>Lead developer - Land Life Company
Tech driven reforestation scale-up in Amsterdam, The NL.
September 2022 - Present (Hybrid)
As the lead developer and key technical leader, I have made
significant progress in transforming our team's methodologies,
introducing new practices, and fostering enhanced collaboration.
Some highlights I'm proud of:
- Stepped up to provide consistent guidance and direction in a
previous leadership vacuum, effectively improving work structure
and team efficiency.
- Introduced a more structured work processes by transitioning
from a request-based workflow to a sprint methodology. I
accomplished this by setting up dedicated project boards,
organizing informal two-week sprint cycles and retros, and
facilitating sprint planning sessions. Where others had failed
at this, I was able to get the buy in from the team not by
imposing a new methodology, but by inviting them to participate
in the design of this new process over informal "pizza
lunches".
- Led an educational initiative to upskill the Science team on
git. Conducted a comprehensive, remote git workshop that
incorporated hands-on exercises and introduced the team to git's
basic functionality through a user-friendly GUI. This has
enhanced version control and collaboration across the a team
with members living in 4 different countries (Americas and
EU).
- Managed the recruitment processes for three new members of the
software team.
- Orchestrated the migration from a MVP based on Django
templates to a React-based frontend, significantly enhancing not
just UX but also DX.
- I work closely with the Head of Data & Software to align on
technical direction, system architecture, and the implementation
of best practices for software development.
- As a developer, I contribute to and CR different codebases
using a wide range of technologies (React, React Native, Alpine
js, htmx, Python, Django). - I maintain all our infrastructure
(GCP) along with DevOps practices.
- Directly manage two external backend developers (contractors)
with two different skills levels: Junior and Senior. With the
junior dev, I provide mentorship and support by conducting
weekly informal meetings, promoting an open dialogue on
code-related queries, and encouraging the practice of seeking
help. With the senior dev, I conduct frequent brainstorming
sessions to discuss technical approaches before coding. This
strategy has led to much cleaner and more maintainable code.
Main Stack I'm using at the moment:
- Django (all our BE).
- PostgreSQL (I often need to write SQL queries to find out
issues or inconsistencies across data).
- React (TypeScript).
- React Native (for an internal tree tracking mobile app we use
in the field)
- Firebase (Maintanance of a legacy project)
- GCP (Mainly AppEngine, Cloud Run and VertexAI)
>Fullstack developer - Sketch
Platform for collaborative design.
June 2020 - September 2022 (Fully remote)
At Sketch I was often involved in tasks that are outside the
formal scope of my role. As a developer who likes talking to
people and who has a good sense of business operations, I often
got involved as a tech advisor in projects related to Business
Intelligence & Analytics, Enterprise sales or Marketing
operations. As a result, I spent a lot of time talking with
colleagues to bridge tech gaps between Operations and
Technology, and I was in charge of managing two external
integrators for specific projects.
Billing & Provisioning team (Dec 2021 - September 2022)
The B&P was a newly created team created to take care of all the
systems to handle payments and provisioning of accounts for
enterprise customers.
My day to day was split among working with a codebase in Go
writing internal REST and GraphQL APIs, integrating our systems
with payment providers (Stripe), and engaging with stakeholders
across the company to define and solve problems related to
billing.
Internal Tools team (June 2020 - Dec 2021)
As part of the internal tools team, my main customers were our
own Sales, Marketing and Customer Support teams.
I created and maintained internal webapps that enable them to do
their job better, and I often helped them to solve specific
domain problems.
I spent my coding time creating React UIs for the frontend,
writing backend code in NodeJS and Python, provisioning AWS
infrastructure with Terraform or working with our Postgres
database.
Some things I was involved:
- Writing scripts to solve tasks like data consolidation or
automatizing data integrity tests.
- Integrating 3rd party tools such as CRMs to our systems
through their APIs.
- Writing services to consume SQSs and webhooks.
- Research new tools for internal use and assess its potential
risks and benefits.
>Founder - Emplero Labs B.V.
Experimental software launchpad
January 2017 - May 2020
I founded Emplero Labs to experiment with enterprise software
focused on solving problems I've seen first hand in big
companies. While the main product was in the HR Tech sphere,
there was also a few other products that were focused on totally
different domains.
As the only tech person, I:
- Wrote front and back-end
- Designed graphics, UI and UX
- Managed infrastructure
As the founder I also took care of:
- The strategic planning and direction of the company
- The development of partnerships
- Product evangelism
- Fundraising
Products
Ideos.App
Application to structure the process of collecting, analyzing
and responding to the feedback of employees.
Fizza
Personal finance analyzer to help people understand what they
spend their money on.
www.fizza.io
ChemicalSoup
A data visualization tool for scientist working with atmospheric
chemical networks.
The main challenge was the representation of the molecules,
reactions and UI to manipulate the data.
www.chemicalsoup.app
The Wonderbox
Surprise box store targeting the Japanese market. It features
subscriptions, payments (Paypal API), stock control, order
tracking (PostNL API), smart product selection and user reviews
/ rating.
>IT Consultant & Tech Recruiter - JapanRA
JapanRA was a boutique HR Consultancy company based in Tokyo,
Japan.
September 2012 - December 2016 (remote working)
April 2011 - August 2012 (on-site)
At first I was hired temporarily for a data migration &
infrastructure update project. When the in-house translator
quitted, I started helping with Japanese/English translations
during tech recruiting interviews, and later I was offered a
permanent position as a Tech recruiter.
I mainly conducted
evaluation interviews, sourced potential talent and provided
career advise, always focused on technical roles.
>Cofounder - Beep Tokyo
A videography and photography agency focused on low budget night
events in Tokyo.
August 2010 - November 2011
My main role was client liaison and post-edition (Final Cut Pro,
Motion, Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator).
>Sales Representative - SBT Japan
January 2009 - February 2011
Internally recruited by the Latin America division of the sales
department because they urgently needed someone fluent in
Spanish, Japanese and English for their Japan based team.
My
duties:
-Customer sourcing
-Overview of biddings at
national auctions
-Arrangement of logistics
-Post-sales
customer support
>Systems Engineer - SBT Japan
Car and heavy machinery exporting.
May 2008 - December 2008
The role was a mix of software development and internal IT
support.