Roberto Langarica
Verified Expert in Engineering
Software Developer
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Toptal member since April 27, 2021
Roberto is a full-stack web developer who excels in video game design and development. He has a solid track record with startups, taking them from idea to MVP and completed product. He consults for companies and enjoys being involved from start to finish. He has built and led teams, implemented a serialization strategy that resulted in nearly instant initialization for a dictionary, and delivered the first MVP with UC Berkeley. Roberto is an easygoing person who enjoys meaningful projects.
Portfolio
Experience
Availability
Preferred Environment
Visual Studio Code (VS Code), MacOS, Vue, PostgreSQL, GitHub
The most amazing...
...MVP I delivered was with UC Berkeley for a digital reward and engagement platform for financial institutions.
Work Experience
Senior Specialist, Software Engineering and Architect
McKinsey & Company
- Designed and implemented a real-time communication server based on WebSocket messages, allowing different front-end applications to share the back end.
- Maintained the system's health by investigating logs and tickets from the users using Splunk to identify errors.
- Trained the team in troubleshooting processes and TypeScript as part of our internal growth.
Software Development Specialist
Cuatromedios
- Developed a back end (Node.js and Lambda) for a startup. Guided them in the definition of their MVP, resulting in them continuing to send work to the company one year later.
- Designed and developed a gamified app for ITESM university. It was for learning chemistry that I implemented with dynamic and configurable activities, allowing teachers to add more content without republishing the app.
- Acted as the lead programmer for a web educational project for elementary students. I implemented the core component system, the communication layer, and oversaw and managed the seven-member front-end development team.
- Reviewed the project's code, and assisted the development team in making better decisions. I mentor juniors and shared new knowledge with teammates. (Currently pushing for Docker and functional programming).
CEO
Villavanilla S de RL
- Grew the team from five to 25+ people by between 20162017, working on projects ranging from education to fintech to games. I was the architect for each project and the lead programmer for a few.
- Positioned the studio as a provider for all major local universities (UDG, ITESM at a multi-state level, ITESO and UP). I personally became a mentor for the incubator/acceleration programs at ITESM and UP.
- Became the sponsor (for one year) for the local "Unity user group" to share knowledge with our community. I also encouraged the team to be more active in local events.
- Expanded studio reach by participating in startups: GamersMutual (fintech+ and gamification), Jappico (health and gamification), Shopika (eCommerce and gamification), Flourish (fintech and gamification) and Curiosamente (gaming and technology).
CTO
Villavanilla S de RL
- Implemented a framework for screen management and resource management that helped us ship mobile apps. The tool allowed our artists to build on top of Flash and the result was a mobile app since all the heavy lifting was made with the framework.
- Rewrote the low-level data types for a GPU communication framework (Starling) and changed it for a bit manipulation strategy (for screen buffers and textures) giving us between 30-40% better rendering performance and 40% less memory footprint.
- Implemented a "trie" data structure for a "words game" and a serialization strategy that resulted in constant searching times (very important for mobile performance) and nearly instant initialization for a dictionary that included thousands of words.
- Implemented Agile methodology within the developer team.
Senior Programmer/Technical Lead
Aqua Interactive
- Designed and implemented a component system for an educational platform. It led to faster development for the front end since it standardized many of the decisions allowing for more jr programmers to be part of the production line.
- Designed a tool that allowed our salesmen to build web-based training courses. The tool managed all the assets, memory, user interaction, data gathering, and back-end communication. I wrote a library of UI components for the project.
- Promoted a better communication culture between developers and non-tech people. The developer team was in a different city and that resulted in a very divided team. By helping to reduce that division I became one of the team leads.
Full-stack Developer/CTO
Clasemovil
- Standardized the different types of "interactive activities" in a way that allowed the implementation of a production line. I wrote all the automatization tools used by the designers in this process.
- Wrote the UI library for the student's and professor's platform, including the strategy for dynamic configuration and dynamic loading of all assets (the web back in those days wasn't as dynamic as it is today).
- Oversaw the student's back-end implementation (and implemented a portion myself). We were able to launch in a couple of schools, resulting in 200-300 monthly active users.
- Brought the game design culture to the company by helping with mini-games design and by mentoring the pedagogic team. We started using gamification in the rest of the platform but the term gamification wasn't a "thing" yet.
- Built the prototypes that granted us (along with a lot of work from the company) a place in TechCrunch50 2009. I was part of the representing team at the event along with the CEO and CDO.
Experience
Flourish
Plaata
Jappico
Organic Chemistry Nomenclature
Shopika
Education
Certificate in Business Administration
Universidad Panamericana - Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
Engineer's Degree in Computer Graphics
Universidad de Artes Digitales - Guadalajara, Jalisco, México
Associate's Degree in Computer Science and Electronics
Centro de Enseñanza Técnica Industrial - Zapopan, Jalisco, México
Skills
Libraries/APIs
Vue.js, Vue 3, Node.js
Tools
Slack Development, Git, Subversion (SVN), Adobe Software Development, Flash, GitHub
Languages
JavaScript, C#, HTML5, CSS, AS3, PHP, TypeScript
Frameworks
NestJS, AdonisJS, Java, Unity, NativeScript
Paradigms
Gamification Design, Agile Development
Platforms
Visual Studio Development, MacOS, DigitalOcean, AWS Lambda, PlayCanvas
Storage
PostgreSQL
Industry Expertise
Virtual Coaching
Other
Ideation, Data Modeling, Game Development, Mobile Game Development, Game Development, Software Architecture, Planning, Freelance Programming, Mobile Apps, Team Management, IT Administration, Strategic Planning, Game Development, Computer Science, Computer Graphics, Software Engineering, ERP Development, FP&A, Electronics, Algorithms, Networks, Robotics, WebSockets, Vue Router, Pinia
How to Work with Toptal
Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.
Share your needs
Choose your talent
Start your risk-free talent trial
Top talent is in high demand.
Start hiring