Aref Rafei
Software Engineer & Product Builder
I build products from first idea to production across mobile, backend, and web. Based in Toronto.
Selected work
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Dongip
Live on Google Play, iOS in betaPersonal finance for couples. Shared and personal budgets, bank sync, and receipt scanning, without the spreadsheets or the awkward conversations. I designed, built, and shipped it end to end.
Web · Google Play · iOS (TestFlight) · Flutter, Go, Next.js, PostgreSQL, Clerk, Plaid, RevenueCat
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CanSell
RebuiltA marketplace I built solo and grew past 200,000 users over about seven years, then rebuilt from the ground up.
NestJS, Next.js, PostgreSQL
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siift.ai
Co-foundedA B2B SaaS platform that helps founders turn ideas into clearer strategy. I was the sole engineer and built the MVP from zero.
NestJS, Next.js, PostgreSQL, Clerk, Stripe
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Trackoo
In testingA shared, invite-based planning app (formerly Bringalong) on Cloudflare Workers and D1.
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PingPong
PrivateAn automated grid-trading bot with non-custodial execution.
About
I’m a self-taught software engineer who likes building things that solve real problems. I’ve spent years shipping products across mobile, backend, and web.
I care most about the space between engineering and product: why something needs to exist, how to build it properly, and how to make it feel simple.
By day I work on workload automation at Redwood Software. On my own time I build products I use myself.
Skills
- Strongest
- TypeScript, NestJS, Flutter, React, Next.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, Go
- Professional
- Java, Spring Boot, Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Cloudflare Workers, Plaid, RevenueCat
- Familiar
- Kotlin, CI/CD, monitoring
Experience
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Jun 2026 – presentSoftware Engineer, Redwood Software · Markham, ON. Workload automation on RunMyJobs. Java and Spring Boot services, testing, and production reliability.
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Jun 2025 – Sep 2025Full Stack Engineer, PiTech · Vancouver. Built a NestJS API gateway with rate limiting across ~10 DDD microservices, Kafka eventing, and PostgreSQL/MongoDB via Prisma.
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May 2025 – Jun 2026Founding Engineer, siift.ai · Vancouver. Sole engineer on the MVP for a B2B SaaS platform for founders.
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Oct 2023 – Jan 2025Full Stack Developer, Knot Theory Fashion House · Vancouver. Built an e-commerce operations dashboard in Next.js and NestJS to unify orders and inventory across three platforms. PostgreSQL, Redis, queues, and Railway.
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2017 – 2023CEO & Founder, CanSell · Shiraz. Built and operated a marketplace past 200,000 users; mobile development with clean architecture, local databases, and Firebase.
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Apr 2021 – Sep 2022Flutter Developer, Dongip · Built the cross-platform money management app end to end with clean architecture and offline-friendly design.
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Oct 2018 – Feb 2021Android Developer, Fayamin · Shiraz. Kotlin banking app: transactions, payments, bills, and secure API integration.
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Feb 2017 – Oct 2018Android Developer, ShirazIT · Shiraz. Food-delivery and e-commerce apps; led Java→Kotlin migration and UI redesign.
Contact
Open to interesting conversations about products, engineering, and building things.