About Me

I'm a Colombian software engineer with 11+ years of profesional experience, and entrepreneur working in Python, Typescipt and open source development. I currently work as an AI Developer at Datalayer, building tools at the intersection of Jupyter, AI, and collaborative computing.

My career spans from water resources engineering (MSc from IHE Delft and Erasmus Mundus) to becoming a core contributor to major open source projects including Spyder IDE, JupyterLab, and napari, conda-forge among others. I've created over 400+ conda-forge recipes and led internationalization efforts for JupyterLab and automating efforts in the Scientific Python Tranlsations project.

I also co-founded Trepa, a climbing gym in Bogotá, Colombia, where I have developed tools to manage the business and community by automating workflows with AI. These include scraping workflows, chatbots, automatic review and messaging system, and Data Analysis, all to support the Business decissions.

I'm deeply committed to the Latin American Python and open source communities. I co-founded PyCon Colombia, helped organize SciPy Latam, and serve on the Python Software Foundation Grants Working Group.

I believe in making technology accessible across languages and borders, and I'm passionate about mentoring the next generation of developers in Latin America.

I have been a hobby climber since 2021 and a musician, playing keyboards, guitar and choruses with a local band.

Skills & Technologies

• Languages: Python, TypeScript, JavaScript
• Frontend: React, Tanstack Router, CSS/Tailwind
• Backend: FastAPI, Django, Node.js
• AI: Pydantic AI, LangChain, CopilotKit, Claude Code
• Documentation: Sphinx, MKDocs, Docusaurus
• Data Science: Jupyter, NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, Pandas, Plotly / Dash
• Automation & Scraping: Playwright, Selenium, Scrapy
• Version Control: Git, GitHub Actions
• DevOps: conda / conda-forge, Docker, AWS, Netlify, Railway, Render
• Databases: Postgres, SQLite, MongoDB
• Desktop: Qt / PyQt, Electron
• Spoken Languages: Spanish (Native), English (Fluent), French (Intermediate)

Education

• Deep Learning Specialization — DeepLearning.AI (2021-2022)
• Data Science — DataCamp (2021-2022)
• MSc in Sanitary Engineering — IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, Delft, Netherlands (2008-2010) — With Distinction
• MSc Hydroinformatics and Water Management EUOAQUAE (Erasmus Mundus) — Université de Nice, France | University of Newcastle, UK | Brandenburg University of Technology, Cottbus, Germany, Europe (2010-2012) — Erasmus Mundus Scholarship
• BSc in Civil Engineering — Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS), Bucaramanga, Colombia (2000-2006) — 1st Place ECAES National Exam

Community & Leadership

• Python Software Foundation — Grants Working Group Member
• conda-forge — Core Contributor
• Python Colombia — Co-founder & Organizer
• PyCon Colombia — Co-Organizer
• SciPy Latam — Organizer
• Django Girls Colombia — Co-organizer & Mentor
• Python en Español — Coordinator
• Python Bucaramanga — Founder & Former Organizer

Awards & Honors

• MSc with Distinction — IHE Delft Institute for Water Education (2016)
• Erasmus Mundus Scholarship — European Commission (2014)
• 1st Place ECAES National Exam (Civil Engineering) — Colombian Ministry of Education (2012)

Recommendations

Working with Gonzalo is like adding a high-powered engine to your development team. He immediately understands what you need, asks the right questions to refine your vision, and consistently goes beyond expectations. With deep expertise in Python, TypeScript and AI, Gonzalo not only delivers on requirements but also brings additional features and improvements you didn't even know you needed. And last but not least, Gonzalo is simply a great human being.

It has been a pleasure working with Gonzalo during our time at Quansight and collaborating with him on contributions to the PyTorch-Ignite project. What makes Gonzalo's contributions exceptional is the fact that he is not only solving the required tasks but also he is looking broader and helps improve the existing codebase. I strongly recommend Gonzalo to any team looking for a skilled, reliable, and collaborative senior engineer who consistently delivers high-quality results.

I had the pleasure of working with Gonzalo on several software projects, including the early architecture and development of PySWMM. His attention to detail and strong technical instincts were instrumental in shaping the project's foundation. Gonzalo has what it takes to think deeply about design decisions while still moving efficiently toward implementation. Over the years, he's continued to be a trusted collaborator — always reliable, thoughtful, and a genuinely great developer. I'd highly recommend Gonzalo to any team looking for someone who brings both precision and creativity to their engineering work!

It is with utmost pleasure that I recommend Mr. Gonzalo Peña. I came to know Mr. Peña as my student and his undergraduate final project supervisor in the Civil Engineering Department at the Industrial University of Santander, Colombia. As a student, Mr. Peña exhibited outstanding qualities. He was always very critical, eager to learn and to explore new ideas. He was always an easy person to get along with when participating in group tasks and he did not hesitate to take the lead when needed. He can also work effectively alone. Mr. Peña topped the National Board examination for Civil Engineers. I am positive that Mr. Peña will be an excellent addition to your group and research challenges.

Gonzalo has shown strong skills at river hydraulics and hydrology as well as at flood modelling (MIKEbyDHI software) and programming. Gonzalo is trustworthy and very efficient.