I'm Santiago Molina, a full-stack engineer and tech lead based in Medellín, Colombia. Over the last 12+ years I've shipped products across commerce, SaaS, gaming, and real estate — working across the entire stack from architecture and backend services to CI/CD pipelines and developer tooling.
Right now my focus is on teams and systems: how to structure engineering organizations so they stay fast to ship, easy to maintain, and hard to break. I care deeply about developer experience — not as a buzzword, but as the measurable gap between a team that ships with confidence and one that ships with anxiety. Automation is usually how you close that gap.
I've led cross-functional teams of up to 14 people spanning product, design, frontend, and backend. I believe the most valuable thing a tech lead does is reduce the number of decisions engineers have to make under pressure — through clear standards, good tooling, and systems that fail loudly instead of silently.
Outside work I co-organize ReactJS Colombia, write about engineering workflows and DX, and find the intersection between good software and good products. When I'm not at a keyboard I'm probably reading, hiking, or watching something with a good score on Letterboxd.
Experience
12+ years
Leadership
Led teams of up to 14 across product, design, frontend, and backend.
Focus today
Automation, delivery clarity, and developer experience that compounds.
A few of the products, companies, and communities behind the portfolio. The value is in the work itself, but context helps people read the case studies with the right level of trust.
Void
Technical leadership across esports web, mobile, backend, and real-time delivery at Void.
Team Liquid
Product engineering and fan-engagement systems shipped through Optic Power client work.
Rappi
AI martech dashboards and campaign workflows built during the Datagran modernization work.
Subway
Analytics and customer-data product work supported through Datagran.
X Games
High-traffic sports media platform and programmatic ad infrastructure for one of the world’s most recognized extreme sports brands.
ReactJS Colombia
Community talks, workshops, and mentorship through one of Medellin’s most active React groups.
A few things that shape how I work, how I lead, and what I focus on.
01
The best automation removes toil — repetitive, low-judgment work that slows teams down. It should never replace the thinking that makes products worth building.
02
The developer experience of a codebase shapes how fast and confidently the team can move. Bad DX compounds. Good DX compounds too — invest early and measure it.
03
A good tech lead reduces ambiguity before it becomes risk. Clear standards, good tooling, and systems that fail loudly are how you protect a team's velocity at scale.
04
Speed isn't a tech concern, it's a user concern. Every kilobyte and every render-blocking resource is a choice that affects real people on real connections.
05
The goal is to solve the problem, not to use the newest tool. Stable, well-understood solutions let the team focus on the actual product.
06
A consistent codebase with some imperfections beats an inconsistent one with pockets of brilliance. Conventions compound. Exceptions cost.
A few direct quotes from colleagues, managers, and clients. The recurring patterns across them are summarised below.
"Santiago has excellent communication skills and is able to explain complex technical concepts in a clear and concise way. He is highly reliable, dedicated, and responsible — meeting deadlines and delivering high-quality projects."
Raphael Drummond
AI Product & Engineering Leader · Managed Santiago at Optic Power
"Santi stands out due to his outstanding technical skills, leadership abilities, and collaborative spirit. He cultivates a positive and inclusive work environment, promoting open communication and idea exchange."
Carolina G. Torres
Lead Product Designer · Colleague, same team
"He excels in good practices while coding and has solid leadership skills. He is great at sharing knowledge with fellow devs and organizing priorities to make things happen in a quality-oriented way."
David Delgado
Software Engineer · Reported to Santiago
"Santiago is a great engineer who is constantly learning and dedicated to his work — a good leader, responsible with his tasks. I recommend him to any company looking for a brilliant full-stack developer able to get results and inspire."
Jorge Luis Madrid
Senior Cloud & DevOps Engineer · Client