Enrique Trevino has spent plenty of days working under the hot Texas sun, roofing houses, building decks, and helping his father with construction jobs. These days, he’s traded his tool bet for a computer, and he’s especially grateful for one thing: air conditioning.
“I would take working in the AC using my brain any day than being outside roofing and building a deck,” he says.
As an AI Technician at DreamHost, Trevino works alongside the Software Development team, using artificial intelligence to build software and internal tools. It’s a career he couldn’t have imagined a few years ago when he was working overnight shifts at an Amazon warehouse and trying to figure out what to do next.
He enjoys the work so much now that he often spends his evenings doing more of it.
From Construction Sites to Software Development
Trevino grew up around construction. His father is a contractor, and although he spent years helping him on jobs, Trevino knew he didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps.
In 2002, he moved to Iowa and took a job at an Amazon warehouse, packing orders for 12 hours overnight. The repetitive work convinced him it was time to reconsider his future.
He returned to Texas in 2023, enrolled in school to study cybersecurity, and continued helping his father with construction projects.
That’s how he first met DreamHost’s VP of Software Development, Damian Nowak. Years earlier, Nowak had hired Trevino’s father for construction work. The two families got to know each other, but Trevino admits he was very shy so he barely spoke to Nowak when they first met. However, that changed in late 2024, when Nowak decided to get serious about fitness. Trevino, who had spent plenty of time in the gym, agreed to help train him.
During their workouts, Nowak learned about Trevino’s cybersecurity studies and interest in technology. He wondered whether Trevino could use AI to develop software, despite having little programming experience. He gave him a few assignments, let him work independently, and checked back to see what he’d built.
Trevino impressed him enough to land a job at DreamHost in May 2025. “And the rest is history,” he says.
Learning on the Job, With a Little Help From AI
Trevino’s first few months at DreamHost were intimidating.
“I didn’t know what JSON files were. I didn’t know how to structure code. I didn’t know Kubernetes. I didn’t know deployments,” he recalls. “I was green.”
He remembers lying awake at night, worrying about assignments and wondering whether he’d be able to figure things out.
Whenever he ran into a problem, he’d tell himself that if he could solve it, he’d finally stop doubting his abilities. Then another challenge would come along, and he’d make himself the same promise.
“Now I’ve reached a stage where not being able to fix something isn’t even in my mindset,” he says. “This might take me two hours and I’m going to get stressed out, but this is going to get fixed.”
Less than a year after joining DreamHost, Trevino has helped create tools for his colleagues, including a script that prepares MacBooks for AI development during internal workshops and tools that connect AI systems with other applications.
Seeing his work put to use has been especially rewarding. “I felt like the man,” he says.
He’s also found team members who share his enthusiasm for AI, and they regularly experiment with new models and trade ideas about what they can build.
“AI moves so fast,” he says. “It’s like you blink and there’s 10 new things.”
Still, Trevino laughs when people assume AI makes software development effortless.
There’s plenty of planning, troubleshooting, and trial and error involved. Knowing how to guide the technology matters just as much as having access to it.
“AI is the tool,” he explains. “The person controlling the tool is where the magic happens.”
His construction experience gives him a useful way to explain it. A contractor with a power drill can work faster than someone relying entirely on hand tools, but the drill won’t build a house on its own.
For Trevino, learning to work with AI has opened up possibilities he hadn’t considered before. He’s even replaced much of his old gaming time with coding.
“My new video games are just creating stuff,” he says.
His friends will invite him to join them on Discord, only to discover he’s working on another project.
“Dude, you just got off work,” they’ll tell him.
“I know,” he replies.
Outside DreamHost, he’s built websites, experimented with software that analyzes sports predictions from YouTube videos, and started creating content for a horror-themed YouTube channel.
“Now my creativity is completely unlocked,” he says. “I have a great idea, and then I can just, in like two, three hours it becomes reality.”
Finding Time Away From the Computer
When Trevino does take a break from coding, he enjoys going to the gym and spending time with his girlfriend, Makayla.
The couple loves amusement parks, even though Trevino admits he wasn’t always enthusiastic about roller coasters.
“I was scared of all the rides,” he says.
He didn’t want to look scared in front of his girlfriend, though, so he gave them a try. Now he’ll ride just about anything.
He’s also enjoying the flexibility of working remotely. After years of construction jobs and warehouse shifts, the possibility of working while traveling is especially appealing. He’d love to spend a month in Spain someday.
For now, he’s focused on continuing to learn at DreamHost. One of his goals is to contribute to the company’s customer-facing website or control panel and see something he built being used by customers.
He’s proud of how much his life has changed in such a short time, and he still gets excited when someone asks what he does for a living.
When asked about the one rule he lives by, Trevino has a ready answer.
“I am the builder of my reality.”
Interested in working alongside people like Enrique? Visit DreamHost’s careers page to learn more about opportunities to join the team. Next month, we’ll feature our Technical Copywriter who translates complex tech into plain language and experiences the world through synesthesia!