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:

Sherman sits on a chair in the park and smiles

Selected Work

  1. May 2026 – Aug 2026 · 4 mos · Ottawa

    Wild Child Ice Cream logo

    Wild Child Ice Cream

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    Designer & Framer Developer · School Project

    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 build responsive, animated, CMS-powered pages in English and French, achieving Lighthouse scores above 95 across performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO.

    Stack: Figma, Framer, CMS, Responsive Web Design

  2. Jan 2026 - Apr 2026 · 4 mos · Ottawa

    IPVISIBILITY® logo

    IPVISIBILITY®

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    Software Engineer · Co-op

    Inherited an unstable trademark data pipeline that frequently failed and was difficult to monitor. Improved the CIPO ETL workflow by introducing Prefect orchestration, retries, monitoring, and failure tracking, while also fixing migration issues and documenting the system. As a result, the pipeline became more reliable, easier to troubleshoot, and better supported regular trademark data releases.

    Stack: Python, Elasticsearch, Prefect, ETL

  3. Jan 2026 – Mar 2026 · 3 mos · Ottawa

    Younth logo

    Younth

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    Full-stack Developer · Client Project

    Rebuilt Younth's company website from Figma as a production PHP and MySQL application, including an admin dashboard for managing site content. Optimized the image-heavy catalogue for a low-bandwidth server using Cloudinary, responsive images, lazy loading, and pagination, and deployed the site on Alibaba Cloud with improved routing, security, and HTTPS. The final website was fully responsive and achieved Lighthouse scores above 90 for performance, accessibility, and SEO.

    Stack: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, Bootstrap, SCSS, Cloudinary

  4. Aug 2025 - Sep 2025 · 2 mos

    Portfolio

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    Full-stack Developer · Personal Project

    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

  5. Nov 2020 – Nov 2023 · 3 yrs · China

    Student.com logo

    Student.com

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    Backend Developer · Full-time

    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.