Jazz Garcha
Senior Ruby on Rails/React engineer scaling, and modernizing.
Senior full-stack engineer with Rails, React, Elixir, APIs, and AI experience.
- Rails systems at multi-million request scale
- Architecture & long-term maintainability
- Calm execution in complex environments
Featured Blogs
Technical insights and real world learnings
Running Multiple AI Agents on the Same Repo with Git Worktrees
How git worktrees give each AI agent its own branch and directory, eliminating the file conflicts and clobbered state that happen when two agents share a working tree.
Rails Upgrade Series: From Rails 4.2 to Rails 8.0
A complete guide to upgrading a legacy Rails application from version 4.2 to 8.0, covering test infrastructure, Zeitwerk migration, gem compatibility, and lessons learned across 8 phases.
How I Built an AI Agent to Automatically Write My Engineering Blog Posts
Here's how I built an AI-driven workflow to automatically generate developer documentation without interrupting coding flow.
Engineering Philosophy
How I approach building software
Systems Over Tickets
I think in systems, not isolated features. Every change is an opportunity to improve the whole, not just close a ticket. Understanding how pieces connect leads to better decisions.
Clarity From Ambiguity
Many projects fail from unclear requirements, not technical challenges. I turn fuzzy problems into clear plans that teams can execute against.
Trade-offs Over Perfection
Perfect is the enemy of shipped. I make explicit trade-offs, document them, and move forward. The goal is the right solution for now, not an imaginary ideal.
Maintainability
Code is read far more than it's written. I optimize for the team that will maintain this code in six months. Which is often future me.
Reliability & Observability
If it's not observable, it's not reliable. I build systems that tell you when something is wrong before users notice, with clear paths to diagnosis.
Economic Thinking
Engineering is about allocating limited resources over time, attention, and compute. I weigh effort against value and choose the path that maximizes impact.
Core Experience
Full-stack depth across Rails, React, and beyond
Rails, Elixir & Backend at Scale
- • Ruby on Rails applications handling millions of daily requests
- • Elixir and Phoenix for concurrent, fault-tolerant systems
- • ActiveRecord mastery: complex queries, eager loading, N+1 prevention
- • Background jobs with Sidekiq, performance tuning
- • Memory leak diagnosis and production debugging
- • API design and long-lived integrations with external services
React & Frontend
- • ReactJS applications with Classes and Hooks
- • State management with MobX, Redux, and Apollo/GraphQL
- • Phoenix LiveView for real-time interfaces
- • Responsive design and component architecture
- • Full-stack feature development from UI to database
Architecture & Systems Design
- • Greenfield system design with technical leadership
- • Evolving monoliths into cleaner modular boundaries
- • Schema design, migrations at scale, backward compatible changes
- • Reducing operational risk while shipping features
- • Service extraction when (and only when) it makes sense
Data & SQL
- • PostgreSQL schema design, indexing strategies, query planning
- • Query optimization: from explain analyze to materialized views
- • Data integrity through constraints, validations, and careful modeling
- • Understanding how data models affect performance and product flexibility
- • Reporting and analytics query design
Quality & Reliability (QA Roots)
- • QA background influencing every engineering decision
- • Testability as a design concern, not an afterthought
- • Edge cases, failure modes, and observability built in
- • RSpec, integration testing, and continuous integration
- • Fewer incidents, faster recovery when things go wrong
How I Add Value
What you get when we work together
Reduce Operational Risk
Systems that don't wake you up at 3am. Proactive monitoring, graceful degradation, and fewer surprises in production.
Easier Future Changes
Code that's easy to understand and modify six months from now. Good abstractions, clear boundaries, minimal tech debt.
Predictable Delivery
Teams that ship on schedule. Clear planning, realistic estimates, and steady progress instead of last-minute heroics.
Calm & Clarity
A steady presence in complex situations. Clear thinking when things get messy, and a focus on solutions over blame.
Work Experience
Professional history and accomplishments
ProspectWise
Senior Software EngineerJune 2019 – Present · 7+ years
- • Own day-to-day technical and product operations for a licensed Ruby on Rails app, while consulting the CTO on major architecture and infrastructure, resulting in smoother operations and quicker decisions.
- • Serve as the main contact for the company’s primary customer, handling production support, feature requests, and delivery priorities, then turning those requests into technical plans and production features.
- • Designed and built an idempotent daily sync that imports and updates third-party reviews for 25,000 customer accounts while preventing duplicates and tracking data completeness.
- • Scaled the platform from roughly 8,000 to 25,000 customer accounts, supporting growth to five million requests per day.
- • Maintain p95 response times below 90 ms across six application servers, keeping the application responsive and stable during peak business hours.
- • Moved resource-heavy reporting and automated smoke tests to AWS Lambda, reducing load on the main Rails application.
- • Led the application upgrade from Rails 4 to Rails 8 while continuing regular feature delivery.
- • Added New Relic monitoring to identify bottlenecks, optimize queries, and track production performance.
- • Replaced Amplitude with PostHog after investigating bot traffic and testing application-level IP filtering.
- • Built a self-hosted sentiment analysis service using Ollama and Llama, keeping customer data private while identifying issues and recommended actions from customer reviews.
ProspectWise
Software EngineerJan 2017 – June 2019 · 2.5 years
- • Built features with APIs and a React frontend using Apollo and GraphQL, delivering features that automated manual workflows.
- • Improved application reliability by identifying performance bottlenecks, resolving production issues, and reducing failures.
- • Replaced ActiveRecord queries with SQL, improving application performance.
- • Adopted agile best practices and delivered iterative features and API implementations.
CapLinked
QA to Web DeveloperNov 2013 – Dec 2016 · 3 years
- • Implemented new features and resolved bugs in Ruby on Rails web app on a small agile team, improving user experience and system stability.
- • Implemented core API (Ruby Grape) including the CapLinked API gem.
- • Added RSpec and Cucumber tests, reviewed code, and helped maintain consistent development practices.
- • Conducted code reviews to ensure adherence to best practices and maintain code quality.
- • Interviewed, hired, and mentored a junior QA analyst, strengthening team capabilities.
- • Checking Automated Tests - Cucumber, RSpec, writing Gherkin.
- • Test planning, manual, White Box, Grey Box testing.
Leadership & Collaboration
Impact beyond individual contribution
Leading Large Initiatives
Breaking complex projects into executable phases. Setting milestones, identifying risks, and keeping teams aligned on outcomes.
Cross Functional Partnership
Working with PMs and stakeholders on fuzzy or risky work. Translating business needs into technical requirements and vice versa.
Mentoring Junior Developers
Volunteering personal time to help aspiring developers grow through code review, pairing sessions, and guidance on their learning journey.
Setting Technical Standards
Raising the bar through example. Establishing patterns, documenting decisions, and building shared understanding of quality.
Clear Written Communication
Remote work demands clarity. RFCs, technical documentation, and async updates that keep everyone informed and aligned.
Unblocking Others
The most valuable work often isn't code. It's removing obstacles, clarifying requirements, and helping teammates move forward.
Tools & Stack
Technologies I work with daily
Languages
Frameworks
Data & APIs
Infrastructure
AI & Tooling
Practices
Education & Certifications
Continuous learning and formal training
Elixir Web Developer
DockYard Academy
Meta Back-End Developer Specialization
Coursera
Meta Database Engineer Specialization
Coursera
Back-End Web Development
General Assembly
Front-End Web Development
General Assembly
Bachelor of Science, Business Marketing
California State University, Northridge
Let's Connect
Open to senior and principal engineering roles. Remote-friendly.
Based in Los Angeles, CA.