Lara W.

Software Engineer

South Africa0 mo experience

AI EnabledAI ML Practitioner

Key Highlights

Expert in full-stack product engineering and DevOps automation.
Proven track record in building cohesive software systems.
Experienced technical educator with a focus on programming and AI.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Full-Stack Engineer with expertise in AI and IoT solutions.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Full-stack DevelopmentDevopsTeaching

Other Skills

Custom Software DevelopmentReact.jsPythonNode.jsAPIsDockerLinuxOpen-sourceVoice AIIoTOpenCVHardware IntegrationTechnical TrainingRoboticsBlockchain

About

I build end-to-end product software for startups, consultancies, and education teams—bringing together APIs, cloud services, hardware, and open-source components into cohesive, maintainable systems with intuitive UX. I work directly with stakeholders to clarify requirements, demo progress, and explain technical trade-offs in plain language. I typically own delivery from first discussion through architecture and implementation to testing, deployment support, and iteration, with a strong focus on automation, reliability, and quality. My scope has expanded from early web delivery and CMS customization into full-stack product engineering across web, mobile, APIs, DevOps, and voice AI.

Experience

0 mo

Total Experience

Average Tenure

Current Experience

Contractor

Software Engineer

Aug 2013 – Present · 12 yrs 9 mos · Worldwide · Remote

Building and delivering end-to-end web, mobile, and platform software for startups, consultancies, and education teams (web apps, integrations, dashboards, and UX-focused delivery).
Owning delivery from scope clarification through architecture, implementation, testing, deployment support, and iteration; comfortable working across front end, APIs, and operational tooling.
Full-stack product engineering with React, Node/Express, and Python; integrating third-party services and designing maintainable APIs and data flows.
DevOps automation and Linux operations: VPS provisioning, NGINX, Docker, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), deployments, and reliability improvements.
Open-source voice AI: building and maintaining wakeword detection and speaker recognition tooling (enrollment/management UI + local API server; PyPI package with optional NPM client).
IoT/edge prototypes and hardware integrations (e.g., Raspberry Pi / Arduino / Jetson Nano, sensors, OpenCV) for real-world workflows.
Technical educator/SME: designing, reviewing, and improving programming and AI-adjacent learning content and assessments; building automated validation/grading harnesses and recording instructional demos.
Earlier-career foundation: web/CMS delivery and modernization on Linux hosting (WordPress/Joomla), including plugin-level customization, migrations, and production maintenance.