# Gabriel Vargas — Head of Engineering

Buenos Aires, Argentina · Open to Remote & Relocation
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriel-vargas/

## Summary
Engineering leader with 6+ years scaling teams at Mercado Libre, the Inter-American Development Bank, and itti. Currently driving AI-first engineering practices (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) while leading architectural transformations of complex systems. Building high-trust teams. Trusted by senior stakeholders to align cross-functional teams and influence roadmap priorities in matrix organizations.

## Selected Achievements
- AI-first engineering transformation across itti — embedded in a core team rolling out Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, and AI-assisted development workflows org-wide.
- Scaled high-performing engineering teams through architectural transformation — restructured organizations and designed full platform redesigns across muv, Monchis, Mercado Libre, and IADB, improving stability, performance, and team delivery velocity.
- Financial infrastructure & multi-million-dollar operations — co-architected and owned Golang-based financial processing tools at MercadoPago's core, handling daily multi-million-dollar batch workloads.

## Experience

### itti — Software Engineering Manager {#itti}
2024-07 – Present · Remote

- Oversaw strategic engineering initiatives and team performance across key products (Monchis, then muv) within itti's ecosystem.
- Align engineering, product, and design in a cross-functional environment; negotiate priorities with business stakeholders and engage senior leadership on technical strategy and quarterly planning.
- Embedded in a core team (<40 people) driving itti's AI adoption strategy — rolling out Claude Code, Cursor, and AI-assisted development practices across the broader engineering organization.

### muv (itti product) — Engineering Manager {#muv}
2024-12 – Present · Remote

- Led a full architectural transformation of a high-concurrency mobile platform (React Native + Java microservices on AWS & GCP), significantly improving system stability and NPS scores.
- Introduced AI-assisted development practices (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Superpowers) across the 12-person team, accelerating delivery cycles and reducing repetitive development overhead.
- Designed and delivered a micro-apps architecture that decoupled deployments, enabling independent team velocity and reducing cross-team bottlenecks.
- Championed engineering quality standards: code review culture, observability tooling, and incident response processes that brought reliability to production-grade levels.
- Deployed and managed cloud infrastructure on AWS and GCP, ensuring compliance, scalability, and uptime.

### Monchis (itti product) — Engineering Manager {#monchis}
2024-07 – 2024-12 · Remote

- Led a full architectural redesign of the mobile platform (React Native + microservices on AWS), achieving stability and performance improvements that impacted user retention.
- Integrated and modernized legacy systems, enabling new feature development and restoring engineering momentum.
- Delivered the platform stabilization and architectural redesign, leading to internal reassignment to the muv product line to replicate these results at greater scale.

### Mercado Libre — Project Leader (Tech Lead Manager) {#mercado-libre}
2022-05 – 2024-03 · Argentina

- Led a team of 8 engineers across design, delivery, and execution — collaborating directly with technical leads on architecture decisions while owning team performance and roadmap.
- Owned and co-architected high-stakes financial processing tools built on Golang, handling daily multi-million-dollar batch workloads at the core of MercadoPago's operations.
- Maintained and scaled a critical internal operations platform trusted by 100+ internal teams, central to MercadoPago's core workflows and consolidating data across all business units.
- Drove adoption and evolution of a frontend framework used as a core standard across the organization, improving reliability and developer experience at scale.

### Inter-American Development Bank — Engineering Manager {#idb}
2020-03 – 2023-06

- Delivered engineering for multiple projects at one of the world's most influential multilateral development banks.
- Managed cross-functional teams of 60+ people across engineering, design, product, and policy, ensuring delivery across complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
- Presented technical strategy and trade-offs to C-level leadership and influenced roadmap priorities across a large matrix organization.
- Reduced time-to-market by 30% by addressing technical debt and implementing Microfrontend architecture using Angular and Vue, enabling modular, independently deployable frontends across multiple product teams.
- Engaged initially as a full-time consultant, then continued as a flexible contractor leading internal projects — a structure that allowed concurrent engagement with Mercado Libre from May 2022 onward.

### GM2 — Technical Team Lead (Consultant) {#gm2}
2021-03 – 2021-08

- Engaged as a technical consultant on a short-term, high-priority project with a critical delivery deadline.
- Restructured the project architecture, resolved key technical blockers, and led the team to a successful on-time production launch.

### Qu POS — Sr. Frontend Developer {#qu-pos}
2018-11 – 2019-12 · Washington, D.C. (Remote)

- Developed a complex configuration system for a restaurant POS platform using Vue, within an international team based in Washington D.C.
- Contributed to product and engineering improvements that helped establish the company as one of the top players in the U.S. restaurant software market, serving thousands of franchise locations.

### Freelance — Frontend & Mobile Developer {#freelance}
2014-06 – 2019-12

- Delivered end-to-end web and mobile projects for clients across multiple industries, with primary focus on Angular, Vue, and React Native.

## Education
Universidad Tecnológica Nacional — B.Sc. Information Systems Engineering (coursework complete)

## Core Skills
**Leadership & Strategy:** Engineering Leadership & Team Scaling (8–60+ people), Roadmap Ownership, OKRs, Strategic Thinking, Matrix Organization Navigation, Architectural Strategy.

**Architecture & Cloud:** Architectural Refactoring & Design, Microservices & APIs, Microfrontends, High-Concurrency Systems, Distributed Systems, AWS, GCP, High Availability, Fault Tolerance, Scalability.

**Cross-Functional Influence:** C-Level Communication, Stakeholder Negotiation, Cross-functional Alignment, Technical Strategy Presentation.

**Technologies:** React Native, React, Vue, Angular, Golang, Java, Node.js.

**Methodology & Culture:** Agile / Scrum, Results-Driven Execution, AI-Assisted Development (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor), Talent Development & Team Growth.

## Certifications
- Introduction to Model Context Protocol — Anthropic (2026-05-16)
- Introduction to Agent Skills — Anthropic (2026-04-20)
- Building with the Claude API — Anthropic (2026-04-20) [in progress]
- Claude 101 — Anthropic (2026-04-20)
- Claude Code 101 — Anthropic (2026-04-20)
- Claude Code in Action — Anthropic (2026-04-20)
- Model Context Protocol: Advanced Topics — Anthropic (2026-04-20) [in progress]
- Introduction to Subagents — Anthropic (2026-04-20)
- Cambridge First Certificate in English (FCE, Level B2) — Cambridge English (2018-01)

## Languages
- Spanish: Native
- English: Advanced (FCE B2)
- Portuguese: Basic