CAREER.
Cesar Ardila · Head of Digital Product · Product Engineer
Medellín, Colombia · Open to remote
PROFILE
Self-taught engineer turned product leader with 25 years of shipping software — from freelance ERPs to co-founding a startup to leading the digital product organization at robot.com (formerly Kiwibot). Built from scratch the stack that runs an autonomous delivery-robot operation, grew the engineering team into elite performers per DORA metrics, and now leads the rollout of High-Level Autonomy: the brain that orchestrates every robot across all locations.
EXPERIENCE
robot.com (formerly Kiwibot)
Autonomous delivery robots operating across multiple cities and campuses.
Head of Digital Product
2024 – Present- Own the digital product stack that manages robot.com operations across all locations — architecture, roadmap, and delivery.
- Leading the deployment of High-Level Autonomy (HLA): the orchestration brain that decides where each robot goes, when, and what it does, powering the second semester of the operations launch.
- Brought product discipline into engineering: user observation and measurement now drive every product iteration.
- Coordinate integrations with new partners.
Software Engineering Manager
Mar 2022 – 2024- Designed and implemented, with the team, the real-time event-driven system that let operations scale sustainably.
- Hired, mentored, and consolidated the platforms, backend, DevOps, and QA teams — reaching elite-performer level per DORA metrics.
- Implemented DevOps best practices, including Kubernetes-based deployment tailored per service type, to speed up the development cycle.
Senior Full Stack Developer
Aug 2021 – Mar 2022- Created v1 of the main operations control platform and v1 of the real-time order-tracking system.
- Designed and implemented v2 of the automatic order-assignment algorithm.
- Optimized the two core services supporting the operation; introduced TypeScript and testing across all services and platforms.
Vaki
Latin American crowdfunding platform.
Senior Software Engineer
Feb 2021 – Aug 2021- Shipped new features for the platform and proposed product improvements that made it to production.
- Provided technical support to internal and external users.
Native
No-code app platform built with Flutter. Co-founder.
CEO / Developer
Jan 2019 – Feb 2021- Co-founded the company and built the entire platform from scratch.
- Signed 5 enterprise clients, including Indra and Biospifar; 100+ creators built apps on the platform.
- Iterated the product based on user research and sold it directly to companies.
- Platzi Demo Day semifinalist.
Independent / Freelance
Custom software for enterprise clients in Colombia.
Software Engineer & Consultant
2001 – 2019- Built a CMS in PHP (2001–2004) and a management platform for call and contact centers (2004–2007).
- Built an end-to-end ERP for the construction sector (2014–2019).
- Delivered projects for clients including Brightstar, Merck, Cruz Verde, and Biospifar.
SKILLS
CORE_STACK
LEADERSHIP
EDUCATION / LANGUAGES
- Self-taught — writing code since 1997.
- Continuous online education (Platzi and other platforms).
- Spanish (native)
- English (professional)
/// CONSULTING
Available for fractional CTO engagements and product engineering sprints.