Me.

My name is RAFAEL PEÑA-AZAR. Born in Colombia. Software engineer. Well known as a RubyOnRails evangelizer. Systems Engineering professional from Unimagdalena (Colombia). I have a Master's degree in Web Engineering from Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (Spain) where I got the highest qualification in my degree thesis (with a project focused on RubyOnRails developers). Also, certified in Software Quality Management/Assurance (SQM/A) and Software Testing. Passionate coder. I love to speak in public (I'll update this later to share my talks here and the slides I used in them). Teacher/Mentor. Love all about Ruby (and Rails, and all the infinite infinity gems 🤣). Crazy about Hotwire (Turbo, Stimulus, Native). I'm also a Crystal enthusiast; and outside of the Ruby ecosystem I like Elixir and Phoenix a lot. Also time to time I work with Laravel, and make some deep work with C. Married since 2017 with the most beautiful girl. Father of the 3 smartest kids in existence: Benjamin, Nicolas and Tomas. I was also an active TCG professional player (and champion) in the past (don't know if I'll ever have the time to make a comeback 🤣). Madness-level fan of Club Atlético Boca Juniors since forever, being the only football/soccer team I really support. Overall, I'm a friendly guy and a family man.

My current work.

Currently, I'm working as Engineering Lead at JetRockets, leading a bunch of interesting projects from international clients and funded/seeded startups.

I'm also focused on building PRAGON, which is my main personal project that is also about to be launched in its alpha version. Plus, I'm the founder of RubySantaMarta, a Ruby user-group that I run, based in Santa Marta (Colombia) overall introducing Ruby and Rails to local developers, adding them into the vast Ruby community around the world, and helping them to get jobs on Ruby, remotely.

My whole experience.

My immediate previous work was as Senior Software Engineer at Encora (US) working directly with one of its partners, Cision (AU/NZ), in one of its biggest projects, Cision One, the ultimate media intelligence platform that delivers media monitoring, analytics, and influencer engagement, all in one place.

I also worked as Senior Software Engineer at Skydropx (Mexico), the #1 company in LATAM for logistics automation, working remotely from Colombia alongside a wonderful multi-cultural team.

I worked as a Senior Software Developer at Ideaware, alongside one of its partners Deep Space Robots in multiple world-class projects, joining another businesses and helping them to raise. Worked with companies and foundations like Greeting Card Collections (GCC), UniteLife, Torvast, Denison, BGEA, just to name a few.

Plus, served as Transversal Chief Technology Officer (T/CTO) of the SMTC Business Group, which meant being CTO for both of its business brands Brand Colombia and Visit Santa Marta, at the same time. My main focus was to lead the processes and needs of the tech structure and lead the IT security strategy, and lead the development projects and crew. Also, discover and implement new technologies that yield competitive advantage, help departments use technology profitably, build quality assurance and data protection processes, monitor KPIs and IT budgets to assess technological performance, use stakeholders’ feedback to inform necessary improvements and adjustments to technology and communicate technology strategy to partners and investors, among other important things.

I worked on a health provider company named SISM, first as a Software Architect in the Tech Department, and then leading the whole IT Department, where I helped in developing internal solutions for administrative staff, the health crew, patients, etc.

I'm formerly a Web Development teacher for both CBN (Santa Marta, CO) at the undergraduate level, and Universidad Simón Bolívar (Barranquilla, CO) at the postgraduate level.

I also served as Software Developer at Corpamag. A highlighted state-owned company dedicated to strengthening the environment. Part of this job was to encourage, develop, implement and improve e-Government strategy's projects and be an important part of the ICTs Department's Support Staff.

I'm former Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Código Fuente. This is a digital solutions agency based in Santa Marta (CO); specialized in high quality bespoke apps development, both web and mobile, UX/UI design, IT support and digital communication and advertising; which it has quality professionals in all fields and satisfied customers around the world, specially in Colombia and United States.

I was working as Head of Developmental Area in the Systems Department at Cajamag. This is a providing service company, in which I was working about 2 years, developing with a team, useful software for both employees and affiliates of the company.

My first job as a Full-Stack RubyOnRails Jr Developer was at Clue Code, a bespoke web and mobile apps development company. Also, outside of the developmental area, I worked as responsible for the Community and Content Management at the University of Magdalena (in their Educational and Pedagogical Tech Center) and at Revista Tayrona, a multicultural magazine established in Santa Marta, Colombia.

Pictures.