Senior Full-Stack / Backend Engineer

Ricardo Zanardo Junior

I design, build, and scale distributed systems and cloud-native platforms. Over the last 15+ years I’ve led the modernization of legacy systems, built microservices and event-driven architectures, and, in recent years, have been equally focused on modern frontend engineering with React and TypeScript — delivering full-stack solutions end to end.

  • Strong foundations in backend architecture: Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, Node.js, distributed systems.
  • Deep experience with React + TypeScript building internal tools, dashboards and workflow UIs.
  • Microservices, CQRS & event-driven systems.
  • AWS & Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD and observability.
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Ricardo Zanardo

Snapshot

Location: Campinas, Brazil · Open to remote opportunities.

Focus: Full-stack engineering with strong backend architecture and modern frontend.

Recent roles: Senior Engineer at X-Team / Riot Games, Ci&T, Kaffa Mobile.

Values: ownership, reliability, pragmatic architecture, mentorship.

Background

About me

I’m a Senior Full-Stack / Backend Engineer with over 15 years of experience building distributed systems, microservices and cloud-native platforms.

My career started with a strong focus on backend architecture — Java/Kotlin, Spring Boot, Node.js, high-throughput pipelines and large-scale systems in production.

In the last years, I’ve also been deeply focused on modern frontend engineering, building robust React + TypeScript applications, internal tools, dashboards, workflow UIs and complex client-facing features used daily by engineering, product and localization teams.

Today I work comfortably across the full stack, designing systems end-to-end, implementing backend and frontend with equal confidence, and ensuring reliability, usability and long-term maintainability. I enjoy bridging both worlds — architecture and UI — and delivering complete solutions that solve real problems.

Key strengths

  • Designing and evolving microservice and event-driven architectures.
  • Bridging backend and frontend to deliver complete, user-facing solutions.
  • Moving legacy systems toward modern, cloud-native setups.
  • Owning observability, incident reduction and reliability.
  • Mentoring engineers and improving team practices and delivery.

Languages

  • Portuguese: Native
  • English: Advanced / Fluent
  • Spanish: Intermediate

Career

Experience

Senior Full-Stack Software Engineer

X-Team / Riot Games · Remote

Jan 2022 – Present

  • Designed and maintained localization microservices supporting all Riot titles, using Java 17/21, Spring Boot, Node.js and event-driven workflows (Kafka/SQS).
  • Reduced localization turnaround time by 30% and improved uptime during peak release cycles.
  • Architected AWS infrastructure (EKS, Lambda, API Gateway) with Terraform/Terragrunt, implementing blue/green deployments and zero-downtime rollouts.
  • Led observability initiatives with Datadog and SonarCloud, cutting incident detection time by 50% and reducing critical incidents by 40%.
  • Built React/TypeScript-based internal tools to streamline localization workflows for global teams.

Tech: Java, Spring Boot, Node.js, TypeScript, React, Kafka, AWS (EKS, Lambda, API GW), Terraform, Datadog, SonarCloud

Senior Full-Stack Engineer / Tech Lead

Ci&T · Brazil / Remote

Dec 2020 – Apr 2024

  • Led development of scalable microservices (Java 17, Spring Boot) backed by MongoDB and Redis.
  • Introduced Kafka/RabbitMQ to decouple workloads, reducing processing time for critical workflows by 25%.
  • Designed and optimized data-integration pipelines across multiple ERP providers, reducing sync errors by 40%.
  • Managed Azure DevOps pipelines and AKS blue/green deployments, cutting release lead time by 50%.
  • Built and maintained React/Next.js frontends for internal tools and client-facing dashboards.

Tech: Java, Spring Boot, React, Next.js, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ, Azure (AKS, API Management), Azure DevOps, New Relic

Senior Software Developer

Kaffa Mobile · Brazil

Aug 2017 – Dec 2020

  • Engineered microservices in Java/Kotlin to ingest and normalize GIS/Smallworld datasets (5–10M+ records nightly).
  • Built high-throughput ETL pipelines in Node.js/TypeScript, reducing sync errors by 25% and accelerating data refresh cycles by 40%.
  • Developed React dashboards for electrical network visualization, increasing user adoption by 20%.
  • Raised automated test coverage from ~50% to ~85% and revamped GitLab CI/CD pipelines.

Tech: Java, Kotlin, Node.js, TypeScript, React, Spring Boot, GIS/Smallworld, SAP, GitLab CI/CD, Redis

Software Development Specialist

Daitan Group · Brazil

Nov 2016 – Aug 2017

  • Improved internal operational and financial systems built with Java and Ruby on Rails.
  • Developed React components for internal dashboards, improving usability and reducing support tickets.
  • Integrated backend services with Microsiga and SAP to automate invoicing and planning workflows.

Tech: Java, Ruby on Rails, React, REST APIs, SAP, Microsiga

Java EE Developer

Vector Informática · Brazil

Jun 2014 – Nov 2016

  • Maintained Java-based hospital management system, optimizing SQL routines to improve performance by over 30%.
  • Built RESTful services and integration frameworks reducing sync failures by 40%.
  • Integrated PayPal REST API for secure online billing, increasing online payment adoption.

Tech: Java EE, Hibernate, REST, Oracle, SQL optimization, PayPal REST API

Delphi Developer & Junior Systems Analyst

Earlier roles · Brazil

2011 – 2014

  • Developed and maintained Delphi-based systems with Oracle, Firebird, Informix and SQL Server backends.
  • Implemented integrations and internal tools that reduced manual processes and improved data accuracy.

Tech: Delphi, Oracle, Firebird, SQL Server, DataSnap, HTML reporting

Stack

Skills & technologies

Backend & Languages

  • Java (7–21), Kotlin
  • Spring Boot, Quarkus, Micronaut
  • Node.js, TypeScript, Express
  • Python (Django, Flask)

Frontend

  • React, Next.js
  • TypeScript, modern React patterns
  • UI for internal tools & dashboards
  • Form handling, state management, basic performance tuning

Architecture & Patterns

  • Microservices, distributed systems
  • CQRS, event-driven architectures
  • Domain modeling, API design
  • C4/UML, system decomposition

Cloud, DevOps & Observability

  • AWS: EKS, Lambda, RDS, API Gateway, S3, CloudWatch
  • Azure: AKS, API Management, Functions, Front Door
  • Docker, Kubernetes, GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins
  • PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Kafka, RabbitMQ
  • Datadog, New Relic, SonarCloud

Writing

Articles

View all

2025-01-15

Event-driven localization at scale

How we decoupled localization workflows with events to handle release spikes without chaos.

ArchitectureEvent-drivenPlatform

2025-02-10

Bridging backend depth with frontend clarity

Strong backend systems and clear UI are not competing goals. They reinforce each other.

Full-stackUXArchitecture

Validation

Certifications

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner

Amazon Web Services — Certified

AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

Amazon Web Services — In progress

Oracle Certified Professional: Java SE 17 Developer (1Z0-830)

Oracle — In progress

Mindset

Engineering principles

Design for reliability, not complexity

Systems should be boring in production. I favor simple architectures, explicit trade-offs, strong observability, and predictable failure modes over clever or over-engineered solutions.

Own the full lifecycle

Writing code is only part of the job. I take responsibility for design, implementation, testing, deployment, monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement.

Architecture is about trade-offs

There’s no perfect architecture — only context-aware decisions. I focus on understanding constraints, team maturity, scale, and long-term cost before choosing patterns or tools.

Backend depth + frontend clarity

Strong backend foundations matter, but great products also require clear, usable interfaces. I aim to bridge backend architecture and frontend UX to deliver complete, end-to-end solutions.

Measure before optimizing

I rely on metrics, logs, traces and real usage data to guide decisions. Performance, scalability and reliability improvements should be driven by evidence, not assumptions.

Practice

Selected case studies

Localization at scale — Riot Games

Context: Riot Games operates multiple live game titles with frequent releases across many regions.

The problem: Localization workflows were tightly coupled and hard to scale during peak releases.

Key decision: We adopted an event-driven model to decouple services and absorb traffic spikes.

What I owned: Service boundaries, event contracts, observability standards, and internal tooling.

Outcome: ~30% faster turnaround and ~40% fewer production incidents.

ERP integrations — Ci&T

Context: Enterprise clients relied on multiple ERP systems with complex integrations.

The problem: Synchronous workflows caused bottlenecks and amplified failures.

Key decision: Introduced asynchronous, event-driven processing.

What I owned: Architectural redesign, migration strategy, and observability.

Outcome: ~25% faster processing and ~40% fewer integration errors.

High-volume ETL pipelines — Kaffa Mobile

Context: Utility data pipelines processed millions of records nightly.

The problem: Pipelines were fragile and difficult to debug.

Key decision: Redesigned pipelines with smaller, resilient processing stages.

What I owned: Pipeline design, validation strategies, and monitoring dashboards.

Outcome: ~40% faster refresh cycles and ~25% fewer sync errors.

Impact

Selected highlights

Riot Games

Localization at scale

Redesigned localization services and internal tools used by multiple game teams, cutting turnaround time by 30% and reducing critical incidents by 40%.

Ci&T

Microservices & ERP integrations

Led the migration of core workflows to microservices backed by Kafka/RabbitMQ, reducing processing time by 25% and integration errors by 40%.

Kaffa Mobile

High-volume ETL for utilities

Built ETL pipelines handling 5–10M+ records per run for electrical grid data, improving data freshness and adoption of analytics dashboards.

Next step

Let’s work together

I’m open to remote positions where I can help design and build backend-heavy systems, evolve architectures, and deliver full-stack features that teams can rely on.

If you think my experience could be a good fit for your team, feel free to reach out using the form below.

LocationCampinas, São Paulo · Brazil
Emailricardo.zanardo@gmail.com
LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/ricardo-zanardo-545a2781
Phone+55 (19) 98290-7079