Hey, there! I'm Saulo.
I hope you are havingThere was a time when I was driven by a passion for coding. Something about the ability to create things out of words spoke to me. I would be pretty happy just to see that there was a new thing in the world, a thing that I created!
Now, as Chief Technology Officer at Toki Labs, I’m driven by the power of technology to transform lives, and make a difference in the world. Code became a tool for transformation, as AI is becoming now. My drive, my passion, and my concern today, is to use my time and skills wisely, and make sure the changes I make are in fact positive.
Sometimes that’s as simples and contributing to an open-source project, sometimes it means getting out of my desk to do something in the physical world.
- Years coding professionally
- 21
- Repositories on Github
- 111
But my favorite thing is…
To learn and help other people learn
I’m always trying to optimize how I learn and that led me to launch a mentorship program for disadvantaged individuals, helping them become developers by teaching them how to learn.
With over 50 mentees, I’ve witnessed the impact of teaching others to become self-learners and problem-solvers. Empowering people to unlock their potential has been a deeply rewarding experience.
Last Roles
- 2022
Toki Labs
Co-Founder and CTO
- 2019
Rocket Money
Senior Software Architect
- 2018
Crossover
Product Chief Architect
I thrive in complexity
Instead of getting overwhelmed by the combinatorial explosion of possibilities that comes with any sufficiently complex system, I get excited with the opportunity to fit all the pieces together and find solutions where there seems to be none.
I do that both for software and for social projects,
and that’s why I sometimes say that I’m a “Social Alchemist”.
I apply Game Theory to social issues, and I firmly believe that by understanding the motivations of individuals and groups, we can create positive-sum games that benefit everyone. This mindset has helped me solve problems and build strong relationships, both personally and professionally.
Recommendations
I have worked with some amazing people!
“Saulo and I worked on the same project, with him being the Product Chief Architect responsible for the overall product quality.
He brought deep understanding of the whole product architecture (and Chute was a fairly complex product), and improved stability and predictability in some rough times after the product was acquired and imported into the new operating model.
Saulo proved to be versatile and very reliable person to work with.”
“Saulo is a brillant developer, he always came to me with new ideas and techniques about web programming and software quality. Our exciting discussions about web projects and future of the web helped me to have a better understanding of this field. I can highlight his great javascript and object-oriented programming skills.”
“I have worked with Saulo, during almost four years, by the time his company was at technology incubator of Instituto Gênesis - PUC Rio. Saulo is a very experience programmer that know how to create quality code that embraces clientes demands. He has all the attributes to became a great CTO. Besides that, he is a tech professional with business perspective.”
“Saulo did a great job as an experienced product architect in a project that we worked together in. He managed to accomplish very difficult code migration tasks in a short period of time for a big and high-loaded system. And he did that without service disruption. I would definitely recommend him as a professional you can count on.”
“Saulo é o que chamo de geniozinho. Ele é o tipo de pessoa que não existe barreias e que além de ótimas ideias elas são sempre acima do tempo e inovadoras. Recomendo o Saulo a qualquer empresa que precise se renovar e de alguém que irá fazer o que muitos não conseguem ou irão demorar para isso.”
“I had the opportunity to work with Saulo at Cleanify, a startup based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is very detail-oriented and incredibly knowledgeable on his field of work. Saulo spearheaded the initiative of migrating our codebase to Typescript and other newer architectures at the time. He was also a major contributor in the engineering team, translating the business needs into actionable and measurable tasks. Finally, Saulo is an extremely fun person to be around. We always had a blast working with him even in the face of the greatest adversities!”
“Saulo is the kind of employee that you can count on for anything. He knows a little bit about marketing, business, strategie, (a lot) about IT, and will learn really fast any new matter that surfs over his face. He is true enterpreneur, a team worker and a risen leader.”
Did we work together
and you are happy about it?
I'll be forever grateful 🙇🏻
But life is more than work
In addition to my technical pursuits, I enjoy exploring the complexities of life through poetry and music.
Ultimately, my diverse interests, experiences, and love for creating positive change shape who I am as a professional and a person. I am eager to continue leveraging technology, teaching, and creative thinking to transform at least a small part of the world.
Experience
Co-Founder and CTO
Toki LabsNov 2022 - Present
Toki Labs is a boutique software house and outsourcing firm which hand-picked projects based on their social impact.
During my time here I aligned company values with the development strategy under budget constraints, requiring creative approaches to staffing, development strategy, and revenue optimization.
Key Achievements
- Staffing Innovation: Launched a free mentorship program attracting 50+ participants, leading to 5 full-time hires at low cost and facilitating 30+ participants to find software development jobs
- Development Optimization: Engineered Uisl, a proprietary UI specification language, resulting in 50%+ reduction in specification time compared to industry standards
- Revenue Growth: Expanded optimization concepts to create CVA, a subscription-based Figma plugin for controlled generative design, reducing Design System creation time by 70%
Principal Engineer
Dreamflare.ai ClientDreamflare is the Netflix for AI-generated shorts, movies, and show. I joined the team to help them launch their platform.
Key Achievements
- Implementation of automated UI generation from Figma using AI
- System-wide Architecture and Platform improvements for scalability and security
- Development process standardization
Engineering Team Lead
CVA ProductCVA automates the generation of design variations in Figma and is the latest product from Toki Labs.
Key Achievements
- Designed the architecture for the plugin and backend, including deploy infrastructure and automation
- Coordinated the open-sourcing of non-critical code as a Figma SDK
- Algorithm optimization to handle thousands of generations in under 3 seconds
Senior Software Architect
Rocket Money (formerly Truebill)Jan 2019 - Dec 2021
Joined early-stage fintech startup, taking ownership of features from architecture design to deployment and monitoring. Stayed until the company was sold to Rocket.
Key Achievements
- Company-Wide Documentation Initiative: Spearheaded a documentation movement during onboarding, successfully engaging all departments (not just IT) to create Truebill’s comprehensive company wiki on Notion, establishing a knowledge base that became essential to company operations
- Pay Advance Feature: Architected and implemented pay advance system integrating with Synapse and Stripe, enabling customers to receive instant advances with automated paycheck charge-backs
- Subscription Management Modernization: Took ownership of complex legacy subscription system requiring architectural overhaul. Redesigned the entire subsystem, resulting in a more effective subscription management system that surpassed Stripe’s and other industry tools in both churn reduction and charge success rates
- Full-Stack Ownership: Managed complete feature lifecycle from initial architecture design through deployment and production monitoring, demonstrating end-to-end technical leadership
Product Chief Architect
CrossoverJan 2018 - Dec 2019
Coordinated development and SaaS operations across multiple products, primarily focusing on the Chute platform.
Key Achievements
- Crisis Management: Successfully coordinated a 40-person team to deliver critical product changes within one month following Facebook’s Instagram API removal.
CTO
DoareAug 2017 - Feb 2018
I helped bring the Doare architecture to a whole new level. We migrated from a Cake PHP application to a microservices based architecture on Node. Given the complexity of the business requirements, most of the services were built using Domain Driven Design, Event Sourcing and CQRS.
Key Achievements
- Architecture Modernization: Migrated from CakePHP monolith to Node.js microservices using DDD, Event Sourcing, and CQRS
Among other technologies, we used: node, typescript, angular, hapi
Chief Software Architect
CleanifyApr 2016 - Aug 2017
I was hired to help Cleanify migrate the legacy monolithic PHP system to a microservices architecture on Node, using Hapi and written in Typescript. We also re-implemented UIs in React and Vue.js. A couple services required Domain Driven Design, Event Sourcing and CQRS, others were simple REST APIs and one was implemented using GraphQL. It was a lot of work but also really fun!
Key Achievements
- System Migration: Led migration from PHP monolith to Node.js/TypeScript microservices using Hapi
- Frontend Modernization: Re-implemented UIs using React and Vue.js
- Architectural Diversity: Implemented DDD/Event Sourcing/CQRS, REST APIs, and GraphQL services
Chief Software Architect and Engineering Manager
SoftoMar 2013 - Jan 2014
My first assignment at Sof.to was to define the entire development stack and strategy we would use. The result was a solid foundation which is used to solve very complex problems. It was based on Domain Driven Design, CQRS and Event Sourcing principles. We used C#.Net MVC and Web API on the backend; NHibernate and Entity Framework for persistence with a SQL Server database; Sass, TypeScript and Angular for the user interface.
Key Achievements
- Development Foundation: Defined entire development stack and strategy based on DDD, CQRS, and Event Sourcing using C#.NET MVC, Angular, and SQL Server
Software Architect
Camiseteria.comAug 2010 - Feb 2013
I was hired to beat the challenge of single-handedly do in three weeks what the government had give a year for the companies to do: integrate the sales to a national database of electronic receipts. All went all and not even one sale was lost because we weren’t compliant with the new Brazilian law. The next big challenge was to change the entire development stack from a .Net 2.0 webpages setup to the current .Net 4.5 MVC 4 following the Domain Driven Design. And do that without stopping the current demand for maintenance and new features. The benefit this change brought to company is hard to measure, but is certainly enormous in terms of productivity and developer happiness.
Key Achievements
- Rapid Compliance Delivery: Single-handedly delivered government compliance integration in 3 weeks (1-year industry deadline) with zero sales loss
- Stack Modernization: Migrated .NET 2.0 to 4.5 MVC 4 with DDD while maintaining ongoing operations