María Macarena Peche Irissarry, Developer in Seville, Spain
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María Macarena Peche Irissarry

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Back-end Engineer and Developer

Seville, Spain

Toptal member since October 30, 2024

Bio

Macarena is an experienced back-end engineer with a strong foundation in Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, GraphQL, and Apache Kafka. She has a proven track record in delivering high-impact technical solutions, optimizing system performance, and leading cross-functional team projects, consistently improving customer experiences and driving product innovation. With a PhD in mathematics and a teaching background, Macarena is an adaptable, proactive, and fast learner.

Portfolio

Toptal
Ruby, Ruby on Rails 7, GraphQL, APIs, PostgreSQL...
InterMatia
PHP, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery

Experience

  • Ruby - 3 years
  • GraphQL - 3 years
  • PostgreSQL - 3 years
  • Ruby on Rails 7 - 3 years
  • APIs - 3 years
  • Apache Kafka - 3 years
  • Agile - 3 years
  • Object-oriented Programming (OOP) - 3 years

Availability

Full-time

Preferred Environment

Ruby, GraphQL, PostgreSQL, Apache Kafka, Jira, Slack, Ruby on Rails (RoR)

The most amazing...

...project I've led optimized Toptal's client conversion flows and data synchronization, boosting efficiency and reliability for thousands of active users daily.

Work Experience

Back-end Software Engineer

2022 - 2024
Toptal
  • Led product initiatives to optimize the client signup flow.
  • Implemented dynamic time slot allocation for callback requests, introduced a subscription signup modality, and led a cross-team project to automate enterprise client's handover to Salesforce.
  • Handled cross-team technical initiatives to address technical debt, including API performance optimizations and standardized GraphQL code implementation, ensuring consistency and maintainability across the platform.
  • Drove cross-team technical and product initiatives using Ruby on Rails (RoR), PostgreSQL, and GraphQL to enhance data synchronization tools, leveraging Apache Kafka's event-driven architecture to improve real-time data handling across services.
  • Actively monitored system performance and managed bug tracking through Sentry and Grafana, swiftly identifying and resolving critical production and staging issues to ensure platform stability.
Technologies: Ruby, Ruby on Rails 7, GraphQL, APIs, PostgreSQL, Object-oriented Programming (OOP)

Full-stack Engineer

2020 - 2022
InterMatia
  • Led the development of InterMatia, an online platform offering interactive math exercises for secondary and pre-university education.
  • Implemented back-end (PHP) and front-end (JavaScript, CSS, and jQuery) solutions for a battery of randomized mathematical exercises with step-by-step solutions.
  • Collaborated with educational experts to deliver high-quality content tailored to student needs.
  • Resolved production issues, ensuring smooth platform functionality for users.
Technologies: PHP, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery

Experience

InterMatia

http://www.intermatia.com
InterMatia is an interactive educational platform that delivers math exercises for secondary and pre-university students, covering the entire Spanish curriculum. Exercises are randomly generated and come with step-by-step solutions, a scoring system, and varying difficulty levels. Built with a PHP back end and JavaScript front end, the platform offers a unique feature set, including a dedicated section simulating university entry exams. As the main developer, I created most exercises, contributing significantly to the platform's functionality and educational depth.

Twitter Demo

https://github.com/macarenapeche/twitter-demo
This project involved developing a Twitter clone demo repository as a Toptal intern during the TopAcademy program. The demo included essential social media functionalities and supported authentication and sessions, along with a robust structure for managing users, tweets, likes, and comments. Additionally, the project incorporated an API and GraphQL, providing flexible data querying and interaction, making it a versatile and scalable demo application.

Education

2013 - 2016

PhD in Mathematics

Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris, France

2012 - 2013

Master's Degree in Mathematics

Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris, France

2007 - 2012

Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics

Universidad de Sevilla - Sevilla, Spain

Certifications

MAY 2023 - PRESENT

The Complete SQL Bootcamp: From Zero to Hero

Udemy

OCTOBER 2022 - PRESENT

TopAcademy Ruby Web Development Internship

Toptal

FEBRUARY 2022 - PRESENT

JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures

FreeCodeCamp

Skills

Libraries/APIs

GraphQL API, Sidekiq, jQuery

Tools

Sentry, Grafana, Jira, Slack, RSpec

Languages

Ruby, GraphQL, SQL, PHP, JavaScript, HTML

Frameworks

Ruby on Rails 7, Ruby on Rails 6, Ruby on Rails (RoR)

Paradigms

Agile, Object-oriented Programming (OOP), Test-driven Development (TDD), Kanban

Storage

PostgreSQL

Platforms

Apache Kafka

Other

APIs, Analytical Thinking, Algebra, Number Theory, Geometry, Mathematics

Collaboration That Works

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