João Maia

Technology Consulting & Mentoring for Engineering Leaders and Fintech Teams

📍 Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brazil

12+ Years Experience
4+ Years Leadership
6+ Years Fintech

Summary

Hi there! I'm a Senior Engineering Leader with over 12 years of experience, specializing in bridging the gap between high-level technical architecture and sustainable business growth. My journey has been defined by building robust fintech infrastructure and guiding high-performing teams through intense periods of rapid scaling.

I've spent a significant part of my career in the high-stakes arena of payment infrastructure, where I've orchestrated platforms processing millions of transactions across Latin America. I specialize in designing environments that balance extreme scalability with the rigorous security demands of PCI DSS, transforming complex, legacy bottlenecks into modern, cloud-native ecosystems that provide both stability for the business and speed for the engineering team.

Beyond technical architecture, I have a proven track record of scaling engineering organizations from the ground up—growing teams from small, specialized units to multi-disciplinary departments of 12+ engineers and implementing data governance and platform strategies that turn raw information into strategic assets. By applying frameworks like Flight Levels, I ensure that even the most granular technical task is directly tied to business value and executive OKRs.

Ultimately, I believe the strongest systems are built by the strongest people. I am deeply committed to mentorship and career architecture, building cultures of ownership, transparency, and psychological safety—environments where engineers can transition into leaders and where innovation is a daily practice, not just a buzzword.

Focused on helping tech leaders and teams unlock their next level through consulting and mentoring.

Consulting & Mentoring

Right now, my main focus is partnering with technology leaders, founders and engineering teams through highly pragmatic technology consulting and 1:1 or small-group mentoring. I help you make better technical and organizational decisions faster, with less noise and more clarity.

Engagements are custom-tailored, but typically fall into two buckets: strategic consulting on architecture, org design and delivery, and ongoing mentoring for engineering leaders who want a trusted, hands-on sparring partner.

Technology & Engineering Consulting

  • Architecture and platform reviews (payments, data, cloud, PCI-aware environments)
  • Scaling engineering teams, processes and operating models
  • Bridging product, business and engineering priorities
  • Technical due diligence and second-opinion assessments

Ideal for CTOs, VPs of Engineering and founders facing complex technical decisions.

Mentoring for Engineering Leaders

  • 1:1 mentoring for Tech Leads, Managers and Heads of Engineering
  • Support on difficult conversations, org design and career architecture
  • Building sustainable leadership habits and decision-making frameworks
  • Structured sessions with clear actions between calls

Ideal for leaders who want a safe space to think, plan and grow faster.

Tell me where you and your team are today, and where you want to be in 6–12 months.

Request an Intro Call

FAQ about Consulting & Mentoring

Who do you usually work with?

I usually work with CTOs, VPs and Heads of Engineering, Tech Leads and founders who want a pragmatic, hands-on partner to think through architecture, team design and delivery—often in fintech or data-intensive contexts.

What does a typical consulting engagement look like?

Most engagements start with a focused discovery of your current architecture, org and constraints, followed by a short, high-impact roadmap of changes. We keep things concrete and outcome-driven instead of producing long PDFs nobody reads.

How does mentoring for engineering leaders work in practice?

We meet regularly (for example, bi-weekly 1:1s) and center each session on the real situations you are facing: people decisions, architecture trade-offs, stakeholder management and your own career architecture.

How do we get started?

Share a short description of your context and main challenges using the links on this page. I'll reply with a few clarifying questions and a proposal for how we could work together—or a recommendation if I'm not the right fit.

Professional Experience

Software Engineering Lead

Dock June 2023 - Present (2 years 8 months)

Remote

I oversee the Authorization & Clearing OnUs platform, which authorizes private label transactions and other operations for credit and debit cards. In this role, I manage Software and Quality Engineers, provide customer support, and collaborate closely with the Technical Product Owner on backlog prioritization. Additionally, I am responsible for managing the authorization tribe's on-call schedule.

Tech Stack: Java, VB, Go, Microservices, Cloud Infrastructure, Payment Systems, API Gateway, CI/CD, Monitoring & Observability

Head of Data

Quanto September 2021 - April 2023 (1 year 8 months)

Remote

Led the growth and structuring of the data team, encompassing Data Governance, Data Platform, and Data Insights, expanding from 2 to 12 engineers. Facilitated daily retrospectives and planning ceremonies. Conducted 1:1 meetings with all team members. Supported career growth through individual development plans and formulated tactical OKRs for the data team. Proposed new solutions and architectures to address technical debt and scalability challenges. Translated business priorities into actionable team activities.

Tech Stack: Data Engineering, Data Governance, Data Platform, Python, SQL, Cloud Data Services, ETL/ELT Pipelines, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence Tools

Tech Manager | Platform

Pagar.me February 2021 - July 2021 (6 months)

Remote

Led the PCI DSS environment and API Gateway team, providing clear direction and mentorship to achieve team goals. Ensured a safe and productive work environment while supporting the career growth of team members. Managed infrastructure costs and tools, ensuring cost-effective and efficient operations. Reported results using the Flighting Levels framework and authored comprehensive documentation for compliance and other purposes.

Tech Stack: PCI DSS, API Gateway, Infrastructure Management, Flighting Levels Framework

Software Engineer

Pagar.me November 2019 - February 2021 (1 year 4 months)

Remote

Maintained a legacy PCI DSS-compliant environment, implementing best practices in software engineering and DevOps to ensure security and compliance. Primarily developed applications using Go and managed the API Gateway with OpenResty and Lua. Leveraged a tech stack based on HashiCorp tools, including Nomad, Consul, and Vault, for robust service orchestration and management. Deployed infrastructure on AWS using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to achieve efficient, repeatable, and scalable deployments. Actively contributed to incident response, collaborating closely with the DevOps team to enhance system reliability and performance.

Tech Stack: Go, OpenResty, Lua, Nomad, Consul, Vault, AWS, Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Solutions Architect

pag! June 2019 - October 2019 (5 months)

Vitória - ES, Brazil

Led the migration from On-Premise and Oracle Cloud infrastructure to AWS, implementing a DevOps culture and transitioning from virtual machines to Linux containers using AWS ECS. Managed AWS accounts and designed network architecture to ensure secure, scalable, and efficient cloud operations.

Tech Stack: Docker, AWS, Oracle Cloud, ECS, Packer, Ansible, Terraform, Python

Data Engineer

pag! July 2018 - June 2019 (1 year)

Vitória - ES, Brazil

Successfully led the migration of a legacy Business Intelligence architecture to a modern data pipeline. Utilizing Pentaho Data Integration, I moved data from Oracle Database to AWS Redshift, ensuring efficient and scalable data management. Integrated third-party services to provide new business insights, significantly enhancing data-driven decision-making. Replaced Tableau with Metabase, empowering team members to interact with and analyze data more effectively. Conducted data analysis for fraud detection, money laundering, customer behavior, and other critical areas. Designed a robust Data Lake to support diverse data storage needs.

Tech Stack: Docker, Tableau, Oracle Database, Redshift, Jenkins, Pentaho Data Integration (Kettle), Python, Jupyter Notebooks, AWS Lambda, AWS EC2, AWS DocumentDB, RDS (Postgres), AWS API Gateway, Metabase

Software Engineer

Wine.com.br February 2018 - July 2018 (6 months)

Vitória - ES, Brazil

Developed web crawlers using Ruby, enabling efficient data extraction from various online sources. Created Python notebooks for analyzing diverse datasets, providing valuable business insights and data-driven decision-making. Provisioned Docker Jupyter Lab servers to facilitate collaborative work among team members. Experience in microservices architecture using API Gateway, Lambda, Cognito, and DynamoDB.

Tech Stack: Ruby, Python, Jupyter Notebooks, Docker, AWS Lambda, AWS API Gateway, AWS Cognito, DynamoDB, Web Scraping, Data Analysis

Software Engineer

B2W Digital August 2016 - January 2018 (1 year 6 months)

Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil

Developed and deployed microservices using Go and Java. Built robust WebApps with Node.js and React. Processed data pipelines with Spark on AWS EMR. Wrote efficient queries for both MongoDB and Cassandra. Designed and maintained Kibana dashboards for real-time data visualization. Deployed applications using Mesos/Marathon, utilizing Bamboo CI for continuous integration and delivery. Implemented New Relic for monitoring and performance analysis. Set up and managed development environments with Docker and Docker Compose.

Tech Stack: Go, Java, Node.js, React, Apache Spark, AWS EMR, MongoDB, Cassandra, Kibana, Mesos/Marathon, Bamboo CI, Docker, Docker Compose, New Relic

Software Engineer

Intelie May 2013 - August 2016 (3 years 4 months)

Remote

Extensive experience in Ruby on Rails development using JRuby. Wrote complex MySQL queries. Managed vSphere environments and administered Linux servers running CentOS and Ubuntu. Provisioned servers using Vagrant, Puppet, and Ansible on AWS and other platforms. Frontend development with jQuery, Backbone, Angular, and React. Developed Windows desktop applications using Python (with a focus on GUI development with Qt) and C++. Provisioned Selenium Grid with Docker for automated testing. Database management with MongoDB. Developed web applications using Node.js and Java. Built data extractors from various sources, including Google Analytics, Google Spreadsheets, Zendesk, SNMP, Twitter, and more. Implemented machine stats collectors using Go. Developed Ansible plugins with Python.

Tech Stack: Ruby on Rails, JRuby, MySQL, vSphere, Linux (CentOS, Ubuntu), Vagrant, Puppet, Ansible, AWS, jQuery, Backbone.js, Angular, React, Python, Qt, C++, Docker, Selenium Grid, MongoDB, Node.js, Java, Go, REST APIs

Software Engineer

Giran Ecommerce Solutions April 2012 - January 2013 (10 months)

Vitória - ES, Brazil

Extensive experience in Ruby on Rails development. Frontend development using jQuery and various plugins. Provisioned servers using Bash scripts on Linode. Proficient in writing complex MySQL queries and performing database backup and restore operations.

Tech Stack: Ruby on Rails, jQuery, MySQL, Bash, Linux, Linode, Web Development

Community Manager

iMasters September 2011 - April 2012 (8 months)

Remote

Provided comprehensive support to developers working with APIs from PayPal, MoIP, and Buscapé. Wrote detailed and informative articles for the portal. Reviewed and edited articles to ensure accuracy, clarity, and consistency. Translation responsibilities.

Tech Stack: REST APIs, PayPal API, MoIP API, Buscapé API, Technical Documentation, Content Management

System Admin

UFES - Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo April 2010 - March 2011 (1 year)

Vitória - ES, Brazil

Configured and maintained both Ethernet and wireless networks. Configured and maintained various Linux services. Implemented and managed a Wiki using MediaWiki CMS. Developed and maintained websites using Drupal. MySQL database administration.

Tech Stack: Linux, Network Administration, MediaWiki, Drupal, MySQL, Web Server Administration

Research Student

UFES - Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo July 2008 - July 2009 (1 year 1 month)

Vitória - ES, Brazil

Extensive experience in multiplatform development using Python. Configured Oracle Grid Engine to optimize job scheduling and resource management in a high-performance computing environment. Strong background in digital image processing, utilizing Matlab. Configured and managed LDAP directories.

Tech Stack: Python, Oracle Grid Engine, Matlab, LDAP, High-Performance Computing, Digital Image Processing

System Admin

UFES - Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo April 2007 - July 2008 (1 year 4 months)

Vitória - ES, Brazil

Configured and managed Linux servers, including setting up and managing firewalls using Iptables, configuring network services such as Bind (DNS), DHCP, NIS, and NFS, and installing and managing web and proxy servers like Apache, Dansguardian, and Squid. Database administration with both MySQL and PostgreSQL. In-depth knowledge and hands-on experience with FreeBSD and OpenBSD servers. Utilized System Imager to efficiently clone machines. Managed and maintained Xen servers.

Tech Stack: Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Iptables, Bind (DNS), DHCP, NIS, NFS, Apache, Squid, Dansguardian, MySQL, PostgreSQL, System Imager, Xen Virtualization

Core Competencies

Engineering Leadership
Team Management
Data Engineering
Data Platform Architecture
Data Governance
Software Architecture
Microservices
Cloud Infrastructure (AWS, GCP)
Go & Python
DevOps & CI/CD
Infrastructure as Code
PCI DSS Compliance
API Design & Gateway
Data Pipelines
Technical Product Management
Agile & Scrum

Professional Certifications

  • Certified FunRetro Facilitator
    Caroli.org
  • Product Essentials
    K21
  • Flight Levels Systems Architecture
    Flight Levels Academy
  • Certified Exponential Leader
    K21
  • FinTech: Foundations, Payments, and Regulations
    Coursera / Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Languages

  • English (Professional Working)

Education

Computer Engineering

Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES)

2005 - 2011

💬 Let's Talk