About
I'm Javier Cicchelli. 26 years in software, 17 of them on mobile — and I still write the code I'm accountable for. Röck+Cöde is the name I work under.
I started working professionally in 2000, while still doing my software engineering degree, and spent the first decade building the services and systems behind the screen. When the iPhone opened up I moved to mobile, and have since built for every Apple platform, Android and the web — still writing the services behind them, often with Bluetooth, NFC or embedded hardware in the loop.
Leading has taken as many of those years: as tech lead and interim head of mobile, owning roadmaps, running delivery, mentoring engineers and hiring the next ones. Most companies hire the strategist, the lead and the engineer as 3 people. You get them in 1 — so the roadmap, the architecture and the pull request are made by someone accountable for all 3.
How I work
01
Boring, proven solutions over clever ones. Every layer has to earn its place by making the next change cheaper — if it doesn't, it goes.
02
Every technical choice is weighed against the team you have, the market you're in and, at least, the next 12 months — then written down, with the trade-offs, so nobody has to guess later.
03
Leading doesn't mean leaving the editor. I review, I pair, I take the hard ticket myself — and I ship alongside the team every week, so my estimates come from the codebase, not from a slide.
04
I work inside your rituals and tools rather than importing mine, and I plan my own exit from day one: when I leave, the people, the docs and the pipeline can carry it without me.
Products I own
The products I run under Röck+Cöde as engineer, product owner and business in one: I find the gap, decide what to build and what to leave out, ship it and make it pay. No client, no brief — the clearest view of how I weigh product and business against code.
Amsterdam's guide to the loud half of town — rock, metal, punk, hardcore, goth and industrial. Every gig, club night, venue, record shop and screening pulled into 1 place instead of 10; curated by people who were in the room, no algorithm and no ads. The same crew books and hosts its own nights.
Concept · Design · Engineering · Promotion
Open source I maintain
The open-source Swift libraries, templates and API clients I maintain under Röck+Cöde — from Embedded Swift hardware bindings to cross-platform native clients — written the way I write client code, so you can read it before you hire the engineer.
Sample apps I wrote
Complete, documented apps written to a brief in a few days — the same ground-up decisions I'd make on your project, at a size you can read in an afternoon. Every choice is explained in the README; none are maintained, by design.
What clients say
“Such a hardworking developer, with an approachable and highly helpful attitude for every type of question. His leadership skills and his knowledge are unmatched.”
Rock & Roll
Tell me what you're building, where it's stuck, and when you need it.
Available March 2027 · Amsterdam, hybrid or remote
