Senior Python Developer to advice less experienced programmer (5hrs/week)

Dear all freelancers,

I'll try to structure this proposal as good as possible.

Here we go!

= Who are we? =

We are a Belgian youth touring operator that organizes language holidays.

To keep our 3000+ bookings/year go smoothly and at the same time organize many different formulas (youth holidays, school trips and excursions) we rely on an in-house developed python web application. (no framework, just separated view from python and display through mod python publisher)

In order to provide great service we have to keep or platform up to date. For this we have a student computer science at our office, he is an experienced java developer but he lacks that specific python knowledge -> and that's why we need you!

= What needs to happen? =

The intern needs an adviser. Someone to whom he can address specific questions. Ask for suggestions, ..

Rely on the knowledge of much more experienced programmer instead of having to figure it all out by himself.

This person really needs to have profound knowledge and not just starting off with python. We are talking about an application of 150k lines that needs to be restructured. This is much more complex then a typical CMS website.

The goal is that you get to know our codebase and that through skype, IM, mail he can ask you questions to which we would like to have answers as quickly as possible. In total this will average to about 5 hours a week we would need your services, this for coming 3 months.

= Who are we looking for =

* A python programmer with at least 3 years experience. Someone who has tried out many libraries/frameworks, (not just django). Has a wide overview of what exists. What libraries/packages could help us.

* Someone with web experience, because python on the web does have a different twist

* Up to date with the technology (so Git, Continious Integration, TDD are no taboo for you)

* Experience with big legacy applications and how to (re)structure them properly

* Good communication skills, good level of English.

* Advanced SQL skill: our database contains 125 tables (which are well structured, and well referenced, but it takes some time to get the whole picture). If this is out of your leage better not start this project

* preferably someone who is more or less in the same timezone as us (Belgium). But this isn't a requirement.

= example of the questions we are likely to ask =

* After doing a quick code review (ex: 2 hours), what are we doing right? What are we doing wrong?

** what do you think of our code/directory structure? How could it be improved?

* We are using python 2.4, is it worthwhile upgrading to 2.7.2 or even 3.2, having seen our code, what will the implications be

* Can and how should we use git in our workflow?

* How can we set up a continous deployment environment? (Jenkins?)

* Help us with tips and tricks around TDD, how to provide the correct seed data, fixtures, ...?

* Are there any libraries out there that we really should start using? ORM's? Perhaps some parts of django that we could easily integrate into our system?

* How can we improve our MVC separation?

* We still use Cheetah as a template engine, would you change? Why?

= What do we have to offer =

* We pay a fair price for the services offered. This is done on an hourly basis

* You coach someone who has decent programming skills, just not in python. But this makes that explaining concepts go quickly because it is mostly syntax that is different.

* To get you started quickly

** We have an online wiki for the current code base

** The code (as well as the relational database) has enough comments to understand the flow

* We have a very skilled server maintenance person, so this will take a lot of weight of your shoulders and he is really pleasant to work with

= Interested? =

* make an offer and please be specific why you are the right person for us. No copy paste from other projects please.

MVC PostgreSQL Python Software Architecture

Project ID: #4347580

About the project