Leuven, Belgium

Álvaro González Sánchez

Backend & Data Engineer · Python · AWS · Docker

About

Backend developer with a strong background in Python, API development, and cloud-based data architectures. Experienced in building scalable backend applications, processing time series data, and automating complex workflows. Combines software engineering with an analytical engineering mindset and years of experience in modelling and data-intensive projects. Driven to build robust, secure, and performant systems within a dynamic, fast-growing environment.

Skills

Backend & Dev

Python FastAPI Flask Java Spring Boot REST APIs ETL Pipelines OOP TDD Git CI/CD Scrum

Cloud & DevOps

AWS Lambda API Gateway DynamoDB Aurora Serverless Step Functions EventBridge Secrets Manager CloudWatch SNS CloudFormation Terraform Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Nginx GitHub Actions Cloudflare

Data Engineering

PostgreSQL MySQL MongoDB PySpark Pandas NumPy Scikit-learn Apache Airflow Power BI Tableau

Languages

Spanish · Native English · C1 Dutch · C1 German · A2 French · A2

Experience

08/2025 – Present

Python Developer & Data Engineer

Self-employed

  • · Deepening knowledge in Python, data engineering and cloud architectures through personal projects and training.
  • · Development of the IoT Monitoring Platform (see Projects).

02/2025 – 07/2025

Freelance Data Engineer

Self-employed — Peru & Bolivia

  • · Data analysis and software development for projects in South America (environmental and water sector).
  • · Processing and analysis of discrete and continuous datasets using Python.

03/2023 – 01/2025

Programmer

Link / Manage Count-e — Leuven

  • · Backend development and maintenance of a school management system with a complex relational database (350+ tables).
  • · Automation of administrative business processes in collaboration with multidisciplinary teams.

2022

Ground & Surface Water Advisor

Anteagroup

  • · Analysis of hydrological data and modelling of groundwater flows
  • · Spatial analyses and reporting using ArcGIS Pro and QGIS
  • · Advisory reports for policymakers on water management

2013 – 2019

Researcher – Hydrodynamic Modelling

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

  • · Research on flow dynamics in the Zeeschelde estuary
  • · Development of hydrodynamic models in Fortran

Projects

IoT Monitoring Platform

A growing platform covering all layers of a real IoT system — from real-time sensor ingestion to behavioral analytics. Built around a conference room monitoring use case (temperature, humidity, occupancy, motion), with a deliberate focus on clean architecture, infrastructure as code, and engineering practices that hold up in production. 215 tests across three projects, 80%+ coverage enforced on every push via GitHub Actions.

Project 1a

Serverless Ingestion

Serverless REST API for real-time sensor event ingestion with threshold-based anomaly detection. Clean layered architecture (models → services → repositories). Full infrastructure as code with CloudFormation. Deployed to AWS via CI/CD.

Python AWS Lambda API Gateway DynamoDB CloudFormation

Project 1b

Containerised Ingestion

Same domain logic as 1a, redeployed as a containerised FastAPI app — demonstrating separation of business logic from infrastructure. Live on a home server via Docker Compose + Cloudflare tunnel. React dashboard with 30s auto-refresh.

Python FastAPI Docker nginx React

Project 2a

Behavior Analyzer

Serverless ETL pipeline: extracts historical sensor data from DynamoDB, detects occupancy schedules, temperature trends and anomalies, stores results in Aurora Serverless v2 (PostgreSQL). Full Terraform infrastructure. Runs on-demand to minimise costs.

Python Step Functions Aurora Serverless Terraform EventBridge
On-demand · AWS

Education & Certifications

MSc Water Resources Engineering

KU Leuven · 2009 · Magna cum laude

Enterprise Java Developer

VDAB · 2022

Intro to CS & Programming – Python

MITx

Computational Thinking & Data Science

MITx

Introduction to Data Science with Python

HarvardX

Developing Apps in Python on AWS

AWS

Containers, Kubernetes & OpenShift

IBM

Python for Data Engineering

IBM

Complete ArcGIS Pro Mastery

Esri

Full list on LinkedIn.