I build software shaped by years of understanding people.

I'm Raphael, a software engineer based in Portugal. My path ran through music, community building, and marketing before landing in code — and that background defines how I build.

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My journey

My background is unconventional. I studied music at the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil) and have spent the last 13 years practising and teaching sound healing — work I still do today. I trained practitioners in the Peter Hess method across Europe, built an online community of over 40,000 people from scratch, and learned early on that understanding people is a craft in itself.

The pandemic pushed me to understand the mechanics behind that community. I went deep into digital marketing, copywriting, product development, and storytelling. That led naturally to automation — WhatsApp APIs, ManyChat flows, AI agents, custom pipelines. I was building systems long before I wrote my first line of code.

That technical foundation eventually pulled me into programming itself. Under the mentorship of a senior German engineer, I moved from building my own apps to a hands-on engineering experience at Resonance Labs — going progressively deeper into full-stack development, system architecture, and AI-powered workflows. Today I build software with a decade of human insight baked into every technical decision.

Experience

AI Automation Engineer — Ressonance Labs

Lisbon, Portugal (remote) · Mar 2025 – Feb 2026

Led the build of a database and automation system that consolidated supplier catalogs, client requests, and quote generation into a single platform, with pipelines that detect information gaps and trigger follow-ups automatically. The client, a Lisbon renovation company previously limited to 3 or 4 projects at a time by manual coordination, doubled capacity with no increase in headcount.

Independent Developer, AI Automation — Freelance

Portugal / remote · Mid 2023 – Present

Design and build AI agents and automation that solve operational bottlenecks for local businesses and international clients: voice agents that handle inbound calls 24/7 in multiple languages and qualify leads end-to-end, WhatsApp agents for prospecting and booking confirmation, and data-extraction pipelines that remove manual document entry for construction and property-management teams.

Technical Collaboration — Podkite Analytics Limited

London, UK (remote) · Oct 2024 – Feb 2025

Integrated APIs and synced podcast download, chart-ranking, and search-performance data across the platform.

Why work with me?

  • —I understand why products succeed or fail before they're built — I've launched, marketed, and iterated from the user's side.
  • —I connect business goals to working code without losing the original intent along the way.
  • —My automation background means I think in systems: I build things that run on their own.
  • —I communicate clearly. No jargon, no surprises.

When I'm not writing code, you'll find me surfing the waves in Peniche or running a sound healing session. Both keep me grounded in the same thing that drives my work: presence, intention, and the way energy moves through a system. A bit more about me →

Have a project in mind?

From an initial conversation to full-cycle development, I offer a transparent and realistic path to getting your idea built. Send me an email →