Software Engineer
Joshua Mercado
Technical Program Manager
Projects
University of Florida
MIRAGE: The Phantom Web and Its Real Footprint
Undergraduate research with Professor Swarup Bhunia and mentor Habibur Rahaman on the energy, cooling-water, and carbon footprint of AI bots, bots driving other bots, and AI-powered search.
3 footprints: energy, water, and carbon
UF Health
UF Stride
A prototype for UF Health’s PMO: mark equipment on a floorplan once, and the estimate, device register, and deployment tracking follow. It runs offline, OCR included.
3→1 places each requirement is entered
Independent
Bingo
An AI learning workspace in design: your goal and sources become a study plan, a personal tutor, and realistic practice, using the models you choose.
Any AI model you choose, including self-hosted
UF Health
Zebra Modernization Program
Clinical mobile devices from acquired campuses moved onto one MDM platform, OS, application stack, and security baseline.
2,500+ mobile devices brought onto one MDM
Independent
WardrobeAI
An AI wardrobe and outfit planner for iOS, Android, and web, designed on AWS: photos become clean catalog images, and Claude on Bedrock ranks and explains outfits from clothes you own.
3 platforms from one Flutter app
UF Health
M&A and new facility integrations
Bringing about 15 new locations, from acquired practices to new facilities, onto UF Health’s networks, devices, and systems, on programs budgeted from $1M to $20M.
100+ facilities in scope
AWS
Agent DataSphere
An agentic AI platform with 17k lines of Python in production. An orchestrator agent on Amazon Bedrock and Claude combines semantic search, knowledge-graph reasoning, and conversation memory.
Context for AI agents, mapped from your data into a knowledge graph
UF Health
Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit
IT for UF Health’s mobile stroke unit, an ambulance with a CT scanner that starts stroke treatment on scene, and for the building it brings patients to.
<8 weeks from kickoff to IT delivery
Lantern Games Studio
Game Shop Simulator
A co-op business simulation game for Steam on Windows and macOS. I lead the game’s development in C#, including the players, NPCs, networking, and interaction system, and I’m its product manager.
1–8 players, cooperative
OnSpot Dermatology
Enterprise IT cost optimization
The company’s first internal technical manager: infrastructure, security, and SaaS roadmaps across 10+ sites, with renegotiated vendor contracts.
20% cost savings on a $1M budget
TelyRx
Pharmacy e-commerce platform
The storefront and provider portal for a fast-growing online pharmacy, built and run on AWS with infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and Datadog, within HIPAA and PCI DSS.
0→1 as founding engineer
Florida DOT
Hurricane Starlink deployments
SpaceX Starlink deployments that restored critical communications across impacted regions after Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
150 Starlink units deployed
OnSpot Dermatology
Multi-clinic IT automation
Python automations for network and IT operations, plus API integrations with Jira Service Management, across 10+ clinics and the mobile clinics.
50% faster triage and resolution
Florida DOT
Automated SCCM-to-MECM migration
A PowerShell script that moved each PC from SCCM to MECM on its own: uninstall, reboot, wait for it to come back, install, reboot, and report, replacing about an hour of hands-on work per device.
3,000+ devices, one PowerShell script
Showing all 14 projects, both tracks side by side.
Experience
Amazon Web Services
Solutions Architect AI/ML Intern
May–Aug 2026
Lantern Games Studio
Founder & Lead Software Engineer
Jan 2026 – now
UF Health
Technical Project Manager
Dec 2024 – May 2026
TelyRx
Senior Software Engineer, Infrastructure
Nov 2024 – May 2025
HealthTECH Resources
IT Consultant
2024–2026
OnSpot Dermatology
Technical Program Manager
Jul–Nov 2024
OnSpot Dermatology
Network & Systems Engineer
Jun 2023 – Jul 2024
Florida Department of Transportation
Technical Support Engineer II
Jun 2022 – Jun 2023
Showing every role
Education
University of Florida
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
4.0 / 4.0 GPA · September 2022 – December 2027
Undergraduate researcher · MIRAGE: The Phantom Web and Its Real Footprint
- Coursework
- Data Structures & Algorithms / Algorithm Abstraction & Design / Operating Systems / Database Systems / Software Engineering / Natural Language Processing / Artificial Intelligence & Heuristics / Computational Linear Algebra / Calculus III & Analytic Geometry / Physics II with Calculus
Certifications
Amazon Web Services
- AI Practitioner
- Cloud Practitioner
- Developer – Associate
- Machine Learning Engineer – Associate
- Solutions Architect – Associate
- Solutions Architect – Professional
CompTIA
- Network+ CE
- Security+ CE
Meta
- Full-Stack Web Development
Microsoft
- Azure Data Fundamentals
- Azure Fundamentals
Project Management Institute
- Project Management Professional (PMP)
Red Hat
- Certified System Administrator (RHCSA)
Bio
I was born and raised in New York City, and I’ve been hooked on technology since I was 13. I moved to Florida for university, and today I’m studying computer science at the University of Florida.
For the past 5+ years, I’ve worked as a software engineer, solutions architect, AI/ML engineer, and technical program manager, at large enterprises and fast-growing startups.
I’m a proven leader and a hands-on engineer, and I love tackling hard problems.
Off the clock, I play video games and soccer, read, explore new places, and train in MMA: kickboxing and jiu-jitsu.
