About
A little more about me.
I’m Henrique Albert Schmaiske, a Brazilian software engineer based in Montevideo, Uruguay. I run El Cubo, where I work with teams on software products and the systems behind them.
I’m particularly interested in backend engineering, data systems, and applied AI. I enjoy following a problem all the way from the underlying data to the person using the product.
Outside of software
Life outside code.
I love to travel and have visited 30 countries so far. I’m Brazilian and also hold Italian citizenship, and I’m currently based in Montevideo.
I’m married, and we share our home with a white husky and a Bengal cat.
The path here
How I got here.
My path into software was hands-on. I started building websites, worked in music and online education, and went on to build products with teams in Brazil, Denmark, and Los Angeles. That includes work with the Danish government and with Protocol Labs, a major name in crypto and decentralized technology.
That work grew into technical leadership and platform engineering. At Meteor and Galaxy, I’ve worked on open-source modernization and a hosting platform. At Pinned, my work spans data pipelines, search, enrichment, and product workflows.
The work
The problems I keep coming back to.
- Making useful products from incomplete or conflicting data.
- Designing background work that behaves sensibly when it fails or repeats.
- Introducing AI into systems with clear rules about what it can change.
- Helping existing platforms evolve while people continue using them.
Writing