Resume

Twenty-five years of building for the web, in full. The short version is on the about page.

Experience

  1. May 2023 — Present

    Hostinger

    1. Head of WordPress

      A product management role. I own the WordPress product line at Hostinger — roadmap, strategy and delivery — for a platform running more than six million WordPress installations, and lead the cross-functional team that builds it.

      Products I have led and shipped with my team:

      • AI Website Builder for WordPress — describe a site in plain language and get a structured, themed WordPress site back, ready to edit.
      • Hostinger AI — an AI agent inside the WordPress dashboard, plus an MCP server implementation so external tools such as Claude Code and Cursor can operate a site directly.
      • Hostinger Tools — site settings, maintenance mode, security hardening, HTTPS and WWW enforcement, and llms.txt generation, all from the WordPress admin.
      • Hostinger Easy Onboarding — a guided first run that walks new users through connecting a domain, setting up professional email and the rest of the initial setup.
      • Hostinger Reach — the WordPress connector for Hostinger Reach, Hostinger’s email marketing service: it captures subscribers from forms on the site and hands them to Reach, where campaigns are built and sent from the customer’s own domain.
      • Hostinger Ecommerce — selling on WordPress through the Hostinger Ecommerce platform, covering products, orders, inventory, payments and analytics.
      • Hostinger Affiliate Marketing Tools — search the Amazon and Mercado Livre catalogues from inside the block editor and drop in a single product, a list or a comparison table, without leaving WordPress.
      • Smart WordPress auto-updates — core, plugin and theme updates applied automatically, with a backup taken before each one, security-only or all-updates policies, and Patchstack vulnerability data behind the security option. Part of the implementation is a must-use plugin on the install.

      Alongside these, a number of smaller features and integrations across the WordPress hosting experience that are not worth listing individually.

  2. Jul 2002 — May 2023

    Black Studio

    1. Head of Technology

      Jan 2020 — May 2023

      Black Studio is an Italian web agency specialising in custom web development, graphic design, hosting and strategic consulting. As Head of Technology I was responsible for:

      • Technical analysis, consultancy, project management and delivery of digital projects, with a particular focus on custom WordPress work
      • System administration of the hosting infrastructure (400+ websites, 1,000+ mailboxes)
      • Supervising a fully remote team of web developers
      • Relationships with customers and suppliers
    2. Lead Engineer

      Jan 2015 — Dec 2019
      • Technical analysis, consultancy, project management and delivery of web projects, with a particular focus on custom WordPress work.
      • System administration of the hosting infrastructure.
      • Leading a fully remote team of web developers.
      • Technical support for customers.
      • Speaking at tech conferences.
    3. Lead Web Developer

      Jan 2010 — Dec 2014
      • Building websites, with a particular focus on custom WordPress projects.
      • Developing custom WordPress plugins, both for clients and for free distribution — including the popular Black Studio TinyMCE Widget, which has passed 10 million downloads.
      • Leading a fully remote team of web developers.
      • Technical support for customers.
    4. Senior Web Developer

      Jul 2006 — Dec 2009
      • Development of BlackRay, a custom CMS that paired state-of-the-art technology with ease of use for customers, and was used to build dozens of client websites. Features included intuitive content management for pages, news, events, products, image galleries and attachments; native multilingual support; newsletter and SMS; user management; a modular structure for extra functionality; and customisable themes.
      • Development of dynamic websites for the agency’s customers.
      • Technologies: PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Flash, Dreamweaver.
    5. Web Developer

      Jul 2002 — Jun 2006
      • Development of static and dynamic websites for the agency’s customers.
      • Technologies: PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Flash, Dreamweaver.
  3. Dec 2015 — May 2023

    Codeable

    1. Certified WordPress Expert Developer

      • Codeable is a popular outsourcing platform for WordPress projects, with hand-picked and pre-screened experts.
      • Completed 250+ projects for 50+ different clients, with an overall rating of 4.98/5.
  4. Apr 2001 — Dec 2009

    BagnoliNET srl

    1. Web Developer

      • Development of static and dynamic websites for the agency’s customers, either built from scratch or based on existing open-source CMS platforms.
      • Technologies: PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Dreamweaver, PhpNuke, PostNuke, MD-Pro.
  5. Jul 2007 — Dec 2007

    Amusement Project

    1. Web Developer

      • Development of custom functionality for the Parksmania website, the leading Italian portal for amusement parks.
      • Technologies: PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Dreamweaver, Joomla, phpBB.
  6. Jan 1994 — Jun 2003

    Self-employed

    1. C++ Developer

      • Development of video games distributed as freeware and shareware. Among them Biliardo, a free billiards simulation, became very popular — several million downloads and reviews in specialised magazines and websites.
      • Consultancy on billiards video game development for a private company.
      • Development of simple management applications and promotional video games for large companies (Accenture, Alternative Spa) and private clients.
  7. Sep 2000 — Jun 2001

    “C. Cattaneo” Technical Institute

    1. Electrical Engineering Teacher

      • In charge of the electrical engineering chair.
      • Teaching the fundamentals of electrical circuits and machines.

Education

Master’s Degree — Software Engineering

University of Bologna · Bologna, Italy

Specialisation: Computer Systems and Applications.

Experimental thesis in combinatorial optimisation, entitled “Heuristic algorithms for the Periodic Vehicle Routing Problem”.

100/100 with honours

Professional Diploma — Electrical Engineering

ITIS C. Cattaneo · Castelnovo ne’ Monti, Italy

Five-year technical diploma covering electrical circuits, machines and industrial systems.

60/60

Certificates

  • Qualification to practise the profession of engineer

    University of Bologna · Jun 2009

  • Certified Codeable Expert Developer

    Codeable · Nov 2015

  • Google Professional Workspace Administrator

    Google · Sep 2020

  • Google Workspace Deployment Services Credential

    Google · Sep 2020

  • cPanel Professional Certification (CPP)

    cPanel · Apr 2020

  • cPanel & WHM Administrator Certification (CWA)

    cPanel · May 2020

  • cPanel & WHM Sales Professional (CPSP)

    cPanel · May 2020

  • Scrum Fundamentals Certified

    SCRUMstudy · Jun 2017