Welcome 🦥
I'm a software engineer (7+ years of experience) & digital nomad based in New Zealand, currently working with The Boundary. You can see my blog at blog.timrodz.dev. If you want to get in touch with me, please send me a message at juan@timrodz.dev.
Click here to download my resume!About me
Born in Chitré, Panamá 🇵🇦 in 1995, I'm somewhat of a cross between millennials and Gen Z'ers. That means I understand some of today's memes. Since I was young, computers have been a part of my life, and I'm grateful I work with them daily—A dream scenario!
Software engineering aside, you can find me outdoors, working out (gym/cycling), playing games (Age Of Empires IV, Forza Horizon 5, Magic: The Gathering), planning the next travel destination, or thinking about what to learn next. I'm currently learning Portuguese, music theory, and content creation.
When it comes to tools and technologies, I believe they're there to help you solve problems, nothing else. I also don't have strong opinions about developer decisions when choosing a tech stack. Everything has a purpose; if it helps you solve a problem, that's what matters.
With that said, these are my favorite tools & technologies (as of 4/12/2024):
React TypeScript Next.js Elixir PostgreSQL AWS
P.S. I'm definitely not a robot 🤖 To prove it, here are some pictures of me over the past few years!
México City 2023
Queenstown, NZ 2021
California 2019
Testimonials
Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of working with many talented people. Working with them has yielded wonderful experiences and partnerships.
Charleston Silverman
Project Manager, Technical Lead & Producer
I have worked with and hired many developers during my working life and I can honestly say that Juan is by far one of the best developers I have worked with. Very easy and clear communication, quick turn-around and extremely knowledgeable about every aspect of the projects we have worked on together. I would highly recommend Juan to anyone looking for an experienced and extremely capable team member.
Jorge Ortíz
Data Engineer & MTG enthusiast
When it comes to organizing tournaments for Magic: The Gathering, I've been testing different methods of pairing for a long time, with little to no success. Juan's app is exactly what I've been looking for. It offers an intuitive and streamlined process for organizing matches and tournaments, with an easy and user-friendly interface. I highly recommend Juan's services.
Humberto Echeverría
Head Architect (Humberto Echeverría & Associados Arquitectos)
Juan built the portfolio website for my architecture firm in 2015. He behaved professionally throughout the process, making it easy to work with him. He was able to communicate clearly, being honest about problems he faced, but still made the effort to find solutions to those problems.
Professional Portfolio
Below are exciting projects I have created and/or contributed to during my career. Due to the nature of some industries, certain projects are under NDA agreements, so I can't show everything I've worked on.
Party Bear: Swappables
Web3 Project (Web App)
Users buy and customize Party Bear NFTs by equipping accessories acquired from other NFTs and SFTs.
I was the lead developer (team of 4 devs), responsible for the initial release with task management + delegation, doing frontend, backend, and 3D development, and supporting the infrastructure team with task automation. This project also featured a website with a 3D environment where owners can view and customize their bears.
The project had a successful launch w/ good adoption!
React TypeScript Next.js AWS Unity C# Tailwind CSS
The Next Legends
Web3 Project (Web App + Videogame)
Users buy boxer NFTs that can be customized (inside The Locker Room), trained (ML) and used to fight with other boxers in an AI-powered videogame.
I joined after the initial release and was responsible for The Locker Room, a website that gave owners the ability to view and customize their boxers inside a 3D environment.
React TypeScript Next.js AWS Unity C# ExpressJS Tailwind CSS
ZED RUN
Web3 Project (Web App)
ZED RUN is the first horse racing game of skill to live not only on the blockchain but in an open market. My contributions here involved optimizing build load speeds, developing tools for 3D asset support, and backend development.
Elixir PostgreSQL React
Tie Breaker
Tournament management app for games (SaaS)
When I visited friends back in my hometown, they introduced me to Magic: The Gathering, a trading card game with lots of deep lore, playing formats, and fun. I really liked the game, and went to lots of local tournaments. However, I saw one problem: hosting tournaments was very difficult: we were playing a format called "Commander", which involves 4 players paired against each other.
My solution? To build a tournament organizing tool which let hosts add participants, create round pairings (with complex algorithms), and easily determine round + tournament winners. This was also an opportunity for me to learn Elixir, a programming language I worked with at a previous role. Funnily enough, I didn't like Elixir at first, but now it's my favorite programming language!
Tie Breaker is now being used by multiple stores across Panama; I'm very grateful for their support.
Elixir Phoenix PostgreSQL Tailwind CSS
Roast My Site
App for website critique (SaaS)
I was learning how businesses operate, and as part of that learning process I launched Roast My Site, a micro-SaaS startup that helped business owners receive feedback for their landing pages.
As the only developer on the team, I worked on all software features as well as marketing for the product.
React TypeScript Next.js PostgreSQL Tailwind CSS
Light Switch
Visual Studio Code Extension (Dev tool)
I wanted to learn how to create an extension for Visual Studio Code, the editor I write software with. It solves a problem I have when it comes to themes: I like using light themes during the day, and dark themes during the night. But changing them can become a repetitive and mundane task, which is why I automated that process with this tool.
TypeScript Azure
Clusterduck
Videogame (iOS & Android)
This game was the result of an internal Game Jam at PikPok, where I teamed up with other talented developers to come up with a silly and fun idea. I was part of the team that developed the initial prototype, and the company picked it up for release afterwards.
Unity C#
I Am Monster
Videogame (iOS & Android)
Fresh out of university, this was the first commercial project I worked on. I joined the team as a Junior Game Programmer, and took ownerhsip of building many of the game’s UIs. It’s also the first time I had a look at backend development with Python, and I absolutely loved the entire process!
Unity C# Python
El Mandamás
Videogame (PC)
This game was the result of a 48 hour game jam (Ludum Dare 38), where I had to design and develop a game in the span of a weekend.
Unity C#