Alvaro Joaquín Gaona

Social

Experience

• Lead Software Engineer

  ASAPP • Aug. 2022 - Sep. 2025
  • Transitioned in-house legacy Python framework to FastAPI, enhancing performance, scalability, and development experience.
  • Led critical PCI/PII data redaction service for entire company, developed in Python/Go.
  • Engineered and maintained a real-time Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) service in C++14.
  • Integrated external vendor inference services to the redaction system.
  • Implemented NVIDIA's Triton Inference Server across AWS accounts and Kubernetes clusters for optimized ML inference.
  • Compiled and served models using Torch Compiler with TensorRT and ONNX backends via Triton.
  • Designed and implemented monitoring systems for ML services to ensure reliability and quick issue resolution.

• Teaching Assistant

  Universidad de 'San Andrés' • Mar. 2022 - Jul. 2022
  • Lectured undergraduate students in AI engineering on the principles of ”Computational Thinking” with a focus on practical application using Python.
  • Offered comprehensive support to first‐year students throughout their studies, helping them navigate the faculty and achieve their academic goals.

• Research Engineer

  Universidad de 'San Andrés' • Aug. 2021 - Jul. 2022
  • Led the UAV landing landing project and developed algorithms that enabled safe and precise landing on platforms through computer vision techinques. Implemented object tracking, motion estimation, and control algorithms for autonomous landing using C++, ROS, Gazebo, and OpenCV
  • Designed and facilitated a deep learning workshop tailored for high school students, introducing them to foundational concepts and fostering an early interest in this cutting-edge field.
  • Involved in a self-driving car project aiming to achieve autonomous driving in Argentina.

• Senior Software Engineer

  Roche • Feb. 2019 - Jul. 2022
  • Led core database migration from Oracle to PostgreSQL with minimal business disruption
  • Developed fault-tolerant software for NGS panel design and cancer analysis using Spring framework
  • Redesigned pricing service to optimize material recommendations for NGS panels
  • Created cloud-based tool for testing bioinformatic pipeline integration, enhancing cancer analysis accuracy
  • Reduced testing suite run-time from days to minutes, improving software development efficiency
  • Implemented automated CI/CD pipelines on Jenkins for various application types
  • Contributed to technical hiring process, strengthening team with skilled professionals

• Software Engineer

  Telecom Argentina • Dec. 2015 - Feb. 2019
  • Played a key role in developing an SDN controller responsible for provisioning various services (Internet, L3VPN, L2VPN, VPLS) in the backbone for over 1000 customers.
  • Designed and developed a custom IP Address Manager application for internal use, enabling the engineering team to effectively allocate both public and private IPv4/IPv6 addresses for customers.
  • Led the design and implementation of the SDN controller's front end using JavaScript ES6, React, and Redux, resulting in a user-friendly and efficient interface for managing network services.
  • Managed the configuration and environment for workloads across public and private clouds, including AWS and VMware vSphere / NSX-V, ensuring high availability and optimal performance.

• Electronics Technician

  Servicio Meteorológico Nacional Argentino • Feb. 2015 - Dec. 2015
  • Designed circuit boards used in a range of meteorological measurement devices, contributing to the accurate and reliable collection of weather data.
  • Successfully installed over 20 meteorological weather stations across the entire country, ensuring comprehensive coverage of weather patterns and phenomena.

• Teaching Assistant

  Instituto Social Militar Dr. Dámaso Centeno • Mar. 2009 - Dec. 2009
  • Served as a teaching assistant for high school students, providing support in mathematics and physics subjects.

Education

• University of Buenos Aires

  Graduate in Electronics Engineering (equivalent to B.Sc + M.Sc)

  Buenos Aires, Argentina • Sep. 2010 - Sep. 2019
  • ”Deep Recurrent Learning for Heart Sounds Segmentation based on Instantaneous Frequency Features”, Graduate (Master) Thesis, 2019. University of Buenos Aires. Grade 10/10.
  • GPA: 3.5/4.0

Skills

• Programming Languages
  C/C++

  Rust

  Python

  TypeScript

  Java

  Kotlin

  Go

  Julia

  MATLAB/Simulink
• Software Engineering
  Linux

  Git

  Docker

  Kafka

  DynamoDB

  MongoDB

  PostgreSQL

  Websockets

  HTTP/HTTPS

  Data Dog

  Grafana

  Amazon Web Services

  Google Cloud Platform

  Azure

  ArgoCD

  Kubernetes

  OOP

  Design Patterns

  Agile

  Estimation

  Planning
• Libraries & Tooling
  FastAPI

  OpenCV

  PCL

  Boost

  STL

  Eigen

  CMake

  Bazel

  PyTorch

  Tensorflow

  Gstreamer

  Terraform

  Packer

  React

  NextJS

  Astro
• Artificial Intelligence
  Supervised Learning

  Unsupervised Learning

  Reinforcement Learning

  NLP

  Computer Vision

  Fine-tuning

  Knowledge Destillation

  Model Evaluation
• Other
  Teamwork

  Ownership

  Communication

  Leadership

  Self-motivated

  Public Speaking

Publications

• A. J. Gaona, P. D. Arini. ”Deep Recurrent Learning for Heart Sounds Segmentation based on Instantaneous Frequency Features”. Revista Elektron, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp 52‐57 (2020).
• A. J. Gaona, C. D. P, J. I. Giribet, R. Bunge. ”Prototyping of a multirotor UAV for precision landing under rotor failures”. Jornadas Argentinas de Robótica (JAR) XI (2022).
• J. I. Giribet, C. D. Pose, A. J. Gaona, R. Bunge, J. I. González Etchemaite. ”Fault Tolerant Solutions for Multirotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in NVIDIA® Jetson™ TX2”. NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference (2022).

Languages

• Spanish Native
• English Full Professional Proficiency (C2 Proficiency)

Certifications

• Machine Learning Specialization
  DeepLearning.AI • Issued Dec. 2022
• Deep Reinforcement Learning
  Udacity • Issued Jan. 2022
• AWS Solutions Architect Associate
  Amazon Web Services (AWS) • Issued Jul. 2020
• Deep Learning Nanodegree
  Udacity • Issued May. 2020
• C++ Nanodegree
  Udacity • Issued Jan. 2020