Backstory
I'm a backend developer based in Lisbon. I studied multimedia and video games, a degree that covered the full game development process from end to end, but the part I kept coming back to was always the programming. After graduating, I spent eight months at Fraunhofer Portugal designing and building games in Unity that helped elderly people exercise in a fun way. It was meaningful work, but I realized my degree hadn't given me enough depth in programming, and being a game designer wasn't giving me the time I wanted to grow as a programmer.
So I pivoted into web development, specifically backend. At a small company called ForkIT, I took my first steps in Go, MySQL, and AWS, and made my first architectural decisions building backend services for interactive events. My favorite project was a scavenger hunt app where teams explored real locations, unlocked layered challenges based on proximity and score, and competed for rankings. It was the closest thing to game development I'd done since Fraunhofer, and I loved it.
Then I spent three years at Practio, a Danish company building a travel health consultation platform. I worked almost exclusively in frontend with React, picked up MongoDB, and learned a lot about building interfaces that guide people through complex processes like figuring out which vaccinations you need before a trip.
At Easypay, a Portuguese fintech, I came back to backend and deepened everything. Go, MySQL, telemetry, service optimization, idiomatic patterns. Most of my work has been building and maintaining RESTful APIs and backend services. Along the way I've also had to keep an eye on not breaking older contracts when introducing new ones, which gave me a perspective on how you maintain existing systems while evolving into new ones. At the start of 2026, I picked up Vue on the frontend to meet needs that came up within the company.
I never say no to a challenge. That's why I left game development for programming in the first place, and it's what keeps me going now. I'd love to eventually bring my backend experience back into game development. In the meantime, I'm following the evolution of AI tooling closely and using it to push what I can build on my own.
Campaign History
- Organization:
- Easypay
- Role:
- Backend Developer
- Location:
- Lisbon
- Duration:
- Sep 2022 - Present
I build and maintain RESTful APIs and backend services in Go at a Portuguese fintech that abstracts payment operations and handles connections with payment gateways for its customers. Over three years of backend work here is where I deepened my knowledge in Go, MySQL, telemetry, and service optimization, and where I learned to write idiomatic code. I've also had to keep older contracts working while introducing new ones, which taught me how to evolve systems without breaking expectations. At the start of 2026, I picked up Vue on the frontend to meet needs that came up within the company.
- Organization:
- Practio
- Role:
- Full-Stack Developer
- Location:
- Lisbon / Copenhagen
- Duration:
- Mar 2019 - Jun 2022
I worked for three years at a Danish company that provided a travel health consultation platform. Nurses at partner clinics would use our web app to walk patients through a form, and the system would recommend the specific vaccinations they needed for their travel destinations. I worked almost exclusively in frontend with React, took my first steps into MongoDB, and learned a lot about building interfaces that guide people through complex decisions. When COVID hit, the company pivoted and was put in charge of distributing COVID-19 vaccines across Denmark, running vaccination centres in Copenhagen, Roskilde, Odense, Aarhus, and Aalborg.
- Organization:
- ForkIT / Knit Last Lap
- Role:
- Backend Developer
- Location:
- Lisbon
- Duration:
- May 2016 - Mar 2019
My first backend job. I wrote Go services with MySQL and AWS, building the backend for interactive events that companies would run for groups of 20 to 40 people. My favorite project was a scavenger hunt app where teams explored real locations and received challenges based on their proximity to checkpoints. The app had a layered system where new challenges and locations would unlock based on elapsed time or accumulated score. Teams competed for two hours and were ranked by performance. It was the closest my work had come to game development since Fraunhofer.
- Organization:
- Fraunhofer Portugal
- Role:
- Game Designer & Developer
- Location:
- Lisbon / Munich
- Duration:
- Jul 2015 - Apr 2016
I designed game design documents and developed educational video games in Unity and C# at a research institute. The games were designed to help elderly people exercise in a fun way, turning physical activity into something engaging.
Training Grounds
- Institution:
- ULHT (Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias)
- Degree:
- Bachelor's in Multimedia Applications and Video Games
- Duration:
- 2013 - 2016
- Award:
- Best Game of the Year (Over and Out ceremony)
Proficiencies
- Primary Skills:
- Go, Vue, TypeScript, MySQL, Docker, Git, Linux
- Secondary Skills:
- Node.js, React, AWS, MongoDB, Kafka
- Origin Skills:
- Unity, C#, Game Design
- Currently Training:
- AI Tooling & Workflows, Svelte
Contact
- CV:
- Download PDF
- Email:
- diogo.sim.melo@gmail.com
- LinkedIn:
- linkedin.com/in/diogo-simoes-de-melo
- GitHub:
- github.com/diogosmelo