About

Engineer, technical leader, founder.

Software engineer and technical leader with 15+ years building and securing products across diverse industries — from hands-on engineering to CTO to founder, always at the intersection of leadership, product delivery, and security.

My relationship with software and cybersecurity started in 2005 when I built my first malware removal tool at age twelve. It was downloaded over three hundred thousand times and covered by BBC News, RAIUNO, ANSA, and Panorama. That early experience shaped how I think about building things: solve real problems, ship them, and take security seriously from day one.

Twenty years later I’m still doing exactly that — only the surface area has grown.

What I do now

  • I run LeaderNova, a tech-leadership and product studio based in Puglia, Italy. We serve clients across 8+ countries, embedding as outcome owners rather than vendors. Our work spans fractional CTO leadership, dedicated product teams, AI and business automation, custom SaaS development, and vibe-code security audits.
  • I support Vinted as Product Engineer, contributing to high-performance marketplace platform development at scale.
  • I serve as Vice President at PugliaTechs, a nonprofit working to transform Puglia into a global tech hub by connecting startups, investors, institutions, and professionals. Co-organising PugliaHack 2026.
  • I work as a computer forensics consultant for law firms and law enforcement in criminal and civil proceedings, and contribute open-source tools for forensic evidence acquisition and analysis.

Areas of focus

  • Technical Leadership — Fractional CTO engagements, CTO mentorship, delivery system design, roadmap alignment, and engineering culture.
  • Product & Engineering — End-to-end product development for SaaS, marketplace, and automation platforms. Modern stack: Next.js, NestJS, FastAPI, Supabase, Vercel.
  • Cybersecurity — DevSecOps, web application security, penetration testing, vibe-code security audits for AI-generated codebases, OWASP Top 10 and OWASP Top 10 for LLMs.
  • AI & Automation — Business process automation, AI agent development, systems integration, n8n workflow orchestration.
  • Digital Forensics — Mobile and web evidence acquisition, OSINT/SOCMINT, expert witness in criminal and civil proceedings.

Career

Operating roles across product, engineering, and security.

A decade and a half across founder, CTO, and engineering remits — spanning a global consultancy, an M&A exit, and a habit of taking on more remit than the title suggests.

  • Feb 2025 — Present
    Bari, Italy

    CEO & Founder · LeaderNova

    Tech-leadership and product studio

    Serving startups, scaling businesses, and ops-heavy SMBs across EU, US, and APAC markets. Five service lines: Fractional CTO & Strategy, Dedicated Product Teams, Custom SaaS Development, AI & Business Automation, and Vibe-Code Security Audits.

  • May 2025 — Present
    Remote

    Product Engineer · Vinted

    Marketplace platform at scale

    Contributing to marketplace platform development at scale.

  • Jul 2025 — Present
    Bari, Italy

    Vice President · PugliaTechs

    Nonprofit · Tech ecosystem

    Positioning Puglia as a global tech hub. Connecting startups, investors, institutions, and professionals across AI, cleantech, life sciences, space, and agritech. Co-organising PugliaHack 2026.

  • 2021 — 2025
    Remote

    Chief Technology Officer · Onport (Farfetch Group, acquired)

    E-commerce marketplace automation SaaS

    Serving 200+ clients connected to 30,000+ vendors, managing millions of orders per year. Joined in 2021 and took on broader technical leadership remits over four years, ultimately serving as CTO. Led technology strategy, product roadmap, engineering teams, and cloud infrastructure. Oversaw the application security program and supported technical due diligence behind both of Onport’s exits — acquisition by Farfetch in 2022 and a second M&A in 2025.

  • 2011 — 2021

    Founder · Francy Solutions

    Software development & consultancy

    Founded and led a software development and consultancy firm for a decade. Led a global network of 80+ contractors across projects in healthcare, e-commerce, warehouse management, hospitality, trading, and government systems. Designed and delivered integrations across 60+ third-party APIs. Performed web application security assessments and trained engineering teams on secure development practices.

I solve complex technical problems with the objectivity of code and data, while keeping an empathetic approach to the people involved. If it doesn’t create genuine human value, it’s not worth building.
Operating principle

When the laptop is off: travelling, fitness, music, DJ-ing.

Tooling & stack

The toolkit.

Modern, pragmatic, opinionated where it matters. Choices are made for compounding leverage and clean handover — not for novelty.

Product & Engineering
TypeScriptJavaScriptReactNext.jsNestJSExpressJSNode.jsPythonFastAPIDjangoPHPLaravel.NET CoreC#JavaPostgreSQLMySQLSQL ServerNoSQLRabbitMQHL7k6
Cloud & Infrastructure
GCPSupabaseVercelCloud RunPulumiCloudflare Zero TrustAWSDockerLinux
AI & Automation
AI AgentsLLMsAgnoLangChainLangfuseTemporalTrigger.devn8nAnthropicOpenAIVertex AILiveKitHeyGen
Security & Forensics
DevSecOpsOWASPSemgrepTrivyNucleiTruffleHogGitleaksMobSFMOBILeditAutopsyCAINEWazuhDatabase Security