Full Stack Developer & AI Engineer

Hi, I'mMauricio Pastora

Professional developer portfolio featuring my projects, technical skills, certifications, and professional experience. Built with Next.js, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS, deployed on AWS infrastructure.

Available for opportunities

I craft exceptional digital experiences with code, creativity, and a passion for innovation. Specializing in full-stack development and AI integration.

Location
Washington, D.C.
Focus
Full Stack & AI
My background and journey

About Me

I'm a passionate full-stack developer with experience building web applications and AI-powered digital products. I specialize in React, Next.js, and Python, with extensive experience in AWS cloud infrastructure.

My journey in tech is driven by a strong foundation in software development and a curiosity for emerging technologies. I've worked on projects ranging from internal company directories to AI-powered platforms.

When I'm not coding, you can find me exploring new AI technologies, contributing to open-source projects, and staying up-to-date with the latest industry trends.

Name
Mauricio Ignacio Pastora
Email
Contact via form
Location
Washington, D.C.
Availability
Open to opportunities
Mauricio Pastora

Full Stack Developer

Building the future, one line of code at a time

Available for work
Some of my recent work

Featured Projects

Internal Company Directory

Internal Company Directory

Internal directory built for the Inter-American Institute on Justice and Sustainability to track and manage employee, client, subcontractor, and any other contact information. Allows for easy search and filtering of contacts by name, email, phone, organization, country, organization type, and sector. Users can also add, edit, and delete contacts, organizations, organization types, and sectors as well as view contact details and export filtered contact list to a CSV file.

ReactViteFlaskPythonPostgreSQLAWSRDSS3 BucketCloudFrontRoute 53EC2CognitoVPCSubnetsLambdaSecurity Groups

Project Architecture

AWS Infrastructure:
The application leverages AWS services for scalability and security. The React frontend is hosted in an S3 bucket and delivered globally via CloudFront, with Route 53 managing DNS. The backend runs on an EC2 instance inside a VPC, connected to an RDS PostgreSQL database. Security Groups enforce strict firewall rules, and Cognito manages user authentication. A Pre-Signup Lambda trigger validates email domains (blocking disposable or unauthorized domains) and logs actions to CloudWatch. This setup provides a secure, high-performance foundation with managed hosting and authentication. Frontend
Frontend Architecture:
The frontend is built with React and TypeScript, using Vite for fast builds and SWR for efficient data fetching. A component-based design with TailwindCSS ensures reusable, responsive UI elements. State is managed via React Hooks and the Context API, including an authentication context tied to Cognito. This architecture delivers a performant and adaptive interface with seamless user session handling.
Backend Architecture:
The backend uses Flask with a RESTful API backed by PostgreSQL via SQLAlchemy. It follows clean REST principles, returning JSON responses with proper status codes. Authentication relies on Cognito-issued JWT tokens, reducing the need for custom auth logic. SQLAlchemy's parameterized queries and input normalization protect against SQL injection, while the modular design simplifies database interactions and scaling.
Deployment Pipeline:
CI/CD is powered by GitHub Actions, automating builds and deployments. Frontend changes are built with Vite and synced to S3, followed by CloudFront cache invalidation. Backend updates are deployed to EC2 via SSH with automatic dependency installation and service restarts. Environment variables and GitHub Secrets manage sensitive configurations for dev, staging, and production environments. Security Features: All traffic runs over HTTPS with SSL certificates from AWS Certificate Manager. The RDS database is in a private subnet, and Security Groups restrict inbound access. CORS is configured on the Flask API to allow the frontend domain while blocking unauthorized origins. Cognito secures authentication and session management, while SQLAlchemy and input sanitization mitigate injection risks. Sensitive credentials are stored securely in AWS and GitHub Secrets.
Beltway Bits | Vinely.AI

Beltway Bits | Vinely.AI

An AI-powered, community-driven platform for sharing and discussing the latest events and news regarding the tech scene in the Washington, D.C. area.

ReactCheerioAWS BedrockS3 BucketLambdaOpenAIAnthropicMCP ServerExpressRAG ApplicationS3 Vector BucketBedrock Knowledge BaseDynamoDBAWS ComprehendAWS Textract

Contributions to the project

R&D:
Research and Development of the platform included the implementation of different AWS services and tools to replace the current vectorization pipeline. This led me to develop an infrastructure that included the use of AWS Comprehend and textract for extraction of text, AWS Bedrock for chunking, AWS Titan V2 for vector embeddings, and DynamoDB for storing the metadata of the chunks to avoid revectorization of the same chunks.
Features:
Built and implemented a scraper to extract the raw text content from a webpage.
MCP Server:
Developed and tested several different MCP tools to assist in the development of the platform.
Pandio.AI

Pandio.AI

An AI-powered web browser currently in development

ElectronReactTypeScriptViteTailwindCSSOpenAIGPT-3.5-turboreact-rnd

Project Architecture

Frontend Architecture:
The renderer is built with React 19 and TypeScript, using Vite for fast HMR development builds. A component-based design leverages TailwindCSS for a dark-themed, responsive interface. State management uses React Hooks exclusively—including custom hooks like useChat and usePandioSidebar for encapsulated state logic. The layout features a collapsible sidebar (SidebarProvider context) and a resizable/draggable AI chat panel powered by react-rnd for flexible positioning.
Browser Core:
The webview-based browser engine provides full navigation controls (back, forward, refresh, home) with intelligent URL handling—automatically prefixing https:// for domain-like inputs or redirecting plain text to Google search. Navigation events are intercepted to keep the URL bar synchronized with the actual webview state.
AI Chat Integration:
The integrated Pandio Chat component connects directly to OpenAI's GPT-3.5-turbo API via the Chat Completions endpoint. API keys are securely managed through Vite environment variables. The chat supports two display modes: a fixed sidebar (300px width, docked right) and a floating modal (draggable, resizable, 300-800px). Conversation state is managed locally with React state, featuring loading indicators and auto-scroll to the latest message.
Technologies I work with

Tech Stack

Frontend

ReactNext.jsTypeScriptTailwindCSSElectron

Backend

PythonPostgreSQLSQLite3SupabaseElectron

DevOps

AWSCI/CDGitNginx

Tools

VS CodeGitHubVite

AI

OpenAI SDKAnthropic SDKModel Context Protocol (MCP)Bedrock Knowledge BaseAWS ComprehendAWS TextractAWS BedrockAWS Titan V2S3 Vector Bucket
My professional journey

Work Experience

Software Engineer

Vertex Labs | February 2025 - Present
  • Applied algorithmic optimization and efficient data structure design using AWS Lambda, DynamoDB, and vector databases to eliminate redundant embeddings and reprocessing, reducing storage costs by 50% and improving retrieval performance.
  • Developed client-facing AI tools that synchronize frontend queries with MCP servers and vector databases, implementing structured data parsing and comparison logic to deliver accurate, low-latency user interactions.
  • Built and deployed multiple MCP tools integrated into the Vinely.ai platform, enabling modular, reusable AI capabilities across workflows.
  • Integrated advanced features including web scraping pipelines and secure third-party API authentication, enhancing platform functionality and data ingestion reliability.
  • Collaborated within an agile engineering team, participating in code reviews, debugging, automated testing, and iterative feature delivery to maintain production quality standards.

Software Engineer

Client: IIJS | February 2025 - Present
  • Architected and delivered a production React and TypeScript application backed by Python and Flask APIs, supporting real-time data visualization and analytics.
  • Designed secure, scalable AWS infrastructure (EC2, RDS PostgreSQL, S3, Lambda, Cognito, CloudFront) with best practices IAM roles and policies, supporting deployment, monitoring, and ongoing system support.
  • Built CI/CD pipelines to automate testing and deployment, improving software quality and release reliability.
  • Worked closely with stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical designs and implemented solutions.

Software Engineer

Arborea | June 2025 - Present
  • Leading the ongoing implementation of full-stack features, including building dynamic Next.js pages and components (e.g., a responsive map interface using the Google Maps API), secure authentication, and user profile management, and designing scalable SQL/DDL schemas to ship production enhancements on rapid release cycles.
  • Engaging in ongoing client meetings to define and prioritize MVP features, actively translating non-technical business needs into actionable technical deliverables, maintaining rapid feature implementation.
  • Collaborating with a development team for version control, code reviews, and seamless integration of contributions.

Business Dev. Associate

Inter-American Institute on Justice and Sustainability | September 2023 - February 2025
  • Leveraged Agile methodology and cloud-based systems during development alongside Python, SQLite, Tkinter, and front-end design, to build a data warehouse business solution that streamlined access to client and expert data, cutting retrieval time by 70%.
  • Managed comprehensive IT operations, including onboarding subcontractors, configuring IAM roles and policies, and collaborating closely with senior leadership to align IT solutions with organizational goals.
  • Spearheaded marketing campaigns using analytics from social media, external communications, and website management, increasing digital engagement metrics by 30%.
Professional credentials

Certifications

AWS Certified AI Practitioner certificate

AWS Certified AI Practitioner

Amazon Web Services Training and Certification

Issued:July 23, 2025
Expires:January 15, 2028
CS50x: CS50's Introduction to Computer Science certificate

CS50x: CS50's Introduction to Computer Science

Harvard CS50

Issued:January 27, 2025
No expiration
Responsive Web Design certificate

Responsive Web Design

freeCodeCamp

Issued:February 6, 2023
No expiration
Let's work together

Get In Touch

Contact Information

Current Status

Available for freelance work and full-time opportunities

Send Me a Message