Application Engineer at smaXtec
Expirience
As an Application Engineer, my main task was to develop an alternative to Firestore, which had become increasingly difficult to work with. We decided to implement a GraphQL server using NestJS and GraphQL, allowing us to move much of our business logic from the front end to the backend.
It was a great experience building a custom PostgreSQL query builder and observing the resulting performance improvements. I was part of both the web and app teams. Initially, I focused on implementing web components, and later, I contributed to a major refactor of our application to migrate from Firestore to our new GraphQL backend.
Although the process was challenging, it was also highly educational. As the technical owner of the GraphQL service, I had full control and responsibility for its design and maintenance. I selected the technology stack and mentored team members who were new to backend development, helping them gain hands-on experience with NestJS.
SmaXtec is a global company with customers around the world. Working there offered valuable insight into how users from different regions use the product. It’s a truly unique solution that helps farmers monitor their animals and gain deeper insights into herd health and behavior.
Tech Stack
- Typescript
- ReactJS
- React Native
- Postgress
- NodeJS
- NestJS
- GraphQL
- Firestore
- Material UI
- Docker
Challange
SmaXtec has multiple development teams across different departments — including hardware, data science, backend, and frontend (application). Coordinating efforts between all these teams can be challenging. Refactoring a large portion of the application from Firestore to GraphQL, while also modernizing significant parts of the React Native codebase, was a major undertaking — but also an incredibly valuable learning experience.