Hello, I'm Hazel. I'm a versatile software engineer with previous leadership experience and 14 years in the industry. I've worked in tiny startups, massive enterprises, fast growing scale-ups, and consultancies, and I know how to adapt accordingly. I’ve done extensive and varied work on frontend, backend, and infrastructure. I've worked successfully with a lot of tech stacks because I also have the humility of a lifetime learner. This includes previous experience working with GIS Geospatial data in Python. My biggest focus is on delivering and optimising for maximum business value. Code is a means to an end, it’s your business priorities that truly matter. Let’s validate that assumption about user behaviour with data. Let’s unclog our team’s processes to start operating like one sociotechnical system together. Let’s analyse and reduce our true lead time based on CI/CD fundamental principles. Let’s ensure we know what we mean when we use the same words. AI helps us type faster than ever before. Making sure the code translates to business value, and that value is delivered as soon as possible, is where I come in. This year I’ve worked on several short-term freelancing engagements augmented by both Cursor and Claude code. In my most recent permanent role at Zendesk I joined a long-lived team responsible for curating the User Platform, maintaining and building on the large revenue-generating monolith. This included being responsible for the vast amounts of data for a large enterprise, managing the complexities around these domain entities, and making this data available and easy to consume for other teams via APIs and for users via frontend applications. I have introduced and promoted team practices to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos. Email is the best way to get in touch with me: _Email not available. Sign in: https://www.twine.net/signup_ References available when the time comes. I hope to hear from you soon! Hazel…

Hazel PetagGarcia

Hello, I'm Hazel. I'm a versatile software engineer with previous leadership experience and 14 years in the industry. I've worked in tiny startups, massive enterprises, fast growing scale-ups, and consultancies, and I know how to adapt accordingly. I’ve done extensive and varied work on frontend, backend, and infrastructure. I've worked successfully with a lot of tech stacks because I also have the humility of a lifetime learner. This includes previous experience working with GIS Geospatial data in Python. My biggest focus is on delivering and optimising for maximum business value. Code is a means to an end, it’s your business priorities that truly matter. Let’s validate that assumption about user behaviour with data. Let’s unclog our team’s processes to start operating like one sociotechnical system together. Let’s analyse and reduce our true lead time based on CI/CD fundamental principles. Let’s ensure we know what we mean when we use the same words. AI helps us type faster than ever before. Making sure the code translates to business value, and that value is delivered as soon as possible, is where I come in. This year I’ve worked on several short-term freelancing engagements augmented by both Cursor and Claude code. In my most recent permanent role at Zendesk I joined a long-lived team responsible for curating the User Platform, maintaining and building on the large revenue-generating monolith. This included being responsible for the vast amounts of data for a large enterprise, managing the complexities around these domain entities, and making this data available and easy to consume for other teams via APIs and for users via frontend applications. I have introduced and promoted team practices to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos. Email is the best way to get in touch with me: _Email not available. Sign in: https://www.twine.net/signup_ References available when the time comes. I hope to hear from you soon! Hazel…

Available to hire

Hello, I’m Hazel.
I’m a versatile software engineer with previous leadership experience and 14 years in the industry. I’ve worked in tiny startups, massive enterprises, fast growing scale-ups, and consultancies, and I know how to adapt accordingly. I’ve done extensive and varied work on frontend, backend, and infrastructure. I’ve worked successfully with a lot of tech stacks because I also have the humility of a lifetime learner. This includes previous experience working with GIS Geospatial data in Python.
My biggest focus is on delivering and optimising for maximum business value. Code is a means to an end, it’s your business priorities that truly matter. Let’s validate that assumption about user behaviour with data. Let’s unclog our team’s processes to start operating like one sociotechnical system together. Let’s analyse and reduce our true lead time based on CI/CD fundamental principles. Let’s ensure we know what we mean when we use the same words. AI helps us type faster than ever before. Making sure the code translates to business value, and that value is delivered as soon as possible, is where I come in.
This year I’ve worked on several short-term freelancing engagements augmented by both Cursor and Claude code. In my most recent permanent role at Zendesk I joined a long-lived team responsible for curating the User Platform, maintaining and building on the large revenue-generating monolith. This included being responsible for the vast amounts of data for a large enterprise, managing the complexities around these domain entities, and making this data available and easy to consume for other teams via APIs and for users via frontend applications. I have introduced and promoted team practices to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos.
Email is the best way to get in touch with me: Email not available. Sign in: https://www.twine.net/signup
References available when the time comes.
I hope to hear from you soon!
Hazel

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Work Experience

Senior Software Engineer at Zendesk
December 31, 2025 - August 29, 2025
Joined a long-lived team responsible for curating the User Platform, maintaining and building on a large revenue-generating monolith. Introduced and promoted team practices to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos. Received a performance bonus for extra contributions before role became redundant.
Senior Software Engineer at Zendesk
December 31, 2025 - August 29, 2025
Maintained and built on a large revenue-generating monolith User Platform. Introduced and promoted team practices to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos. Received a performance bonus for extra contributions before role became redundant.
Software Developer (Freelance, short-term roles) at Spectral Tech
November 1, 2025 - July 1, 2026
Worked with a small team in a quickly scaling startup to improve software quality and achieve smoother, faster release cycles approaching CD. Introduced development techniques and tools to raise UX standards, including design standards and web accessibility. Built and delivered features for international e-commerce payments, integrating APIs with many payment providers via distributed, event-driven architecture.
Senior Software Engineer at Zendesk
January 1, 2025 - August 29, 2025
Joined a long-lived team responsible for curating the User Platform, maintaining and building on the large revenue-generating monolith. Introduced and promoted team practices to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and breaking down silos. Received a performance bonus for extra contributions before role became redundant.
Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at Lyka
December 31, 2023 - August 29, 2025
Upgraded crucial infrastructure to prevent security risks. Created Infrastructure as Code patterns for teams to use and scale quickly. Performed deep technical discovery to fix critical financial systems. Intended to build and lead a platform team introducing fundamental skills like CI/CD, testing, API design, and observability.
Senior Software Engineer at Prism a Zen desk
October 1, 2023 - March 1, 2025
Joined a long-lived team responsible for a User Platform, maintaining and building on a large revenue-generating SaaS monolith and additional services/applications. Managed complex domain entities and large-scale enterprise data, exposing it via external and internal APIs and frontend applications. Participated in on-call rotations and helped use sophisticated in-house observability tooling. Drove practices to improve collaboration, knowledge sharing, and to break down silos.
Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at Lyka
January 1, 2023 - Present
Upgraded crucial infrastructure to prevent security risks, created Infrastructure As Code patterns for scaling, and performed deep technical discovery to repair business-critical financial systems. Intended to build and lead a platform team central to Lyka’s technical growth strategy, introducing fundamental skills like CI/CD, testing, API design, and observability.
Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at Lyk a
January 1, 2023 - Present
Upgraded crucial infrastructure to prevent security risks, created Infrastructure As Code patterns for other teams to use and scale quickly, performed deep technical discovery to repair business-critical financial systems. Intended to build and lead a platform team central to technical growth strategy, introducing fundamental tech skills such as CI/CD, testing, API design, and observability.
Staff Software Engineer at Hireup
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025
Expanded and maintained both Node.js backend API and Vue.js frontend application. Mentored junior team members and introduced frontend testing approaches that reduced bugs and upskilled the team. Advocated for adoption of best practices such as unit testing, TDD, vertical slicing, knowledge sharing, and architecture patterns to facilitate company growth.
Software Engineer at Indebted
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025
Built greenfields frontend React & TypeScript application introducing Storybook for future UX design systems. Applied modern frontend techniques complementing an already well-crafted Golang serverless API working with event-sourced data. Focused on knowledge sharing, communication, and context within the team.
Staff Software Engineer at Hireup
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025
Expanded and maintained Node.js backend APIs and Vue.js frontend applications. Mentored junior team members and introduced frontend testing approaches that immediately reduced bugs and upskilled the team. Advocated for adoption of best practices such as unit testing, TDD, vertical slicing, and architecture patterns to facilitate company growth.
Software Engineer at Indebted
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025
Developed greenfield frontend applications in React and Typescript, introducing Storybook for UX design system practices, complemented existing Golang serverless event-sourced backend. Focused on sharing knowledge, communication, and context across teams.
Software Engineer at Indebted
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025
Developed greenfield frontend application in React & Typescript, introduced Storybook for a future UX design system, applied modern frontend techniques complementing existing patterns. Expanded on a well-crafted Golang serverless API working with entirely event-sourced data, focusing on knowledge sharing, communication, and context.
Software Engineer at In debted
June 1, 2022 - December 1, 2022
Built a greenfield frontend application in React and TypeScript and created a new endpoint service for a distributed Golang API. Introduced Storybook to lay foundations for future UX design system practices and created code patterns for simple adoption. Introduced and taught React to team members new to it. Designed and implemented an event-sourced solution with a focus on data architecture patterns and timely delivery.
Technical Advisory / Consultant (NDIS services) & Shopify API integration at Spectral Tech (Freelance)
January 1, 2022 - January 1, 2022
Provided technical advisory for NDIS services provider consultancy and implemented Shopify API integration for an early-stage startup.
Freelance Software Developer at Spectral Tech
January 1, 2022 - Present
Building foundational features for a small social media startup and providing technical and project advisory for an NDIS services provider consultancy. Worked on early-stage startup Shopify API integration.
Freelance Software Developer at Spectral Tech
January 1, 2022 - Present
Building foundational features for a small social media startup. Providing technical and project advisory for NDIS services provider consultancy. Worked with an early stage startup on Shopify API integration.
Staff Software Engineer at Hireup
January 1, 2022 - August 29, 2025
Expanded and maintained Node.js backend API and Vue.js frontend application. Collaborated with other engineers to improve technical excellence across teams. Mentored junior team members, introduced frontend testing approaches, and advocated best practices such as unit testing, TDD, vertical slicing, knowledge sharing, and architecture patterns to facilitate company growth.
Freelance Software Developer at Spectral Tech
January 1, 2022 - Present
Building foundational features for a small social media startup. Providing technical and project advisory for NDIS services provider consultancy. Worked with an early stage startup on Shopify API integration.
Senior Software Developer at DiUS
December 31, 2021 - August 29, 2025
Worked on a variety of engagements including pre-sales, marketing, recruitment, coaching, and upskilling engineers. Played an instrumental role in a crucial production release by creating code patterns and conventions that increased development speed and shared understanding. Set up and stabilized a tricky engagement that ultimately contributed 8% of company revenue that financial year.
Senior Software Developer at DiUS
December 31, 2021 - August 29, 2025
Worked on a large variety of engagements including pre-sales, marketing, recruitment, coaching, and upskilling engineers. Instrumental in production releases with code patterns and conventions to increase development speed and shared understanding. Set up and stabilized complex engagements contributing 8% of company revenue in that financial year.
Staff Software Engineer at Hireup
December 1, 2021 - March 1, 2022
Expanded and maintained both Node.js backend APIs and a Vue.js frontend application. Collaborated with staff engineers to upgrade Vue versions, migrate to TypeScript, and raise technical excellence across the team. Mentored junior team members and introduced frontend testing approaches that quickly reduced bugs and upskilled the team. Advocated for best practices such as unit testing, TDD, vertical slicing, knowledge sharing, and architecture patterns to support company growth.
Senior Software Developer at DiUS
January 1, 2021 - August 29, 2025
Worked on diverse engagements including pre-sales, marketing, recruitment, coaching, and upskilling engineers. Instrumental in a crucial production release by creating code patterns and conventions to increase development speed and shared understanding. Set up and stabilized a tricky engagement contributing 8% to company revenue for that financial year.
Tech Lead at Culture Amp
December 31, 2019 - August 29, 2025
Provided technical leadership amplifying and focusing the skills of the team. Led successful implementation of major additions to support organizational hierarchies in the data system, improved maintainability of the existing system. Used mob programming, post-story debriefings, PIRs to reduce BAU significantly, and fostered a culture of learning and growth in a remote-first distributed team.
Tech Lead at Culture Amp
December 31, 2019 - August 29, 2025
Provided technical leadership amplifying and focusing team skills. Led implementation of major additions supporting organisational hierarchies and improved maintainability of existing systems. Used mob programming and post-story debriefings for knowledge sharing and reduced BAU workload significantly, fostering a learning and growth culture in a remote-first distributed team.
Tech Lead at Culture Amp
December 31, 2019 - August 29, 2025
Provided technical leadership, amplified and focused team skills. Led successful implementation of major additions supporting organisational hierarchies in their data and improved system maintainability. Used mob programming, post-story debriefings, PIRs to share knowledge, reduce BAU, and foster a culture of learning and growth in a remote-first distributed team.
Senior Software Developer at DiU S
July 1, 2019 - October 1, 2021
Worked across a wide variety of engagements including pre-sales, marketing, recruitment, coaching, and upskilling. Played a key role in a crucial production release by creating code patterns and conventions that improved development speed and shared understanding, and stabilized a tricky engagement that ultimately contributed 8% of company revenue for that financial year. Highlighted CI/CD, microservices, Node.js/TypeScript/React, mobile, and infrastructure automation.
Tech Lead at Amp — Tech Lead
January 1, 2019 - June 1, 2019
Provided technical leadership and amplified team skills while driving major additions to support organizational hierarchies in data and improving maintainability of an existing SaaS system. Used techniques like pairing, ensemble programming, and PIRs to find patterns in support work and reduce BAU. Invented post-story debriefings to share knowledge across the team, fostering a learning culture in a remote-first distributed environment.
Senior Software Engineer at Redbubble
December 31, 2018 - August 29, 2025
Migrated Rails monolith infrastructure from legacy cloud provider to Kubernetes, working closely with Delivery Engineering (DevOps) team. Created mentorship program for junior developers. Built frontend platform for faster, consistent creation of new React apps. Spearheaded onboarding of other teams and evangelized a company-wide design system and component library. Re-architected legacy domain models with a new GraphQL data service. Migrated decade worth of user data from Rails monolith DB to AWS Cognito with smooth user experience.
Senior Software Engineer at Redbubble
December 31, 2018 - August 29, 2025
Migrated Rails monolith infrastructure from legacy cloud provider to Kubernetes, working closely with DevOps. Created and implemented a mentorship program for junior developers. Built frontend platform for faster creation of new React apps. Spearheaded company-wide design system and component library and evangelised onboarding other teams. Re-architected legacy domain models and migrated decade-old user data to AWS Cognito with smooth user experience.
Senior Software Engineer at Redbubble
December 31, 2018 - August 29, 2025
Migrated Rails monolith infrastructure from legacy cloud to Kubernetes, working with Delivery Engineering. Created and implemented mentorship program for junior developers. Built front-end platform for faster, consistent creation of new React apps. Developed company-wide design system and component library, spearheaded onboarding and evangelism. Re-architected legacy domain models with new GraphQL data service. Migrated decade of user data to AWS Cognito with smooth user experience.
Consultant Developer at ThoughtWorks
December 31, 2017 - August 29, 2025
Worked on over a dozen projects solving diverse technology challenges, gaining broad perspective on technology solutions. Gained experience in public speaking, facilitation, technical advocacy, mentoring, and teaching.
Consultant Developer at ThoughtWorks
December 31, 2017 - August 29, 2025
Worked on over a dozen projects providing a broad and comprehensive perspective on technology solutions. Gained experience in public speaking, facilitation, technical advocacy, mentoring, and teaching. Key involvement in DevOps, TDD, CI/CD, Docker, infrastructure automation, event-driven architecture, and more.
Consultant Developer at ThoughtWorks
December 31, 2017 - August 29, 2025
Worked on over a dozen projects gaining broad and comprehensive perspective on technology solutions. Experienced in public speaking, facilitation, technical advocacy, mentoring, and teaching. Worked with DevOps, TDD, CI/CD, Docker, infrastructure automation, event-driven architecture, and distributed systems in various domains including non-profits.
Senior Software Engineer at Redbubble
May 1, 2017 - May 1, 2018
Migrated a Rails monolith in infrastructure from a legacy cloud provider to Kubernetes, working closely with the Delivery Engineering (devops) team. Built a frontend platform enabling faster and more consistent creation of new React apps. Sped up platform growth by leading onboarding of other teams and evangelizing the stack, re-architecting legacy domain models, and building a data service using GraphQL. Migrated a decade of user data from the Rails monolith DB to AWS Cognito, creating a smooth user experience. Created mentorship programs for junior developers.
Consultant Developer at ThoughtWorks
March 1, 2014 - April 1, 2017
Delivered work across over a dozen projects, providing a broad perspective on technology solutions for different problem types. Gained experience with public speaking, facilitation, technical advocacy, mentoring, and teaching. Worked in areas including DevOps, TDD, CI/CD, Docker, and infrastructure automation, often applying event-driven and distributed system techniques.
Software Developer at Growstuff
December 31, 2013 - August 29, 2025
Worked at a small startup building an open source web application for home food gardeners.
Software Developer at Growstuff
December 31, 2013 - August 29, 2025
Contributed to a small startup building an open source web application for home food gardeners. Highlights include open source development, remote pairing, Ruby on Rails, Travis CI, and Heroku.
Software Developer at Growstuff
December 31, 2013 - August 29, 2025
Worked in a small startup building an open source web application for home food gardeners. Engaged in remote pairing, used Rails and Travis CI.
Software Developer at Grow stuff (startup)
November 1, 2012 - April 1, 2013
Built an open-source web application for home food gardeners and collaborated closely in a remote pairing workflow. Used CI and deployment practices to ship an early-stage product.

Education

Bachelor of Computer Science at La Trobe University
January 1, 2010 - January 1, 2013
Bachelor of Computer Science at La Trobe University
January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2013
Bachelor of Computer Science at La Trobe University
January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2013
Bachelor of Computer Science (AI stream) at La Trobe University
January 1, 2013 - January 1, 2013

Qualifications

Add your qualifications or awards here.

Industry Experience

Software & Internet, Professional Services, Financial Services, Non-Profit Organization, Education