open to : principal engineering
& ai-platform roles
Hi, I’m Matheus.
I build developer platforms, tooling & AI systems at scale.
lead software engineer (LMTS) · seattle, wa
Software engineer with nearly three decades of experience building large-scale platforms, developer tooling, and AI-powered workflows. At Salesforce, I lead engineering for internal platforms, multi-agent systems, and hands-on learning infrastructure used by millions of developers and admins.
- 25+ yrsSoftware engineering, architecture & leadership
- MillionsDevelopers and admins reached through Trailhead tools and hands-on learning experiences
- GlobalTechnical lead and speaker at Salesforce events worldwide
- $800K+Quarterly infrastructure cost savings for Salesforce Trailhead
About
I build systems at scale, the developer tooling around them, and the AI that makes them smarter.
I lead the Hands-on Experience team at Salesforce Trailhead, building developer tooling, AI-powered workflows, and learning infrastructure used by millions of developers and admins across Agentforce, Data 360, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Einstein, Slack, Tableau, and Heroku.
Recent work includes an IDE-based dev platform for authoring, validating, reviewing, and releasing hands-on assessment code. It brings together source control, command-line tooling, release workflows and automations (CI/CD), and AI-assisted code development. I also built a multi-agent feasibility system that evaluates project requirements end to end against official documentation and live Salesforce orgs. I was one of the lead engineers behind Trailhead’s first hands-on experience built around a live headless AI agent. Across this work, I apply practices in architecture, telemetry, delivery reliability, deterministic validation, and team mentorship.
I am a Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I and II, an Agentforce Specialist, an All-Star Ranger, and an Agentblazer Legend. I care about technical craftsmanship, usability, continuous learning, and turning complex systems into practical tools people can rely on.
Experience
Nearly three decades, one throughline: ship things that matter.
From financial platforms and enterprise software to developer tooling and AI-assisted engineering at Salesforce. Recent work leads; earlier roles built the foundation.
- Aug 2020 — Present
Lead Software Engineer · Lead Member of Technical Staff
Salesforce — Trailhead Tooling Engineering · Seattle, WA
Lead engineering for the Hands-on Experience team, building developer platforms, AI-assisted workflows, assessment infrastructure, and operational systems that support hands-on learning across Salesforce products.
- Designed and built a IDE extension and engineering platform with native Assessment Engine integration, release-aware validation, AI-assisted code generation grounded in internal codebase and Salesforce metadata, automated code review, and end-to-end release workflows, cutting hands-on challenge authoring time by more than 50%.
- Built a multi-agent feasibility system grounded with authoritative documentation, that parses requirements, validates assumptions against live Salesforce orgs, generates and reviews code, and produces implementation specifications with deterministic guardrails.
- Reduced Salesforce org infrastructure costs by more than $800K per quarter through usage analysis, capacity optimization, pool redesign, and changes to content and provisioning strategy.
- Served as one of the senior technical leaders behind Trailhead’s first hands-on experience powered by a live headless AI agent, launched across Salesforce World Tours in 2026.
- Delivered AI-augmented learning experiences with deterministic assessment controls, including a production badge for troubleshooting Apex and LWC code through natural-language interaction.
- Led the migration to pre-provisioned, passwordless org pools, reducing learner setup from several minutes to near-instant while supporting capacity planning for major Salesforce events.
- Established engineering practices for telemetry, delivery predictability, code review, release quality, and operational visibility across Salesforce, GitHub, and Heroku systems.
- Led technical delivery for Dreamforce, TDX, and Salesforce World Tours, coordinating learning infrastructure, cross-team dependencies, and live event support.
- Mentored engineers and content developers in architecture, testing, assessment design, and AI-assisted engineering.
- Nov 2018 — Aug 2020
Senior Software Engineer · Senior Member of Technical Staff
Salesforce — Trailhead Content Engineering · Seattle, WA
Core contributor to Trailhead Superbadges and Salesforce developer certifications.
- Led engineering for the Lightning Web Components Specialist Superbadge, from technical design and requirements through starter code and automated assessment logic.
- Built and maintained metadata-driven validation rules for Trailhead Superbadges, improving assessment reliability and handling common implementation variations from learners.
- Contributed to the design and maintenance of the Platform Developer I, Platform Developer II, and JavaScript Developer certifications, keeping exam content aligned with current platform capabilities and engineering practices.
- Created and updated developer learning experiences that supported both Superbadge completion and certification preparation for millions of Trailblazers.
- Evaluated new Salesforce features across multiple clouds and translated them into practical, testable developer scenarios using Apex, Lightning Web Components, JavaScript, Ruby, and Salesforce APIs.
- Jan 2018 — Nov 2018
Senior Salesforce Developer
Amazon Web Services — Marketing Automation · Seattle, WA
- Automated lead generation, territory management, lead scoring, campaign support, and sales notifications using Apex triggers, batch jobs, queueable processing, and configurable workflows.
- Integrated Salesforce with Marketo and internal marketing systems, improving data flow and reducing manual coordination across lead-management processes.
- Introduced testable development patterns, including interfaces, mock data structures, dependency isolation, and object-oriented refactoring to improve maintainability and code quality.
- Designed and implemented top-tier lead follow-up automation, executive event nomination workflows, and configurable business logic that reduced hardcoded dependencies.
- Built a post-live-chat feedback application in JavaScript to capture customer ratings and qualitative feedback.
- Advocated stronger source control, branching, code review, and release practices for Salesforce development.
- Feb 2017 — Jan 2018
Senior Salesforce Developer
eVestment (Nasdaq) · Atlanta, GA
- Trained and tuned Salesforce Einstein search models to improve the relevance of internal knowledge-search results.
- Led the transition from Salesforce Classic to Lightning, modernizing Visualforce experiences and building new Lightning components.
- Contributed to the adoption of Salesforce DX, improving source-driven development and deployment practices.
- Reengineered complex object hierarchies using tree and node-based remapping, simplifying data relationships and downstream processing.
- Built batch automation for report management and cleanup using Apex and the Salesforce SOAP API.
- Developed a JavaScript-based typeahead search component that improved usability across legacy Visualforce pages.
- Partnered with business analysts and project teams on requirements, technical design, performance analysis, and production delivery for a global user base.
- 2012 — 2017
Senior Software Engineer
Stefanini US — Koch Industries (INVISTA) · Richmond, VA
- Integrated Java-based enterprise applications with Salesforce through web services, connecting lead-generation and marketing workflows across platforms.
- Designed and built configurable lead-template tools that allowed business users to create and manage targeted campaign experiences without engineering support.
- Developed an A/B testing platform for custom lead templates and integrated Google Analytics to measure engagement and campaign performance.
- Implemented real-time data monitoring with Salesforce Streaming API and PushTopic to synchronize and track activity across external systems.
- Built Salesforce and Java solutions supporting lead generation, audience targeting, promotions, dealer management, product discovery, and online training.
- Developed rich user interfaces using Visualforce and JavaScript frameworks, while contributing to requirements, technical design, testing, and production delivery.
- Acted as a technical bridge across engineering, management, architecture, and QA teams, supporting delivery across a complex enterprise environment.
- 1997 — 2012
Earlier roles — Systems Analyst & Developer
Stefanini · Itaú BBA · Bradesco · Fibra · Citibank · and more · São Paulo, Brazil
Over a decade across banking, finance, and enterprise systems, the foundation for everything since.
- Risk-management and financial-analysis systems for major banks (Itaú BBA, Bradesco, Citibank, Fibra).
- Currency-projection algorithms using linear algebra and Lagrange polynomial interpolation.
- Legacy migrations (VB3 → VB.NET, Sybase → Oracle) and mentoring in .NET, C#, Oracle PL/SQL.
- Built customer databases, sales and inventory systems, and video-rental management software for local businesses.
Skills
Depth where it matters.
Nearly three decades of software engineering and platform experience, now focused on AI systems, developer tooling, and LLM-grounded workflows, built on a foundation of Salesforce engineering, automated testing, distributed systems, and multiple programming languages.
AI systems
Platforms and infrastructure
Languages
Achievements
Certified, credentialed, and Legend-ranked.
Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation
MIT Professional Education · 2025
Certifications
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I
Salesforce Certified Platform Developer II
Salesforce Certified Agentforce Specialist
Trailblazer status
All-Star Ranger
Agentblazer Legend · 2025Trailhead Superbadgesearned across Agentforce, Data 360, platform, security & automation
- Apex for Agentforce
- Advanced Flow for Agentforce
- Agentforce Service
- Data Stream Fundamentals (Data 360)
- Prompt Builder Templates
- Lightning Web Components Specialist (led development)
In the community
Keynotes, podcasts & features.
- SalesforceTrailheaDX 2017 Keynote Pre-Show guestInterviewed by Gillian Bruce & Kiran Manyala Watch / listen
- Salesforce Developers PodcastEpisode 22: Trailhead Superbadges with Matheus GonçalvesInterviewed by Joshua Birk Watch / listen
- Salesforce AdminsWhy Matheus Gonçalves is so Passionate About SalesforceInterviewed by Mike Gerholdt Watch / listen
- Podcast · Co-hostToadCast CiênciaPortuguese-language science, tech & games show, co-hosted with Caio Gomes and André Souza. Watch / listen
References
What people I’ve worked with say.
“Matheus always presented as a professional with strong technical knowledge. He is very detail oriented and well organized. Excellent programmer who gets the job done on time, under budget.”
Rashed Chowdhury, MBA, CSMGlobal Director · Salesforce · Business Systems“Deep knowledge of Apex and Visualforce along with a very good understanding of the Salesforce platform as a whole. I cannot recommend him enough!”
David IngramSalesforce Senior Business Analyst“Attention to detail is the phrase that comes to mind when I think about Matheus, able to quickly resolve issues and prevent problems.”
Dawn Villanueva LevyRetail Engagement Manager at INVISTA“Outstanding leadership and a clear sense of purpose. I will always hold him in the highest esteem.”
Plínio T. Aquino JrAssistant Professor, Dept. of CS — FEI
Education
Foundations & continuous learning.
- 2025Applied Generative AI for Digital TransformationMIT Professional Education
- 2020Programming Lightning Web Components (DEX602)Salesforce
- 2019Programming Aura Components (DEX-601)Salesforce
- 2016Front End Frameworks (Backbone, Angular.js, Ember.js)Udacity by Google
- 2016CSSLP: Software Acceptance, Deployment, Operations, MaintenanceSkillsoft
- 2005–2009B.Sc. in Engineering (Computer Science)Centro Universitário FEI
- 2009Usability & Human-Computer Interaction (IHC)FEI
- 2008Computer Vision with OpenCV and JavaFEI
- 2000–2001Computer Technician — ProgrammerETEC
Publications
Peer-reviewed research.
- Dec 10, 2010
Web Design Content Management using Patterns and Anti-Patterns of Variable Interfaces with Multiple Profile Layers
IADIS Conferência Ibero-Americana WWW/Internet 2010 View on Google Scholar - Oct 25, 2008
Anti-patterns Supporting Documentation of Usability Problems
XII Simpósio de Informática da PUC-RS View on Google Scholar
Writing
From the blog.
Notes on AI, Salesforce engineering, and building developer tools.
Vibe coding: who's this for?Real examples of using AI tools like vibe coding and MCP servers for Salesforce work, and an honest take on who it's for.Read post 
VS Code Extension: Salesforce Metadata OpenerA no-friction VS Code extension to open Salesforce metadata directly in your org, right from the editor.Read post 
Custom Related List and Edit Modal Lightning Web ComponentsBuild a custom Related List with Lightning Web Components that links two objects, even without a formal relationship.Read post 
The Art of 'Good Enough': Balancing Efficiency and Brilliance in Software DesignWhy 'good enough' is often the smarter call in software design, balancing efficiency, budget, and pragmatism over chasing perfection.Read post 
How to mock formulas and read-only relationships in Apex tests?Use dependency injection to mock read-only fields like formula fields and child relationships in your Apex tests.Read post 
How to prepare for your Salesforce JavaScript Developer I CertificationHow to prepare for the Salesforce JavaScript Developer I certification using free learning paths on Trailhead.Read post
Beyond the keyboard
Interests.
- Coding
- Coffee
- Photography
- Soccer
- Travel
- Gaming
- Snowboarding
Contact
Let’s build something intelligent.
Open to principal software engineering, AI platform, and developer productivity roles. Have an interesting problem, opportunity, or idea worth discussing? Let’s talk.
Seattle, WA · USA