👋 Hi folks

I’m Iván (he/him), pronounced ee-bahn.

I’m an Engineering Leader, Product Engineer, and Senior Software Engineer with over 15 years of experience building product software at the intersection of engineering, product, and people.

Over the years, I’ve learned that building software is rarely just about implementation. The real work is often in shaping ideas early, defining scope, making trade-offs explicit, and building systems that can evolve without becoming harder to understand. I care about useful software, maintainable systems, and teams that can do meaningful work without burning out.

My home base has usually been backend, but I’ve always followed the problem wherever it went — frontend, platform, mobile, delivery, product shaping. Not because I wanted to collect skills, but because I’ve always cared about the full product and the full path from idea to production. I’m most effective in roles where I can contribute beyond implementation: helping turn ambiguity into clear, sustainable execution.

These days, a growing part of my work is focused on AI-native product development. I’m interested in using AI not just to generate code faster, but to improve the full lifecycle of building products: ideation, product definition, technical proposals, scope slicing, implementation, testing, and delivery. What interests me most is not speed alone, but using AI to improve clarity, decision-making, and the quality of how products get built.

My focus is less on “how do we implement this?” and more on “how do we build in a way that stays healthy?” I lead distributed teams, shape engineering strategy, and think a lot about architecture — not as diagrams, but as a way to protect focus, clarity, and momentum.

I’m currently building Avenida, a 0→1 product in the intentional shopping space, where I work closely across product and engineering to shape ideas, define trade-offs, and build end-to-end with strong ownership. It’s the kind of work that keeps me close to product thinking, fast iteration, and the reality of building with limited resources and real constraints.

I also maintain my Engineering Leadership Playbook, a practical body of work built around the things I wish I’d had earlier in my career: better operating rhythms, clearer ways to support people, more sustainable delivery systems, and healthier ways to lead in remote-first environments. It’s less a manifesto than an operating system — practical frameworks, templates, and patterns for teams that want to work well over time.

Why I write

I write because some of the hardest parts of our work never appear in the backlog.

Technology is the visible layer. Underneath it, the human layer is where things often start to break: attention, confidence, motivation, collaboration, conflict, ambiguity, the pressure to always be “on,” and the slow accumulation of emotional debt. I’ve spent enough time in this industry to know that you can have smart people, good intentions, and strong technical execution — and still end up with a team that feels reactive, exhausted, or disconnected.

A big theme in my writing is how to build software without losing yourself in the process. That includes delivery, team health, sustainable pace, and the practical realities of working in environments shaped by constant change — especially now that AI is accelerating how quickly work moves and how much complexity teams are expected to absorb.

I’m especially interested in teams that want to move fast without becoming brittle. In practice, that means I write about product and delivery systems, healthy team patterns, leadership habits, AI-accelerated workflows, and small changes that improve clarity, trust, and momentum over time.

Whenever possible, I try to turn abstract ideas into something practical: a template, a checklist, a prompt, a script for a hard conversation, a ritual that prevents confusion from compounding.

Mentoring is a big part of my life too. Through MentorCruise, I help engineers grow in backend development, system design, leadership, and career clarity. I’ve also spent years building community in Asturias through initiatives like Elixir Asturias and FabadaConf. For me, mentoring, inclusion, mental health, and healthy engineering cultures are not side topics — they’re part of what good engineering actually looks like.

Outside of work, I’m usually playing guitar, taking photos, or leaving a conference or meetup with a few ideas that genuinely change how I build.

If you want to chat, drop me an Email, connect on LinkedIn, or book a Mentorship Session. I’d love to hear from you.