Santiago is available for hire
Hire SantiagoSantiago Saavedra
Verified Expert in Engineering
Python Developer
Madrid, Spain
Toptal member since December 29, 2021
Bio
Santiago learned programming at 12. He holds several years of professional experience and 10+ in API and software architecture. Former president of a Linux User Group and a researcher in formal methods and functional programming, Santiago is passionate about computer science, especially API design, system architecture, and data engineering.
Portfolio
Connect-Ex
C++, C#, .NET, React, Python 3, Docker, Azure, Linux...
Taniwa
Python 3, React, Codex, Supabase, Supabase Auth, Stripe, Perplexity, OpenAI API...
Taniwa
Python 3, PyTorch, Ray, LLM Integration, Large Language Models (LLMs)...
Experience
- Python - 10 years
- Django - 10 years
- Functional Programming - 9 years
- Docker - 9 years
- Software Architecture - 7 years
- Google Compute Engine (GCE) - 6 years
- Scala - 5 years
- Spark - 2 years
Preferred Environment
Scala, IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Docker, Gerrit, Kafka Streams, Python, MacOS, Rust, TypeScript
The most amazing...
...and challenging task I've done was consulting on transitioning a 5G unified data management service from a monolith to cloud-native microservices.
Work Experience
Lead Developer
2025 - PRESENT
Connect-Ex
- Led the architecture, app development, and backlog management for a cloud-based service to handle industrial automatons (BACnet and other protocols).
- Worked with the protocol stack that includes handling both new standards (BACnet) as well as very legacy controllers (ASI Controls) that predate TCP.
- Identified and fixed latency and connectivity issues remotely with a large systems integrator in a site with over 2000 industrial control systems connected via RS485, using timing-based statistical analysis to identify the connectivity interferences.
- Saved 80% costs for a greenfield project by changing underlying technologies from Windows-based on-premise VMs to containers, especially due to the usage characteristics I anticipated successfully for this deployment.
- Led a separate effort to containerize a brownfield dotnet + Node.js service from VMs into horizontally scalable containers with a cost reduction of >20%.
Technologies: C++, C#, .NET, React, Python 3, Docker, Azure, Linux, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Windows Server, Scalability, Concurrency, Azure Blob Storage
Tech Lead
2026 - 2026
Taniwa
- Deployed a functional MVP of the main app in less than 4h to production.
- Routed different questions to different models in the background to respond effectively and in a cost-effective manner to each of the questions.
- Initially built with a BYOK approach, but later pivoted to a managed keys install, where the routed LLMs are invisible to the user, and integrated Stripe instead to handle the LLM cost.
Technologies: Python 3, React, Codex, Supabase, Supabase Auth, Stripe, Perplexity, OpenAI API, Large Language Models (LLMs), LLM Integration, Scalability
Senior AI Developer
2026 - 2026
Taniwa
- Developed frontier machine learning solutions that outperformed in Annual Energy Production estimates against state-of-the-art models used by actual companies.
- Used several approaches to find the best models, including LLMs, TSP-like exploration, novel networks trained using RL, and genetic algorithms for cross-optimizing between local maxima.
- Led the architecture and training of two of the main models used in the hybrid solution.
Technologies: Python 3, PyTorch, Ray, LLM Integration, Large Language Models (LLMs), Reinforcement Learning, Concurrency
ClickHouse Developer
2024 - 2025
Tinybird
- Collaborated in generating a garbage-collection mechanism for Amazon S3 that would save the company storage costs over 30% by removing old garbage left by the back-end DBMS when switching between replicas.
- Tracked runs with GitHub Actions and self-provisioned runners in AWS.
- Explored the path towards moving from x86-64 into AArch64 instances in AWS for database cluster server deployments for cost savings between 10-30%, depending on additional rightsizing strategies.
- Fixed several issues in a fork of the internal database (a fork of ClickHouse).
Technologies: C++, Rust, Python 3, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), AWS Cost Explorer, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Docker, Algorithms, Agile Project Management, Project Management, Scalability, Concurrency
Lead Software Developer
2023 - 2024
Apiday
- Developed a module for a multi-tenant application that displays the data governance of different data points for a complex aggregation scenario with multiple aggregation levels and stakeholders at various companies.
- Tracked bugs in Notion with the codebase in GitHub.
- Led the integration of the Google Drive API throughout the application to improve the sending and downloading of documents for clients who are also Google Workspace users.
Technologies: Algorithms, Python 3, Django, Django REST Framework, React, Next.js, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Airtable, Data Science, Agile Project Management, Project Management, Architecture, JavaScript, Full-stack, HTML5, Scalability
Lead Python Engineer
2023 - 2023
Braven, Inc.
- Developed a web app that extracted data from Salesforce grant beneficiaries organized in diverse and relevant cohorts to maximize their engagement in college.
- Increased productivity by over 200% with the tool—for the people involved in generating cohorts.
- Included a Salesforce cache within the tool to render sales data more quickly and improve user experience, increasing the productivity of other processes.
Technologies: Algorithms, Data Structures, Software Development, Salesforce, Python, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Optimization, Cloud, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Data Science, Agile Project Management, Project Management, Architecture, JavaScript, Full-stack, HTML5
Tech Leader
2022 - 2023
BCG
- Led a team and architecture for a next-generation platform architecture in BCG with senior stakeholders for an AI-based commercial banking solution; in a novel multi-tenant scenario that could be reused by multiple teams at BCG in other verticals.
- Collaborated in the improvement of IaaC Terraform scripts to build a multi-tenant SaaS solution with an on-demand growing infrastructure and isolated security contexts that could meet SOC 2 compliance.
- Identified and reduced turnaround times from platform-involved teams by working with senior leadership around the better shaping of shared infrastructure responsibilities.
- Worked in a team that collectively ramped up to twice their story point completion. Improved overall story point predictability and planning for the benefit of both the engineering team and the leadership.
- Supported the QA and engineering teams in increasing our overall coverage from around 70% to around 98% in less than six months while maintaining feature velocity.
- Architected and led contributions on key parts of infra, such as the multi-tenant Terraform framework and the per-tenant customizable attribute-based access control based on an extensible architecture that can be used both for monolithic and SOAs.
Technologies: Python, Mentorship & Coaching, Django, Amazon Web Services (AWS), React, Data Engineering, Pandas, Dask, Amazon EKS, AWS IAM, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Role-based Access Control (RBAC), Oso, SQL, Django ORM, Helm, Okta, Salesforce, Rust, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), CircleCI, Django REST Framework, Terraform, Cypress, Apache Airflow, Linux, Ubuntu, Data Structures, Algorithms, Functional Programming, Software Architecture, Product Roadmaps, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), System Architecture Design, Software Engineering, Software Testing, IT Project Management, Formal Methods, TypeScript, Distributed Computing, API Design, Architecture, Data Architecture, Data Modeling, Microservices, Microservices Architecture, Technical Architecture, Monitoring, Agile, Data Auditing, Solution Architecture, APIs, Statistics, REST APIs, Data Science, Data Lakes, Agile Project Management, Project Management, JavaScript, Full-stack, HTML5, Scalability, Concurrency
Co-founder, CTO
2019 - 2021
IUVIA Technologies, SL
- Designed a system architecture for a privacy-centric Linux-based operating system with centralized user accounts and a capabilities system to share data among apps.
- Managed EU-funded budget and the R&D roadmap and curated sprints with other team members to match our the project's goals.
- Contributed to other open-source projects featuring us or wanting to be part of our software platform and sign up to beta-test our SDK.
Technologies: Python 3, Rust, React, Django, Systemd, Linux, System Architecture Design, GitLab CI/CD, GitLab, PostgreSQL, SQLite, TypeScript, Operating Systems, Privacy, Data Privacy, Python, Google Cloud, Object-oriented Design (OOD), Distributed Computing, Data Architecture, Data Modeling, DevOps, Node.js, Message Queues, IT Project Management, API Design, Architecture, Django REST Framework, Mentorship & Coaching, Microservices, Microservices Architecture, Technical Architecture, Monitoring, Agile, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Data Auditing, Solution Architecture, APIs, Statistics, REST APIs, Data Science, Agile Project Management, Project Management, JavaScript, Full-stack, HTML5, WebSockets, Scalability, Concurrency
Software Architect, Consultant
2018 - 2019
Ericsson
- Laid out the transition path from a 4G monolith to services-oriented architecture migrating to gRPC and HTTP/2.
- Coordinated five to ten engineering teams in two continents to ensure the migration path was a business success without impacting long-term software quality and robustness.
- Created the "Internal Best Practices on Containerization and service characterization" memo that was one of the most shared documents in our BU.
- Performed improvements on testing tools that freed 10% of the time needed for testing, and some CI/CD pipelines I helped design reduced their total time to completion by more than 80% with the same code coverage.
- Designed the deployment and upgrade lifecycle of components for zero-downtime upgrades and rollbacks.
Technologies: Kubernetes, Docker, Scala, Java, Gerrit, Jenkins, Software Architecture, Product Roadmaps, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), Istio, PostgreSQL, Linux, Python, Python 3, Data Engineering, Data Pipelines, ETL, Google Cloud, Object-oriented Design (OOD), Distributed Computing, Data Architecture, Data Modeling, Data Warehousing, DevOps, Node.js, Message Queues, IT Project Management, Architecture, Mentorship & Coaching, Microservices, Microservices Architecture, Technical Architecture, Monitoring, Agile, Data Auditing, Solution Architecture, APIs, Apache Maven, HPCC Systems, REST APIs, Data Science, Project Management, Scalability, Azure Blob Storage
Staff Software Engineer, Consultant
2016 - 2018
Ericsson
- Developed the data architecture of an analytics system that handled user satisfaction and QoS metrics for an on-premise and cloud-native product.
- Implemented Spark Structured Streaming support on Kubernetes and upstreamed to Apache Spark.
- Refactored over 10,000 lines of code in Spark Batch jobs with 15-minute latencies into better-performing Kafka Streams operations with near-real-time to the front end (between 10 and 60 seconds.).
- Created a kafka-streams-scala wrapper to develop typesafe operations using Kafka Streams, later open-sourced.
- Worked on testing data pipelines needed to handle multiple gigabits per second of real-time IoT information—from set-top boxes and OTT apps—, both real and synthetic.
- Informed decisions on multiple other teams through my work on analytics, including the recommendation engine team who were working with Spark ML.
- Developed Helm Charts that could spin the whole infrastructure and work both for on-prem and cloud-based deployments, collaborating with the team who wrote the Terraform scripts.
- Refactored one of our back ends in a week to reduce 80% lines of code, increasing maintainability and "time-to-feature" for new APIs of the same kind, thanks to higher-order functions and classes.
Technologies: Scala, Spark Structured Streaming, Spark ML, Spark SQL, Apache Kafka, Kafka Streams, Django, Elasticsearch, Kibana, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Compute Engine (GCE), Kappa Architecture, GitLab CI/CD, GitLab, PostgreSQL, Pandas, SQL, Linux, Python, Python 3, Data Engineering, Data Pipelines, ETL, Google Cloud, Object-oriented Design (OOD), Distributed Computing, Data Architecture, Data Modeling, Apache Spark, Spark, Data Warehousing, DevOps, Node.js, Message Queues, Architecture, Mentorship & Coaching, Microservices, Microservices Architecture, Technical Architecture, Monitoring, Agile, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Data Auditing, APIs, PySpark, ELK (Elastic Stack), MapReduce, Hadoop, REST APIs, Data Science, Over-the-top Content (OTT), Agile Project Management, Project Management, JavaScript, HTML5, WebSockets, Kafka Connect, Scalability, Concurrency
Co-founder, CTO
2014 - 2016
VACMatch
- Developed a multitenant, multi versioned, and self-documented API back end that could be used by hundreds of test clients.
- Tracked bugs and performed development using Gerrit and Jenkins instances that I also managed.
- Rewrote 80% of the Scala back end with 20% of the coding effort in Python, allowing the deadline achievement before reunifying data on the back end and removing all code debt after the deadline.
- Ensured offline-first capabilities on the web app using CouchDB and PouchDB documents while saving shared state on the server to keep data updated via CouchDB design documents.
Technologies: Python, Python 3, Scala, Play 2, Play, Spring, Hibernate, Apache Tomcat, Pandas, REST, API Design, Architecture, Software Architecture, Django, Django REST Framework, React, Gerrit, Jenkins, CouchDB, PouchDB, Data Architecture, Data Modeling, DevOps, Node.js, Message Queues, Microservices Architecture, Microservices, Technical Architecture, Agile, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), APIs, Apache Maven, Statistics, REST APIs, Data Science, Agile Project Management, Project Management, JavaScript, Full-stack, HTML5, WebSockets, Azure Blob Storage
Experience
IUVIA R1
A privacy-focused device that works as a mini-server and NAS at home. It is self-contained, extensible, and has user data encrypted.
I envisioned the platform and acted as its lead architect. It required industrial modeling and working within hardware constraints, handling the boot process and systems architecture using systemd and glue code. I also led the API design for the web app and inter-app communication.
I envisioned the platform and acted as its lead architect. It required industrial modeling and working within hardware constraints, handling the boot process and systems architecture using systemd and glue code. I also led the API design for the web app and inter-app communication.
displaylink-rpm
https://github.com/displaylink-rpm/displaylink-rpm/DisplayLink is a technology to send screen links over USB primarily used in laptop docks.
Not affiliated with DisplayLink Inc., I have been the maintainer of displaylink-rpm, the source of RPM packages for this project on Fedora through GitHub. As a maintainer, I coordinate with other open-source contributors and perform code reviews of their pull requests and triage issues.
Not affiliated with DisplayLink Inc., I have been the maintainer of displaylink-rpm, the source of RPM packages for this project on Fedora through GitHub. As a maintainer, I coordinate with other open-source contributors and perform code reviews of their pull requests and triage issues.
Ericsson 5G UDM
As part of Ericsson 5G Core services offering, I worked on the architecture of the unified data management network function. As an architecture team member, I coordinated the roadmap for engineering teams in two continents and developed POCs to ensure architecture plans were sound guidance. My job included transforming the product into cloud-native and systematizing the approach for engineering teams to implement.
MediaFirst Analytics
https://www.mediakind.com/media-platforms/mediafirst/An analytics platform for a pay-TV platform capable of live and VOD streams.
As the lead data engineer, I designed the data architecture, pipelines for customer satisfaction, and QoS reports, collaborating with the ML team to generate recommendations. As a staff software engineer, I improved the overall code quality and maintainability by analyzing and coordinating valuable refactor points and designed the platform deployment architecture in Kubernetes.
As the lead data engineer, I designed the data architecture, pipelines for customer satisfaction, and QoS reports, collaborating with the ML team to generate recommendations. As a staff software engineer, I improved the overall code quality and maintainability by analyzing and coordinating valuable refactor points and designed the platform deployment architecture in Kubernetes.
Real Estate Data Analytics
Savills needed to transform their business to factor in rapid data changes from multiple data sources related to real estate. Some of them were public domain, and others were paid data.
As the lead data engineer, I designed and implemented most of the ETL process and data lake, which were integrated into Azure to comply with their corporate policy. We used a custom EDSL for extraction and transformation based on pandas and Click.
As the lead data engineer, I designed and implemented most of the ETL process and data lake, which were integrated into Azure to comply with their corporate policy. We used a custom EDSL for extraction and transformation based on pandas and Click.
IE Business School Automated Attendance-tracking System: CAMSIE
A system to check whether alumni are present in their classrooms without the teacher spending time tracking them manually.
As a software architect, I elicited the project requirements and explored alternatives. We implemented Bluetooth beacons since they offered the best privacy, legal, and operativeness ratio for their use case.
As a software architect, I elicited the project requirements and explored alternatives. We implemented Bluetooth beacons since they offered the best privacy, legal, and operativeness ratio for their use case.
Education
2009 - 2014
Master's Degree in Computer Science
University of A Coruña - A Coruña, Spain
Certifications
AUGUST 2022 - AUGUST 2025
AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate
AWS
OCTOBER 2018 - PRESENT
Functional Programming in Scala Specialization
Coursera
OCTOBER 2018 - PRESENT
Blockchain
Coursera
MAY 2016 - PRESENT
SSFT'16: Summer School on Formal Techniques
SRI International Inc.
DECEMBER 2015 - PRESENT
Data Manipulation at Scale: Systems and Algorithms
Coursera
AUGUST 2015 - PRESENT
Summer School Marktoberdorf | NATO Advanced Study Institute
Technische Universität München
Skills
Libraries/APIs
React, Node.js, REST APIs, Spark ML, Pandas, Django ORM, TensorFlow, Dask, PySpark, PyTorch, Stripe, OpenAI API
Tools
Spark SQL, Google Compute Engine (GCE), GitLab, Git, IntelliJ IDEA, Gerrit, Kafka Streams, Systemd, GitLab CI/CD, GitHub, ELK (Elastic Stack), Apache Maven, Kafka Connect, Jenkins, Istio, Kibana, Z3, Autodesk Fusion 360, Sentry, Apache Tomcat, Amazon EKS, AWS IAM, Helm, CircleCI, Terraform, Apache Airflow, AWS Cost Explorer, Codex
Languages
Scala, Python 3, Emacs Lisp, TypeScript, Python, JavaScript, HTML5, Java, SQL, Haskell, Rust, OCaml, C, C++, Coq, C#
Frameworks
Django, Django REST Framework, Apache Spark, Spark, Spark Structured Streaming, Truffle, Spring 4, React Native, Play 2, Play, Spring, Hibernate, Cypress, Hadoop, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Next.js, Ray, .NET
Paradigms
Functional Programming, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), ETL, Object-oriented Design (OOD), Distributed Computing, Role-based Access Control (RBAC), Microservices, Microservices Architecture, Agile, Agile Project Management, Software Testing, DevOps, MapReduce, Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), REST
Platforms
Docker, Linux, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Apache Kafka, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Kubernetes, Blockchain, Bluetooth Low Energy (LE), Android, iOS, MacOS, Salesforce, Ubuntu, Windows Server
Storage
Data Pipelines, Google Cloud, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, Azure SQL, SQLite, CouchDB, PouchDB, Data Lakes, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)
Industry Expertise
Project Management
Other
System Architecture Design, Software Architecture, Algorithms, Data Structures, Operating Systems, Software Engineering, Data Engineering, Architecture, Data Architecture, Data Modeling, Message Queues, Technical Architecture, Solution Architecture, APIs, HPCC Systems, Over-the-top Content (OTT), Full-stack, Scalability, Concurrency, Product Roadmaps, Kappa Architecture, IT Project Management, Web Security, Applied Cryptography, Game Theory, Formal Methods, Data Warehousing, Mentorship & Coaching, Oso, ETL Tools, Monitoring, Data Auditing, Statistics, Data Science, WebSockets, Azure Blob Storage, Numerical Methods, Hibernate 3, Cryptography, Complexity Theory, Information Flow, CVC4, Software Modeling, RPM Packaging, Azure Data Lake, Bluetooth Beacons, Privacy, Data Privacy, API Design, Cloud, Deployment, Identity & Access Management (IAM), Okta, Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Genomics, Biotechnology, Software Development, Optimization, Airtable, LLM Integration, Large Language Models (LLMs), Reinforcement Learning, Supabase, Supabase Auth, Perplexity
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