Daniel Baena

Daniel Baena

Staff Product Engineer

10+ years building products end-to-end. High ownership, product-minded, and deeply technical. Based in Madrid, remotely available.

Open to contracting opportunities — US, UK & worldwide. Past experience working with international teams across time zones.

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About me

Product-minded engineer

More than 10 years of experience in Software Development. Self-driven, autonomous and detail-oriented. I take full ownership of what I build — from understanding the problem to shipping the solution.

I believe engineers should be partners in product strategy, not just implementers of someone else's roadmap. I follow the principles of the Product Engineer Manifesto — understanding the why before building the what, and measuring success by user impact.

Software Craftsmanship advocate. eXtreme Programming passionate. TDD practitioner. Open Source contributor.

I've architected a monorepo with design system and 3 apps from scratch, shipped a React Native mobile app from zero to both app stores with offline-first sync, and set up CI/CD pipelines that actually make teams faster.

Current stack: React, TypeScript, TanStack, Tailwind, React Native, Expo, Node.js, AWS, GitHub Actions.

What I work with

Technical Skills

Frontend

  • React 19, TypeScript 5.x
  • TanStack (Query v5, Router)
  • Tailwind CSS, ShadCN/RadixUI
  • Next.js, Vite, Vitest, MSW
  • React-Hook-Form, Zod
  • Storybook, ESLint, Prettier
  • Accessibility (A11y)

Mobile

  • React Native 0.81, Expo SDK 54
  • NativeWind (Tailwind for RN)
  • Expo Router, expo-camera
  • WatermelonDB (offline-first)
  • EAS Build/Submit
  • Maestro E2E testing

Backend

  • Node.js, Python, PHP (Laravel)
  • REST APIs, gRPC, tRPC
  • PostgreSQL, Redis, DynamoDB
  • RabbitMQ, Kafka, Celery
  • Hexagonal Architecture
  • Event-Driven Architecture, DDD

Infrastructure & DevOps

  • AWS: CDK, ECS Fargate, S3, CloudFront, Lambda
  • Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform
  • GitHub Actions (advanced CI/CD)
  • Jenkins, CircleCI
  • Git, trunk-based development

Architecture & Patterns

  • Monorepo architecture (TurboRepo)
  • Design systems & component libraries
  • Offline-first mobile architecture
  • OpenAPI client generation pipelines
  • BFF patterns

Methodologies & AI

  • TDD/BDD, Agile, eXtreme Programming
  • Pair programming, Mentoring
  • Product-minded engineering
  • Software Craftsmanship
  • Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT
  • AI-assisted development workflows

Where I've worked

Professional Experience

Ctaima / Twind

Ctaima / Twind

Current

SaaS for Contractor Access Control

Staff Frontend Engineer

Feb 2025 – Present

  • Architected a React monorepo (3 apps, shared packages, design system) — 230+ PRs in 9 months
  • Built a React Native mobile app from zero to App Store/Play Store with offline-first sync and QR scanning
  • Set up CI/CD with GitHub Actions: affected-based testing, automated OpenAPI client generation, EAS deployment
  • Created component library with Storybook, established i18n infrastructure with Tolgee
  • Owned codebase health: audits, test consolidation, shared hooks, bundle optimization
Merlyn Mind

Merlyn Mind

EdTech AI Assistant for Classrooms

Staff Frontend Software Engineer

Sep 2023 – Feb 2025

  • Developed products from scratch: chatbot for classrooms, Kahoot-like tools for teachers and students
  • Actively involved with Product and Design from early stages — technical breakdowns, estimations, launch management
  • Built a monorepo for shared packages using TurboRepo, hosted npm packages in ECR
  • Migrated a BFF (tRPC) to AWS Lambda, refactored into SPA to reduce overengineering
  • Mentored engineers on best practices
Eventbrite

Eventbrite

Real Life & Online Events Marketplace

Senior Software Engineer

Jul 2021 – Sep 2023

  • Large-scale challenges with worldwide reach
  • Owned several services including Tier 1 (200 req/s endpoint)
  • Migrated a service from legacy to gRPC, hosted in a TLZ within AWS using ECS Fargate
  • Implemented backend for Urgency Signals & Highlights — raised revenue, CTR up 1%
  • Developed Event Collections on the frontend, owning several apps and libraries using React
Alea Soluciones

Alea Soluciones

Fiber Optics Networks

Senior Full Stack Developer

Apr 2018 – Jul 2021

  • Software Craftsmanship: Python, Docker, Jenkins, React, Redis, PostgreSQL, RabbitMQ
  • TDD, Agile and eXtreme Programming done right
  • Distributed systems, Event Driven Architecture, Hexagonal Architecture
  • Product and ownership mindset, self-organized team
Machiina

Machiina

Product & Service Design Agency

Senior Full Stack Developer

Oct 2016 – Mar 2018

  • Implemented Carrefour e-Commerce frontends (Supermercado & Bodega)
  • Created internal tooling for A11y, minification, cross-browser, linting
  • Implemented Credit Card & Apple Pay integrations with Adyen
Ezzing Solar

Ezzing Solar

Photovoltaic Solar Energy Startup

Backend Developer

Jan 2016 – Oct 2016

  • Fast-paced startup environment with a meaningful mission
  • Developed new features over a CRM with a REST API using Laravel
h4ckademy

h4ckademy

Bootcamp & Open Source Project

Backend Developer

Oct 2015 – Dec 2015

  • Held at Google Campus Madrid with the goal of learning by doing
  • Developed an open source project in Node.js called Pistonify
Metropolis building, Madrid

Get in touch

Contact me