Octavio Garbarino
Engineering leader who still builds.
I lead engineering teams by caring about the person on the other side and, at the same time, about the project, the team's performance and the delivery. Around that, I shape product with the business and stay hands-on with architecture and AI.
Up to 30+ developers managed
- 12+ years in software
- Based in Uruguay
What I bring to the table
Three lines, one interchange. People is the line the other two run on. Select a line to see where it runs.
Engineering Leadership & People Management
I care about the person on the other side of every 1:1 as much as about the project, the team’s performance and the delivery, and I don’t trade one for the other. I’ve managed up to 30+ developers, built career progression frameworks and hiring pipelines, and grown high-trust remote teams through honest, actionable feedback.
Product Strategy & Leadership Facilitation
Applying Lean Startup principles, Design Thinking, and UX fundamentals to align engineering with business goals. Experienced public speaker and workshop facilitator on soft skills, adaptive leadership, and team building.
Technical Architecture & AI Integration
Deep expertise in full-stack web platforms (Next.js, TypeScript, modern APIs, Angular, PWA) paired with hands-on adoption of agentic AI workflows (Claude API, Model Context Protocol, LLM orchestration) to enhance team delivery and product capabilities.
Stops along the way
Tech LeadHalo Media · 2 years
As a Technical Lead, I lead 2 different full-stack (Angular, Nestjs, AWS and MongoDB) teams having several responsibilities impacting on both the project and the team.
Engineering Manager and Tech LeadEndava · 3 years
I hold two main roles - Engineering Manager focused on people working in JavaScript technologies, and Technical Leader for various commercial projects.
Board Member & Head of Technology (Volunteer)Club Deportivo Albatros · 2 years
- Business & Growth Strategy: Transformed the club’s financial sustainability by building its Business Model Canvas, leading commercial outreach to secure new corporate sponsors, and directing a university-led communication assessment to modernize fan engagement.
- Digital Product Engineering: Built and deployed a custom PWA to digitize youth team operations, replacing manual processes with real-time attendance tracking, player growth metrics, and integrated external game statistics.
- Content & Web Modernization: Architected and migrated the club’s main portal to Next.js integrated with a headless CMS, empowering non-technical staff to publish news independently and boosting web performance.
ProfessorORT University · 6 months
Technology professor of Applications Design, giving practical lessons about Angular, dotnet core, Rest API and Client-Server architecture.
Soft Skills and their influence on your careerTalk · CIbSE 2023
At XXVI Ibero-American Conference on Software Engineering I presented how important are the soft skills in our industry, how they can leverage our careers, some key concepts to manage teams and how we can develop them.
“Pointers”, value and reference; how does Javascript work?Talk · Montevideo JavaScript Meetup
A core concept that can save us from bugs and have a better understanding on how Javascript does some things.
UX 101: Don't make them thinkTalk · Meetup organized by Endava
UX basics are useful for most developers, so we went through some core concepts and saw how familiar many of them already are. (Most topics are based on Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think.)
Business Model Canvas tourTalk · Endava, internal workshop
This tool can be used in many ways. I ran a three-session workshop on how to apply it to business teams and to personal careers.
Let's talk.
Building a team, growing the people in it, shaping a product, or automating work that eats your time? I'm always glad to hear about it.
Based in Uruguay, UTC−3