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Building useful systems

Ismael
Barragán.

Software Architect Full-stack Engineer

I turn complex product and system problems into simple, dependable software—from thoughtful interfaces to event-driven platforms built to scale.

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GUADALAJARA, MX

A little context

15+

Years of experience

5+

Companies at scale

GMT-6

Timezone

Remote

Work style

I'm a Software Architect and Full-stack Engineer with over 15 years of experience building and scaling product-focused applications. My career spans fintech, SaaS, civic tech, and agency work — always centered around shipping things that genuinely improve people's lives.

I'm comfortable across the entire stack, but my strongest work sits at the intersection of complex frontend requirements and the backend systems that power them. I have a particular fondness for event-driven architectures, clean API design, and making sure the things I build hold up at scale.

I care about simplicity. Not the kind that cuts corners, but the kind that comes from truly understanding a problem. Good software should be easy to change, easy to reason about, and easy to hand off.

I work best in remote, async environments where clear communication and ownership matter. I collaborate closely with product and design, and I've led teams and initiatives that grew from a handful of people to organizations of 17+ engineers.

Outside work, I enjoy hiking and camping around mountains and rivers, getting lost in a good fantasy or dystopian novel, and catching live rock and metal shows. Some favorites on my bookshelf include The Lord of the Rings, Project Hail Mary, Cadáver exquisito, and Animal Farm.

I'm also a board game enthusiast with a growing collection of more than 60 games. I especially enjoy strategy games with plenty of social interaction—favorites include Dune, Catan, and Zombicide. Lately, I've been volunteering with friends from Juegalajara to share board games with older adults and children in underserved communities.

ismael at recursivamente.comFollow on Bluesky(opens in new tab)

The toolkit

Tools & technologies

Frontend

React · TypeScript · JavaScript · SPA development · SEO fundamentals

Backend

Node.js · Express · Next.js · Python · PHP · API design · RabbitMQ · Kafka

Architecture

Microservices · Event-driven architecture · Distributed systems · Multi-tenant systems · Performance optimization

Data & Storage

PostgreSQL · SQL · Redis

Infrastructure

AWS · GCP · Kubernetes · Docker · CI/CD · GitHub Actions

Practices

Testing (unit & integration) · Observability · Code quality · Remote/async communication

Senior Software Engineer

Keep(opens in new tab)
Oct 2023 – Present
  • Designed a payment engine and built its APIs and UI, helping users choose from available payment methods and follow payment progress through clear status feedback. Added idempotency safeguards to prevent duplicate transactions.
  • Reduced GitHub Actions pipeline execution time by 50%, speeding up deployments and giving engineers faster feedback on changes.
  • Designed an event-driven system with RabbitMQ for payment processing and real-time frontend notifications. It grew to handle all payment operations and notifications: thousands of payments per day and several hundred notifications per hour.
  • Built a local development proxy, a REPL server, and testing utilities to improve developer experience and simplify everyday engineering tasks.
  • Deployed internal Model Context Protocol (MCP) and n8n servers, enabling the team to automate day-to-day tasks with AI.

Senior Software Engineer

Lyft(opens in new tab)
Mar 2023 – Oct 2023
  • Reduced p95 latency by 30% for the driver portal’s main Python/Flask endpoint by optimizing queries and application logic, making the app faster and more responsive for drivers.
  • Guided backend refactoring within a five-person driver insurance team to improve maintainability and responsiveness, setting priorities with product and engineering managers.
  • Partnered with Data Science to retrain a driver risk model for car insurance and integrate new inputs through a Python wrapper, improving accident prediction accuracy by 20%.

Software Architect

Salesloft(opens in new tab)
Sep 2019 – Mar 2023
  • Contributed to the migration from AngularJS to React micro-frontends and partnered with design to update the UI, refactoring class components into functional components.
  • Migrated JavaScript code to TypeScript with other teams, catching bugs at compile time, and built GitHub Actions checks for test coverage and TypeScript adoption.
  • Coordinated the team’s migration of an acquired product’s Node.js monolith to event-driven microservices using Kafka, Redis, and GraphQL, aligning with company architecture and giving growing teams clear ownership of separate domains.
  • Designed the API-level multi-tenant layer using Node.js async context and PostgreSQL row-level security.
  • Expanded the platform from two AWS regions to five regions across AWS and GCP, configuring Kubernetes deployments for three new GCP regions.
  • Defined platform metrics and monitors in Datadog and New Relic to support stability and performance.
  • Mentored newer engineers as the Conversation Intelligence group grew from one team to three.

Full Stack Tech Lead Engineer

Kueski(opens in new tab)
Jan 2018 – Sep 2019
  • Built React authentication flows and features spanning backend services and frontend interfaces, working with product and design to improve onboarding.
  • Centralized financial calculations previously duplicated across endpoints, creating a single source of truth to resolve inconsistencies in customer account statements.
  • Collaborated with the team building the first Android app, which reached 30% adoption among existing customers within two months.

Technical Advisory Committee Member

IEPC Jalisco(opens in new tab)
Oct 2020 – Jul 2021
  • Served on the technical advisory committee overseeing the software built to track results for the 2021 Jalisco state election.
  • Reviewed system architecture to ensure security, resilience, and compliance with federal requirements.
  • Provided technical guidance to the development team throughout the election cycle.
Jul 2017 – Jan 2018
  • Built responsive React applications, including interactive landing pages with SVG animations.
  • Developed frontend applications as part of a Scrum team building a microservices-based CRM.
  • Delivered features end to end across two AngularJS applications and one Angular 4 project.
  • Ensured cross-browser compatibility and responsive layouts throughout the system.
Jun 2016 – Jul 2017
  • Developed and maintained internal systems with PHP (Symfony) and AngularJS, including vehicle access control and automated grade calculation and reporting.
  • Led the upgrade of a legacy PHP system to Angular and Symfony.
  • Collaborated on the architecture and design of a school ERP system that was fully implemented in 2019.
  • Designed and built candidate registration systems for the 2009, 2012, and 2015 state elections, handling 11,000+ candidates per election cycle.
  • Defined data structures and built a single-page application to publish real-time results statewide for the 2012 and 2015 elections.
  • Built a system to track council sessions in real time across 20 districts and 125 municipalities of Jalisco.
  • Designed and built a custom CMS with Symfony, replacing Drupal as the institute's primary content publishing tool.

Advent of Code

adventofcode.com ↗

Upcoming

Writing is coming.

I'm working on posts about systems design, frontend architecture, and the craft of building software that scales. Follow me on Bluesky to know when they're live.

Follow on Bluesky(opens in new tab)
  • Event-driven architecture
  • React patterns
  • API design
  • System reliability
  • Engineering leadership
  • Fintech engineering