Juan Ara

I’ve been a senior software engineer, back-end techlead and lead architect in Madrid. Now I’m Software Director working at Openbank. Loving gaming and motorbikes. Writing software since I was 9. Since 1987 ;-)

TLDR;>

engineering manager | backend | architect | coach

engineering {
    kotlin.also {
        jvm*
        gradle
        spring + springboot
    }
    monitoring {
        grafana, prometheus, graphite, datadog, sleuth
    }
}

virtualization = { docker, k8s, kvm, xen }

cloud = { aws, gcloud }

architecture = { 
    microservices, 
    serverless, 
    apis, 
    event-driven, 
    event-sourcing, 
    datavault, 
    ddd,
    cqrs
}

ci/cd = { buildkite, spinaker, jenkins, 'github actions', 'gitlab-ci' }

softskills = { 
    leadership, 
    mentoring,
    coaching,
    growth mindset,
    execution
}

Learning | Trying

elixir
golang
lua
k8s
ktor
ruby
jekyll

Cover Letter

Intro

The Spark: My journey in technology began at eight years old with an Amstrad CPC 464. What my father thought was a manual for the computer (“40 Educational Games for the Amstrad””) became my first gateway into programming. That early curiosity defined my career: a drive to break things to understand them and a lack of fear when facing complex systems.

Bridging the Gap: Today, that curiosity has evolved into an analytical leadership style. I specialize in bridging the gap between ambitious product roadmaps and high-level engineering execution. I am a technical leader who understands the ramifications of a decision across the entire stack, ensuring we solve the right problems with the right technology at the right time.

Giving Back: I believe leadership is an act of service. Having “packed my backpack” with two decades of experiences and failures, I’ve dedicated the last five years to sharing those lessons. Whether it’s through mentoring at Master FPlaB or speaking at high schools via Fundación ExE, I am committed to the idea that failure is merely a data point for future success. This same philosophy drives how I coach internal engineering teams—fostering a culture of psychological safety where “Bar Raising” is the standard.

My Philosophy: People First. I am a firm believer in the “Who first, then what” principle. I look for diverse environments where transparency, ownership, and social responsibility aren’t just posters on a wall but daily practices.

I view engineering as a form of craftsmanship. It requires a balance of rigorous discipline and creative flexibility. My goal as a leader is to build high-performing teams that embrace continuous improvement and knowledge sharing as a competitive advantage. I don’t just build software; I build the teams that build the software.

What do I do

I have been a CTO, Senior Engineering Manager, Lead Architect, Lead Engineer, Tech Lead, Coach and Mentor. I’m always hands on with the code and I work near the product teams.

What do I like

I enjoy working in a diverse environment, with a strong culture and values close to mine. Transparency, honesty, ownership and effort. I always loved “who first then what”, even when looking for new employees as when looking for a new job myself. Social Responsibility is always a plus for me, be it company or personal level.

I believe in flexibility, mainly because everyone’s different and even same individuals are different on different days, but I also think it is important to be available when your team needs you. In addition, engineering is a form of craftsmanship which involves creativity, and most of the time you don’t really know when the creativity will arrive since it doesn’t speak schedules.

I also believe in continuous improvement, especially with the current pace in our sector. Research and Innovation is constantly happening but it cannot truly happen if there is no knowledge sharing inside the company. I am an agile enthusiast and I love high performing teams.

Soft Skills

  • Servant Leadership & Mentorship: I focus on building high-trust environments where engineering leads are empowered to own their decisions. I move beyond simple guidance to sponsorship, actively creating career paths and removing organizational blockers so teams can perform at their peak.

  • Organizational Transformation: I act as a catalyst for systemic change. By continuously auditing culture, technical standards, and delivery procedures, I ensure the organization doesn’t just “do agile,” but is agile—adapting our philosophy and tech stack to meet evolving business needs.

  • Product-Engineering Alignment: I bridge the gap between “The What” and “The How.” My strength lies in translating complex technical trade-offs into business impact for stakeholders, while ensuring engineering teams understand the “User Why” behind every line of code.

  • Technical Evangelism: I serve as an ambassador for the company’s engineering culture. By speaking at international meetups and seminars, I drive brand awareness that aids in talent acquisition and keeps our teams connected to the latest industry standards and innovations.

How do I work?

People-First Leadership: Radical Candor & Growth

I move beyond traditional management by practicing Radical Candor—combining personal care with the ability to challenge directly. My best practice is to build “Self-Correcting Teams” through:

  • Psychological Safety: Establishing an environment where failure is treated as a data point, enabling high-velocity experimentation.
  • Sponsorship over Mentorship: Actively identifying opportunities for team members to stretch their capabilities and gain visibility, rather than just giving advice.

The “Engineering Craftsmanship” Standard

Leadership is about setting the bar for quality without becoming a bottleneck. I implement:

  • Evolutionary Architecture: Using ADRs (Architecture Decision Records) and RFCs to democratize technical decisions while ensuring long-term maintainability.
  • DDD as a Common Language: Utilizing Domain-Driven Design to bridge the gap between business requirements and code, ensuring the technical stack reflects the business reality.

Change Enablement through “Culture-as-Code”

Change shouldn’t be top-down; it should be integrated into the workflow.

  • Continuous Feedback Loops: Evaluating processes (DORA metrics, developer experience) as regularly as we evaluate the tech stack.
  • Transparency by Default: Ensuring engineers understand the “Why” behind the roadmap, transforming them from “ticket-takers” into product owners.

Knowledge Advocacy (The Multiplier Effect)

I believe a leader’s value is measured by the growth of those around them.

  • Knowledge Liquidity: Implementing internal “Brown Bag” sessions and open-source-style internal contribution models to break down silos.
  • Public Contribution: Encouraging engineers to speak at meetups and write technical blogs, which serves as both a development tool and a powerful hiring magnet for the company.

Personal Achievements

  • Transform a team coming from toxic experiences from 3 engineers +2 consultants to three high performing teams (7+7+2) (+90 pulse survey)
  • Define the next generation architecture for the real time screening backbone in Klarna, getting ready for next peak season. The limits of the legacy architecture were already met the previous peak season
  • Become the most loved bar raiser in Madrid Engineering pipeline, focused in Candidate Experience.
  • Scale and migrate upper funnel on lastminute.com OTA, evolving the service architecture into a domain based microservice cloud-ready architecture.
  • Payment Gateway Lead engineer (e-Wallet) at Returnly, enabling the company to remove dependency on gift cards and voucher codes on a transaction value of 300M USD/year
  • Learn a new stack (Kotlin, Kinesis, Spring Boot, Dropwizard…) becoming Backend Lead Engineer by example in only six months.
  • Understand both technically and functionally the product of an American Startup and, as second spanish employee, transfer the knowledge to a team of 15 engineers in a year. Help to hire and build that team.
  • Build the technology department of a Fintech in just a year. Maintain the off the shelf software inherited and design new ERP and Factoring systems. That company grew from transactions valued at 600M/year to 1.2M/year.
  • Migrate all infrastructure from on-premise to a hybrid cloud with 40% TCO reduction in only three months. Migrate after to fully cloud in a month.
  • Launch a IAM / SSO proof of concept project locally (Spain) and get the whole company onboarded on the solution. Lead the project in EMEA to manage more than 15000 identities in 15 countries. Repeat it again with an EDI project.
  • Define and develop BI solutions for annual sales reports on a franchising company..
  • Learn GIS and build the team that became the most important one in a small aragonese software company that became invited as speakers to ESRI conferences.
  • Collaborate on some open source projects (flyway, jasperreports, struts-shale, minimal-mistakes jekyll theme…)

Hard Skills

How can I help you?

If you think I can help you and you have read almost all above, then just contact me. By this point probably you know me well and it’s possible we can find a way to collaborate. There are links to my social profiles at the bottom!

CV

Navigate through my online  Curriculum Vitae