About This Site

This is the digital garden of Austin Gamez. It was originally designed to document my travels, before it slowly mutated into what it is now: a loose collection of tech notes, personal stories, food obsessions, and the occasional cute animal.

The tone and topic may shift — from silly web dev tutorials, to a poignant adventure through ancient ruins. Variety is the Spice of Life.

About Me

I’m a software engineer with about a decade of experience, mostly in backend systems and platform infrastructure. That said, I do poke at frontend projects when I’m feeling brave, if only to remind myself that CSS is still hard.

In mid-2024, I took an extended sabbatical to travel. Before then, I’d barely left the United States — and I wanted to change that while I still had the time and curiosity. So I packed a bag, booked a one-way flight, and set out to see what else was out there.

Even abroad, I couldn’t stay away from code for long. I built hobby projects, collaborated with random devs I met overseas, and occasionally debugged things from tents, trains, or questionable Wi-Fi cafés.

It’s been about 10 months now. I haven’t fully decided on my chapter, but I am currently seeking tech roles— both abroad and in the United States.

Why “Navigator”?

When I started traveling, I didn’t want to be a tourist. No offense to comfort, but five-star resorts and guided tours aren’t my thing. I’d rather be lost in the woods or haggling over the price of a rug in a country where I don’t speak the language.

And weirdly, that worked. Even when I was clueless, I kept finding myself helping other travelers navigate through the day’s fiasco— hiking trails, Tokyo subways, open-air markets, and the occasional abandoned ruin.

One of these travelers jokingly called me a professional navigator.

Not because I always knew where I was going, but because I was usually the one most willing to figure it out — map or no map.

The name stuck. And, honestly, it still fits.

Still Traveling?

Yes. I’m currently in London. The next destination is TBD.

One of the biggest surprises of my sabbatical was how much I missed building things. I built more throwaway hobby projects than I can count, and realized that I’m happiest when I’m creating — whether that’s in an office, or an AirBnb in Phuket.

I’m back to looking for meaningful work. Ideally somewhere I can apply the same curiosity and willingness to jump in the deep end that carried me through the last year.

Work With Me

I’m currently open to new opportunities — contract or full-time — in backend or full-stack engineering.

Especially if the mission is compelling, the problems are complex, and the stakes are real.

I’m particularly interested in:

Distributed systems and event-driven architecture
Developer tooling and internal platforms
High-performance APIs and real-time data pipelines
Teams and products that make people’s lives better

If you’re working on something interesting — whether it’s an early-stage startup or a large-scale system — I’d love to hear from you.

Feel free to get in touch or check out my resume

My Stack

Below are my primary software engineering skills.

Programming Languages

Python
Java
Javascript/Typescript

Backend Frameworks

FastAPI
Django
Spring
Express
NextJS

Frontend Frameworks

React

Databases

Postgres
MongoDB
Redis

Cloud Platforms

Bonus Stuff:

Terraform
CI/CD
Event Driven Architecture