Software architect and product engineer with roots in enterprise integration and over two decades of hands-on experience across Java ecosystems, distributed systems, and cloud platforms. Co-founder of SoftInstigate and creator of RESTHeart, an open-source backend platform for MongoDB used in production worldwide.
Having seen the same class of problems from inside a technology vendor, a global digital agency, and a product company I built myself gives me a perspective that is difficult to acquire any other way. A recurring part of my work sits between business and IT: translating business requirements into technical decisions, and technical constraints into language that product and leadership can act on. That translation layer is often where projects stall, and where I tend to be most useful.
I bring hands-on expertise in Java, MongoDB, AWS, and distributed systems. My architecture advice is grounded in what actually works under production load. AI-augmented development is part of how I work, treated as an infrastructure problem built on top of existing data, processes, and systems.
I take on fractional CTO and advisory engagements where that combination of judgment and hands-on experience matters.
Selected work
Luxury e-commerce
Technical lead for a global luxury brand's e-commerce platform in China. Coordinated distributed engineering teams across Berlin, Geneva, and Shanghai.
Retail, backend modernization
Technical lead for modernization and stabilization of a high-volume production backend serving 2,600+ stores and 9,500+ terminals: 141M+ documents, 1TB+ data.
Mobility & public sector
Traffic data platform integrating 15+ regional and national sources. Ten years in production without critical outages.
Environmental compliance
Architectural assessment of a national waste tracking platform: 1M+ users, 7M API calls/hr, p95 < 300ms. Performance analysis, bottleneck identification, and strategic roadmap for load distribution and caching.
Enterprise content
Supporting the technical evolution of Crownpeak Cloud Content as a Service, a content platform for global brands across Europe and North America.
Open source platform
RESTHeart: 10+ years of continuous development. Agent-ready backend for MongoDB, adopted in production by startups and Fortune 500 companies worldwide.
Career
SoftInstigate, Co-Founder & Technical Advisor (2014 – present)
Engineering and advisory work across product development and client engagements,
with a consistent thread: continuous automation of development and delivery processes,
reducing friction between code and production. Work has spanned enterprise architecture,
cloud transformation, and technical leadership for greenfield SaaS products across
automotive, retail, sustainability, and public sector. Current focus: backend architecture
and platform strategy for teams where AI-augmented development shifts what's feasible
with small, senior engineering groups.
AKQA, Technical Architect, Berlin (2013 – 2014)
Technical architect for enterprise digital transformation at a global digital agency.
Delivered the Montblanc e-commerce platform in China, coordinating distributed
engineering teams across Berlin, Geneva, and Shanghai.
Sourcesense, Delivery Manager (2011 – 2013)
Led a consulting team delivering open-source enterprise solutions across finance,
telecom, and public sector. Combined technical leadership with commercial responsibilities.
Alfresco, Senior Solutions Engineer, Italy (2010 – 2011)
Supported the launch of Alfresco's Italian market operations. Pre-sales consulting and
technical engagements for enterprise content management.
Earlier career (1997 – 2010)
Progressive career across enterprise integration, distributed systems, and software
research: lead SOA architect at Sun Microsystems for Italy and the EMEA region,
SOA/EAI consulting at SeeBeyond, founding an independent consulting practice,
and research in computational geometry and machine learning at the Università degli Studi di Milano.
Open source
RESTHeart —
The agent-ready backend for MongoDB (Java, GraalVM)
Facet —
Data-driven web framework: turn APIs into HTML, zero code
Ermes Mail —
Async e-mail library and CLI for Java
All projects on GitHub →