Hi, I'm Luis Leiva
Software engineer with a backend and architecture focus, drawn to the hard problems: architecture, data, concurrency, and integrations. I design and ship systems that stay correct and reliable in production.
01 /About
A bit about me
I'm a software engineer from David, Panama with 2+ years taking products from an empty repo to production. My focus is backend and architecture: the data model, business logic, and integrations (payments, LLMs, external APIs), plus the cloud infrastructure around them. I've done this across very different domains, from fintech and edtech to logistics, and I care less about any single stack than about designing systems that are clean, correct, and built to last.
I work best in remote, cross-functional teams. I take ownership and adapt to any tech stack quickly. Right now I'm preparing for the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certification and learning Go and API testing.
Open to new opportunities.
Outside of code
- Huge Formula 1 fan
- Hiking
- Gym (at times...)
- Gaming
- Cartography
- Basketball
02 /Experience
Where I've worked
Software Developer
RednBlue
Jul 2025 - Aug 2026
David, Chiriquí, Panama
100K+
shipments delivered
~1,800/wk
deliveries at peak
88%
P95 latency reduction
~1,100/s
products synced
- Maintained and extended a full-stack fleet and last-mile delivery platform (React operations dashboard, React Native driver app, and edge backends) handling ~2,000 shipments a week at ~99% completion, shipping a fleet-management domain and mandatory per-action GPS capture backed by an offline-tolerant, resilient sync lifecycle.
- Architected Zelta Pay, a SaaS payment link platform on Cloudflare Workers; processed ~500 transactions totaling $30K in the first 6 months via Emetec, NMI, and Yappy with secure RBAC, webhook orchestration, and automated PDF receipting.
- Backend lead for a multi-tenant retail POS, building a production Cloudflare backend of 250+ use cases across 16 modules with a clean, domain-driven architecture, backed by a dual-database setup (Cloudflare D1 for fast edge reads, mirrored to Postgres for reporting) kept in sync through an event queue.
- Drove a database and performance optimization initiative that cut 95th-percentile API latency by 88% (6.65s → 0.77s) and worst-case latency by 89% (7.17s → 0.81s), eliminating slow minutes entirely (minutes with 90th-percentile latency above 1s went from 40% to 0%) while holding the median at ~0.30s; the heaviest endpoint, POST /admin/orders, fell 94% (9.82s → 0.58s) and peak database CPU dropped from ~80% to ~26%.
Software Engineer
BBR TEK
Oct 2024 - Jun 2025
Remote, Panama
~25/day
automated accounts
4 months
to tech ownership
4
payment providers
- Reached technical ownership of a Forex Prop Trading CRM within 4 months, leading full-stack development across 28 business domains, 5 payment integrations, and 3 broker adapters, supporting 5K+ production users, 4.5K orders, and $65K in revenue through credential-driven multi-tenancy.
- Eliminated manual review for ~25 trading accounts/day by building webhook-driven automation pipelines and optimizing C# batch services with Redis-backed monitoring, achieving 100% automated account certification and issuance.
- Integrated 4 payment providers (NMI, Cryptochill, TygaPay, Stripe) using multi-gateway fallback with webhook reconciliation, reducing payment fraud by 95% and enabling reliable multi-rail transaction processing.
Full-Stack Developer (Volunteer)
Fundación Ayudinga
Nov 2023 - Sep 2024
Remote, Panama
- Built and refactored 10+ reusable React components for the foundation's design system, standardizing UI elements across its web projects.
- Developed modular screens in Next.js with Tailwind CSS for a new, pre-launch LMS platform, prioritizing UI consistency and component reuse.
- Designed and documented RESTful Flask APIs using Test-Driven Development with Pytest, improving code reliability and enabling clean frontend integration.
03 /Projects
Things I've built
Selected work across different domains and stacks, built for clients, organizations, and myself.
Certificate Automator Tool for IEEE CS UTP
Automated certificate generation and email distribution platform
A full-stack platform built for IEEE Computer Society UTP that automates the end-to-end lifecycle of event certificates. Upload a template, position text fields with a visual drag-and-drop editor, import participants from CSV/Excel, generate personalized certificates in bulk, and distribute them by email, all from a single web interface.
Tech stack
Highlights
- Visual drag-and-drop template editor built with react-konva for precise field positioning on certificate backgrounds
- Bulk PDF generation pipeline using a Python FastAPI microservice with PyMuPDF, uploading directly to R2 object storage
- Asynchronous job processing via Cloudflare Queues with fan-out parallelism for generation and email campaigns
- Dual email provider system (Brevo + Resend) with automatic failover for reliable certificate delivery
- Cloudflare Access JWT authentication, SSRF protection, HTML sanitization, rate limiting, and CSP security headers
- Monorepo architecture with shared Zod validation schemas across worker and client packages
Biogenec: Digital Cattle Management App
Tailored mobile platform built for a client to manage livestock operations in Panama
A tailored software solution built for a client in the cattle industry. This comprehensive mobile platform modernizes ranch administration, from individual animal tracking to herd insemination analysis, enabling data-driven decision making and improved operational efficiency across their properties.
Tech stack
Highlights
- Complete ranch management covering reproduction, health records, productivity metrics, and administration
- Multi-farm support with global farm selection via Context API for seamless switching between properties
- Firebase-powered backend with real-time sync using Firestore, secure authentication, and cloud file storage
- Mobile-first responsive design built with NativeWind v4 and React Native Reusables component library
- Native Spanish-language interface designed specifically for Latin American cattle ranchers
Alegator: Debate Tournament Management Platform
End-to-end debate tournament management system
Full-stack platform for managing debate tournaments, handling brackets, participants, and scoring with authenticated dashboards and real-time updates.
Tech stack
Highlights
- Full-stack platform for managing debate tournaments, handling brackets, participants, and scoring
- Supabase + Django REST API backend with JWT authentication
- Authenticated user dashboards with role-based access control
- Real-time scoring updates and comprehensive tournament participant management
ShipnGo Freight Platform
Full-stack freight delivery PWA with real-time tracking
Full-stack freight delivery platform with route management and real-time tracking via Google Maps API, built as a progressive web app.
Tech stack
Highlights
- Full-stack freight delivery platform with route management and real-time tracking
- Google Maps API integration for geospatial route data
- Progressive web app capabilities for offline and mobile use
- Optimized shipment creation workflows and delivery management
04 /Education
Education and leadership
Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá
B.S. in Software Development · 2022-2026 · GPA: 2.7/3.0
Best Technical Chapter 2025
Contributed as Regional Coordinator of IEEE Computer Society UTP to winning the national 'Best Technical Chapter 2025' award.
Regional Coordinator
IEEE CS UTP (2025-2026). Recruited 15+ members, established a regional chapter, and organized 6 events across the Chiriquí province.
3× Copa Airlines Hackathon
Competed in 2022 (IaC/Azure), 2024 (Linux/AI), and 2025 (Data Analytics), gaining hands-on experience in Azure, AWS, Linux systems, Data Engineering with Databricks, and AI tooling.
30+ Students Taught
Programming Instructor at Youth STEM Camp (Aug-Nov 2023). Dedicated 120 volunteer hours teaching programming fundamentals to students.
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Assessing Sustainability · Dec 2024 - Mar 2025
Participated in the UMassD-UTP Hybrid Global Experience Program 2025, an initiative focused on sustainability and ESG integration, in collaboration with UMass Dartmouth and Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá. Gained experience in sustainable finance, ESG frameworks, climate disclosure standards (IFRS S1 & S2, TCFD), stakeholder engagement, corporate sustainability strategies, and SDG applications.
Collaborated with Latinex (Bolsa Latinoamericana de Valores) as part of our final project to develop a climate risk catalog, assess ESG integration in Panama's financial sector, and provide strategic recommendations for aligning with global sustainability reporting standards.
Contact
Get in touch
Tell me about your project or question. I respond quickly.
Availability
- Timezone: UTC-5 (Panama).
- Response: under 24h on weekdays.
- Engagement: full-time roles, contract work, or short consults.