short version
25, NYC, software engineer
ENTP
taurus sun, gemini moon, scorpio rising

professionally
I’m currently working at Spheryx, a startup that produces scientific instruments for particle characterization. I was introduced to the company by a remarkable professor from NYU. It was there that I majored in Computer Science and minored in both Web Development and Physics. I am a software engineer by title, but (per startup fashion) I actually wear many hats. I manage products, handle some IT matters, visit customers, and even bartend during company parties.

I’ve had a wide array of jobs from high school through college, all which have exercised the skills that allow me to connect with people in a way that is always reflected in my best work. The psychological aspect of building new technology is even more stimulating to me than the mathematical. User experience is everything, but the creativity of a designer can make a tool much more special. I love artistic drama, and there’s nothing like the tension between a user and an engineer!

Being in a smaller company allowed me to be entrusted with more responsibilities than the average engineer of my experience level has. I consider the most fundamental challenge of every project to be finding the balance between efficiency, practicality, and aesthetics. There are many ways to solve a problem, but determining which solution is the best fit is just as calculative as coming up with them. By now I’ve seen this desired balance look drastically different across varying contexts. Years of increasingly bigger and more complex tasks have made me more appreciative of the weight of details in this evaluation. The frontlines are littered with mundane but crucial elements that I could blissfully ignore when building tools for myself or managing only a component of a project rather than the entire thing. These include but are not limited to industry standards, branding, compliance, marketability, and cost (money, time, and resources).

personally
New York is my third home so far. I was born in Brazil, then moved to South Florida at the age of 7. At 18, I moved to the city for college. I speak Portuguese fluently, Spanish conversationally, and French nervously.

Naturally, my favorite cuisine is Latin. I spend much of my free time birding, doing NYT crosswords, and entertaining my rescued cats. I am working on training my wine palate, reading the dozens of impulsively purchased books cluttering my shelves, and getting through my watch-list faster than I add movies to it. I love cosmology and taking “stupid” questions seriously.