Valentino Espinoza

Senior Software Engineer

Chicago, IL

Open to: Full-stack, frontend, and design engineer roles. Full-time or contract.

Summary

Frontend-leaning engineer who builds and ships across the full stack. Creates foundations other engineers build on: design systems, tooling, and developer workflows. Using AI to change how software gets built and shipped.

Experience

Senior Software Engineer (Contract)

Govly

Nov 2025Feb 2026
Remote

AI product development and frontend infrastructure.

  • Rebuilt AI chat frontend and established patterns for form library migration and analytics-driven iteration
  • Provided design guidance across features and established a pattern for driving design decisions through user metrics
  • Implemented visual regression testing for AI workflows; improved test suite pass rate from 75% to 100%

Senior Software Engineer

Handshake

Jan 2023Oct 2025
Remote

Design system architecture, accessibility, and frontend platform.

  • Led company-wide accessibility program covering remediation, automated testing, engineer training, and VPAT compliance through WCAG 2.2 AA
  • Architected design token pipeline improving design-to-code handoff and developer velocity
  • Led design system adopted by 100+ engineers, driving best practices across 10+ teams through code review, RFCs, and cross-team collaboration

Software Engineer

Handshake

Apr 2019Jan 2023
Remote

Full-stack product delivery and early design system contributions.

  • Core contributor to the initial design system, establishing the component library foundation adopted company-wide
  • Built full-stack features with Rails and React including calendar integrations, SEO, performance optimization with background jobs and observability tooling

Software Engineer

Apto

Nov 2018Apr 2019
Denver, CO

Frontend modernization and API architecture.

  • Migrated legacy Angular codebase to React and established GraphQL API patterns

Software Engineer

Rally Software (Broadcom)

Oct 2016Nov 2018
Denver, CO

Frontend development, accessibility, and backend contributions.

  • Built key UI features including personalized navigation and a robust pane system; contributed design system components with test-driven development

Software Engineer

CheddarUp

Aug 2016Oct 2016
Denver, CO

React Native feature delivery and Rails backend support.

  • Shipped end-to-end features across a React Native app and Rails backend, including payment flows and fundraising functionality

Software Developer

Econify

Jul 2015Aug 2016
New York, NY

Early-career fullstack across mobile, web, and client projects.

  • Built React Native apps demoed at CES and published to the App Store

Skills

TypeScript
React
Next.js
React Native
Node.js
Ruby on Rails
GraphQL
REST APIs
PostgreSQL
Prisma
Redis
Convex
Design Systems
Web Accessibility (WCAG 2.2)
Nx
Webpack
Vite
Docker
Kubernetes
AWS
CI/CD
Jest
Cypress
React Testing Library
TanStack
Bun
Vercel
Edge
AI-Assisted Development

Projects

Full-stack Nx monorepo with TanStack Start, Convex, and Effect. Includes chess analytics, multiplayer games, and developer tools.

Education

Fullstack Development

Turing School of Software and Design (2015)

Accessibility Training (WCAG 2.1 AA)

Deque Systems (2023)