Federico Blancato
Engineering manager and hands-on full-stack developer with 20+ years of experience, including eight years running fully remote teams. I lead cross-functional teams across product discovery, architecture, delivery, and operations, with recent work spanning large-scale education platforms, content systems, search, and applied AI. Certified Anthropic Partner.
Experience
Infinitas Learning (Remote)
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Engineering Manager
2021
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Present

Infinitas Learning is a pan-European education company that emerged from the joining of different publishing companies. I helped transform the organisation from a traditional software delivery model to a modern agile approach, while shipping digital education platforms serving millions of daily users.

  • Led three cross-functional engineering teams (~20 developers) in replacing multiple monolithic legacy products with cloud-native platforms, defining the technical roadmap, coordinating delivery milestones, and steering migrations.
  • Architected Edify, a production-grade content authoring and delivery platform spanning CMS, editor, Word add-in, NetSuite integrations, asset management, AI workflows, and CI/CD.
  • Supported 9 active product and engineering workstreams with 259 stakeholders across content, platform, deployment, integration, and delivery workflows.
  • Drove production observability and issue analysis across API validation, patching flows, alerting, Kubernetes logs, and service-level diagnostics.
TES Global (Remote)
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Senior Software Engineer
2018
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2021

TES is a professional collaboration and talent network with over 13.7 million education professionals. I worked on a Docker and Kubernetes microservice architecture using Node.js, MongoDB, Redis, RabbitMQ, and SOLR.

  • Built an internal CRM to manage agency supply requests and support high-volume recruitment workflows.
  • Delivered a teacher-search MVP connecting schools with suitable candidates, from product discovery through production implementation.
  • Refactored and re-architected legacy SOLR ingestion and search applications serving ~4M searches/day, improving maintainability and operational reliability.
  • Mentored junior engineers and raised team practices around delivery, testing, and production support.
Zoro
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CIO (Milan)
2017
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2018

ZORO was a conversational AI startup focused on helping companies build and manage NLP-driven chatbots. I worked on it from day one, helped define the product niche, and led a small team to develop the MVP. We delivered AI-assisted customer-service bots to Italian companies such as Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli, Optima Italia, and 4Gifters. ZORO was acquired in 2018 by Citel Group.

  • Architected the NLP conversation engine for intent detection, scripted flows, and real-time message orchestration in Python 3 with async/aiohttp and Redis pub/sub.
  • Built APIs and admin tools in Django and Django REST Framework to configure bots, manage conversational content, and support customer-specific deployments.
  • Developed a React and Redux analytics dashboard with conversation monitoring, AI performance visibility, and real-time human takeover.
  • Set up automatic deployments on AWS with CI.
Termostore
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CTO (Milan)
2015
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2017

Termostore built a full-service HVAC installation business backed by e-commerce, CRM, field operations, and fulfilment software. I helped envision and build the platform that connected sales, installation teams, and post-service operations.

  • Architected operational workflows from customer acquisition to installation scheduling, field execution, and post-service support.
  • Coordinated a team of 10 developers to deliver a custom Python CRM integrated with Magento 2 e-commerce.
  • Developed a React Native field app supporting installation teams on-site.
  • Automated Azure deployments with CI to improve release consistency.
Earlier Experience
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Founder / CTO / Consultant roles
2004
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2016

Earlier technical leadership across agencies and startups in Milan and London, spanning mobile products, real-time systems, web platforms, and client delivery.

  • Co-founded The Snake, a mobile-focused digital agency delivering React Native, Django, Django REST Framework, native mobile apps, and client websites.
  • As CTO at Stickerholics, developed a real-time anonymous social network in Node.js, WebSockets, and comet.io, plus an Objective-C iOS app with real-time camera integrations.
  • As CTO and consultant at Carta e Matita, delivered PHP, Django, WordPress, and iOS projects for clients including Avène, San Marco Terreal, Mondadori, Widiba, WEBank, BPM, and Terre des Hommes Italia.
Technical Skills
Current focus:
  • TypeScript, JavaScript, Node.js, React, GraphQL, Rust
  • Technical leadership, platform modernisation, applied AI, and remote team delivery
Languages:
  • TypeScript, JavaScript, Rust, Python, PHP, Java, C
  • Working knowledge of Haskell and Elm
Data/search:
  • PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Redis
  • SOLR, Elasticsearch, Qdrant, vector search
Frameworks/tools:
  • Express, Next.js, Astro, Django, Django REST Framework
  • React Native, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, CI/CD
AI/data science:
  • Certified Anthropic Partner; retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector databases
  • Conversational AI, NLP systems, intent detection, and AI-assisted product workflows
Systems:
  • Linux system administration on major distributions
  • AWS and Azure deployment automation
Languages
  • English: Fluent
  • Italian: Mother tongue
Interests
Sailing, fishing, golfing, reading technical articles, and experimenting with new technologies.