Hi, I'm Sherman Liu.
I am a Python backend developer with seven years of experience building production web systems.
My backend work spans REST APIs, microservices, MySQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, ETL pipelines, RabbitMQ, workflow orchestration, and CI/CD. With additional frontend and design experience, I can also deliver full-stack applications when a role calls for it.
I am seeking Python backend opportunities and am also open to full-stack roles. Learn more about my experience:
Selected Work
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May 2026 – Aug 2026 · 4 mos
Ottawa · Remote
Contributed to the redesign of the Wild Child Ice Cream website, taking ownership of the About Us, Foodservice, and Store Locator pages. Learned Framer in one week and used it to implement the designs.
- Built animated, CMS-powered pages in English and French.
- Created responsive layouts for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
- Achieved Lighthouse scores above 95 for performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO.
Stack: Figma, Framer, CMS, Responsive Web Design
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Jan 2026 - Apr 2026 · 4 mos
Ottawa · On-site
Supported trademark data systems during a four-month software engineering co-op, with work across ETL reliability, data quality, and frontend performance.
- Improved a CIPO trademark ETL pipeline by refining Elasticsearch migration workflows and adding Prefect orchestration, monitoring, and failure tracking.
- Designed and implemented WIPO representative data normalization to group duplicate entities with similar names and addresses into unique profiles.
- Authored approximately 10 internal documents covering system architecture, workflows, and onboarding.
Stack: Python, Elasticsearch, Prefect, ETL
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Jan 2026 – Mar 2026 · 3 mos
Rebuilt Younth's company website from Figma as a production PHP and MySQL application, including a secure admin dashboard that lets staff manage the product catalogue and other site content without editing code.
- Optimized an image-heavy catalogue for a 1 Mbps server using Cloudinary, responsive images, lazy loading, and pagination.
- Delivered responsive layouts across devices, with Lighthouse scores above 90 for performance, accessibility, and SEO.
- Deployed and configured the application on Alibaba Cloud virtual hosting, strengthened routing and security with Apache .htaccess rules, and resolved HTTPS certificate issues with ZeroSSL.
Stack: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Bootstrap, SCSS, Cloudinary
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Aug 2025 - Sep 2025 · 2 mos
Created a responsive, multi-language portfolio to showcase blog posts and travel experiences, with an interactive map and AI-driven summaries. Implemented CI/CD deployment, accessibility improvements, and PWA support.
Stack: Astro, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Docker, OpenAI, GitHub Actions, AWS
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Nov 2020 – Nov 2023 · 3 yrs
China
Developed and maintained Python Nameko microservices for a global student rental platform, built the landlord backend system, refactored real-time chat with MongoDB/Redis, and improved code quality with OOP design and internal documentation.
Stack: Python, Nameko, Elasticsearch, MySQL, RabbitMQ, MongoDB
Education in Canada
In 2026, I completed the Interactive Media Design diploma at Algonquin College in Ottawa. The program strengthened my frontend development, responsive design, accessibility, photography, and videography skills, complementing my backend experience with the ability to contribute across the full stack.
If you’re interested in my life abroad, I’ve shared some reflections from my first year in Canada in this WeChat post: A Year of Study in Canada.
My Blog
I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts. When working in China, I gave several presentations on frameworks we used in our projects, explaning how they work, such as Flask, Nameko, and received positive feedback.
In my web courses, I built several HTML and CSS projects, where I learned a lot about responsive design, accessibility, and media queries. I wrote several posts to share my takeaways from those experiences.
My Photo
Outside of work and study, I love backpacking. While working at Student.com, I had the flexibility to work remotely, which gave me the opportunity to travel to over 20 provinces in China. I'm also passionate about photography and videography. I've taken many photos during my trips, and I've used some of them as banner images on my blog posts.
