// fool stuck software engineer · builder · filipina in tech

Hi, I'm Vic.

Ulirang ina na taga-code, taga-design, taga-debug, taga-deploy... taga-saing, taga-hugas, taga-linis, taga-laba, taga-sunod... taga-kung ano ano pa.

(model mother who codes, designs, debugs, deploys... cooks the rice, washes the dishes, cleans the house, does the laundry, follows orders... and everything else.)

25+ years. Four countries. Five industries. Started writing COBOL on mainframes in Manila, patching Y2K bugs before some of your favorite frameworks were born. Built mobile apps on Nokia Communicators and HP iPAQs before the iPhone existed. Shipped industrial control systems from Minnesota to Singapore to Japan. Now building AI-driven validation for defense drones in Texas. Healthcare, finance, industrial automation, defense, consulting — every one regulated, compliance-heavy, zero-room-for-error. Oh, and I have a clearance. It's Victoria's Secret.

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27+
Years shipping
4
Countries
5
Industries
A++
UT Austin GenAI

Industries

The domains change. The engineering discipline doesn't.

Defense & Aerospace

Parry Labs · L3Harris Technologies

MOSA-compliant drone systems, FACE data modeling, MBSE with CAMEO, STK simulations, C++ for embedded, AI-powered engineering automation. Airgapped environments. CDRLs. Secret clearance. The hard version.

Finance & Banking

Exeter Finance · Santander Consumer USA · Jack Henry

.NET/C# backend systems, loan processing, transaction integrity, regulatory compliance. Entity Framework, Azure, APIs that handle real money and real consequences.

Healthcare

Center for Health Information and Analysis

Health data reporting systems, HIPAA-compliant pipelines, .NET APIs. Boston and remote. The kind of data where mistakes affect people's care.

Industrial Automation

Yokogawa · Emerson Automation Solutions

CentumVP integrated production control system in Singapore. Advanced Process Control WebHMI with secure web communication services in Japan. KPI engineering tools, asset health monitoring, data store simulators. Emerson DeltaV/AMS Device Manager integrations. Real-time process control where "it crashed" means a factory stops.

Consulting & Integration

Royce Global · Fujitsu Philippines

Walking into unfamiliar domains, learning fast, shipping faster. Built mobile apps on SymbianOS, Windows CE, and Windows Mobile at Fujitsu — deployed to Nokia Communicators and HP iPAQs years before the iPhone existed. Freelance .NET architecture at Royce Global. The consulting muscle is the reason everything else works.

AI initiatives

Built from scratch. Not a wrapper around someone else's API.

Software Engineering Automation Pipeline

requirements-to-code platform

An AI-powered pipeline that transforms requirements documents into tested, production-ready code. Multi-language support with automatic design pattern detection. Full audit trail and traceability built in.

Not a chatbot that writes code. A system that understands specs, plans, generates, tests, and validates — end to end.

AI Engineering Document Automation

document automation · defense

AI system that automates creation and validation of complex engineering documents for defense programs. Built-in traceability and auditability.

Deployable in air-gapped, networked, and cloud environments. Because in defense, "just use ChatGPT" is not an option.

The AI journey

UT Austin PostGrad · A++ · GPA 4.22 · skeptic turned practitioner

I wasn't into AI at the beginning. 25 years of building deterministic, reliable systems made me skeptical. Then I tried it, watched it generate a clean frontend layout in seconds, and got curious about how it worked. That curiosity started the journey.

The UT Austin PostGrad taught me where AI actually fits in real engineering: RAG pipelines, vector-based retrieval, context-aware workflows, confidence-driven outputs. Not replacing engineering principles — extending them with new architectural patterns. The real challenge is knowing when these patterns make sense and integrating them safely, predictably, with proper guardrails.

I've also seen the danger of what I call "vibe-biased coding" with AI. It generates something that looks correct, but as complexity grows, it breaks patterns, introduces hidden edge cases, and ignores constraints that matter in real systems. Clear instructions, defined boundaries, and strong engineering practices are non-negotiable.

AI is powerful. But only when you guide it intentionally and use it responsibly. Some avoid it completely. Others rely on it too heavily. The answer is somewhere in the middle — and 25+ years of engineering discipline is what tells you where.

The timeline

Manila → Minnesota → Singapore → Japan → Boston → Dallas

2026 →

Senior Full Stack Engineer

Exeter Finance
Dallas/Fort Worth
.NET/.NET Core · C# · Web APIs · Microservices · SQL · EF Core · Angular · Azure · AI Copilot · Veracode · SonarQube
2023 — 2026

Senior Software Engineer

Parry Labs
Dallas/Fort Worth
Generative AI · C++ · FACE · MOSA · Java · Python · AI Automation · C4I · UAV UoPs
2025

Tech Lead / Full Stack Engineer

SchoolRideHub (Stealth Startup) · Part-time
Dallas/Fort Worth
.NET 10 · C# · Web APIs · SQL · EF Core · React · PostgreSQL · SignalR · Azure · GPS · PWA
2022 — 2023

Senior Specialist Software Engineer

L3Harris Technologies
Dallas/Fort Worth
Go · MATLAB · STK · FACE · MOSA · C++ · Java · SysML · CAMEO · MBSE · BEE
2019 — 2022

Software Engineer

Jack Henry & Associates
Dallas/Fort Worth
.NET/.NET Core · C# · Web APIs · SQL · EF Core · Angular · OAuth 2.0
2017 — 2019

Senior .NET Developer · Full Stack Engineer

CHIA (Boston) · Royce Global
Boston · Dallas
.NET · C# · Web APIs · SQL · EF Core · Angular
2017 — 2018

Senior Software Engineer

Selerix Systems
Dallas
.NET · C# · Vue.js · Benefits Administration Software
2015 — 2017

Software Engineer

Santander Consumer USA
Dallas, Texas
.NET · C# · Web APIs · WPF · WCF · MVC · SQL · EF Core · Microservices
2006 — 2009

Software Engineer

Yokogawa
Singapore · Japan
C# · XAML · XML · WPF · WCF · CentumVP DCS · APC WebHMI · SQL
2004 — 2006

Senior Software Engineer

Emerson Automation Solutions
Minnesota
Industrial automation platforms · C# · VC++ · COM+ · DeltaV · AMS
2001 — 2004

Supervising App Systems Consultant / TL

Fujitsu Philippines / WeServ Systems International
Philippines
Embedded VC++ · VB · XML · SymbianOS · Windows CE · Windows Mobile · SQL · Leadership
1997 — 2001

Programmer

Sygen
Philippines
COBOL · JCL · CICS · TSO · Easytrieve · Mainframe · Y2K · HTML · JavaScript · VB · Oracle8i · PL/SQL

Shipped

Products in production, not just prototypes.

SchoolRideHub

Tech Lead / Full Stack Engineer · Stealth Startup · 2025

Multi-tenant SaaS platform for K–12 transportation safety and operations. White-labeled, vendor-isolated, designed to scale across sectors beyond student transport. Real-time GPS tracking and live visualization. Full-stack architecture from backend APIs to responsive dashboards.

Building now

After hours. Hardware and code.

AI-Powered SDLC Agent Platform

AI agents that collaborate across the SDLC. Quality gates that reject bad work. Full audit trail. Human override when AI can't figure it out. My own platform, my own IP. Name reveal coming soon.

Drone

Flight control, telemetry logging, and device-agnostic abstraction. Python and C/C++ for embedded integration. Plug in any drone, same interface.

SDR

Signal monitoring, spectrum analysis, and RF observation. Python for prototyping, C/C++ for performance-critical signal processing. Receive-only for now.

AI chatbot

An AI-powered chatbot for this portfolio. Ask me anything about my experience. Coming soon.

Credentials

Post Graduate Program in Generative AI for Business Applications

UT Austin · McCombs + Great Learning

A++ distinction · GPA 4.22. Tokenizers, embeddings, attention, transformers, model evaluation, practical system design. View ePortfolio →

BS Computer Science

Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (University of the City of Manila)

Philippines. Where it all started.

Ansys STK Level 1 & 2

Ansys · Systems Tool Kit

Digital mission engineering and aerospace scenario modeling.

Microsoft Certified Professional

Microsoft · C#

Because sometimes the classics still matter. Verify on Credly →

Plot twist

Because code doesn't pay for itself. Oh wait, it does. But still.

Real estate investor

Currently closing · First rental property · 2026

Debugging code by day, analyzing cap rates by night. Currently in the process of closing on my first investment rental property. Same analytical brain, different spreadsheet. Wish me luck.

"I can architect a distributed system but the home inspection report still scares me."

TLDR; tech today

Quick takes on what's happening in the tech world. No fluff, just the interesting stuff.

Coming soon.

Short, opinionated takes on AI, defense tech, software engineering, and whatever else catches my attention. Think less "thought leadership" and more "ate mo na naman may opinion."

(your big sister has opinions again.)

Read the blog →

Personal note

Beyond the code, a little more about who I am and what keeps me going.

Above all, I'm grateful to God—for every blessing, every opportunity, and every day I get to keep building and learning.

My kids are my greatest blessings. They make me proud every single day—kind-hearted, intelligent, bright, and honestly more behaved than most codebases I've worked with. Being their mom is my greatest achievement, and so much of what I build is grounded in that love and purpose.

To my partner, thank you for always being there for me, for your patience, and for encouraging me to keep growing. Your push is a big part of why I explored AI and started seeing new possibilities in it.

This journey is not mine alone. It is shaped by faith, family, love, and the people who continue to believe in me.

Everything I build, I build for you.