Structure before code
Domain-Driven Design, Clean Architecture and design patterns used as constraints, not decoration. The domain stays ignorant of frameworks, databases and transports.
Lead Software Engineer · Osasco, São Paulo — Brazil
Esdras Schönevald
I design PHP systems that outlive the frameworks they were built in — payment platforms, identity and the architecture underneath.
CurrentlyTech Lead / Symfony Specialist at Split Pay, since Nov 2023.
PHP · Symfony · API Platform · PostgreSQL · Redis · AWS
01 — Work
What I actually do
Two decades of building and repairing systems where correctness matters: money moving between accounts, identity proving who someone is, and teams keeping a codebase worth working in.
Financial systems that reconcile
Card processing, PIX, TED, DOC and bank slips. Idempotency, settlement and reconciliation treated as first-class requirements — money is a correctness problem before it is a feature.
Boring infrastructure, advanced outcomes
Symfony, API Platform, PostgreSQL, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes and AWS. CI/CD that makes the safe path the fast path, and observability that answers questions before they are asked.
Technical direction, not only delivery
Leading teams through architecture decisions, code review, technical debt and mentoring. Writing the decision down so it can be disagreed with — and revisited.
02 — Experience
A straight line through hard systems
- Nov 2023 — present
Tech Lead / Symfony Specialist
Split Pay Ltda.
- Lead the team in designing scalable, high-performance solutions for a payment platform.
- Promote discussions on innovative and disruptive technologies.
- Diagram system flows, review code and identify technical debt.
API Platform · Symfony · Doctrine · PostgreSQL · Redis · Keycloak · Mercure
- Jun 2022 — Dec 2023
Software Architect / PHP Developer
Pasquali Solution (iClinic / Shosp)
- Identified, documented and resolved technical debt across healthcare products.
- Led system architecture discussions and internal TechTalks.
- Provided technical guidance to the team and contributed to framework architecture, code review and testing.
PHP · Symfony · architecture reviews · testing
- Jul 2021 — Jun 2022
PHP Systems Architect
Independent Consultant (SoftExpert, DryCompany and others)
- Delivered product and business understanding documentation.
- Identified vulnerabilities and technical debt in software products.
- Designed solutions aligned with strategic objectives and supported stakeholders through technical decisions.
PHP · architecture assessment · documentation
- Oct 2017 — Jul 2021
Senior Systems Analyst
ACG Administradora de Cartões
- Led system optimization and legacy refactoring using clean architecture, design patterns and clean code.
- Developed and integrated APIs, dashboards and internal tools with PIX, TED, DOC and bank slips.
- Ensured software quality, test automation and infrastructure monitoring; mentored the team on resolving technical debt.
Symfony · Doctrine · SQL Server · PostgreSQL · MongoDB · AWS · Redis · RabbitMQ · Grafana · Sentry
- Jan 2008 — Oct 2017
Web Developer
Titan Software, E-Catálogos and others
- Built and maintained web systems across a decade, from small business sites to back-office tools.
PHP · MySQL · JavaScript · Linux
03 — Open source
PHPRise and The OTAKU Manifesto
I maintain PHPRise, an open source foundation for PHP built from small, replaceable parts — and I wroteThe OTAKU Manifesto, the set of constraints that governs it.
The manifesto is not a style guide. It is a test a piece of code must pass before it is allowed to exist: five pillars that decide how a system is protected, and three repository shapes — atom, assembly, application — that every package must fit, with no fourth option and no hybrid.
It exists because I kept meeting the same failure: frameworks that are excellent until you need to replace one piece, and then demand you replace all of them. PHPRise is the opposite bet — architecture made of parts small enough to understand in one sitting and replace without permission.
How I work
- Contracts before implementation. The interface is the promise. Design-first, then make the smallest thing that keeps it.
- Protect the core. Business rules are the only irreplaceable asset. Everything else — database, broker, framework — is a detail that can be replaced.
- Restriction as liberation. Fewer options, smaller files, one level of indentation. Constraints remove the space where accidental complexity grows.
- Delete more than you add. The best refactor is the one that removes a concept. Every abstraction must pay rent with a second real use case.
- Measure before optimizing. Complexity in a system is just like cyclomatic complexity in a method: it can be counted, and it should be paid for.
04 — Inspirations
Standing on specific shoulders
The people whose work taught me how to think about software. Not a reading list for show — the actual sources I return to when a decision is hard.
Architecture and design
- Martin Fowler
- Robert C. Martin
- Eric Evans
- Alistair Cockburn
- Grady Booch
- Rebecca Wirfs-Brock
- Barbara Liskov
Systems, complexity and structure
- Edsger W. Dijkstra
- Fred Brooks
- David Parnas
- Andrew S. Tanenbaum
- Linus Torvalds
- Melvin Conway
- Thomas J. McCabe
Language and craft
- Alan Kay
- Kent Beck
- Ward Cunningham
- Jeff Bay
- Erich Gamma
Web and PHP
- Roy Fielding
- Fabien Potencier
Brazilian references
- Glauber da Rocha Balthazar
- Dr. Olímpio Murilo Capeli
05 — Contact
Let's talk about the hard part
Architecture reviews, technical leadership, legacy systems that need a plan instead of a rewrite. I answer email faster than any other channel.