{
  "headline": "Software Engineer · Product Engineer · Digital Marketing Strategist",
  "summary": "Over 25 years in software engineering and digital marketing, building scalable SaaS platforms and leading cross-functional teams. In recent years I've focused on AI and machine learning — generative AI, LLMs, vector databases, embedding models, and the full RAG pipeline — applied in production SaaS across fraud prevention, identity verification, and content generation.",
  "contact": {
    "phone": "561-460-0660",
    "email": "hi@carlosarias.com",
    "site": "carlosarias.co"
  },
  "social": [
    {
      "label": "LinkedIn",
      "handle": "@hicarlosarias",
      "href": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/hicarlosarias/",
      "icon": "linkedin"
    },
    {
      "label": "X",
      "handle": "@hicarlosarias",
      "href": "https://x.com/hicarlosarias",
      "icon": "x"
    },
    {
      "label": "Instagram",
      "handle": "@carlosarias.co",
      "href": "https://instagram.com/carlosarias.co",
      "icon": "instagram"
    },
    {
      "label": "YouTube",
      "handle": "@hiCarlosArias",
      "href": "https://www.youtube.com/@hiCarlosArias",
      "icon": "youtube"
    }
  ],
  "highlights": [
    {
      "title": "Focus",
      "description": "Agentic AI and automation — multi-agent systems that research, plan, build, and optimise with minimal human intervention."
    },
    {
      "title": "Industries",
      "description": "FinTech since 2014 · healthcare · SaaS · legal · geospatial. Security and compliance as a default: HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI."
    },
    {
      "title": "Track record",
      "description": "Grew a credit-reporting SaaS past $1M ARR · manages $1M+ in annual ad spend · 200+ pages ranked for Medellin.co."
    }
  ],
  "experience": [
    {
      "role": "Digital Marketing Strategist & Engineer",
      "org": "CarlosArias & Co",
      "sector": "Independent",
      "period": "Jul 1999 — Present",
      "current": true,
      "summary": "Fractional marketing director for law firms across personal injury, family law, bankruptcy, and tax resolution. Full-funnel strategy — SEO, PPC, Google Business Profile, local service pages, LSA, conversion tracking, and OTT. Current focus is generative SEO, AI integration, and scalable marketing frameworks that improve organic case acquisition.",
      "points": [
        "SEO strategy and content built to rank in AI engines, not just search engines",
        "Manages over $1M in PPC campaigns with partners including DrivenLeads and WordStream",
        "Link building, digital PR, and directory strategy executed through overseas teams",
        "Analytics and Search Console instrumentation for end-to-end attribution",
        "Tooling: CallRail, Swydo, n8n, SEMrush, Ahrefs, ClickUp, Notion"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "Digital Marketing Director & SEO Specialist",
      "org": "CreditGuard of America",
      "sector": "Debt consolidation",
      "period": "Jan 2022 — Jan 2025",
      "summary": "Inherited the marketing function for CreditGuard, sister company to GNUSA. Built the strategy to generate leads, rebuild the site and landing pages, and drive calls into the call centre.",
      "points": [
        "Increased organic traffic 35% and improved lead generation",
        "Lowered CPA by 70% and increased lead conversion by 30%",
        "Email programme reaching up to 70% open rate",
        "Built the affiliate marketing programme from scratch",
        "Ran PPC across Google, Bing, and Meta in synergy with SEO"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "Lead Software Engineer II",
      "org": "GNUSA",
      "sector": "FinTech",
      "period": "Jun 2016 — Jan 2022",
      "summary": "Brought on to build a SaaS platform and maintain legacy systems. Took the credit-reporting SaaS concept from MVP through product launch and growth.",
      "points": [
        "Architected and engineered the GNUSA credit-reporting SaaS platform",
        "Grew the platform past $1M ARR",
        "Integrated Equifax and TransUnion credit bureaus",
        "Database administration: security, ERD design, restoration, and compliance",
        "Led overseas development teams and coordinated feature delivery"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "Chief Technology Officer (Fractional)",
      "org": "GypsyNurse",
      "sector": "Nursing staffing",
      "period": "Jun 2016 — Jan 2017",
      "summary": "Part-time CTO taking over development of a new platform, managing the overseas team and keeping technology aligned to the business vision.",
      "points": [
        "Owned delivery of the platform on time and on budget",
        "Third-party API and payment gateway integration",
        "Reported status and budget to shareholders",
        "Led and coordinated the overseas engineering team"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "Chief Technology Officer (Fractional)",
      "org": "HealthCareForYou",
      "sector": "Health insurance",
      "period": "Jun 2014 — Jan 2017",
      "summary": "Part-time CTO moving an insurance business from a traditional process to digital sales, and aligning it with Healthcare.gov to be first to market with online healthcare signups.",
      "points": [
        "Integrated the business with Healthcare.gov / ACA enrolment",
        "First to market in their segment with online healthcare signup",
        "Database security, ERD design, and compliance",
        "Led overseas development teams"
      ]
    },
    {
      "role": "SEO Specialist & Sr. Full-Stack Developer",
      "org": "TouchSuite",
      "sector": "Payments",
      "period": "Jun 2011 — Aug 2014",
      "summary": "Hired to build the SEO and web development department from nothing, and to move the company from traditional sales into digital.",
      "points": [
        "Built and led the web development and SEO departments",
        "Digitised the sales process by integrating Equifax and DocuSign into signup",
        "Hired and managed both SEO and engineering teams",
        "Raised conversion through high-intent landing pages and SEO"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "projects": [
    {
      "name": "Medellin.co",
      "kind": "SaaS / Media",
      "period": "Since Oct 2022",
      "summary": "The largest resource hub for Medellín, Colombia — used by locals, expats, and tourists. Acquired the domain from its previous owner after the city released it.",
      "points": [
        "200+ pages optimised, roughly 70% ranking on page one",
        "Domain authority grown from 10 to 30",
        "Chatbot on OpenAI LLM with Zilliz vector DB and OpenAI embeddings",
        "Custom PHP integrating directly with TikTok and Instagram",
        "Direct integration with law enforcement for filing criminal reports",
        "Stripe checkout for advertisers"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Verificaa.com",
      "kind": "SaaS",
      "period": "Since Jun 2021",
      "summary": "ID verification and fraud prevention for Latin America, letting people verify businesses and individuals before doing business with them. The platform has helped save two lives and prevented losses for numerous businesses.",
      "points": [
        "AI and LLM-driven fraud detection infrastructure",
        "Integrations with police, attorney general, and business databases",
        "Data-mining pipeline that crawls and normalises open Colombian and LATAM data",
        "REST API with API key management",
        "Custom PHP dashboard with complex user management"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Snoopi.io",
      "kind": "SaaS",
      "period": "Since Mar 2015",
      "summary": "GeoIP location and IP fraud prevention. Started as a way to learn PHP OOP and build a REST API; ten years later, rebuilt with a modern dashboard and AI analysis on the roadmap.",
      "points": [
        "Real-time tracking script for sites and landing pages",
        "GeoIP-driven landing page optimisation with AI",
        "Custom dashboard, invoice and subscription management",
        "Stripe integration with a custom card form"
      ]
    },
    {
      "name": "Crypto AI Trading Bot",
      "kind": "Private",
      "period": "Since Mar 2022",
      "summary": "A personal bot that follows a defined trading strategy, since upgraded to bring AI into the decision loop.",
      "points": [
        "Binance integration, moving to Bitfinex",
        "Real-time charting with custom buy/sell algorithms",
        "LLM monitoring of market conditions"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "skills": [
    {
      "group": "Engineering",
      "items": [
        {
          "name": "Polyglot programming",
          "years": 25
        },
        {
          "name": ".NET, ASP, PHP, Java, Python, Bash",
          "years": 25
        },
        {
          "name": "Database design & architecture",
          "years": 20
        },
        {
          "name": "API integration",
          "years": 20
        },
        {
          "name": "Cloud architecture (Vultr, AWS)",
          "years": 10
        },
        {
          "name": "Cybersecurity & data protection",
          "years": 10
        },
        {
          "name": "Linux administration (L1–L2)",
          "years": 10
        },
        {
          "name": "React, TypeScript, JavaScript",
          "years": 7
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "group": "AI",
      "items": [
        {
          "name": "OpenAI, Mistral, Anthropic, Llama",
          "years": 3
        },
        {
          "name": "LLM integration & prompting",
          "years": 2
        },
        {
          "name": "RAG, vector DBs, embeddings",
          "years": 2
        },
        {
          "name": "Agentic systems & orchestration",
          "years": 2
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "group": "Marketing",
      "items": [
        {
          "name": "Search engine optimisation",
          "years": 25
        },
        {
          "name": "Graphic design",
          "years": 25
        },
        {
          "name": "Digital marketing",
          "years": 20
        },
        {
          "name": "Traditional marketing",
          "years": 20
        },
        {
          "name": "Digital marketing strategy",
          "years": 15
        },
        {
          "name": "PPC — Google, Bing, Meta",
          "years": 15
        },
        {
          "name": "UX & usability",
          "years": 10
        },
        {
          "name": "Social media strategy",
          "years": 5
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "group": "Leadership",
      "items": [
        {
          "name": "Technical team leadership"
        },
        {
          "name": "Hiring & team development"
        },
        {
          "name": "Project management"
        },
        {
          "name": "SaaS launch strategy"
        },
        {
          "name": "Project & department budgeting"
        },
        {
          "name": "Agile & Scrum"
        },
        {
          "name": "Technology & business alignment"
        },
        {
          "name": "Product engineering"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "tools": [
    "Google Analytics",
    "Looker Studio",
    "Search Console",
    "Ahrefs",
    "SEMrush",
    "Google Ads",
    "Bing Ads",
    "Meta Business",
    "WooCommerce",
    "Magento",
    "Zoho CRM",
    "Salesforce",
    "HubSpot",
    "Brevo",
    "SendGrid",
    "Adobe Suite",
    "Figma",
    "Sketch",
    "Canva",
    "CapCut",
    "Trello",
    "Asana",
    "Jira",
    "WordPress",
    "Stripe",
    "Authorize.Net",
    "n8n"
  ],
  "education": [
    {
      "title": "BA, Computer Information Systems & Marketing",
      "org": "DeVry University",
      "period": "Graduated May 2004"
    },
    {
      "title": "MIT Management — Blockchain",
      "org": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology",
      "period": "Feb — Mar 2022"
    }
  ],
  "certifications": [
    {
      "title": "Google Ads Certification",
      "period": "Jan 2024"
    },
    {
      "title": "Magento 2.0 Certified",
      "period": "Mar 2022"
    }
  ]
}
