Ricardo Zavala

Ricardo Zavala

Staff Software Engineer

Henderson, NV

I build the systems behind the systems. Over nine years I've worked across the full stack for Fortune 500 companies, federal agencies, and startups, shipping everything from real-time GIS platforms and PCI-compliant payment gateways to AI-driven underwriting pipelines. Right now I'm deep in early-stage fintech, architecting backend infrastructure from first commit. I like hard problems, small teams, and code that earns its complexity.

Experience

2025 - Present

Arkra

Co-Founding Backend Engineer

Architecting backend services for an AI-powered equipment finance platform. Building RESTful APIs with .NET 8 and Entity Framework Core, AI-driven underwriting pipelines in Python, and CI/CD with Azure DevOps.

2025

Axon

Senior Full Stack Engineer

Built secure, multi-tenant law enforcement data platforms with AI-powered enrichment pipelines at the global leader in connected public safety.

Jun - Oct 2025

Idaho National Laboratory

Software Engineer (Contract)

Fixed-term contract at a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory. Full stack .NET development using C#, .NET 8, MVC, Entity Framework, and SQL Server on internal research and infrastructure systems.

2022 - 2025

Accenture Federal Services

Senior Full Stack Engineer

Delivered high-scale applications for USPS serving millions of daily users, from real-time GIS mapping to PCI-compliant payment systems.

2022

Cigna

Full Stack Engineer

Worked on healthcare platforms serving millions of members, building shared component libraries and observability tooling.

2021 - 2022

Touch To

Frontend Engineer

Architected micro-frontend systems and real-time dashboards for digital ordering in hospitality and defense sectors.

2018 - 2021

Zappos

Web and Mobile Developer

Built customer-facing e-commerce features at scale, including PWAs and payment systems handling 18M+ monthly transactions.

2016 - 2017

Vegas.com

Web Development Intern

Cut teeth on production web development at a major online travel platform. Built tooling, learned the ropes, broke some stuff.

Selected Work

FULL-STACK PLATFORM

Nomadhood

Neighborhood intelligence platform for digital nomads. Aggregates seven external APIs (WalkScore, Rentcast, FBI crime data, BLS economics, Eventbrite, newsdata.io, Unsplash) into a unified neighborhood profile. Features a cosine-similarity recommendation engine that learns from your review history across six lifestyle dimensions, a composite scoring algorithm that blends community ratings with objective data, and a news intelligence pipeline with signal classification and sentiment-based risk alerts. 19 Prisma models, 54 tRPC procedures, three access tiers.

Next.js 15 · React 19 · tRPC v11 · Prisma 6 · PostgreSQL · MapLibre GL · Zod · Bun

Live App Source

GAME ENGINE + 3D

Blaqjaq

3D blackjack with a 1951 Flamingo-era film noir aesthetic. The game engine is a pure reducer with zero React dependencies: 782 lines, 14 action types, full insurance/surrender/split mechanics. A complete basic strategy engine evaluates every decision against optimal play, and session analytics track your tendencies across hard, soft, and pair hands with P&L charting. The 3D scene uses React Three Fiber with five GLTF models, ACES filmic tone mapping, and procedural Web Audio API sound effects.

React 19 · TypeScript · Three.js · React Three Fiber · Vitest · Vite 6

Play Live Source