Jacob Sarate

But the most useful thing about me isn't on the tech stack list.

My first real engineering education was answering support calls. I walked users through broken workflows, listened to the frustration when software failed them, and learned what it actually costs when a system doesn't work for the person on the other end. That never left. When I moved into QA and test automation, I was advocating for those users. When I moved into backend engineering and eventually into architecture and technical leadership, that instinct came with me.

That path (support, QA, test automation, backend, distributed systems, Staff engineer) is unusual. I think it's an advantage. I've seen software from every angle. I know what breaks, how it breaks, and who feels it when it does.

Thirteen years in, I build backend systems for a living and I'm good at it. But I also care about what's on the other side of the API. The plumbing matters more when you care about what comes out of the faucet.

Outside of code, I build other things. I remodeled my own kitchen and bathrooms not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I coach youth flag football, and the experience of developing people at different skill levels in a high-pressure environment translates directly into the mentorship work I do with engineers: helping mid-levels grow into seniors, running architecture reviews, driving cross-team alignment.

I've been a tinkerer since I was a kid pulling apart toys to see how they worked. That impulse never went away; it just found new outlets. Lately I've been deep in AI-augmented development, using tools like Claude and Cursor to compress the feedback loop between idea and working software. I'm less interested in the hype cycle and more interested in what actually changes when you let AI handle the scaffolding so you can focus on the architecture.

If any of that resonates, I'd enjoy the conversation.