Software Engineer · Seattle

Leonardo Atalla

Software Engineer at Stripe

I like hard problems and solutions that hold up. I have worked across payments, recommendation systems, markets, and a little of everything in between.

See the work Get in touch
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Mirasoft · 2022 to 2024

Tailor

An iOS app that learns what you would actually wear. You swipe through clothes, and it gets sharper with every swipe. I built the whole thing, end to end.

  1. 01

    Swipe right to keep, left to pass. Every swipe is a training signal, not just a filter.

  2. 02

    “82% Match” is the model talking. That badge is the recommender's confidence that this piece is you.

  3. 03

    Likes and purchases count most. The strongest rewards pull the next recommendations toward your taste.

  • React Native
  • Rust
  • Actix
  • PostgreSQL
  • Deep Q-Learning
  • SageMaker
  • S3
  • Cognito

The real app, mid-swipe.

What it looked like underneath click a service

client React Native
api · Phoebe Rust + Actix
AWS RDS
AWS Cognito
AWS S3
AWS SageMaker

Under the hood

How Tailor learns.

Getting dressed framed as reinforcement learning. A Deep Q-Network reads your taste and the item, recommends, and treats your swipe as reward. Every loop nudges the next pick closer.

state action reward update DEEP Q-LEARNING YOUR TASTE profile + history Q-NETWORK scores every item RECOMMEND item + % match SWIPE like + / pass −

Fed by a constellation of services, each named for a moon

  • Europa scraped and cleaned the catalog
  • Sinope backfilled it with ML labels
  • Elara shipped images to S3
  • Ganymede handled notifications

NCSSM Rocketry · 2021 to 2022

Rocket Payload

I led the payload team for a high-power rocket and designed the onboard data collection. It broke the sound barrier and climbed to almost twelve thousand feet. The curve below is the real flight, straight off my payload’s barometer. Hover it, or launch it.

12k ft 6k ft 0 MACH 1.2 sound barrier APOGEE · 11,849 ft RECOVERY LAUNCH
T+0s
ALT0 ft
VVEL0 ft/s
apogee 0 ft
to apogee 0 s
max speed Mach 1.2

What the payload did

in flightSensors
onboardLogger
on the groundRecovery
afterAnalysis

Also

A few more, for range.

Quant, systems, and teaching. Different problems, same standard.

  • 01
    Quant, Market making 2024

    SLO

    A market-making strategy I implemented and traded, built on the Avellaneda-Stoikov model: quoting both sides of the book and managing inventory risk in real time. A good amount of stochastic calculus, with real money on the line.

    • Python
    • QuantConnect
    • Avellaneda-Stoikov
  • 02
    Systems, Windows internals 2022

    Spectre

    A Windows kernel project. I extended Bill Demirkapi’s rootkit to bypass Driver Signature Enforcement so it loads cleanly. I built it while teaching a cybersecurity course, to actually understand what I was teaching.

    • C++
    • Windows internals
    • Kernel
    github
  • 03
    NCSSM, Instructor 2021 to 2022

    CS Forum

    I designed and taught a semester-long cybersecurity course for 20 students at NCSSM, and built the forum we ran it on: lessons, challenges, and discussion in one place.

    • Teaching
    • Web
    • Security
    leoata.com/csforum

Currently

Heading to Stripe.

CURRENTLY SEATTLE · 2026
INCOMING Software Engineer Stripe · Clearing & Cost Optimization

> Joining the team that works on payments, 2026. Here to learn the systems and build things that hold up.

The road behind

Where it came from.

  1. BuilderHOA

    Jun 2025 to Feb 2026

    Full-stack Developer (Contract) · Remote, Charlotte NC

    • Shipped an end-to-end web app on Next.js, Supabase, and PostgreSQL, delivering MVP features weekly.
    • Built RAG-backed legal-document generation and a chatbot on the OpenAI API.
    • Locked it down with role-based access via Supabase Row-Level Security.

  2. RTX (Raytheon)

    May 2024 to Aug 2024

    Data & Insights Intern · Remote, Charlotte NC

    • Built predictive models in Databricks with an ML engineer to speed up ticket resolution.
    • Ran data-warehousing ETL in Python and helped consolidate asset systems after the UTC and Raytheon merger.
    • Co-authored the report-out to executives. Learned how data governance works inside a government contractor.

  3. Mirasoft

    Jun 2022 to Jun 2024

    Co-founder & CEO · Chapel Hill, NC

    • Co-founded the company behind Tailor and shipped the iOS app end to end, plus the recommender at the center of it.
    • Wrote 1,800+ commits across Rust, TypeScript, and Python, and led three Kenan-Flagler MBA interns.
    • The company has since wound down. It is where I learned to ship under pressure and own every layer of a stack.

  4. NCSSM

    Aug 2021 to May 2022

    Cybersecurity Instructor & CS TA · Durham, NC

    • Designed and taught a semester-long cybersecurity course for 20 students.
    • TA-ed three CS courses. You do not really understand something until you can teach it.

About

I build things that work, and keep working.

I am Leonardo, a software engineer. I studied computer science and statistics at UNC, and I am drawn to problems that need a bit of everything: some math, some systems, some product sense. I aim for solutions that are complete and dependable, the kind you can lean on without them falling over.

I co-founded a startup, shipped an iOS app end to end, taught a cybersecurity course, and helped send a payload past the speed of sound. The company has since wound down, but it shaped how I build: ship under pressure, own every layer, and leave things better than I found them. Mostly I care about the people around me. I would rather lift the whole team than be the loudest person in the room.

Studied
B.S. Computer Science and B.S. Statistics & Analytics, UNC Chapel Hill, 2026
Languages
English and Portuguese, both fluent
Trusted with
Over $1M in volume as a chapter treasurer, and clearing its debt in a single semester
Teaching
Coding and a cybersecurity course, before I had my own degree
After Hopper, “Office at Night.”

Get in touch

The light’s still on.

If you are working on something hard, hiring, or think we would build well together, reach out. I read everything that comes in.