Engineering Manager · Santiago, Chile

Jorge
Valencia

Software Architect & Engineering Leader

18+ years building high-performing teams and critical systems at scale. From writing code to defining roadmaps — I operate fluently at every level.

Santiago, Chile +56 9 9299 7671 jorge@jvalencia.tech Spanish · English · Portuguese
Santiago, Chile +56 9 9299 7671 jorge@jvalencia.tech Español · Inglés · Portugués
Santiago, Chile +56 9 9299 7671 jorge@jvalencia.tech Espanhol · Inglês · Português
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Background

About me

I'm a software engineer and tech leader who has spent the last 18 years building products and the teams that ship them. My experience spans startup chaos, enterprise-scale migrations, and everything in between.

At LATAM Airlines I led a team of 12 software architects and, as Agile Manager, development teams across 4 countries, and was a key contributor to the migration of the core reservation system (PSS). At Octodots I built an IT department from scratch. Today I work at Topsort, a global Retail Media / Ad Tech company, where I lead cross-team technical initiatives in distributed systems and AI adoption across engineering.

I believe great engineering is inseparable from great culture: clear processes, honest feedback, and teams that can iterate fast without accumulating debt.

Soy un ingeniero de software y líder técnico que lleva 18 años construyendo productos y los equipos que los entregan. Mi experiencia abarca el caos de las startups, las migraciones a escala empresarial y todo lo que hay entre medio.

En LATAM Airlines lideré un equipo de 12 arquitectos de software y, como Agile Manager, equipos de desarrollo en 4 países, además de tener un rol clave en la migración del sistema central de reservas (PSS). En Octodots construí un departamento IT desde cero. Hoy trabajo en Topsort, empresa global de Retail Media / Ad Tech, donde lidero iniciativas técnicas transversales en sistemas distribuidos y en la adopción de IA en ingeniería.

Creo que la gran ingeniería es inseparable de la gran cultura: procesos claros, feedback honesto y equipos que pueden iterar rápido sin acumular deuda.

Sou um engenheiro de software e lider tecnico que passou os ultimos 18 anos construindo produtos e as equipes que os entregam. Minha experiencia abrange o caos das startups, migracoes em escala empresarial e tudo no meio.

Na LATAM Airlines liderei uma equipe de 12 arquitetos de software e, como Agile Manager, equipes de desenvolvimento em 4 países, além de ter um papel-chave na migração do sistema central de reservas (PSS). Na Octodots construi um departamento de TI do zero. Hoje trabalho na Topsort, empresa global de Retail Media / Ad Tech, onde lidero iniciativas técnicas transversais em sistemas distribuídos e na adoção de IA na engenharia.

Acredito que a grande engenharia e inseparavel da grande cultura: processos claros, feedback honesto e equipes que podem iterar rapidamente sem acumular divida tecnica.

18+
Years of experience
4
Countries managed simultaneously
12
Engineers led at peak
3
Languages spoken

Expertise

Core skills

01
Team Leadership
Hiring, mentoring, career development, and managing distributed international teams. Building cultures of trust and accountability.
Hiring Mentoring Remote teams Feedback
02
Delivery & Process
Kanban, Scrum, CI/CD pipeline automation, Continuous Delivery, and technical roadmap definition aligned to business goals.
Kanban CI/CD Scrum TDD
03
Architecture
Microservices, SOA/WOA, cloud-native AWS, Infrastructure as Code, active-active multisite, and event-driven messaging systems.
Microservices AWS Kafka IaC DDD
04
Tech Stack
Full-stack hands-on experience across backend, frontend, infrastructure, and data pipelines. Still writing code alongside managing.
Go Kotlin TypeScript Java Kubernetes Snowflake ArgoCD

Applied AI

AI & Tooling

01
Agentic Workflow
Uses Cursor and Claude Code as primary development environment, running multiple parallel tasks in human-in-the-loop mode: agent-driven code implementation with detailed plan iteration, and RFC/PRD generation with continuous context sharing.
Cursor Claude Code Human-in-the-loop
02
MCP & Integrations
Designed the OAuth gateway and MCP servers that connect AI agents to observability (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus/Mimir, Grafana/Loki) and internal tools for the whole engineering organization, with auditing and metrics for all agent traffic. Develops shared plugins and skills for Cursor and Claude.
MCP OAuth OpenTelemetry Prometheus Grafana
03
Agent Optimization
Works on token usage optimization via proxies, indexing strategies, and agent specialization for specific domains. Focuses on giving agents maximum autonomy with minimum overhead.
Token optimization Agent specialization RAG
04
Vision
AI is here to stay in engineering — but the real challenge is distinguishing stable, proven practices from immature ones amid constant noise. Organizations and individuals must adapt faster than ever, and leadership's role is to help teams adopt AI with measurable quality, not just more speed.
Leadership Strategy

Career

Experience

08/2025 — Present
Topsort Technologies Inc.
Senior Software Engineer
  • Technical leadership on a global Retail Media / Ad Tech platform, with teams distributed across Chile, Brazil, USA, Australia, and Turkey.
  • Liderazgo técnico en una plataforma global de Retail Media / Ad Tech, con equipos distribuidos en Chile, Brasil, EE.UU., Australia y Turquía.
  • Liderança técnica em uma plataforma global de Retail Media / Ad Tech, com equipes distribuidas no Chile, Brasil, EUA, Australia e Turquia.
  • Kafka Streams redesign: eliminated week-long time-windowed joins consuming 3 TB / 48 GB RAM pods. New design: <100 MB storage, 1 CPU / 1 GB per pod, rolled out across 6 AWS regions with full legacy decommissioning.
  • Rediseño de Kafka Streams: eliminación de joins temporales de 1 semana que consumían 3 TB / pods de 48 GB. Nuevo diseño: <100 MB de almacenamiento, 1 CPU / 1 GB por pod, con rollout en 6 regiones AWS y retiro completo del sistema legado.
  • Redesenho do Kafka Streams: eliminacao de joins temporais de 1 semana que consumiam 3 TB / pods de 48 GB. Novo design: <100 MB de armazenamento, 1 CPU / 1 GB por pod, com rollout em 6 regiões AWS e desativação completa do sistema legado.
  • AI platform for engineering: OAuth gateway for internal MCP servers used from Cursor and Claude Code, with auditing and metrics for all agent traffic, plus nightly quality evaluation of the campaign-creation AI agent.
  • Plataforma de IA para ingeniería: gateway OAuth para servidores MCP internos usados desde Cursor y Claude Code, con auditoría y métricas del tráfico de agentes, y evaluación nocturna de calidad del agente de IA de creación de campañas.
  • Plataforma de IA para engenharia: gateway OAuth para servidores MCP internos usados a partir do Cursor e do Claude Code, com auditoria e métricas do tráfego de agentes, e avaliação noturna da qualidade do agente de IA de criação de campanhas.
  • Reviewed 250+ pull requests from 8 engineers; defined CI quality gates and pull request standards.
  • Revisión de más de 250 pull requests de 8 ingenieros; definición de quality gates de CI y estándares de pull requests.
  • Revisão de mais de 250 pull requests de 8 engenheiros; definição de quality gates de CI e padrões de pull requests.
  • Stack: Go · Kotlin · Python · TypeScript · Kafka Streams · Kubernetes · ArgoCD · Snowflake · ClickHouse · AWS
11/2022 — 08/2025
Octodots Analytics SpA
Tech Lead / IT Manager
  • Built the IT department from scratch: roles, hiring, and managing a team of 3 engineers for a Mining Tech startup.
  • Construcción del área IT desde cero: roles, contratación y gestión de un equipo de 3 ingenieros para una startup de tecnología minera.
  • Construcao do departamento de TI do zero: papeis, contratacao e gestao de uma equipe de 3 engenheiros para uma startup de tecnologia para mineracao.
  • Architected and shipped the first 3 products: Frontend, Backend, BFF, Streams, Queues. CI/CD on AWS with Terraform.
  • Diseñé y entregué los primeros 3 productos: Frontend, Backend, BFF, Streams, Queues. CI/CD en AWS con Terraform.
  • Projetei e entreguei os primeiros 3 produtos: Frontend, Backend, BFF, Streams, Queues. CI/CD na AWS com Terraform.
10/2017 — 11/2022
RebelSouls SpA
Consultant & Co-founder
Consultor y Co-fundador
Consultor e Co-fundador
  • Software architecture consultancy for mining, transport, and construction sectors. Agile transformations and cloud migrations.
  • Consultoría en arquitectura de software para sectores de minería, transporte y construcción. Transformaciones ágiles y migraciones cloud.
  • Consultoria em arquitetura de software para os setores de mineracao, transporte e construcao. Transformacoes ageis e migracoes para nuvem.
05/2010 — 05/2017
LATAM Airlines Group
Lead Architect → API Product Owner → Agile Manager
Arquitecto Senior → API Product Owner → Agile Manager
Arquiteto Senior → API Product Owner → Agile Manager
  • Managed distributed development teams across Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and the USA as Agile Manager. Key contributor to the core reservation system (PSS) migration (~2 million lines of code).
  • Gestión de equipos de desarrollo distribuidos en Chile, Brasil, Argentina y EE.UU. como Agile Manager. Participación clave en la migración del sistema central de reservas (PSS) (~2 millones de líneas de código).
  • Gestão de equipes de desenvolvimento distribuídas no Chile, Brasil, Argentina e EUA como Agile Manager. Participação-chave na migração do sistema central de reservas (PSS) (~2 milhões de linhas de código).
  • Led a team of 12 architects. Introduced TDD, DDD, CI, and microservices to the entire web factory.
  • Lideré un equipo de 12 arquitectos. Introduje TDD, DDD, CI y microservicios en toda la fábrica web.
  • Liderei uma equipe de 12 arquitetos. Introduzi TDD, DDD, CI e microsservicos em toda a fabrica web.
  • People and budget management: 1:1s and performance reviews as Architecture Lead, Product Owner, and Agile Manager; ~USD 1.2M annual budget with OKR design and tracking.
  • Gestión de personas y presupuesto: 1:1 y evaluaciones de desempeño como Jefe de Arquitectura, Product Owner y Agile Manager; presupuesto anual de ~USD 1,2 millones con diseño y seguimiento de OKRs.
  • Gestão de pessoas e orçamento: 1:1 e avaliações de desempenho como Líder de Arquitetura, Product Owner e Agile Manager; orçamento anual de ~USD 1,2 milhão com definição e acompanhamento de OKRs.
  • Active-active multisite deployment across 5 global datacenters. Perl → Java platform migration.
  • Despliegue multisite activo-activo en 5 datacenters globales. Migración de plataforma Perl → Java.
  • Implantacao multisite ativo-ativo em 5 datacenters globais. Migracao da plataforma Perl para Java.
02/2008 — 05/2010
Entermedia Software Inc.
Software Developer
  • 100% remote work for a US company. Digital Asset Management system (Java Enterprise / Spring). Clients: StateFarm, WWE, Pindar.
  • Trabajo 100% remoto para empresa estadounidense. Sistema de gestión de activos digitales (Java Enterprise / Spring). Clientes: StateFarm, WWE, Pindar.
  • Trabalho 100% remoto para empresa norte-americana. Sistema de Digital Asset Management (Java Enterprise / Spring). Clientes: StateFarm, WWE, Pindar.

Formation

Education

2001 — 2006
Computing Engineering
Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María · Santiago, Chile
Continuing education
Leadership & Architecture
Leadership 2.0 · Software Architecture & Design · Lean & Agile Practices

Get in touch

Let's work together

jorge@jvalencia.tech
+56 9 9299 7671 Santiago, Chile
↓ CV in English ↓ CV en Español ↓ CV em Português