I’m a Software Engineering Technical Manager Senior at Experian and a Professor of Computer Science at Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, with two decades in the software industry and more than ten years leading engineering teams.
Today my work sits where engineering leadership meets AI: I build MCP servers and AI agents that automate engineering workflows, and I lead the adoption of AI coding tools with the guardrails that keep quality and security intact. Alongside that, I run the delivery process for teams spread across three regions and own architecture review, AWS budget, hiring, and career development.
Before Experian, I spent more than eight years at Akamai Technologies managing managers and solutions architects for some of its largest media customers, and nearly nine years at Avantica as a senior software engineer and project lead on financial and enterprise projects. I’ve combined that industry work with teaching since 2012, which keeps me close to fundamentals and to the next generation of engineers.
WORK HISTORY
Software Engineering Technical Manager Senior
Experian · Costa Rica · Hybrid
AI & Agents
– Architected and deployed Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers in Python, exposing enterprise data sources as agent-callable tools and delegating semantic reasoning to the LLM instead of hard-coded rules.
– Shipped AI agents for engineering workflow automation, including a Scrum agent that compiles sprint status and action items from project tracking data.
– Established guardrails for AI-assisted development (review requirements, test coverage, architectural boundaries) so teams adopt AI coding tools fast without trading away quality or security.
– Led the enterprise rollout of AI coding tools (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot): evaluation, security review, and enablement across regions.
– Ran a comparative cost and capability analysis of Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google LLM APIs to guide build-vs-buy decisions.
Leadership & Delivery
– Built an engineering delivery process from scratch: a three-week release cadence across three regions, with branching, UAT, and change-approval workflows.
– Coordinate delivery across ~11 hours of time zones, structuring handoffs so work moves continuously between regions.
– Drive architecture review across monolithic, n-tier, microservices, and serverless designs.
– Own the AWS budget and cost optimization: right-sizing, reserved capacity, and idle-resource cleanup.
– Own hiring strategy and career development for the full team.
Senior Software Engineering Manager
Akamai Technologies · Costa Rica
Managed managers and individual contributors, led strategic initiatives, and directed the solutions architects serving some of Akamai’s largest customers. Part of the senior leadership group that set and ran strategy and objectives for Service Delivery Americas.
Practice / Software Engineer Manager Senior
Akamai Technologies · Costa Rica
A combination of managing managers, individuals, and strategic initiatives, and leading the SAs on some of Akamai’s largest customers, while helping establish strategy and objectives with the other senior leaders.
Practice Manager – Media Development
Akamai Technologies
Managed a team of solutions architects building Flash, HTML5, iOS, and Android media player solutions, and ran the team’s day-to-day operations: software development, quality assurance, customer implementation, and support, working closely with local and global teams.
Senior Software Engineer
Avantica (now Encora) · San José, Costa Rica
Worked on financial solutions (internet banking, credit score analysis, and others) and enterprise projects using Agile Scrum, Extreme Programming (XP), test-driven development (TDD), and Waterfall.
Project Lead
Avantica · Liberia, Costa Rica
Promoted to plan and manage project scope, schedule, and deliverables across the full software development lifecycle. Served as technical manager of the company’s second regional office in Costa Rica, the first software outsourcing company in Guanacaste, coordinating projects with teams in San Carlos, San José, Peru, and the USA. Led a team of web developers and QA engineers on the Auxis Solstice Exchange Portal (Feb – Jun 2013).
IT Software Consulting and Senior Developer (Freelance)
Digital Arts · San José, Costa Rica
Projects for tourism companies in Costa Rica; the main one was visitcostarica.com, the official website of Costa Rica. Technologies: ASP, .NET, and PHP.
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Professor of Computer Science
Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
I teach computer science courses with a focus on data structures and C++ programming (binary trees, graphs, pointers, stacks, and arrays), as well as web and mobile development. Working with these students has also been a great way to find talent for teams and companies.
Verification:
– Escuela de Informática de la UNA
– Verificación del perfil de profesor
EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATIONS
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
Amazon Web Services
Akamai LEAD Program
Akamai Technologies · Management certification
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®
Project Management Institute
Master’s in Technological Innovation Management
Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
Strengthens the management of technological innovation, identifying and articulating the efforts and initiatives of the country’s productive sectors.
Master’s in Information Technology Administration: Project Management (MATI)
Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica
Project management methodologies such as the PMI’s PMBOK® Guide and PRINCE2, applied to information technology and information systems, plus experience with Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for Development.
Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering
Universidad Internacional de las Américas (UIA)
RECOMMENDATIONS
Orlando Sánchez Martínez
Team Leader, Software Architect and Senior Software Engineer · reported to Maikol
I recommend Maikol, a highly technical professional and a true pleasure to work with. As my former mentor, Maikol’s guidance and expertise have been invaluable in shaping my career trajectory. He has a remarkable ability to bring out the best in his team members, taking the time to understand each individual’s strengths and weaknesses and leveraging those to drive success. A rare combination of tact, decency, and openness characterizes Maikol’s leadership style.
Jairo Rodríguez Mejías
Staff SDET · reported to Maikol
Maikol is such a good manager, that he earned the trust of the entire team not only to be perceived as a very respected manager but also as a friend who showed an authentic interest in the personal situations that each individual went through in their personal life. He is technically gifted, a caring leader, and a manager who truly knows how to balance delegation and accountability. He is maybe the best manager that I have worked with.