Need a trusted Rails engineer to help your team ship faster?
Whether you’re racing against a deadline, modernizing a legacy app, or need performance/security improvements - I can help.
👋 Who I Am
I’m Wagner Matos - a senior Ruby on Rails developer with 14+ years of experience delivering production-grade applications across fintech, govtech, healthtech, and e-commerce.
I work with agencies and product teams as a fractional contributor, available for:
- 🔁 Retainer engagements
- 🛠️ Scoped upgrade/performance projects
- 💼 Agency subcontracting (overflow or delivery support)
✅ Services I Offer
I plug into existing teams quickly and deliver high-leverage engineering work:
- 🔄 Rails Upgrades (e.g., 4.2 → 7.1)
- 🚀 Performance Audits & Tuning
- 🔐 Security Hardening & CVE Patching
- 🧪 Test Suite Optimization & CI Speedups
- 🛠️ Legacy Code Refactors & Backlog Rescue
- 💬 API Integrations & Feature Delivery
- ⚙️ Background Jobs & Queue Monitoring
- 💼 Overflow Support for Busy Sprints
🤝 Flexible Engagement Models
| Model | Description |
|---|---|
| Hourly | For ad hoc or urgent issues |
| Monthly Retainer | 10–40 hours/month reserved availability |
| Scoped Projects | Fixed-price upgrades, audits, or integrations |
All engagements include clear documentation, async-friendly communication, and senior-level execution.
💡 Example Results
✅ Rails Upgrade: Upgraded a legacy Rails 5.2 app to 7.1 in < 2 weeks. Fixed Zeitwerk loader issues and improved performance by 40%.
✅ Performance Audit: Eliminated 18 N+1 queries and added caching, reducing Heroku dyno usage by 30% without impacting features.
✅ Secure Payments: Integrated Stripe Connect for a multi-vendor SaaS with PCI-compliant tokenized flow and webhook processing.
🔐 Security & CVE Patching
Security is often overlooked in mature Rails apps. I can help:
- Patch known CVEs in dependencies (e.g., via
bundler-audit, GitHub advisories) - Upgrade vulnerable gems (e.g., Devise, Nokogiri, ActionPack)
- Set up encrypted credentials, 2FA enforcement, SSL, and secure headers
- Harden authentication & background job queues
🎯 Ideal Clients
- Rails agencies in need of fractional help
- Product teams with legacy Rails apps
- Tech leads under pressure to deliver
- Teams planning a Rails 7.1 upgrade
- Anyone in need of a senior dev without a full-time hire
📅 Let’s Talk
If you’re a founder, CTO, or delivery lead looking to ship faster and safer with senior Rails support - let’s talk.
📩 Or email: hello@wagnermatos.co.uk
“Wagner has been instrumental in helping us modernize our Rails codebase. Reliable, proactive, and deeply knowledgeable.”
Need expert Rails help without the full-time hire?
Let’s build something great together.