Available to hire
I’m Hazel Garcia, a passionate technologist who makes things better: code, systems, teams, and culture. With nearly two decades of coding experience and over 13 years in tech, I’ve worked across backend, frontend, mobile, cloud, infrastructure, distributed systems, and leadership roles. I thrive on sharing knowledge, improving collaboration, and promoting best practices.
Living in Melbourne with my wife and our son, I enjoy knitting in my free time. My career has taken me through startups, scale-ups, and mature companies where I’ve contributed as a software engineer, technical advisor, and team lead to deliver practical solutions and help teams grow. I’m always excited by new challenges and solving complex technical problems.
Skills
Experience Level
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Work Experience
Freelance Software Developer at Spectral Tech
January 1, 2022 - PresentBuilding 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 Engineer at Zendesk
January 1, 2025 - August 29, 2025Joined 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 Lyk a
January 1, 2023 - PresentUpgraded 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.
Software Engineer at Indebted
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025Developed 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.
Staff Software Engineer at Hireup
January 1, 2022 - August 29, 2025Expanded 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.
Senior Software Developer at DiUS
January 1, 2021 - August 29, 2025Worked 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, 2025Provided 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 Engineer at Redbubble
December 31, 2018 - August 29, 2025Migrated 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, 2025Worked 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.
Software Developer at Growstuff
December 31, 2013 - August 29, 2025Worked in a small startup building an open source web application for home food gardeners. Engaged in remote pairing, used Rails and Travis CI.
Freelance Software Developer at Spectral Tech
January 1, 2022 - PresentBuilding 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 Engineer at Zendesk
December 31, 2025 - August 29, 2025Maintained 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.
Senior Full Stack Software Engineer at Lyka
December 31, 2023 - August 29, 2025Upgraded 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.
Software Engineer at Indebted
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025Developed 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.
Staff Software Engineer at Hireup
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025Expanded 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.
Senior Software Developer at DiUS
December 31, 2021 - August 29, 2025Worked 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.
Tech Lead at Culture Amp
December 31, 2019 - August 29, 2025Provided 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.
Senior Software Engineer at Redbubble
December 31, 2018 - August 29, 2025Migrated 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.
Consultant Developer at ThoughtWorks
December 31, 2017 - August 29, 2025Worked 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.
Software Developer at Growstuff
December 31, 2013 - August 29, 2025Contributed 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.
Freelance Software Developer at Spectral Tech
January 1, 2022 - PresentBuilding 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.
Senior Software Engineer at Zendesk
December 31, 2025 - August 29, 2025Joined 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 Full Stack Software Engineer at Lyka
January 1, 2023 - PresentUpgraded 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.
Software Engineer at Indebted
December 31, 2022 - August 29, 2025Built 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, 2025Expanded 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.
Senior Software Developer at DiUS
December 31, 2021 - August 29, 2025Worked 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.
Tech Lead at Culture Amp
December 31, 2019 - August 29, 2025Provided 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.
Senior Software Engineer at Redbubble
December 31, 2018 - August 29, 2025Migrated 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.
Consultant Developer at ThoughtWorks
December 31, 2017 - August 29, 2025Worked 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.
Software Developer at Growstuff
December 31, 2013 - August 29, 2025Worked at a small startup building an open source web application for home food gardeners.
Education
Bachelor of Computer Science at La Trobe University
January 1, 2010 - January 1, 2013Bachelor of Computer Science at La Trobe University
January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2013Bachelor of Computer Science at La Trobe University
January 1, 2010 - December 31, 2013Qualifications
Industry Experience
Software & Internet, Professional Services, Financial Services, Non-Profit Organization, Education
Skills
Experience Level
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Expert
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
Intermediate
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