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Portfolio MMXXVI

Platform EngineerDiegoLópez

I build the platforms other engineers stand on: deployment systems, cloud governance and FinOps automation that run quietly across more than a thousand AWS accounts.

Now
Southwest Airlines
Status
Open to new work
Portrait of Diego López
Fig. I · The practitioner

IOrigin

The Engineer

I’m Diego, a cloud and platform engineer who builds internal developer platforms, distributed systems and cloud infrastructure at scale. I work mostly in AWS, Terraform, Python and Go, and I care about the parts that keep a large organization healthy: automated deployments, governance, observability and cost.

I studied Computer Systems Engineering at Instituto Tecnológico de Saltillo, co-founded its competitive programming club and speak to students and AWS communities. Outside my day job I’m building Lade, a logistics platform, and Rivo, a visual infrastructure-as-code tool.

Now
Platform & Site Reliability Engineer, Southwest Airlines
Building
Lade and Rivo, my own products
Focus
AWS · Terraform · Python · Go · FinOps
Study
B.S. Computer Systems Engineering, ITS Saltillo
Tongues
Spanish (native) · English (C1)

How I work

Execution

  • Ownership & end-to-end delivery
  • Problem solving
  • Attention to detail

Collaboration

  • Cross-functional work
  • Technical communication
  • Mentoring

Thinking

  • Platform mindset
  • Business-driven decisions
  • Adaptability

IICraft

Experience

Eight roles across aviation, logistics, automotive and research, always closer to the infrastructure than to the pixels.

  1. Dallas, Texas · USA

    Internal platforms, cloud governance and FinOps for a 1,000+ account AWS organization.

    • Designed and co-developed a distributed deployment platform that rolls CloudFormation artifacts out to 1,000+ AWS accounts. Teams target single accounts, organizational units or whole environments through declarative manifests processed in asynchronous batches.
    • Engineered an event-driven CIDR governance workflow on EventBridge, Step Functions, Lambda and AWS IPAM that catches allocations made outside the central platform and enriches them with ownership context for FinOps chargeback and lifecycle tracking.
    • Automated the move to the IBM Cloudability FinOps agent across EKS clusters with a self-service Terraform module and a Lambda provisioning workflow, removing manual registration from cluster onboarding.
    • Scaled a serverless collection platform that analyzes 250,000+ Lambda functions across 1,000+ accounts and 5 regions in under four minutes.
    • Built a central AWS Support Case operations platform (EventBridge, Lambda, DynamoDB, API Gateway, cross-account IAM) with organization-wide search and real-time status.

    StackAWS · Terraform · Python · Go · Step Functions · EventBridge · EKS · IPAM

  2. A cloud-native logistics platform for small and mid-sized carriers.

    • Co-founded the company and lead its engineering: one product for fleets, drivers, vehicles, routes, trips, customers and invoicing.
    • Designed the serverless architecture on AWS and provision every environment with Terraform.
    • Build the web product with React and TypeScript.

    StackAWS Serverless · Terraform · React · TypeScript

  3. Cuernavaca, Morelos · Mexico

    Fleet telematics: turning a phone into the key for 200,000+ vehicles.

    • Shipped a cross-platform React Native app that controls Teltonika FMC130 units over Bluetooth, replacing physical iButtons across a fleet of 200K+ vehicles and cutting hardware cost at scale.
    • Implemented MFA-enabled authentication with AWS Cognito for every mobile client.
    • Automated Zoho account workflows through Lambda functions, shortening support response times.

    StackReact Native · Go · AWS Lambda · AWS Cognito · Bluetooth LE

  4. Saltillo, Coahuila · Mexico

    Internal tooling for a global automotive supplier’s plant operations.

    • Built a route-optimization tool in Python on the Google Maps API that cut transportation costs by more than $6,000 a month for 200+ production and HR employees.
    • Delivered a Django and React census system: employee data processing went from four weeks to two hours.
    • Automated recurring HR and Continuous Improvement tasks with Python, from days to minutes, and shipped Power Apps for transportation, job descriptions and food service.

    StackPython · Django · React · Google Maps API · Power Apps

  5. Saltillo, Coahuila · Mexico

    A cloud-native analytics platform for statewide police-cadet driving evaluations.

    • Centralized computer vision, IoT, vehicle telemetry, physiological sensors and AI assessments into one real-time visualization system.
    • Built the whole frontend in React and the backend in NestJS, with secure REST APIs and dashboards for live monitoring and historical analysis.
    • Led the migration from a monolith on EC2 to a fully serverless platform on API Gateway, Lambda, IoT Core and Amazon Timestream.
    • Supported the evaluation of 2,000+ cadets across Coahuila over six months, contributing to a ~40% improvement in driving performance.

    StackReact · NestJS · AWS Lambda · IoT Core · Timestream

  6. Saltillo, Coahuila · Mexico

    Publishing automation and cloud migration for a legal-information platform.

    • Wrote Python automation that shrank web-publishing workflows from two weeks to two days.
    • Led the on-premise to AWS migration of client websites with zero downtime.
    • Shipped TypeScript SEO and analytics improvements that lifted organic rankings for several client properties.

    StackPython · TypeScript · AWS · SEO

  7. Saltillo, Coahuila · Mexico

    Computer vision for autonomous indoor flight.

    • Developed OpenCV optical-flow and neural-network algorithms in C/C++ and Python for quadrotor drift correction and real-time position stabilization.
    • Attended graduate-level coursework alongside master’s students as part of the research program.

    StackC++ · Python · OpenCV · Neural Networks

  8. Chihuahua, Chihuahua · Mexico

    Four products in parallel, from AR to medical imaging.

    • Zaturna: scheduling dashboards for an event-booking platform.
    • Vesvir: AR overlays with TensorFlow, then a migration from Ionic to native Java and AR Foundation.
    • Medical imaging: DICOM storage on AWS S3 with role-based access in React.
    • Nexum: QA and e-signature features on Firebase.

    StackTypeScript · React · TensorFlow · Java · Firebase

IIIWorks

Selected Works

Six arcana: the products I’m building and the engines I wrote to understand how things really work.

  1. I

    In progress

    Rivo

    Visual infrastructure as code

    Draw an AWS architecture, get production-ready Terraform with IAM and networking generated for you, and deploy it into your own account through a secured cross-account STS pipeline.

    Go · AWS · Terraform · STS

    Private build
  2. II

    Live

    Lade

    Logistics for small carriers

    Fleet, driver, vehicle, route, trip, customer and invoicing management for small and mid-sized carriers, on a serverless AWS core.

    AWS Serverless · Terraform · React · TypeScript

    Private build
  3. III

    In progress

    AtomDB

    Embedded database engine

    A SQLite-inspired engine with its own SQL parser and ACID guarantees, written in C++ and being rewritten in Rust.

    C++ · Rust · SQL parsing

  4. IV

    In progress

    Cosmos

    Headless CMS

    A performance-first alternative to Strapi: GraphQL API, flexible content modeling, PostgreSQL with Redis caching.

    TypeScript · GraphQL · PostgreSQL · Redis

  5. V

    Completed

    Arqontact

    B2B network for architects

    Project management plus a marketplace to find contractors, suppliers and collaborators, on web and mobile.

    Flutter · React · Go · PostgreSQL

  6. VI

    In progress

    Avgi

    Career guidance for students

    Personalized career recommendations and program comparisons, built to lower academic dropout rates.

    React · Node.js · Firebase · ML

The rest of the archive lives on GitHub.

Open the archive

IVArsenal

Tools of the Trade

What I reach for, grouped by craft. The highlighted ones are the tools I use every day.

Ink drawing of Icarus falling with his wings spread

i.Languages

  • Python (daily driver)
  • Go (daily driver)
  • TypeScript (daily driver)
  • JavaScript
  • SQL
  • Bash
  • Elixir

ii.Cloud & DevOps

  • AWS (daily driver)
  • Terraform (daily driver)
  • Linux (daily driver)
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes · EKS
  • CI/CD · GitHub Actions
  • CloudFormation

iii.AWS

  • Lambda (daily driver)
  • EventBridge (daily driver)
  • Step Functions (daily driver)
  • DynamoDB
  • API Gateway
  • S3 · SQS
  • IAM · STS
  • CloudWatch
  • ECS · EKS

iv.Architecture

  • Serverless (daily driver)
  • Event-driven systems (daily driver)
  • Multi-account AWS (daily driver)
  • Distributed systems
  • Networking · VPC, CIDR, IPAM
  • FinOps

v.Data

  • PostgreSQL (daily driver)
  • DynamoDB (daily driver)
  • Redis
  • MongoDB
  • OpenSearch
  • Timestream

vi.Frameworks & Tools

  • React (daily driver)
  • Boto3 (daily driver)
  • FastAPI
  • NestJS
  • Node.js · Express
  • Playwright
  • Grafana
  • Power BI

VHonors

Recognition

Contests, stages and rooms full of students: the places where the work was tested in public.

  1. Award · 2024

    Daimler Truck Hackathon

    First among all competing teams with a logistics and supply-chain solution.

    1st place

  2. Award · 2024

    ICPC Mexico National Finals

    Top 100 of 500+ teams in the country’s most demanding algorithmic contest.

    Top 100

  3. Award · 2023

    TecNM ITS Programming Contest

    Second place in the institutional programming contest at Instituto Tecnológico de Saltillo.

    2nd place

  4. Talk · SITEC

    From Student to Engineer: A Survival Guide

    A 45-minute talk at TecNM SITEC for IT students: career paths, landing a first job through CVs and technical interviews, and what the first year in industry really looks like.

    Speaker

  5. Talk · AWS

    AWS Students Community Day

    FinOps & Serverless Architectures: designing cloud applications for up to 200× savings over traditional infrastructure.

    Speaker

  6. Talk · AWS

    AWS User Group Saltillo

    Computer Vision in the Cloud: real-time image analysis with AWS services.

    Speaker

  7. Leadership · ITS

    Competitive Programming Club

    Founded and lead the club. I train students for algorithmic challenges, national contests and technical interviews.

    Co-founder

  8. Leadership · 2019

    VEX Robotics

    Led the team behind two state-champion robots, with autonomous navigation written in C/C++.

    Lead programmer

  9. Education · 2024

    Computer Systems Engineering

    Instituto Tecnológico de Saltillo, 2019 to 2024.

    B.S.

Field notes

13 photos · drag or click

VIContact

Write to me

Open to full-time roles, freelance work and long conversations about infrastructure.