Media tech · AI-driven news
Portal das Eleições
Eight outlets, 400 to 500 stories a day: a Python pipeline captures, classifies, summarizes and narrates them — and tracks extraction success per source to know when to remap it.
Read the case study →Tech lead · product and AI · Brasília, Brazil · Remote, UTC−3
Production software since 1994.
Now I lead AI-native teams — from the first prototype to a system that holds up in production.
I’m Rafael Murbach Coutinho, tech lead and systems architect. I build with Next.js, TypeScript and LLM integrations (Claude, Gemini), and treat automated tests and evals as part of the product, not an afterthought.
Or write to rafael.murbach@gmail.com
1994First production code, written for government systems in Brasília.
18Years leading engineering and delivery teams, in public contracts and in product.
8Products delivered across SaaS, GovTech, media and sports tech — four of them in use today.
Work
Selected work
Ten projects, each marked with where it stands today. Three told in depth.
Civic tech · public-service portals
Governo do Distrito Federal (GDF)
Public-service pages and campaigns for the Federal District government, mobile-first and accessible. With AI, a landing page whose mobile layout is ready went from two days of work to two hours.
Read the case study →
Sports tech · white-label pools and leagues
Chutaí League & Chutaí Gamão
A white-label engine for pools and leagues: pari-mutuel odds that move with the crowd, the ChuteCoins economy and private leagues. Chutaí League Gama runs on it.
Read the case study →More work
| Project | Domain | Stack | Status | Case |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Movooh | Urban mobility & vehicle OOH media | Next.js · mobile apps · GPS telemetry | Approved in both stores · awaiting launch | Read → |
| SESC DF | UX research ops | Playwright · Python · Whisper · Think Aloud | Delivered | Read → |
| PlayForge Academy | EdTech · B2B SaaS · generative AI | Next.js · TypeScript · Genkit · Gemini | Built · no customers yet | Read → |
| CRTs PR & SC | GovTech portals for technicians’ councils | WordPress · PHP 8.2 · Tailwind · SINCETI | In use | Read → |
| Conversatio | Conversational AI · B2B SaaS | Playwright · AI evals · WhatsApp Business API | In development · waiting on Meta’s new policies | Read → |
| Media planning system | AdTech · client: a startup linked to Record TV | Firebase · OpenAI API · LLMs | Delivered · no longer in commercial operation | Read → |
| Bolão Gameficado | Sports tech · prototype that stayed online | Next.js · Tailwind CSS | Prototype | Live ↗ |
Career
From Politec to LLMs
Thirty years across government systems, public banking, advertising and SaaS: the same discipline, newer tools.
Read the full CV →-
Sep 2025 — now
NetDev SystemsTech lead & director of operations
Technical leadership of remote teams on AI-native SaaS in Next.js and TypeScript — PlayForge Academy, Conversatio, Chutaí, Movooh, SESC DF’s UX research and, as Product Owner, a media-planning system for a startup linked to Record TV. AI code review in CI/CD cut review cycles by more than 40%.
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2000 — 2025
NetDev SystemsDevelopment & product management, freelance
Alongside the jobs below, at least one project a year: internal workflow and request-tracking systems for companies, landing pages and WordPress sites — on MySQL, PostgreSQL or Firebase, in the cloud or on premises, as each client required.
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Jul 2021 — Aug 2025
ArtplanTechnology project manager
Process automation with Power Automate and executive dashboards in Power BI for corporate and federal government accounts, cutting dozens of manual hours every week while holding SLA.
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Oct 2019 — Jun 2021
Caixa Media HubMedia operations & technology
Coordination between Caixa Econômica Federal and national advertising agencies: delivery and accountability standardized across dozens of agencies, inside federal audit requirements.
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Sep 2017 — Aug 2019
Exata TecnologiaProcess architecture & development
BPMN modeling and development of SIGEP, Caixa’s advertising management system: approval, billing and reconciliation with an audit trail for TCU and CGU.
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Feb 2010 — Jun 2017
Spread TeleinformáticaFederal contracts & agile leadership
Contracts for MDSA, the Ministry of Justice and FNDE run with Scrum and XP, from requirements to QA — SICON, SISPAA and SIGAF delivered.
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Apr 2006 — Feb 2010
MSA ServiceProject coordinator · Brazilian Army
SISCUSTOS and SIGAF: mission-critical cost and budget systems for the Armed Forces, from specification to acceptance, under PMBOK governance.
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2004 — 2005
CEUBRequirements analyst & .NET developer
Requirements, analysis and .NET development for the university’s academic and administrative systems.
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2004
Positivo InformáticaRequirements analyst & developer
Specification and development of modules for enterprise and educational software.
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2003 — 2004
STE.NET developer · DNIT
Built the internal system of DNIT, Brazil’s federal transport infrastructure agency, in .NET.
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1996 — 2001
Politec InformáticaProgrammer analyst
High-throughput systems for public sector and banking: SQL modeling and critical transactional routines.
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1995
FAP-DFProgrammer analyst
Systems for research grants, scholarships and funding management.
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1994
DF Vice-Governor’s OfficeProgrammer analyst
The first administrative automation and internal tracking tools of the office — when documentation came on continuous-form paper.
MBA in Project Management (UPIS, 2009) · Marketing Management (Unopar, 2007)
AI-native engineering
Claude and Gemini APIs, Genkit, Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot. Structured prompting, AI evals and prompt-regression suites. Playwright end to end.
Full-stack
Next.js (App Router, Server Components), React, TypeScript, Node.js, Python. PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Firebase. Tailwind CSS.
Leadership & product
Scrum and Kanban, architecture decision records, code review without ego. PRDs, roadmaps, OKRs, UX research, PMBOK.
About
Leadership learned where nobody is paid to follow
For more than twenty years I lived as a monk and served as a volunteer leader in ISKCON. I was president of the Brasília temple, a member of ISKCON Brazil’s fiscal council and its national communications secretary until April 2026; spent ten years producing concerts and festivals — six of them with a monthly edition, never missed, the largest drawing 400 people —; and sat on global committees across India, South Africa, Latin America, Russia and France.
Where nobody is paid to execute, you lead with clarity, conduct and purpose. That is how I run engineering teams: decisions win on technical merit, not seniority, and incidents get calm instead of panic.
Testimonials
What the teams say
“A rare ability to turn complex business requirements into light, maintainable architectures. Rafael’s technical leadership gives the whole team confidence.”
“A rare mix of technical skill and interpersonal intelligence. On large government projects it made all the difference in keeping clients and engineering aligned.”
Contact
Hiring an AI-native tech lead?
Open to Staff, Principal and Tech Lead roles — remote, for teams in the US, Europe and Latin America — and to architecture consulting.
rafael.murbach@gmail.com
LinkedIn
GitHub
Read the CV
Brasília · UTC−3
Portuguese: native · English: professional working proficiency