Alain Alvarez
Verified Expert in Engineering
Back-end Developer
Longmont, CO, United States
Toptal member since April 26, 2026
Alain is a senior Java back-end engineer specializing in distributed systems, API design, and cloud‑native development. He builds and scales resilient services, improves reliability, and refactors complex systems. Alain is skilled in AWS, Kubernetes, multithreading, performance tuning, and CI/CD. He brings strong ownership, clear communication, and a focus on quality in high‑scale environments.
Portfolio
Experience
- Java - 12 years
- REST APIs - 11 years
- Microservices Architecture - 8 years
- Redis Cache - 6 years
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 6 years
- Apache Kafka - 5 years
- Event-driven Architecture - 5 years
- Kubernetes - 5 years
Preferred Environment
Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Linux, MacOS, IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Git, GitHub, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot
The most amazing...
...thing I've designed and delivered is a mission‑critical microservice that improved system reliability, reduced failures, and unified API standards across teams.
Work Experience
Senior Back-end Engineer
NTSprint
- Architected and delivered large‑scale, event‑driven back-end systems using AWS serverless, Kafka, and Spring Boot.
- Designed cloud‑native microservices using Lambda, API Gateway, Aurora PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, and Confluent Cloud.
- Improved reliability through circuit breakers, rate limiting, idempotency, and distributed tracing with OpenTelemetry.
- Owned the full lifecycle, including design, implementation, testing, deployment, and production operations.
- Mentored engineers and influenced long‑term technical direction.
Mid-senior Back-end Engineer
Khipus Group
- Implemented secure service‑to‑service communication (OAuth2, JWT, mTLS).
- Built Spring Boot microservices and REST APIs powering cloud‑native workflows across distributed systems.
- Developed data layers using PostgreSQL and MongoDB, optimizing query performance.
Mid-level Software Engineer
Informatics Studies Center
- Designed and implemented back-end services in PHP, .NET, and Java, contributing to system reliability and performance improvements.
- Owned key service components, driving refactors and optimizing SQL queries.
- Contributed to API design patterns and mentored junior developers.
Software Engineer
Electroenergetics Center
- Delivered a production‑ready electrical circuit diagram editor and simulator, owning the full lifecycle of the project.
- Expanded the solution into a more advanced diagram editor for the national electrical company after strong adoption of the initial tool.
- Designed and taught a hands‑on programming curriculum for 300+ electrical engineering students as a university professor.
Experience
Health Insurance Communication
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas - Villa Clara, Cuba
Certifications
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
Amazon Web Services
AWS Certified Developer – Associate
Amazon Web Services
Confluent Certified Developer for Apache Kafka
Confluent
Skills
Libraries/APIs
OpenAPI, REST APIs, Sockets
Tools
IntelliJ IDEA, Shell, Claude Code, Git, GitHub, GitHub Copilot
Languages
Java, GraphQL, Python, C++, JavaScript, C#.NET, SQL
Frameworks
Spring Boot, gRPC, OAuth 2, JSON Web Tokens (JWT)
Paradigms
Microservices Architecture, Event-driven Architecture, Microservices, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Design Patterns, Modular Design
Platforms
Apache Kafka, Amazon EC2, AWS IoT, Kubernetes, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Docker, Unix, Linux, MacOS, Visual Studio Code (VS Code)
Storage
Databases, MongoDB, Amazon DynamoDB, NoSQL, Redis Cache, PostgreSQL
Other
Domain-driven Design (DDD), Computer Science, Operating Systems (processes, memory, concurrency basics), Databases & SQL (relational modeling, normalization, transactions), Networking Fundamentals (TCP/IP, protocols, sockets), Data Modeling & Systems Analysis, Software Engineering Principles (design patterns, modular design), Data Structures, Algorithms, Distributed Systems, Multithreading, Large-scale Distributed Systems, Unix/Linux Fundamentals & Shell Scripting, Discrete Mathematics & Logic, Compilers & Programming Languages Concepts, TCP/IP, Data Modeling, Systems Analysis, Software Engineering
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