Jose M. Valera Reales

Jose M. Valera Reales

Tech Lead · Building software, teams, and ideas · chemaclass.com

Berlin, Germany

About

15+ years building software. 5+ years leading teams. Still writing code daily.

I specialize in layered software architecture and modular monoliths. Systems designed to last without fighting themselves. TDD and SOLID aren’t rules I follow; they’re how I think.

A big part of my work involves AI agents. I treat them like a team of specialists: each with a clear role, defined constraints, and quality standards that don’t bend for deadlines. The same discipline I apply to human teams, I apply to AI ones.

The best code is often the code you don’t write. The best teams are the ones where psychological safety makes everyone sharper. I care about both.

"Chema is well ahead of the curve on AI. While most teams are still debating where to start, Chema already has multiple agents running in production."

Experience

Purpose Green

Berlin, Germany · 1 yr 11 mos

Tech Lead

Mar 2025 – Jun 2026

Drove the migration of our Laravel API into a modular monolith with DDD boundaries: independent domain modules that scale across teams without cross-coupling. Player-coach: ship production code daily while growing engineers through mentoring, monthly katas, and XP practices (ownership, mastery, purpose). Backend systems supporting the mission of decarbonizing every European building.

Software Developer

Aug 2024 – Mar 2025

Senior Backend Engineer. Payment system integration with Stripe. Promoting Extreme Programming values, principles, and practices. Monthly code katas, focus on individual and team excellence.

PHP Laravel 12 Pest PHPStan PostgreSQL Docker EC2, S3, RDS DataDog

ABOUT YOU

Berlin, Germany · Remote · 1 yr

Head of Engineering

Aug 2023 – Jul 2024

Head of Engineering overseeing 3 teams (12 engineers): DevOps, external & internal API integrations. Led SDK team shipping new payments API. Championed Extreme Programming: pair programming, TDD, code katas. Cross-team mentoring, coaching, interviewing and hiring.

PHP Symfony PHPUnit PostgreSQL Redis RabbitMQ K8s EC2

Lautsprecher Teufel

Berlin, Germany · 3 yrs 2 mos

Tech Lead

Jul 2021 – Jul 2023

Lead of the Web-IT team (6 engineers) responsible for the Webshop. Coaching developers on their journey to the next level, while cultivating a culture of ownership, customer centricity, mastery, and purpose.

Software Developer

Jun 2020 – Jul 2021

Responsible for the development of the Webshop across different countries. Promoting Extreme Programming with Pair-Programming and TDD.

PHP Spryker PHPUnit PostgreSQL Redis ElasticSearch RabbitMQ Docker

Seven Senders

Berlin, Germany · 2 yrs 9 mos

Software Developer

Sep 2017 – May 2020

Part of the internal Analytics team (5 engineers), focused on the Backend API service for the parcel tracking solution.

PHP Symfony Go Java MySQL ElasticSearch Docker EC2

Move24

Berlin, Germany · 7 mos

Software Developer

Jan 2017 – Jul 2017

Responsible for the homepage and search.

PHP Laravel Go PostgreSQL Redis Docker

Webgears

Berlin, Germany · 1 yr 4 mos

Software Developer

Sep 2015 – Dec 2016

Backend of the web application and internal tools.

PHP Symfony MariaDB

Falk medizinische Datenverarbeitung

Lübeck, Germany · 9 mos

Software Developer

Dec 2014 – Aug 2015

Built the web app for the desktop medical application.

PHP Delphi MySQL

LEVERADE

Murcia, Spain · 8 mos

Software Developer

Jan 2014 – Aug 2014

Full stack developer, part of the web development application team.

PHP Laravel Android MySQL

Tecnoavanza

Murcia, Spain · 4 mos

Software Developer Internship

Mar 2013 – Jun 2013

Software development for mobile platforms. First contact with Symfony in a professional environment.

PHP Symfony MySQL

Recommendations

"I worked with Chema for almost two years at Purpose Green. We started together as Senior Backend Engineers, and he later became our Team Tech Lead. Chema is one of the most professional leaders and colleagues I have ever worked with.

He has solid experience in PHP and team management, but what I appreciated most was how supportive he was. He was always there to help the team and made sure we had everything we needed to succeed. He is a great leader and a great person."

"Chema is the best team lead I have ever worked with. He has a real talent for motivating the whole team to grow, try new things, and stay curious about modern tools and ideas.

For him, collaboration and communication are the key to everything. He builds an environment where people feel safe to share ideas, ask questions, and learn from each other. You can feel that he really cares about the team, not only about the results.

Chema also led our integration of AI tools and helped the whole team fall in love with agentic coding. He shared patterns, ran sessions, and showed us how to use these tools in a smart and structured way — not as hype, but as a real part of how we ship software.

Any team that gets Chema as a lead is very lucky. He makes people around him better engineers and better teammates."

RF Roman Frolov · Software Engineer at Purpose Green Apr 2026

"I've worked with Chema twice, first at Seven Senders (2017-2019), and again at Purpose Green as my counterpart on the tech side.

What makes Chema rare is that he doesn't hide behind roadmaps or architecture diagrams. He gets into the details when it matters and refuses to use process as an excuse to slow things down. Agile isn't a methodology to him, it's how he works, which makes him unusually easy to build with from a product seat.

He's also well ahead of the curve on AI. While most teams are still debating where to start, Chema already has multiple agents running in production.

If you want a tech lead who pairs sharp engineering instincts with a real appetite for what's next, Chema is the one."

"Chema is a great engineer and knows how to create value from get go. He was proactive, resourceful, and knew how to navigate extreme complexity, demonstrating clear leadership skills. He not only adhered to agile principles, but also lifted his co-workers by coaching them."

"Chema is a great leader, speaker, and impactful contributor! He always balances clean code, testing, and software design with pragmatism while delivering value to the customer. With a truly agile mindset, he is capable of helping your tech organization reach the next level."

"Chema is an impressive person to work with and to be inspired by. His coding skills were already outstanding when I hired him, principles like SOLID or approaches like TDD were mastered and embraced by heart already. This turned out to even be surpassed by his incredible learning mindset. One of a kind, a perfect addition to any a-team."

"Working with Chema for the last three years was a powerful experience. Driven by curiosity he always challenged himself, me and the team. Trying new ways and improving long existing processes was a daily manner for him. I know his new team will be in good hands!"

"Chema is a highly motivated and capable developer with a keen eye for detail and is always striving to improve himself, the projects he works on and the colleagues he works with. He drives change when it's needed, is a keen collaborator and a delight to work with."

"Chema has a great passion for testing and refactoring. He is easy to approach, always ready to help and listen, very patient and nice. He is also happy to be your rubber duck when you want to practice a talk or a coding demo. If you feel tired or stressed, Chema makes you see the fun side of coding again."

"He was the 'Tony Stark' of our team. He is smart, reliable, and best known for building flawless solutions."

"When he decided to leave, I knew it'll be a big loss for the team since he's been always keen on delivering quality work, learning, adapting and teaching others, maintaining a proper test suite, and delivering on time. Very good guy ;)"

"Working with Jose is a pleasure not only in technical side but also in every-day life. Cheerful, open, convivial person. Knows and follows modern best practices, understands the pillars of Software development."

"Whoever hires Jose will not only get a programmer with strong technical skills, but also a great colleague with good sense of humor and great interpersonal skills. What impressed me the most was his enthusiasm to improve himself."

AB Andrei Boar · Senior Golang Software Engineer Jun 2017

"He is a very valuable member of the team with strong passion for work and a really hands-on 'get things done' approach. He writes very clean code, effectively applies best practices, can dig into very complex problems and simplify them."

"José always produced top-line quality work. He worked well with all the other developers, and carried out his responsibilities efficiently. Always ready with a smile."

"I was impressed by Jose Maria's ability to acquire the knowledge of the different subjects. His ambition and productivity was the reason why he was my partner for the final project."

"He is a really professional and nice guy, loyal and faithful. He worked always hard and concentrated. He is an enrichment, professional and personal."

Open Source Open Source

Talks Talks

35+ talks and workshops since 2021. International conferences, meetups, and software craftsmanship communities.

  • International PHP Conference Berlin / Munich · 2022–2026 TDD, refactoring, Phel, AI co-pilot, pair programming workshops
  • WeAreDevelopers World Congress Berlin · 2023 Phel Lang, Extreme Programming
  • PHPers Summit Poznan · 2023 Phel Lang
  • Code Talks Hamburg · 2022 Update Your Team to be More Extreme

Writing Writing

70+ posts published on chemaclass.com on agentic coding, engineering leadership, craftsmanship, and modular architecture.

AI Series Leadership & Teams Software Craftsmanship Agile & XP

Skills

Languages & AI

PHP Bash Lisp Go Claude Codex

Frameworks & Tools

Laravel Symfony PHPUnit PHPStan

Data & Infrastructure

PostgreSQL Redis MySQL Docker

Practices & Leadership

TDD XP Leadership Mentoring

Education

CIFP Carlos III

Cartagena, Murcia, Spain

Higher Technician in Web Applications Development

2013 – 2014

PHP · MySQL · Javascript

IES Ginés Pérez Chirinos

Caravaca de la Cruz, Murcia, Spain

Higher Technician in Multi-platform Applications Development

2011 – 2013

Java · Oracle SQL · Android

Certifications

Erasmus+ Programme

Via ENAE Business School (Murcia) → Lübeck, Germany

Dec 2014 – Jun 2015

Professional placement in Germany (combined with work at Falk medizinische Datenverarbeitung).

Awards

bashunit: Side Project of the Year

Issued by Manfred · Dec 2023

Winners of the Side Project of the Year, 2023.

First award as student

Issued by Fundación Robles Chillida · Nov 2013

First award of study aids for the best result in the Higher Level category of Multi-platform Applications Development.

Languages

Spanish C2
Native
English C1
Full professional
German B1
Limited working

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