# Sophia Baldonado > 🔜 GDC // Senior Software Engineer, Games and XR Location: United States, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/sophiabaldonado I'm a generalist who thrives on building, whether that's software, games, tools, or physical projects. I love finding the right solution to a problem and seeing it executed cleanly. From indie XR games, custom apps, and game development tools to 3D-printed designs and hands-on DIY work, I focus on creating things that feel intuitive, thoughtful, and delightful to use. ## Work Experience ### Senior Software Engineer @ FirstLook.gg Jan 2025 – Present Own end-to-end features across a player engagement platform that helps game studios manage playtesting, onboard communities, and collect player feedback. Leading creator and content tools and analytics systems, integrating with YouTube, Twitch, TikTok and more to help studios discover and collaborate with content creators. ### Senior Software Engineer @ Pragma Platform Jan 2022 – Present | Seattle, WA Designed and built backend platform services that power multiplayer features and delivered scalable, developer-friendly APIs for game studios. Expertise in live service game matchmaking, parties, social systems, and third party game server hosting integration. ### Software Engineer @ Pluto VR Jan 2017 – Jan 2021 | Greater Seattle Area - Led initiative to join the Khronos Consortium and participate in the OpenXR working group for years. Represented the company and helped shape the OpenXR API and feature set to allow for multiple simultaneous apps and overlays. - Project lead for skeletal animation and transmission system with strict data size and codec requirements to keep networked latency low while maintaining full bone articulation. Replaced the use of MPEG FBA format and transmitted over RTC. Minimal, modern C++ library integrates with desktop, iOS, and web clients. - Refactored monolithic Unity app into distributed parts including C# and C++ shared libraries, Unity rendering app, web front end, and Node.js microservices. Learned new languages and web technologies including the AWS stack, Aurelia, React, Electron, and Terraform. - On the strike team to quickly deliver a native iOS client that integrated with our web front end. Implemented IPC to communicate between the native Swift app and web app UI, translated and integrated ARKit skeletal data to work with our system, and set up APNS integration on the server. - Prototyped and released networked multiplayer, “multi-app” (used simultaneously with other XR apps) WebXR and OpenVR apps to integrate with emerging multi-app tools, XRPackage and AardvarkXR. - Created data-driven, immediate mode debugging UI tool for Unity and iOS apps to visually represent 3D data in realtime, allowing the team to catch and solve bugs faster and reason about 3D space more effectively. - Automated UI interaction and movement in VR with OpenVR input emulator, making testing between two clients easier and more efficient for the team. Desktop - C#/Unity, Electron
 iOS - Swift, ARKit, APNS
 AWS - Lambda, S3, EBS, CloudFront, Route 53, DynamoDB
 XR - OpenXR, OpenVR, Unity, WebXR, Three.js, Hololens, Aardvark
XR Web - Node.js, Aurelia, React, JavaScript, TypeScript, REST, Express, Redis
 Misc - Git, Unit Testing, RTC, Bash, Travis CI, AppVeyor, Terraform, Multithreading ### Software Engineer Intern @ Pluto VR Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Greater Seattle Area 6-month internship, 35hr/week - Helped implement an innovative OpenVR overlay rendering system that projects the 3D game view onto a 2D overlay texture while preserving depth and spatial perception frame by frame. - Used GPU profiling and manually handled frame timing for render textures to attain a minimum 90 fps required for VR. - Began converting monolithic Unity project into several Node.js microservices and Windows client components. Replaced the Unity embedded front end UI with an Electron client and Aurelia web app with IPC. ### Software Development Student @ Ada Developers Academy Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | Greater Seattle Area Ada’s mission is to prepare women and gender expansive adults to be software developers while advocating for inclusive and equitable work environments. We primarily serve and address the needs of Black, Latine, Indigenous Americans, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA+, and low-income people. Ada Developers Academy teaches full-stack web development. Students learn CS fundamentals, Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, and HTML/CSS along with relevant frameworks and paradigms. ### Graphic Designer, Content Developer @ Freelance Jan 2013 – Jan 2017 I have done freelance art, design, animating, modeling, coding and video editing for businesses and individuals. ### Producer @ University of New Mexico - RAVE Lab Jan 2014 – Jan 2015 | Albuquerque I produced a 3D educational video game funded by the National Science Foundation to teach students and the public about sustainable energy pathways. I coordinated a team of employees, assigned tasks, enforced deadlines, and managed the project. I also produced an animated video to promote public awareness about a renewable energy resource called energy harvesters. ### Web Developer @ eXplore Media 360 Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | Albuquerque, New Mexico I worked with graphic designers to create and maintain websites for several local businesses. I communicated directly with clients to fulfill their requests and collaborated with them to develop the best online marketing strategy for their business. ### Connection Center Sales Associate @ Walmart Jan 2010 – Jan 2013 I worked servicing dozens of customers per day by finding the best cellphone and service plan for them, as well as providing excellent customer service and technical support. ## Education ### Bachelor's Degree in BBA in Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media The University of New Mexico Jan 2010 – Jan 2014 ### Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies New York University Jan 2009 – Jan 2010 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/sophiabaldonado - Website: http://sophiabaldonado.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/sophiabaldonado JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/sophiabaldonado/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-22