About Me

I'm Lucas, a software engineer and tech lead with more than 20 years of hands-on experience building web applications. My background is strongest on the back end (Ruby on Rails, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL, AWS) but I know my way around modern front-end frameworks like React, Svelte and Astro, and I've shipped production code across the full stack for most of my career.

I started out as a freelance developer in Germany while studying computer science at the University of Bremen, building client projects in Rails and .NET before joining Wimdu in Berlin, where I led a team of seven and helped increase conversion rates by 12% in six months. A move to XING followed, then to London — first at Elsevier's Mendeley, where I built internal tooling adopted across all web development teams and won a company award for running a monthly hack day that gave everyone in the company time learn something new through projects of their own choosing. Then at Resolver, where I managed a team of ten developers, owned and maintained the B2C side of the service while delivering the infrastructure for an expansion into South Africa.

Since then I've worked as a senior engineer and tech lead at Board Intelligence, HomeHero and Indeed Flex, focusing on API design, cloud infrastructure and improving development processes. Highlights include a 400x speed-up of a critical data export, taking ownership of core micro-services on AWS Lambda, and leading feature builds that reduced operational workload and fostered cross-team knowledge sharing.

In 2022, when COVID-19 travel restrictions were lifted, I took the opportunity to travel Southeast Asia, which is something I'd been planning for years. I spent close to two years exploring the region, and along the way co-founded TEFL GIGS, connecting English teachers with schools in Thailand, and continued taking on contract work remotely: leading a crypto wallet project from prototype to production at Mara, driving the rewrite of Goosechase's back-end application, and delivering a nationwide survey platform for dxw.

Today I run GEEK4GOOD, partnering with startups and established organisations to architect, build and ship software. I have a keen interest in software architecture and cloud infrastructure, and I make a point of keeping up with developments in the space. But I never lose sight of what matters most: solving real problems with well-built, reliable software.

Experience

Freelance Software Engineer and Tech Lead
Mar 2022 – present

GEEK4GOOD Consulting Ltd

Remote

Partnering with startups and established organisations alike to architect, build and ship web applications and cloud infrastructure, taking projects from concept to production. Adopted a nomadic lifestyle following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions while continuing to deliver solutions remotely.

Ruby on Rails · TypeScript · Node.js · Astro · Svelte · Apollo GraphQL · PostgreSQL · AWS · Python · Docker · Cloudflare · PostgreSQL · SQLite · PocketBase · SurveyJS · Amazon SES

PH2TH · Tech Lead (part time)
Apr 2026 – present

Building tech to help Filipino remote workers relocate to Thailand with confidence; AI-assisted visa application guidance and support backed by a custom CRM and marketing automation.

TenSrc AB · Tech Lead
Nov 2025 – Mar 2026

Building a SaaS platform that serves as the Trade OS for resellers, consolidating inventory, order and logistics management as well as trade compliance across borders into a single workflow.

TEFL GIGS · Tech Lead (part time)
May 2024 – Oct 2025

Connected more than 70 native speakers of English with schools in Southeast Asia seeking foreign teachers by automating social media marketing campaigns and application tracking to minimise repetitive manual work and make more time for genuine human connections.

dxw · Senior Software Engineer
Dec 2024 – Mar 2025

Successfully took a custom web app to create, conduct and evaluate nationwide surveys in the UK from prototype to production on time and on budget, working closely with users, a tech lead, a front-end developer, a DevOps engineer and a UI/UX designer.

Goosechase · Senior Software Engineer
Aug 2023 – Feb 2024

Sped up the complete rewrite of the Goosechase platform, an app ecosystem to plan and run scavenger hunts, by taking over the port of the web app's admin panel and switching the whole team to trunk-based development with 100% test coverage for new features.

Mara · Tech Lead
Jul 2022 – Jan 2023

Took the monolithic Mara crypto wallet API and web app from prototype to production, leading a team of a dozen experienced developers, splitting the app into micro-services, focusing on security and performance while working against an extremely ambitious timeline.

Senior Software Engineer
Aug 2021 – Feb 2022

Indeed Flex

Remote

Led the development of a retroactive shift management feature, resulting in a reduced workload for the Ops team, company-wide better requirements gathering and a series of workshops to foster cross-team knowledge exchange.

Ruby on Rails · PostgreSQL · Sidekiq · Heroku · React · Redux

Lead Software Engineer
May 2020 – Jul 2021

HomeHero

Remote

Led the development of the API powering a mobile app to manage services in and around the home, taking ownership of the two main micro-services for user and property management, built on an event-based infrastructure with a strong focus on security and performance.

TypeScript · AWS Lambda · AWS API Gateway · DynamoDB · Ruby on Rails

Lead Software Engineer
Apr 2019 – Apr 2020

Board Intelligence

London, UK

Optimised the main web app and API to manage board meetings by decoupling it from a specific email service provider and enabling seamless ESP switching, re-writing the MS Excel export for a 400x speed-up, and tweaking the database setup for 23% faster runs of the automated test suite.

Ruby on Rails · Clojure · PostgreSQL · Sidekiq · React · Redux

Head of Development
May 2017 – Mar 2019

Resolver

London, UK

Led a team of ten developers, coaching and mentoring them to unlock their full potential, working on a consumer rights web app; maintained an average of 99% uptime and delivered the infrastructure for expanding into South Africa in time for the scheduled launch, navigating constantly shifting requirements.

Ruby on Rails · PostgreSQL · AWS EC2 · AWS Fargate

Education

Diploma in Computer Science (Diplom Informatik)

Universität Bremen, Germany

Core areas: Core areas: software engineering, data structures and modelling, algorithms, and computer networks

Thesis: "acts_as_case – A Web Developer's Perspective on Workflow Management"

The German Diplom is equivalent to a combined BSc and MSc.

Software Engineering · Algorithms · Data Structures · Computer Networks · Databases · Operating Systems · Mathematics · Theoretical Computer Science · Logic & Formal Methods · Object-Oriented Programming · Distributed Systems · Project Management