Michelle Navarro

01 — About

Software Engineer.
(and cartographer-in-training)

Full-stack engineer with 6+ years of experience building production systems. Worked mainly with Java and Spring Boot on the backend, and React and Node on the frontend. Looking to apply these skills to meaningful problems.

Recently, I’ve been getting into geographic information systems and learning to work with spatial data as a path toward climate and earth systems work. Currently completing a GIS certificate at Pasadena City College, with a focus on mapping, geospatial analysis, and environmental data.

B.A. Computer Science Barnard College, Columbia University — 2017 GIS Certificate in progress Pasadena City College

Resume ↗ GitHub

02 — Software

Professional Work

Here's some of what I built over six years as a software engineer.

Watsi
2016

Node.js · Ruby on Rails · React

Watsi Engineering Internship

Contributed features to Watsi’s global patient funding platform, connecting donors with patients receiving life-changing medical care.

Taboola
Frontend
Intern · 2017

OAuth 2.0 · Node.js · Chrome Extension

Auth Refactor — OAuth Refresh Tokens

Refactored authentication for Newsroom’s Chrome extension to implement OAuth refresh token session management, eliminating daily logouts and increasing retention by 30%.

Taboola
Full Stack Engineer
2018–21

Node.js · Kubernetes · ML

Automated Content Review Crawler

Designed and productized a Node.js web crawler on Kubernetes for content review, reducing ad approval time by 35%+ and enhancing downstream ML models.

Java · Spring · REST APIs · React

Publisher Client Onboarding Dashboard

Built REST API endpoints and an internal dashboard for publisher onboarding, replacing a legacy flow and significantly reducing setup errors.

React · Redux · Java · JUnit · Jest

Taboola Ads Campaign Platform

Developed and maintained client-facing and server-side features for the Taboola Ads campaign platform with full automated test coverage.

Grafana · PagerDuty · Observability

Production Monitoring & Alerting

Implemented production monitoring and alerting for critical endpoints using Grafana and PagerDuty, improving incident response and system reliability.

React Native · React Redux

Newsroom Mobile & Web Apps

Contributed features to the Taboola Newsroom analytics web app for publishers and built corresponding mobile experiences using React Native.

Taboola
Senior SWE
2021–23

Java · Spring Boot · React · LLM

Generative AI Prompt Helper

Built the Java Spring REST API and React frontend for Taboola’s generative AI prompt helper, driving up to 50% higher advertiser conversions.

Airflow · MySQL · Vertica · Tableau

Analytics & Behavior Tracking Pipelines

Added analytics flows from frontend to MySQL and Vertica tables, powering Tableau dashboards to surface real-time behavioral data.

Airflow · Java · REST APIs

End-to-End Notification Flow

Implemented a full notification system using Airflow, improving adoption of campaign features.

Java · A/B Testing · Refactor

A/B Testing Infrastructure Refactor

Reduced A/B testing configuration complexity by refactoring legacy infrastructure, leading to fewer system and user errors platform-wide.

Skills

Backend & Infra

Java · Spring Boot
Node.js
Kubernetes
Maven

Frontend

React · Redux
React Native
JavaScript
HTML · CSS

Data Systems

Airflow
MySQL
Vertica

Monitoring & Insights

Grafana
PagerDuty
Tableau
Google Analytics

03 — Spatial Work

Earth, Spatial Data, and Maps

I spend a lot of my free time in nature and have always been interested in earth systems, which led me to start building skills in spatial data alongside my background in software engineering. It’s a practical way to observe and understand ecosystems, weather patterns, and climate processes.
Software engineering is still my main focus, but GIS opens the door to more climate-focused work. These maps are from my certificate program at Pasadena City College — click any to expand.

Southern California Giant Kelp Forests Under Heat Stress, March 2026 — 01

Kelp Forests Under Heat Stress

Mapped kelp occurrences against NOAA sea surface temps to find stress zones off the Southern California coast. The red boundary marks where the next generation of kelp is at risk.

NOAA · GBIF · Natural Earth

Fault Lines and Population Density, Los Angeles County 2020 — 02

Fault Lines & Population Density

USGS quaternary fault data over 2020 census density. Historic faults run right through the densest corridors in LA County.

US Census Bureau · USGS

Most Common Crime Type by LAPD Division, 2025 — 03

Crime Type by LAPD Division

Dominant crime categories across all LAPD divisions in 2025 using NIBRS offense data. Grand theft auto dominates most of the city.

LAPD NIBRS · LAPD Boundary Layer

Software Engineer.(and cartographer-in-training)