About

Hey! I'm João. I'm a backend software engineer at Uphold, based in Braga, Portugal. I love to problem solve, tinker and develop new solutions for problems people don't even realize they have. Above all I love to learn and grow and the tech sector allows me to do that daily. One of my biggest passions is software development, creating things, out of seemengly nothing, fulfills me in ways that few other things can. On the other half of the coin there is security that aims to completely break my thoughtfully crafted software which deeply fascinates me.

I came into product engineering from cybersecurity, and that lens never really leaves you. I think about trust boundaries, logic failures, and the blast radius of a change more than is strictly necessary which is a very useful habit and outlook when you're building systems that handle sensitive data.

I remain deeply committed to my career as a software and security professional, actively keeping pace with the latest industry developments and security research. This field is a core part of my professional identity. I firmly believe that software engineering and cybersecurity are inseparable; a skilled software engineer must possess solid security knowledge, and a security expert must understand the fundamentals of software development.

Outside work I enjoy building and maintaining a homelab that's been serving my self-hosted apps since 2022. It's really the perfect place to break things safely, self-host whatever I want, and learn the stuff that doesn't fit into a workday or a university course. When I'm not near a keyboard, I'm probably spending my time riding my motorcycle through open roads or with my dogs.

This site is where I keep it all together: theprojects I've built, thesnippets and shortcuts I've accumulated over the years, thestories and ramblings I go on and on whenever I find myself in a new adventure and the credentials and certifications I've picked up along the way.