FAQ
Questions people ask about working with me
Short answers about where I work, what I build and how to reach me, for recruiters, hiring managers and anyone checking my background.
Where I work and with whom
Sebastián Gutiérrez is a senior data platform engineer based in Austin, Texas. He works remotely or in a hybrid setup, is authorized to work for any U.S. employer without sponsorship, and works in English and Spanish. These answers cover location, work authorization and languages.
Where is Sebastián Gutiérrez based, and can he work remotely?
Sebastián is based in Austin, Texas, on Central Time. He is open to remote roles across the Americas and EU time zones, and to hybrid roles in Austin. A fully on-site role is a conversation to have once you share the details of the position.
Is Sebastián authorized to work in the United States?
Yes. Sebastián is a U.S. permanent resident and green card holder. He is authorized to work for any U.S. employer, and he needs no visa sponsorship now or in the future. That applies to full-time, contract and remote positions with U.S. companies alike.
Which languages does he work in?
Sebastián works in English and Spanish. He has led client meetings as the technical representative of a data team serving universities in several Latin American countries and in France, and this site is published in both languages. Documentation, code reviews and stakeholder conversations all work in either one.
What I build
Sebastián builds data platforms: the ingestion pipelines, APIs, warehouses and shared libraries that other teams build on. His core stack is Python, SQL, Snowflake, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, Spark, FastAPI and Airflow. He has 5+ years in engineering, and these answers explain the role and his track record.
What does a data platform engineer do?
A data platform engineer builds the shared system that data pipelines run on, such as the warehouse, ingestion layer, orchestration, access control and internal libraries. A data engineer focuses on delivering particular datasets, while a platform engineer makes it safe and fast for every team to deliver their own. Sebastián works on that platform side.
Which tools and languages does Sebastián use most?
His core stack is Python and SQL, with Snowflake, PostgreSQL and Spark for data, FastAPI and Django for services, Airflow for orchestration, and Kubernetes for running it all. He has also worked with Azure Synapse and AWS. The Explorer on the home page lets you filter his experience by any tool.
What results has he delivered?
At uPlanner, a planning platform used by universities, he automated curriculum uploads and saved one client over 250 staff hours per semester, and he cut common support queries from up to two hours to under two minutes. Today he is a contract engineer on an internal data platform at Apple.
How I work and what I look for
Sebastián looks for senior data platform or data engineering roles, with backend work welcome, on teams where the people side matters as much as the technical side. He is comfortable as the first engineer on a team or as the calm one on a large team. These answers describe how he works.
What kind of role is Sebastián looking for?
He wants a senior data platform or data engineering role, with backend work welcome, where he can keep building systems that hold up and explain them to the people who depend on them. He is open to opportunities now, based in Austin and available for remote or hybrid work.
How does he work with people who are not engineers?
He translates between the people who build systems and the people who depend on them. At uPlanner he built a set of self-service internal tools so Customer Success could answer data questions without waiting on engineering, and he represented the data team in meetings with international clients. He has also mentored two to three engineers.
Has he worked in a startup or as the only engineer?
Yes. Sebastián co-founded AidProf, an education startup that graded handwritten STEM exams automatically, and he was its only engineer. He designed and shipped the platform, the AWS infrastructure and a ten-stage grading pipeline. The company closed in 2022, and the Story page tells that part of his career.
How to get in touch
The fastest way to reach Sebastián is by email, and his résumé is sent on request rather than published, because he tailors it to each role. The answers below explain how to ask for it and where to see his work before you do.
How do I get Sebastián's résumé?
Request it from the Contact page or by email. Tell him the role, the company, a link to the posting and whether the job is remote, and he replies with a version tailored to that position. There is deliberately no public résumé file, so every copy fits the role it was sent for.
Where can I see Sebastián's work before contacting him?
Start with the home page, where you can filter his experience by tool or role, then read the Story page for his career in three acts. The code for this site is public on GitHub, including its tests and CI workflow, and his LinkedIn profile lists his roles.
Still have a question?
I tailor my résumé to each role, so I send it on request. Tell me about the position and I'll reply with a version that fits it.