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About me

Hello, I'm Karen.

I'm a product engineer who lives between design and code. I build web experiences, design systems, and AI-powered tools for teams across LATAM, the US, and Europe. I care about craft, speed, and shipping things that actually work.

I fell in love with code and design at the same time, and I never saw a reason to pick just one. I care about the architecture underneath as much as the experience on top. For me, the best products come from people who obsess over both.

I started programming robots for underserved communities, taught kids to code, and eventually found my way into product engineering. Every project since then has been about the same thing: making technology feel human, intentional, and worth using.

Karen Rebeca Ortiz -- Product/Design Engineer

I believe that curiosity is stronger than talent, and that showing up every day, no matter how hard, is the most honest form of craft I know.

that's me

I was born in Cuernavaca, Morelos in 2001, a city of eternal spring, surrounded by mountains and jacarandas. I'm the oldest of three sisters, and one of my earliest memories is sitting in front of my family's computer, completely absorbed by a videogame I barely understood. That's how it started: not with a lesson, but with a feeling. The screen did something, and I needed to know why.

I remember pulling apart old electronics to see what was inside, building little experiments with whatever I found, and staying up way too late reading things I was probably too young to understand. These moments weren't just about curiosity. They were about finding a world that made sense to me, one where logic and imagination could live together.

What shaped me most, though, wasn't the technology. It was the warmth of my family, the patience of my mom letting me take things apart, and a feeling that whatever I built, no matter how small, was worth building.

On repeat

The soundtrack to this adventure

Djent Is Not a Genre
PeripheryDjent Is Not a Genre
DATA
TainyDATA
Quest for Fire
SkrillexQuest for Fire
To Pimp a Butterfly
Kendrick LamarTo Pimp a Butterfly
The Life of Pablo
Kanye WestThe Life of Pablo
Fauna
HakenFauna
Alive 2007
Daft PunkAlive 2007
Post Human: Nex Gen
Bring Me the HorizonPost Human: Nex Gen
All Eyez on Me
2PacAll Eyez on Me
Terraformer
Thank You ScientistTerraformer
Black Radio 2
Robert Glasper ExperimentBlack Radio 2
Volition
Protest the HeroVolition
Meteora
Linkin ParkMeteora
AM
Arctic MonkeysAM

That curiosity turned into a career.

Experience

Where I've shipped

Atom

Feb 2026 - PresentSouth Carolina, US (Remote)

Web Engineer

Growth & Infrastructure

  • Sole technical owner of the web marketing pipeline for a WhatsApp funnel automation SaaS across 14+ LATAM countries.
  • Architected a token-first design system with custom npm packages: 1,865 tokens, 46 components, 4 frameworks, indexed for AI consumption via MCP server.
  • Empowered non-technical growth teams to compose high-converting landing pages autonomously via Starlight docs and vibe-code snippets.
  • Manage hybrid web infrastructure across Vercel and Cloudflare: DNS, rulesets, workers, CDN caching for Astro/Next.js and legacy stacks.

ATFX

Dec 2025 - PresentMexico City (Hybrid)

Senior Web Platform Architect

LATAM Regional Lead

  • Tech lead of the LATAM web pipeline: marketing sites, lead-gen funnels, email workflows, Salesforce integrations, and MCP skills.
  • Architected ATFX Educacao, a Brazilian financial education SaaS, proposing Next.js + Supabase + Stripe over WordPress + WooCommerce.
  • Design and maintain dual Figma design systems for 5 LATAM countries with tokens mirrored in code.
  • Implement lead-gen and webinar funnels end-to-end: Figma flows, accessible HTML/CSS/JS, Power Automate, GA4 attribution, consent management.

Draft Studio

Jun 2025 - PresentRemote

Founder & Lead Product/Design Engineer

AI Automation & Web Systems

  • Founded a remote creative studio with 5 specialists delivering AI-powered automation, scalable web platforms and e-commerce flows.
  • Designed a zero-trust LLM architecture where AI acts purely as a reasoning engine with tool-calling.
  • Built intelligent appointment systems integrating Google Calendar with automated proposal and booking flows.

Aurin

Jul 2024 - Feb 2026Cuernavaca, MX

Full-Stack Developer & UX/UI Consultant

AI Automation & Internal Tools

  • Engineered the Aurin.mx platform (Astro + AI chatbot) achieving 95+ Lighthouse score and <1.5s TTI.
  • Built 8 production automation workflows processing 1,500+ monthly operations, reducing manual work by 25 hrs/week.
  • Delivered a full-stack case-management system for a 292-attorney Chambers-ranked firm on Next.js, Supabase and Clerk.

Ancient Technologies

Jul 2024 - Feb 2026Austin, TX (Remote)

UX/UI Design Consultant

Fintech & Banking Interfaces

  • Led UX engineering for ancient.global, a marketing platform serving 15+ countries across LATAM, US and Europe.
  • Architected a unified design system for 4 fintech products: 80+ reusable Figma components with comprehensive design tokens.
  • Engineered a GPT-4 conversational chatbot with modular multi-assistant orchestration across 15+ service pages.

Spil Creative

Apr - Nov 2024Brooklyn, NY (Remote)

UX/UI Designer & Frontend Developer

E-commerce & Shopify

  • Designed and developed Shopify storefronts for Goslings Rum Bermuda, Health-Ade Kombucha and Leaders in Global Energy Insurance.
  • Built custom Shopify templates using Liquid with flexible, brand-specific component architectures.

Zoek Marketing

Apr - Nov 2023San Francisco, CA (Remote)

Web Designer

Wix Studio & Google Partnership

  • Coordinated UX, design and development teams for website redesign projects across US clients.
  • Translated Figma designs into production Wix Studio implementations with improved visual quality and responsiveness.
Volunteering

Beyond work

Athenis AI

Education

Senior UX Designer / Oct 2024 - Present

Design UX for an AI-powered e-learning platform with immersive 3D simulations, personalized learning paths, and real-time AI guidance.

Opinator

CX Technology

Frontend Developer / Feb - Apr 2025

Designed and implemented interactive, branded CX feedback interfaces (OPIs) for major clients across Europe and the Americas, working with the Madrid core team.

Algorithmics Global

Education

Computer Science Teacher / Apr - Oct 2024

Taught web design, Python, programming logic and digital literacy to 50+ students ages 6-17 through engaging, age-appropriate lessons.

CCyTEM

Social Impact

Software Engineer / Mar 2023 - May 2024

Programmed NAO robots with Python/C++ for 1,200+ students across 15+ underserved rural communities via the Science Trailer mobile outreach program.

Education

M.S. Software Engineering Management (UTEL, 2024)

B.S. Computer Software Engineering (UTEL, 2023)

AI Certificate (MIT via Santander Open Academy, 2024)

IoT Certificate (MIT via Santander Open Academy, 2024)

Data Science (BEDU + Microsoft + TecnolochicasPro)

Film & Cinema Studies (UAM, 2022)

Advanced English C1 (Platzi)

Machine Learning with Python (Platzi, 2024)

AWS & Azure Cloud Certifications (Platzi)

Fullstack JS + React (Platzi)

Stack
Product & Design
FigmaFigma AIDesign TokensAtomic DesignRadix UIShadcn/UIWCAG 2.1 AASplineThree.js
Frontend
Next.jsReactAstroTypeScriptTailwind CSSGSAPFramer MotionZustandShopify Liquid
Marketing & Analytics
GA4GTMSalesforceResendUTMConversion TrackingMeta AdsGoogle AdsPower Automate
CMS & APIs
PayloadStrapiWebflowWordPress (headless)GraphQLRESTn8nOpenAI APIClaude API
Infrastructure
VercelCloudflareSupabasePostgreSQLDockerSentryCI/CDAWSGCP
AI & Automation
MCP ServersLLM Orchestrationn8nPythonTool-calling Agents
Contact

Let's talk about your product

Open to freelance and full-time roles in product engineering.