11+
Years of experience
Since October 2014.
PLAYER PROFILE / 01 Barranquilla, Colombia
José Cabarcas
Senior Software Engineer
Open to new opportunities
Senior Software Engineer with 11+ years shipping frontend and mobile products used by millions — leading teams and architecture, and deliberately crossing into backend when the problem demands it.
11+ years across six teams: from broad early-career exposure — backend, frontend, mobile testing — at Janus IT, to leading 5–7 engineers as Tech Lead and Frontend Staff Engineer at Elenas, a social commerce platform that reached 3M+ downloads and 200K+ daily active users.
Today I ship with Spec-Driven Development: precise acceptance criteria, AI-generated first passes, and layer-by-layer validation before anything integrates. Backend (Node.js, Go, Rails) whenever the problem needs it.
11+ Years of experience Since October 2014.
5–7 Engineers led Team size led at Elenas under Scrum.
02 / CAREER STATS
Career Stats
Verified numbers from the career record — every value labeled for what it actually counts, and the Elenas scale figures presented as historical context because the company later shut down.
6
Employers
Six employer chapters; Elenas also includes a three-role progression.
5–7
Engineers led
Team size led at Elenas under Scrum.
2
Stores published
The Elenas app was published to Google Play and the App Store.
Historical — Elenas scale at departure (2024)
3M+
App downloads
Historical Elenas figure by the time José left in 2024; the company later shut down.
200K+
Daily active users
Historical Elenas figure by the time José left in 2024; not a current app-store claim.
24s → 7s
Startup time on low-end devices
Performance result from the Elenas work.
14s → 5s
Checkout time
Performance result from the Elenas work.
~30%
Bundle/build optimization reduction
Rollup build-time optimization and code splitting at Monokera.
~25%
Faster test execution
After the Jest → Vitest migration at Monokera.
03 / SEASON LOG
Season Log
Six employer chapters, October 2014 through July 2026 — the full chronology in order, readable as plain document content.
-
Oct 2014 – Feb 2016
Janus IT
Barranquilla
First development role: broad exposure across back-end, front-end, and mobile testing — the origin of the UX interest and of the comfort with not being boxed into one layer of the stack.
Frontend and Android Developer Oct 2014 – Feb 2016
-
Mar 2016 – Mar 2019
Joonik
Barranquilla
Migrated a legacy web app to a new version using Vue.js.
Frontend and Android Developer Mar 2016 – Mar 2019
-
Mar 2019 – Sep 2019
Merqueo
Bogotá
Backend-heavy role: built the initial microservices for an order-rating feature using Node.js, Go, and DynamoDB, plus the ratings UI in Vue.js.
Full Stack Developer Mar 2019 – Sep 2019
-
Oct 2019 – Apr 2020
Picap
Bogotá
Real-time systems work: architectural patterns for Firebase communication, a driver–customer chat system, live order tracking with Firestore, and a live video chat feature for an online medical appointments vertical.
Frontend Developer Oct 2019 – Apr 2020
-
May 2020 – Oct 2024
Elenas
Remote, Colombia
Four years on a social commerce platform across three roles: mobile architecture, EAS delivery, technical leadership, the performance project, migration of key mobile features to the web, and production-scale work.
- Senior Frontend Developer May 2020 – Oct 2021
- Tech Lead Oct 2021 – Aug 2023
- Frontend Staff Engineer Aug 2023 – Oct 2024
-
Oct 2024 – Jul 2026
Monokera
Remote, Colombia
Insurance management and sales platform: micro-frontend/monorepo architecture, reusable design-system components, test and build optimization, the Sales Builder Rails service, and Datadog-backed production work.
Senior Frontend Developer Oct 2024 – Jul 2026
04 / ATTRIBUTES
Attributes
A scouting report in sober text levels — Primary, Strong, Working / Applied. No numeric ratings, percentiles, or years-per-skill claims: levels are written as text so meaning survives grayscale and zoom.
Frontend & mobile
PrimaryThe core of the career: production frontend and mobile work.
- React
- React Native
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Expo
Architecture & leadership
PrimaryStaff-level ownership of frontend architecture and team leadership.
- Frontend architecture
- Design systems
- Monorepos / micro-frontends
- Technical leadership
AI-assisted development
PrimaryCore workflow using AI tools for spec-driven development and code generation.
- Claude Code
- Cursor
- Codex
- Spec-Driven Development
State & data
StrongClient and server state kept deliberately separate in production apps.
- Zustand
- TanStack Query
- GraphQL
Backend & platform
StrongDeliberate backend work taken on when the problem required it.
- Node.js
- Go
- Ruby on Rails
- Python
- Kotlin / Android modules
- AWS Lambda / CloudFront / S3
Quality & delivery
StrongTesting strategy and release tooling built around real products.
- Playwright
- Vitest
- Storybook
- Observability tooling
- CI/CD
Working / applied
Working / AppliedAdjacent technologies and practices evidenced in production roles.
- JavaScript
- NestJS
- PostgreSQL
- DynamoDB
- Docker
- GitHub Actions
- GitLab CI/CD
- Jenkins
- Detox
- Cypress
- Firebase / Firestore
- SASS
- Segment
- CleverTap
- Amplitude
- Agile / Scrum
- Code reviews
- Technical mentoring
Learning / exploration — not production experience
Learning / exploration
Working / AppliedStudied and practiced outside production — never presented as production experience.
- WatermelonDB Learning / exploration
- MMKV Learning / exploration
- CQRS / Event Sourcing Learning / exploration
05 / HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights
Eight separate stories in moment / challenge / result form. Ownership and outcomes are kept exactly as the record states them — no merged claims.
01
Store compliance rescue
MOMENT
An App Store rejection and a Google compliance deadline hit the Elenas app.
CHALLENGE
An outdated Segment SDK shipped with outdated Google Play Services versions.
RESULT
Patched the library to restore compliance under time pressure, then led migration to a modern Segment version once there was more runway.
02
Expo Classic Updates → EAS
MOMENT
Elenas moved off Expo Classic Updates.
CHALLENGE
Releases required a stronger delivery workflow.
RESULT
Led the Expo Classic Updates → EAS migration and the CI/CD pipeline around it, enabling OTA updates without full store republishing.
03
Expo 47 → Expo 51
MOMENT
The Elenas app moved from Expo 47 to Expo 51.
CHALLENGE
Breaking changes affected core functionality.
RESULT
Led the migration under those breaking changes.
04
Clean Architecture on mobile
MOMENT
The most recent Elenas mobile architecture.
CHALLENGE
Maintainability and testability across mobile concerns.
RESULT
Separated data, domain, and presentation layers, keeping Zustand, Context API, and TanStack Query concerns distinct.
05
CRA v3 → Vite dashboard
MOMENT
An internal dashboard still ran on Create React App v3.
CHALLENGE
The dashboard had to move to a current build tool.
RESULT
Led the CRA v3 → Vite migration.
06
Sales Builder on Rails
MOMENT
An assisted insurance-sales micro-frontend needed a service.
CHALLENGE
The service had to manage its rendered components.
RESULT
Built the Ruby on Rails Sales Builder microservice — and picked up Rails for that need.
07
Startup & checkout performance
MOMENT
Elenas mobile performance work.
CHALLENGE
Startup and checkout were slow on low-end devices.
RESULT
Startup moved 24s → 7s and checkout 14s → 5s.
08
Spec-Driven Development
MOMENT
Current AI-assisted development.
CHALLENGE
Generated code still needs judgment and correction.
RESULT
Define acceptance criteria, generate a first pass with Claude Code/Cursor/Codex, validate layer by layer, and describe failures precisely enough for correction.
06 / GAME LOG
Game Log
Seven case studies in box-score form — context, role, stack, and the documented outcome or responsibility. No fake scores, and no links the record can't back.
Elenas App
- Context
- Social commerce platform connecting women-led resellers; grew to 3M+ downloads and 200K+ daily active users by 2024 (historical — company later shut down).
- Role
- Senior Frontend Developer → Tech Lead → Frontend Staff Engineer; owned mobile architecture, releases to Google Play and the App Store, and the 5–7 person team.
- Stack
-
- React Native
- Expo
- EAS
- Clean Architecture
- Zustand
- TanStack Query
- Outcome
- Historical scale: 3M+ app downloads and 200K+ daily active users by the time I left in 2024.
Elenas Web
- Context
- Migrating key mobile features (Expo/React Native) to the web.
- Role
- Spearheaded the mobile-to-web migration as Frontend Staff Engineer.
- Stack
-
- Next.js App Router
- Turborepo
- pnpm
- Published shared packages
- Outcome
- Complete migration onto a Turborepo monorepo with published packages for large-scale code reuse.
Monokera-Core
- Context
- Core monorepo of shared services, components, utilities, and the design system, consumed across the company’s applications.
- Role
- Led adoption and architecture work for the Turborepo/pnpm monorepo.
- Stack
-
- Turborepo
- pnpm
- Design system
- JFrog
- Outcome
- Libraries were published and stored in JFrog.
Mi Banco
- Context
- Insurance management and sales platform.
- Role
- Designed component/service reuse for the platform’s first phase.
- Stack
-
- Component libraries
- Service reuse
- Insurance platform
- Responsibility
- Establish a reusable foundation for the core platform’s first phase.
Sales Builder
- Context
- Assisted insurance-sales micro-frontend.
- Role
- Built the service and picked up Rails for the need.
- Stack
-
- Ruby on Rails
- Microservice
- Micro-frontend
- Outcome
- Managed the components rendered by the assisted sales micro-frontend.
Stories Feature
- Context
- Short videos/photos and product discovery.
- Role
- Built the native module and bridge.
- Stack
-
- Kotlin
- Android Native Modules
- React Native
- Expo Bare
- Outcome
- Showcased top-selling brands and products through the Stories-like feature.
Mobile CI/CD pipeline
- Context
- Mobile release delivery.
- Role
- Led the Expo tooling migration and later EAS pipeline work.
- Stack
-
- Expo Classic Updates
- EAS
- CI/CD
- OTA updates
- Outcome
- Shipped fixes through OTA updates without full store resubmission.
07 / DRAFT ME
Draft Me
Open to the next chapter
The record above is the honest scouting report for José Cabarcas: a frontend and mobile specialist at Staff level, with real leadership and production outcomes, who deliberately takes on backend work when the problem requires it. If that profile fits your team, the next move is one email away — no form, no middleman.
Education — Diploma in Software Engineering (2016) · B.S. in Systems Engineering (2011–2016), Universidad Simón Bolívar.