Darwin Stiven Herrera Cartagena

Senior AI & Backend Engineer	Python, Java, AWS
📍 Aachen, Germany	📧 darwinherrera1508@gmail.com

I hold a German Chancenkarte (Opportunity Card Visa) allowing me to start working in Germany. I can join immediately.

👨‍💻 Summary

Senior AI & Backend Engineer with 6+ years of experience designing and building scalable backend systems. Expert in Python, Java (Spring Boot), and AWS/Azure cloud environments. Proven track record in developing high-performance microservices, event-driven architectures, and AI-powered features (LangChain, RAG). Passionate about distributed systems, observability, and technical excellence.

💼 Professional Experience

Senior Backend Engineer – BairesDev (Remote)

📍 San Francisco, USA — July 2025 – March 2026

Developed Python/FastAPI microservices and ETL pipelines on AWS ECS and Lambda for a US-based healthcare platform.
Processed 10,000+ personalized notifications daily using an event-driven architecture with SNS, SQS, EventBridge, and SES.
Built asynchronous workflows with AI-driven personalization and configurable delivery schedules to improve user engagement.
Improved reliability through idempotency controls, DLQ handling, and automated retry mechanisms.
Maintained 80%+ automated test coverage using Pytest and SonarQube in CI/CD pipelines.

Backend Engineer – SETI S.A.S (Remote)

📍 Medellín, Colombia — April 2022 – July 2025

Built Python and Spring Boot microservices for an Enterprise ETL & Integration Platform used by Grupo Éxito.
Reduced development and testing effort by ~80% for a 5-member team by creating a reusable Spring Boot migration framework.
Migrated legacy platforms to cloud-native services, saving significant engineering time daily.
Modernized Python libraries with CI/CD and improved observability via OpenTelemetry and ELK.
Supported 50+ ETL and integration processes, ensuring business-critical production workflows.

Backend Engineer – AI Messaging SaaS

📍 Medellín, Colombia — Nov 2021 – April 2022

Led the architecture and backend development of an AI-driven messaging platform using Python and AWS serverless.
Designed reusable backend components using Hexagonal Architecture for improved maintainability.
Developed event-driven messaging workflows integrated with external platforms using SNS/SQS and webhooks.
Built AI-powered features using LangChain and RAG workflows for intelligent content retrieval.
Reduced AWS operating costs by ~25% through serverless-first architecture and optimized resource provisioning.

Python Developer – Freelance (Remote)

📍 Medellín, Colombia — July 2020 – Nov 2021

Built AI-based (CNN) systems for facial and voice emotion detection using deep learning and computer vision.
Created REST APIs, ETLs, and web scrapers with Python (Scrapy, Selenium).
Developed frontends with React (Next.js) for marketing automation and AI analytics platforms.

🎓 Education

Bachelor’s in Systems & Computer Engineering
National University of Colombia, Medellín — 2016 – 2024

Systems Technician
SENA, Medellín — Graduated: Nov 2015

🧠 Core Skills

Languages: Python, Java, TypeScript, SQL, Bash
Backend & APIs: FastAPI, Flask, Django, Spring Boot, REST, WebSockets, Hexagonal Architecture
Cloud & DevOps: AWS (Lambda, ECS, SQS, SNS, EventBridge), Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, GitHub Actions
AI & Data: LangChain, OpenAI, RAG, ETL Pipelines, Scrapy, Selenium, Spark
Databases: PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, MongoDB, Redis, DynamoDB
Messaging: Kafka, RabbitMQ, AWS SNS/SQS/EventBridge
Monitoring: ELK Stack, OpenTelemetry, CloudWatch

🏆 Certifications

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (2026)
Cybersecurity Essentials – Cisco (2022)
Java Programming & Software Engineering Fundamentals – Coursera (2023)

🌍 Languages

Spanish: Native
English: Proficient (C2)
German: Pre-intermediate (A2)

🥋 Hobbies

Traveling Fitness Football Taekwondo (Black belt)