Erik Rodriguez

Summary

I work on software behind critical banking workflows. Today I work at Banco do Brasil on services around the bank-wide credit limit platform and on modernization efforts that move business flows from the mainframe into cloud infrastructure. The work is integration-heavy and operationally serious: sensitive data, transactional behavior, production support, and reliability requirements that do not reward ambiguity.

More recently, that work has also included applied AI inside engineering delivery: designing agents and skills, evaluating RAG patterns, building Java integrations with LangChain4j, and helping colleagues learn where these tools are actually worth using.

My route into software came through mechanical engineering and computational mechanics. That background still shows up in how I work: clear models, explicit assumptions, and a bias for evidence over hand-waving.

The human side matters just as much to me. I like working in teams, bringing clarity to messy problems, helping colleagues stay motivated, and making calm decisions about priorities when everything looks urgent at once.

Experience

Banco do Brasil - Software Engineer and Analyst

October 2023 - present, Brasilia, Brazil, Hybrid

• Build and operate Java and Quarkus microservices for critical transactional flows in the bank-wide credit limit system.
• Work across REST APIs, gRPC, Kafka, JPA, Hibernate, Panache, and JDBC, with integrations spanning Oracle DB, DB2, PostgreSQL, Redis, and Apache Hive.
• Deliver services on Kubernetes and OpenShift, with Jenkins-based pipelines and production monitoring through AppDynamics, Grafana, and Prometheus.
• Participate in releases and operational support for high-priority production moments, where correctness, rollback strategy, and recoverability matter as much as feature delivery.
• Contribute to mainframe-to-cloud modernization initiatives, moving business capabilities out of COBOL-based environments without losing operational discipline.
• Explore practical AI use inside software engineering workflows, including agent and skill creation, LangChain4j-based integrations, and retrieval-augmented patterns for knowledge-heavy tasks.
• Help colleagues adopt AI tools through pairing, internal knowledge sharing, and hands-on examples that keep the discussion grounded in delivery and operational reality.
• Strengthen team effectiveness through code review, mentoring, clear technical communication, and practical judgment about priorities during delivery and incidents.

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) - M.Sc. Researcher, Mechanical Engineering

March 2020 - April 2024, Porto Alegre, Brazil

• Researched XFEM applications for thermal and elastic problems in multi-material structures.
• Built a finite element solver for targeted research cases, reducing reliance on commercial simulation software.
• Derived analytical solutions for sandwich beams and verified them numerically instead of treating analysis and computation as separate worlds.
• Automated simulation and publication workflows with Julia, Python, Fortran, and LaTeX.

Grupo de Mecanica Aplicada (GMAp), UFRGS - Research Assistant

August 2018 - August 2019, Porto Alegre, Brazil

• Developed Fortran data structures for XFEM simulations involving cracks, voids, solid-liquid interfaces, and other discontinuities.
• Worked on the uncomfortable edge cases that decide whether a numerical method is robust or only looks robust in clean examples.

CAETE Engenharia - R&D CAD/CAE Intern

July 2018 - August 2019, Porto Alegre, Brazil

• Ran thermo-electrical finite element analyses of aluminum reduction cells, with experimental validation for industrial use.
• Supported productivity, energy-efficiency, and cost-reduction studies through simulation-led investigation.
• Built CAD/CAE models and technical drawings for engineering analysis.
• Analyzed a baffle mixer using coupled CFD and FEM workflows.

Earlier Engineering Experience

• Product engineering and continuous improvement internships at John Deere.
• Consulting work in numerical simulation, including finite element analysis and computational fluid dynamics.

Education

• M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, emphasis in Computational Mechanics - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)

Selected Technical Stack

• Backend and integration: Java, Quarkus, REST, gRPC, Kafka, JPA, Hibernate ORM, Panache, JDBC
• Platforms and delivery: Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift, Jenkins, Linux, Git, Nix, NixOS
• Data and storage: Oracle DB, DB2, PostgreSQL, Redis, Apache Hive
• Observability and testing: AppDynamics, Grafana, Prometheus, JUnit, REST Assured, Testcontainers
• Applied AI and knowledge workflows: agent and skill design, LangChain4j, RAG, prompt and workflow design
• Programming and tooling: Shell, Fortran, Julia, Rust, Python, LaTeX
• Engineering interests: distributed systems, backend architecture, event-driven systems, cloud services, developer tooling, scientific computing
• Numerical methods: XFEM, finite element analysis, CFD, Abaqus, ANSYS

Publications

• Rodriguez, E. da R., & Rossi, R. (2023). Assessment of EqP in XFEM for weak discontinuities. Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 45(6), 312.
• Rodriguez, E. da R., & Rossi, R. (2025). Revisiting the bi-dimensional elastic three-layer beam analytical solution: a novel solution for various loads followed by an XFEM numerical verification. Journal of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 47(10), 466. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40430-025-05779-4. Code: https://github.com/rodrgz/2D3LayerCantileverBeam.

Contact

• Email: erik [at] rodgz [dot] com
• GitHub: https://github.com/rodrgz/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-rodrgz/
• ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9795-8666