawl work (e.g. Temu-scale indexing and segment-based pipelines).

View on GitHub →

Cove 2024

React · Redux · Material-UI · Node.js · Express · MongoDB · JWT · Google OAuth · search · pagination · moderation

Cove is a MERN-stack app for invite-only “circles”: members share photo posts, comments, and tags in a private space (no public discovery). The React + Redux + Material-UI client talks to a Node/Express + MongoDB API with JWT and Google sign-in, content moderation, search, pagination, and user profiles—packaged as a full-stack social product focused on trusted groups rather than open feeds.

cove-gamma.vercel.app
Open

Open live demo →View on GitHub →

Skills

Languages Python · TypeScript · JavaScript · PHP · C++ · SQL

Backend & data MySQL · Redis · ClickHouse · DynamoDB · PostgreSQL · Drizzle · Node.js · Express · REST · WebSocket · GraphQL

Infra Docker · Linux · AWS (Lambda, API Gateway) · GKE · CI/CD · microservices

Frontend React · HTML/CSS · Tailwind · Material-UI · Redux