Hershel Thomas
Third-year Computer Science student at Reichman University with professional experience in both full-stack development and systems infrastructure. As a former competitive Rubik's Cube speed-solver (Top 3,000 in USA; 9s average), I bring an algorithmic and high-performance approach to every layer of the stack.
Ask the chat widget about Hershel's experience, skills, and projects for evidence-backed answers.
Experience
Founder & Lead Software Engineer
RESTume · Herzliya, Israel
• Architecting a multi-tenant SaaS platform that transforms developer resumes into queryable AI profiles, utilizing a modern FastAPI, HTMX, and Tailwind CSS stack. • Engineered a Hybrid RAG pipeline utilizing GPT-5-mini and a split-stack ChromaDB vector architecture to deliver deterministic, anti hallucinated candidate intelligence. • Developed a dedicated Model Context Protocol (MCP) server via Streamable HTTP, enabling AI agents (Claude, Cursor) to directly query, rank, and analyze the global candidate semantic index. • Designed a comprehensive DevOps infrastructure including multi-stage Docker builds, automated Azure deployments, and strict CI/CD retrieval quality gates using 300-case benchmarks.
Software Engineer
Sefaria · Jerusalem, Israel
• Engineered the organization’s first comprehensive mobile E2E automation framework (iOS/Android) via WebdriverIO and Appium, reducing manual testing time by 60%. • Architected a modular testing abstraction layer that empowered non-technical staff to author automated tests independently, accelerating release velocity by 40%. • Developed and deployed the ”Sefaria Down Detector,” a custom heartbeat monitoring service ensuring real-time uptime transparency across core digital assets.
Lead QA Manager
Watchful.ai · Tel Aviv, Israel
• Directed the QA lifecycle and release management, guaranteeing defect-free deployments and seamless customer flows prior to launch. • Developed custom automated testing pipelines using Python and Flask, eliminating 18 hours of manual QA overhead per week for internal tools. • Analyzed product telemetry in collaboration with Sales & Marketing to deliver competitive intelligence for a $25B market cap tech enterprise.
Youth Counselor
Yagilu Wilderness Camp
• Served as a counselor for 13 campers, creating survival-themed activities and guiding overnight hikes. • Assisted children in resolving social/emotional challenges and directed relationship-building exercises.
Skills
Languages
Frameworks
Infrastructure & Tools
Projects
Multi-Signal Reranker (QuadRank-Robust04)
• Engineered a state-of-the-art Information Retrieval system for TREC ROBUST04, achieving a 0.3309 MAP to deliver a 10% relative baseline improvement. • Architected a 4-Way Adaptive RRF algorithm that dynamically fused lexical, dense, and generative signals based on query complexity. • Designed a RAG-style query expansion pipeline (Query2Doc via Llama-3) to synthesize pseudo-documents and effectively bridge vocabulary gaps. • Optimized neural inference latency by 75% via an "Inverted Pyramid" truncation strategy, capturing 95% of relevance signals within 512 tokens.
Terminal Graphics Engine & API (DrawingAPI)
A high-performance graphics engine designed to run directly within the user’s system terminal, delivering 60+ FPS flicker-free visual output through custom ANSI buffer management. • Engineered a double-buffered rendering system using 2D arrays and ANSI escape sequences to achieve flicker-free output. • Developed DrawingAPI, featuring Bresenham’s Line Algorithm, alpha compositing, and matrix transformations. • Built a tile-based world system used for ConnectFour and an open-world Puzzle Game with environmental physics.
AtmoSphere: Intelligent Weather
Context-aware native Android app mapping meteorological data into personalized activity recommendations with real-time background alerts. • Engineered a native application utilizing MVVM architecture and Kotlin Coroutines for asynchronous API handling. • Integrated WorkManager-powered background services for real-time rain alerts even when the application is inactive.
Beyond The Bullet Points
A professional media hub where resumes come to life; transforms technical career narratives through weekly podcast analysis and expert blog insights into the modern job market. • Engineered an automated RSS feed parsing/caching system and a TipTap-powered rich text editor. • Integrated a dual-perspective analysis platform for recruiters and narrative strategists to dissect real resumes.
Localhost Tunnel & Preview (HershelsFRP)
A developer-focused infrastructure tool designed to securely expose local development environments to the public internet with persistent identity and real-time security auditing. • Architected a self-hosted Fast Reverse Proxy (FRP) service and VS Code extension to expose localhost via persistent URLs at hershel.dev; supports HTTP/S, WebSocket, and TCP for database access. • Built a security layer that alerts users before exposing sensitive ports (SSH, MySQL) or unauthenticated databases.
Microservices Stock Portfolio
Cloud-native financial system demonstrating high availability and automated CI/CD orchestration. • Deployed microservices on a Kubernetes cluster with a full GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline.
Education
B.S. Computer Science in Computer Science
Reichman University
• Performance Growth: Realized a 15-point increase in annual average (to 86.15%) following 2023–2024 disruptions; demonstrated a consistent, high-impact approach across all technical and theoretical Computer Science coursework. • Notable Courses: Operating Systems (96), Unreal Engine (96), Android Development (95), Cloud Computing (91), Algorithms (88), Coding Theory (89), Intro to CS (96), Machine Learning (Pass- Iran War), LLMs for Software Engineering (Current). • Table Tennis Club Captain: Coordinate playing time and player development for the university student club
GPA: 86.00
High School
Ida Crown Jewish Academy
• Honors: IL State Scholar (Top 10%), National Honors, AP Scholar Distinction, Chesed Society (250+ Hours), Aaronson Science Award. • Robotics Team Captain: Led the development of an autonomous robot; programmed the camera in C++. • Math Team Captain: Mentored teammates to a first-place competition victory against 20 schools through advanced instruction
GPA: 4.43