Edgar Diaz-Gutierrez

Full-Stack Software Engineer at Valcom · Remote, NYC

I build production web systems that schools and hospitals use for emergency command-and-control. TypeScript, React, Node.js, Python, Postgres. I'm aggressively AI-forward — I don't just code with Claude and Cursor, I engineer the Skills, hooks, and guardrails that let a whole team ship AI-assisted code fast without ever losing the architecture or the quality.

Get in touch View projects Download resume (PDF)

About

I'm a full-stack software engineer at Valcom, where I work on emergency command-and-control web applications — where a dispatcher needs the dashboard to stay responsive during an active incident. Before Valcom, I taught full-stack web development and cybersecurity at Coding Dojo for three years while building the foundation I use today. Before that, I studied theater at San Diego State, which is where I learned how to walk into a room of strangers, hold attention, and explain something clearly. Turns out that's most of senior engineering.

How I work with AI

Vibe coding is not a thing. I delegate syntax and typing to Claude and Cursor — the architecture, the plan, and the quality of the result are my job. I won't commit code I can't explain to another engineer.

In practice: I write specs before I open an AI tool. I review every suggestion against the actual requirements. I catch the cases where the model is confident and wrong, because I know what the system is supposed to do. AI is a speed multiplier on mechanical work. It doesn't replace the person who has to own the system and answer for it six months later.

Experience

Software Engineer

Jan 2022 — Present

Valcom · Remote

Valcom builds communication and command systems used by thousands of schools, hospitals, and public safety agencies. I work on the web side of their emergency command-and-control platform.

  • Led the frontend overhaul that repositioned Valcom's enterprise product from its K-12 origins into healthcare, commercial, and industrial markets — shaping the company-wide style guide through modernization wireframes, customer research, and sales feedback.
  • Drove the org-wide decision to standardize on Tailwind CSS across two teams on competing stacks, after a structured evaluation against CSS Modules, Sass, and Bootstrap, then negotiated buy-in before migration began.
  • Rebuilt ~150 components through a React 17 → 19 upgrade, bringing the frontend to WCAG 2.2 AA.
  • Architected the multi-service Docker stack that replaced hand-scripted, site-by-site installation with a single Compose-defined deployment — enabling atomic image-based upgrades and database-backed rollbacks.
  • Raised engineering throughput company-wide by authoring 24 Claude Skills and 3 Python hooks that constrain AI-assisted development, including a per-file checkpoint that blocks progress until generated code meets CI requirements.
  • Ship features across a TypeScript / React frontend and Node.js / Express backend, with Python and Django services for the workflows where Django's maturity wins, inside a distributed system built on RabbitMQ and worker services.
  • Handle auth and token security end-to-end: JWT issuance, encrypted token storage on mobile clients, and the surface area between a React app and a Django API.

Instructor — Programming & Cybersecurity

Dec 2020 — Jan 2024

Coding Dojo · Remote

Taught full-stack web development (TypeScript, Python) and cybersecurity bootcamp courses to cohorts of 50+ students. Authored course materials, ran live code review sessions, built hands-on labs and capstone projects, and contributed to curriculum improvements based on industry feedback.

Teaching is the fastest way I know to find out whether you actually understand a concept.

Team Lead, Customer Service

Aug 2018 — Oct 2019

ScoreShuttle

Led a team supporting logistics software. Optimized support workflows, handled escalations, and held the line on SLA compliance.

Senior Student Loan Debt Coordinator

Jan 2017 — Aug 2018

Docupop

Managed high-volume loan portfolios and built custom tools to automate reconciliation processes.

Sales Operations

Aug 2016 — Jan 2017

Hibrid Solar

Drove CRM integrations and process automation to streamline sales workflows and reporting.

Projects

Dystopian Outcasts Wiki

Flagship

A production community wiki for Project Zomboid modding. Built end-to-end.

React and TypeScript frontend, Supabase (Postgres) backend, multi-provider OAuth 2.0 (Discord, Google) plus custom email/password signup, row-level security policies for content-level authorization, PostgreSQL tsvector full-text search across the article corpus, and TanStack Query on the client with optimistic updates for the bookmarking and progress-tracking features.

The interesting part isn't the stack — it's the decisions. Why RLS instead of service-layer checks. Why tsvector instead of pulling in Algolia. How I unified three auth paths (Discord, Google, email/password) into one user record with a database trigger for automated profile creation and case-insensitive username uniqueness via a generated column. I'm writing a full architecture post on one of those decisions. It'll live here when it's ready.

React 18 · TypeScript · Supabase · PostgreSQL · TanStack Query · OAuth 2.0 · Vite · React Router
Live site → GitHub →

RTK Query Demo

A React + TypeScript reference application showing how to wire Redux Toolkit Query for data fetching, caching, and mutation. I built it to illustrate patterns around normalized cache state and invalidation for scenarios where the app shouldn't re-fetch the same resource twice.

React · TypeScript · RTK Query · Redux Toolkit
GitHub →

TypeORM Banking API

A secure banking backend built with TypeScript, Express, TypeORM, and Node.js. Type-safe database operations, automated migrations, and thorough input validation for the kind of endpoints where a mistake costs real money.

TypeScript · Express · TypeORM · Node.js · PostgreSQL
GitHub →

This site

Vanilla HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. No framework, no build step. Hosted on GitHub Pages with a custom domain. The meta-reference: if you want to see how I approach a small project end-to-end, you're looking at it.

HTML · CSS · JavaScript · GitHub Pages
GitHub →

Skills

Languages

  • TypeScript
  • JavaScript (ES6+)
  • Python 3.12
  • SQL
  • Java
  • HTML5
  • CSS3

Frontend

  • React 19
  • React Router 7
  • Redux Toolkit & RTK Query
  • SvelteKit
  • React Native + Expo
  • Tailwind CSS
  • TanStack Query
  • Vite
  • PixiJS / WebGL

Backend

  • Node.js 22 LTS
  • Express
  • FastAPI
  • Flask
  • Django
  • REST API design
  • RabbitMQ & worker services

Data

  • PostgreSQL + PostGIS
  • MongoDB
  • MySQL
  • SQLite
  • Supabase
  • Dexie / IndexedDB
  • TypeORM
  • Full-text search (tsvector)

Testing & quality

  • Vitest
  • Playwright
  • Jest
  • WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility
  • OWASP standards

Infra & ops

  • Docker
  • Kubernetes
  • Git & GitHub
  • CI/CD
  • AWS
  • npm

Auth & security

  • OAuth 2.0
  • JWT
  • bcrypt
  • PostgreSQL Row-Level Security
  • Encrypted mobile token storage

AI-assisted workflow

  • Claude (Sonnet & Opus)
  • Cursor
  • ChatGPT
  • Authored 24 Claude Skills & 3 Python hooks
  • Written specs before prompts
  • Review-first, commit-second

See How I work with AI for the philosophy.

Education & Certifications

San Diego State University

B.A. Theater

Coding Dojo

Full-Stack Web Development Certificate (Java & Python)

Top of Class · 2020

ServiceNow

Certified Systems Administrator

Cert No. 26942562

Get in touch

I'm open to mid/senior full-stack and AI-forward engineering roles, remote-first, US-based. If that's what you're hiring for, the best way to reach me is by email.

Email

edgar.s.dzgz@gmail.com

Phone

(619) 750-4888

LinkedIn

linkedin.com/in/edgar-dzgz

GitHub

github.com/edgarsdzgz

Resume

Download PDF