Open to work Manila, Philippines · open to remote

I build backends and AI features that ship.

I'm a Computer Science graduate from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. My work runs in production: a transit app 500+ commuters use every day, an iOS app on the App Store, and the blog platform for Duty Free Philippines.

I'm looking for a full-time backend or AI engineering role where I can keep shipping software people actually use.

See my work Ask for my resume

GitHub LinkedIn AI automations lab

Miguel Kalaw · BS Computer Science, PLM

500+: commuters use the Rush PH app every day
90%: faster API responses after my rebuild
1,000+: scholarship applications handled
4: hackathon wins, including two first places

01 · Selected work

Things I've shipped

Live products with real users, and what changed because of them.

Cutroom — talking video editor for iPhone

2026 · On the App Store

An iPhone app that finds pauses and filler sounds in talking videos, then lets you review every cut before exporting.

Marks ums, uhs and long pauses so you can keep or remove each one.
Cleans phone audio and adds captions that stay in sync after cuts.
Edits and exports on your iPhone without uploading your clips.

Built with Swift, SwiftUI, on-device speech and audio processing

usecutroom.com App Store

Rush PH — transit schedules for Metro Manila

2025 · Live, 500+ daily users

A Messenger bot and mobile app that tells commuters when the next train or bus is coming, and it works without spending mobile data.

500+ people check their ride through it every day.
Reworked the slowest queries and API calls: responses went from about 500 ms to under 50 ms, so schedules still load quickly at rush hour.
Added a fallback so commuters keep getting the last known schedule even when the train operators' data feed goes down.

Built with Node.js, Express, PostgreSQL, Supabase

rush-ph.com App Store Google Play

Vaultr — private bookmark app for iPhone and iPad

2025 · On the App Store

A bookmark app that keeps links, screenshots and documents on your own device instead of on someone else's server.

Shipped to the App Store with no accounts, no tracking and no server bill to keep it running.
Text inside saved screenshots and photos is searchable on the phone itself, so private content never gets uploaded.
Backups are encrypted with a recovery key only the user holds.

Built with Swift, SwiftUI, on-device Vision OCR, CryptoKit

App Store App Builders PH

HariChat — anonymous video chat for students

2025 · 100+ students

An anonymous video and voice chat where you need a verified university email to get in.

100+ students signed up and used it during the campus testing period.
Calls connect straight between two browsers, so conversations are not stored on a server.
Moderators get a dashboard to remove abusive users within minutes.

Built with React, WebRTC, Convex, Better-Auth

harichat.vercel.app

Duty Free Philippines — blog platform

2025 · +25% search traffic

The publishing platform behind the Duty Free Philippines shop blog, built with the Springboard team.

Organic search traffic grew 25% after launch.
Editors publish, update and schedule posts without waiting on a developer.
Ran page-speed and search audits before each release to keep new posts ranking.

Built with React, Node.js, CMS integration

shop.dutyfree.gov.ph/blog

02 · Experience

Where I've worked

Roles, what I owned, and what changed while I was there.

Jun – Aug 2026

AI Trainer — LLM Annotation & Evaluation

Farben Information

Trained and evaluated large language models by writing the prompts, answers and test questions behind them.

Delivered 113 prompt and answer tasks: 73 original answer drafts, 26 evidence-based rewrites, and 14 prompt writing or revision assignments.
Built and reviewed 95 benchmark tests that check how well a model reasons, handles assumptions and works through ambiguous questions.

Oct – Dec 2025

Full Stack Developer

Rush PH

Owned the backend of a live transit app used by 500+ commuters a day.

Cut API response times by 90% (500 ms to under 50 ms) so the app holds up at rush hour.
Rebuilt the slowest database queries to run 10× faster and closed 4 security issues.
Worked directly with the founder on what shipped each week.

rush-ph.com

Jul – Dec 2025

Software Developer Intern

Springboard Philippines

Built client web products together with a senior engineering team.

Shipped the Duty Free Philippines blog platform, which lifted organic search traffic 25%.
Ran page-speed and search audits before every release and set up the publishing workflow.

shop.dutyfree.gov.ph/blog

Jun – Jul 2025

Software Developer Intern

PLM ICT Office

Built internal tools for the university's IT office.

Rebuilt scholarship application intake for 1,000+ applicants, cutting review time by 50%.
Launched an IT help desk used by 20+ offices, with 40% faster response times.

03 · Awards

Hackathon wins

Four wins, including two first places.

Agora Voice AI Hackathon

Mar 2026

1st place

Built an AI that answers support calls, writes up the ticket and sends it to the right queue for a human to handle. First place among international teams.

DLSU Hackercup

Jan 2025

1st place

A point-of-sale that lives inside Facebook Messenger: a store owner photographs a receipt and the sale is recorded for them, no extra hardware needed.

View the code

Inventi Hackathon

2nd place

A Messenger bot for landlords: it sends utility bills, takes repair requests and shows everything on a live dashboard.

View the code

FlutterFlow Hackfest

2024

3rd place

A task manager that turns chores into a game with levels and rewards, so people actually finish them.

04 · References

What colleagues say

From engineers I've worked with. Happy to share more on request.

“Miguel is an outstanding developer who consistently delivers high-quality code. His ability to solve complex problems is impressive.”

Joshua Bumanlag

Senior iOS Engineer at ING Hubs · Creator of Rush PH

“Miguel's passion for development is inspiring. His AI know-how has brought fresh insight and power to every project we've worked on together, and he is a true asset to any team.”

EJ Gungon

Senior Developer at Springboard Philippines

05 · Photos