Mike Castro
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Mike Castro

World-Class Full Stack Developer

Metro Manila, Philippines

I am a seasoned full-stack developer and systems architect with extensive experience leading complex projects across multiple industries. I have designed and built high-performance event-tracking systems using event-driven architectures, PostgreSQL, ElastiCache, Redis, and AWS SQS, overseeing all aspects of project management, including technical scoping, stakeholder alignment, CI/CD implementation, and infrastructure automation. I have delivered high-concurrency APIs and feature enhancements across platforms, modernized legacy systems by upgrading frameworks, containerizing applications with Docker, implementing CI/CD pipelines, and restructuring monolithic architectures for scalability and maintainability.

My experience includes developing frontend and backend workflows for compliance and approval systems, integrating AI OCR APIs with error handling and notifications, and building repository layers and REST endpoints for polymorphic data models. I have led full-stack development of marketplaces, blogs, and forums, optimized cloud infrastructure, conducted user research to inform product direction, and implemented analytics and automation tools. I have also overseen technical direction and mentoring of development teams, standardized engineering practices, and built internal tooling to support real-time features, caching, and event-driven architectures. Across all projects, I consistently deliver scalable, resilient, and maintainable systems, combining deep technical expertise with strategic leadership.

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What I Do Best

Full-Stack Development
  • Architecting and implementing complete systems using Laravel, Node.js, React, Vue.js, and Next.js
  • Building modular frontend components with TypeScript, TailwindCSS, and modern state management
  • Designing scalable backends with clean domain separation and consistent API conventions
Backend & Database Engineering
  • Building and maintaining database schemas using PostgreSQL and MySQL
  • Optimizing data flows, indexes, and migrations in performance-critical applications
  • Creating high-performance REST APIs with measurable response times
DevOps & Cloud Infrastructure
  • Deploying and managing cloud infrastructure across AWS, DigitalOcean, and Linode
  • Building CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions and Bitbucket Pipelines
  • Containerizing applications with Docker for streamlined deployments
Systems Architecture
  • Designing scalable, cloud-native platforms across fintech, marketing, and enterprise SaaS
  • Modernizing legacy systems while maintaining stability and reducing regression risk
  • Building event-driven architectures with pub/sub patterns and background workers
Testing & Code Quality
  • Writing tests with PHPUnit, Pest, Jest, and Cypress following TDD practices
  • Enforcing code quality through static analysis, SOLID principles, and code reviews
  • Improving test performance and coverage across feature and unit tests
Leadership & Team Management
  • Leading engineering teams and mentoring developers across distributed teams
  • Managing project scope, timelines, and stakeholder communication
  • Translating complex business requirements into clear architectural decisions

Philosophy

I believe great software is:

  • Understandable before it is clever
  • Observable before it is optimized
  • Simple in the best possible way

Great software is straightforward, easy to extend, and hard to break.

Outside of Work

When I'm not building systems, I'm very much still tinkering. I enjoy:

  • Working on cars — especially preparing them for long road trips, or simply tuning and improving them for the joy of it
  • Playing video games as both relaxation and inspiration for good UX, systems design, and balance
  • Taking care of my pets, who provide daily reminders that maintenance, patience, and consistency matter — in life and in code

Lastly...

I thrive in environments where technical excellence meets real business impact. I'm at my best when solving hard problems, cleaning up messy systems, and leaving things significantly better than I found them. I build software that lasts — and I do it with intention, taste, and spine.

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