Backend
The core of my work: Laravel and Node services structured the same way everywhere — thin controllers, business logic in dedicated actions and services, queues for everything asynchronous.
Good engineering is a system, not a habit.
I'm Juan Porras, a full-stack engineer based in Guadalajara. I build multi-tenant SaaS platforms and tune the infrastructure they run on, plus the systems that hold all of it to one standard: encoded conventions, specialized AI agents, tests before code, privacy by design.
How I think
- systems-over-discipline
- Consistency shouldn't depend on willpower. I encode standards — architecture, testing, style, language — into layered configuration and a bench of specialized agents, so every project starts already held to the bar. My AI tooling is a factory, not a chat window.
- privacy-by-default
- No raw personal data crosses the application boundary. Anonymization runs in-process before any external call — an architectural line, not a compliance checkbox. And when there's a choice, keep it local — models, services, and data that stay home.
- assume-breach
- I'm not a security specialist — I just refuse to design as if nothing ever gets compromised. Least privilege, segmented networks, secrets that never touch code, and the recurring question: if this piece falls over at 3 a.m., what can it reach?
- evidence-first
- Tests come before code; bugs are reproduced before they're fixed; obstacles are investigated, not bypassed. Claims about software ship with proof — a failing test, then a passing one, then verified behavior. Measure before optimizing.
- stable-contracts
- Design the second implementation into the first without building it: canonical data shapes, pluggable adapters, seams where change is expected. The seam is free; the speculation isn't. Extensibility and YAGNI are not opposites.
direction Where this is going: encoded standards, specialized agents, and local models as everyday leverage — for my own work and for any team I'm embedded in. Quality shouldn't depend on who's (or what's) typing. The system should carry it.
What I do
Frontend
Component-driven React with a bias for fast, unshowy interfaces — from design system to embedded page builder to browser extension, and the occasional 3D scene.
Applied AI
Applied, not academic: I wire LLMs into real products — retrieval features, embeddings and vector search, PII scrubbed before anything leaves — and run local models where they hold up.
Infra & DevOps
Everything containerized, reverse-proxied, and reproducible. I run my own infrastructure to production standards — self-hosted, monitored, segmented — and treat security as part of the hygiene: least privilege, hardened containers, periodic reviews.
Engineering systems
I treat my own toolchain as a product: layered configuration (base → stack → project), reusable specialized agents, and templates that bootstrap a new project to the house standard in minutes.
Evidence, briefly
A few things I've built or designed, described at the level that matters. No client names, no internals.
- ai / privacyPII-safe document retrieval for a multi-tenant insurance-sector SaaS — Spanish-tuned embeddings, semantic chunking, in-process anonymization before any external call.
- backend / frontendMulti-tenant platform for a professional-membership organization, including a visual page builder for member sites.
- systemsA configuration factory and reusable agent bench that bootstrap any new project to the house standard in minutes.
- infraSelf-hosted infrastructure run like production — containerized services, VPN-only remote access, network segmentation, and periodic security reviews.
- goA fast photo-library triage tool in Go, built against a self-hosted service's REST API.
- integrationsA WhatsApp document-intake pipeline — webhook to archival system, signature-validated at every hop.
- ai / localA Telegram-native interface to an LLM assistant.
- frontendA Chrome MV3 extension using a per-provider strategy architecture to capture media across chat platforms.
- android / debuggingRoot-caused a live-playback regression in an open-source Android TV streaming app to a one-line ExoPlayer extractor fix — proved the fault with a second player first — and ship a patched, stably-signed build from a containerized Android toolchain.
Also: an interactive Unity/WebGL gallery, a soccer-stats dashboard with a sweepstake mode, a private Discord music bot, and winraid, an open-source Electron desktop app for NAS file sync.
Where I've worked
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Aug 2022 — present
DeansList · Senior Software Developer
Making a large legacy PHP platform earn its keep — new features built modularly into it, custom web components with Lit, and a habit of chasing the user's point of view from the engineering side
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Jun 2021 — Sep 2022
Self-employed · Software Engineer
Freelance tooling and websites — clinics and other small businesses
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Mar 2020 — May 2021
Rackspace Technology · Software Developer
US R&D team — internal tooling used by Rackers company-wide; React and Jest, features built from the ground up
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Oct 2017 — Feb 2020
Applaudo Studios · Software Development Analyst
AWS, Laravel, Magento 2 custom modules, CakePHP, Scrum
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Apr 2017 — Aug 2017
RoomieBill · CTO
Startup — pitched at Google Demo Day as part of the GSV Labs Pioneer Accelerator Program
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May 2016 — Feb 2017
Vander Group · Software Engineer
Laravel mobile APIs and database design
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Sep 2015 — May 2016
Artesanía Digital · Software Engineer
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Apr 2015 — Sep 2015
DVLOP · Web Developer
First dev role — where Git, PHP, and Laravel fundamentals landed
Education
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2021 — 2023
Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara · Master's in Computer Science
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2013 — 2017
Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara · Bachelor's in Software Engineering
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2016 — 2017
freeCodeCamp · Full Stack Web Development Certification
Contact
If any of this maps to a problem you have: