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Simone Ferrari

Software Engineer

Last updated: January 2024

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Summary & Bio

Passionate Software Engineer/Senior Developer
20+ years of experience in various phases of software product development, including architecture, design, implementation, testing, integrations and support.
10+ years of experience in managing customers on a technical level and in some cases also on a commercial level, mostly in relation to software solutions, but also regarding technical support/IT infrastructure management as well as research and implementation of IT solutions
I believe I am good at applying previous knowledge and experience to quickly grasp/use new and context-specific tools, environments, procedures and methodologies.
Always willing to adapt to new technologies and trends, although I think it is also good to specialize in some areas rather than do too much at once.
I am not a perfectionist but stand for structure, simplicity, well thought out code/design and reliable systems.
  • Italian/Greek born on June 6, 1974 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia age 49
  • I speak Italian native English excellent Amharic good French can get by
  • Hobbies and interests: Anything to do with IT, tech, Cars, bikes, engines, Motorsport, Science, Universe / Space / Sci-fi, Music, Productivity / time management, DIY
  • Organizations/Clubs: EMSA (Ethiopian Motor Sport Association, Gelada Riders Motorbike Club, Enduro Ethiopia

Experience

Nordic Medical Center

IT Admin / Software engineer

Logo of Nordic Medical Center
November 2020 – Present
Addis Ababa · Ethiopia
Fully in charge of IT infrastructure, including data centre, servers, backups and disaster recovery, security, networking, management of existing and introduction/implementation of new software systems, general end-user hardware/support
  • Developed a food ordering system to order in-house prepared patient meals using tablets, improving efficiency and patient care
  • Developed a booking system to better manage out-patient appointments with doctors and other hospital resources, greatly improving customer experience and resource optimization
  • Developed a point of sale solution integrated with the hospital management system and third party fiscal receipt system, greatly reducing the time required to issue invoices and better manage payments and sales reports
  • Developed a customer and visitor feedback system using tablets placed around the premises. This greatly helped to identify key metrics, happy and pain points, and overall customer satisfaction, which was very valuable in understanding where the business could improve in terms of customer service
  • Developed a notification system used by the various application used in the hospital to notify medical staff, customers, patients and IT personnel (monitoring)
  • Developed an analytics dashboard that collects and visualizes key performance indicators as well as other metrics, collected from the various applications in use.
  • Developed an IT asset management system with support for labelling, maintenance and assignment status tracking, and more
  • Designed and implementation of hospital wide wi-fi system using Ubiquiti tech.
  • Implemented IT infrastructure monitoring using the open source Zabbix solution.

Paga Group LTD

Software engineer - backend + frontend

Logo of Paga Group LTD
Dec 2020 – Apr 2023
Remote · Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • Contributed to the design of a next gen component of their main product Paga to manage POS terminals as well as back-end + UI development on their existing platform to support this.
  • Evolution, improvement and/or re-write of various internal tools used to manage the Paga platform.
  • Re-write of a customer facing portal used to on-board and manage agents.
  • Re-write of an internal tool to reverse financial transactions, using Svelte as the frontend and successfully integrating this modern approach into the existing Java+Spring stack

Abakon Systems

Founder

Logo of Abakon Systems
2005 – Dec 2020
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Development/implementation of custom software and other IT solutions
  • Developed and maintained for several custom desktop business applications for clients in various sectors (Hotel guest management, production tracking and labelling, hotel booking, IT assets management, network documentation management).
  • Developed and maintained several software products for the Ethiopian market (Restaurant POS, full HR solution, stock/inventory management)
  • IT consulting including analysis of requirements, design and implementations of IT solutions.
  • IT infrastructure management for various clients (servers and networks, applications, backup, fixed and mobile device management, on-site and off-site IT tech support)

Apposit LLC

Software engineer - backend + frontend

Logo of Apposit LLC
2010 – 2011
Addis Ababa · Ethiopia
Sold to Paga Tech LTD, Nigeria
  • Successful development of portions of the backend and admin UI for a couple of their products including a large electronic payments solution (Paga) using Java, Spring, Struts

Database Informatica Srl

Software engineer

Logo of Database Informatica Srl
1998 – 2005
Vignola · Italy
Started as a junior developer and progressed to Senior Software Engineer and team leader. Development/implementation (including architecture and design) of a wide range of successful internal and customer projects (web, desktop) including but not limited to:
  • warehouse management
  • appointments and reservations
  • e-commerce platform
  • digital signature application using smart cards
  • SMS management and sending system
  • Multiple of libraries for internal use
  • Desktop application framework
  • Web application framework
  • SSO web authentication system (single sign-on) functional to the shared management of users and related data (personal data and other) necessary for the various web systems/services offered.
  • Authentication system (back-end and web client) for a pilot project (the first in Italy at the time), under the direction of the city of Parma, for the supply of online services to citizens using the Italian Digital Identity Card

Education

Logo of Microsoft

Microsoft

1998 – 1998

Visual Basic MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional)

Logo of University of Modena, Italy

University of Modena, Italy

1992 – 1998

Uncompleted degrees in Civil Engineering first, and then Business and Economics. Not completed because they were not my passion and ultimately decided to pursue software engineering, which I taught myself during those years

Logo of Hillcrest Secondary School, Nairobi, Kenya

Hillcrest Secondary School, Nairobi, Kenya

1990 – 1992

GCE 'A' Level Maths, Physics, Economics, Italian

Logo of Sandford English Community School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Sandford English Community School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

1985 – 1990

GCE 'O' Level Maths, Physics, Economics, English, Art, Chemistry, Biology

Projects

Agg Auto update system for Windows desktop applications

  • Designed and architectured ground-up in C#
  • Successfully used in many applications to deliver safe and timely updates.

Skills

  • Languages: TypeScript, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Java, C#, VB.NET, SQL
  • Frameworks and Technologies: ASP.NET/Core, WinForms, Java Spring, SQLServer, Svelte(Kit), Tailwind CSS, Docker, Nginx, DevExpress WinForms, Ubiquiti Unifi, HPE Servers/Networking, PfSense, Sonicwall, NSIS
  • Tools and apps - Software engineering: Visual Studio, Rider, WebStorm, IntelliJ Idea, Git, Crystal Reports, Postman, NSIS
  • Tools and apps - IT Admin: Portainer, VMWare, Unraid, Paperless-Ngx, Zabbix, Tailscale, Esper MDM, ManageEngine MDM, Veeam backup and recovery, Bitdefender GravityZone, Microsoft 365 admin, Teamviewer, Anydesk
  • Tools and apps - General: Excel, Word, Miro
  • Platforms: Linux, Windows, Android, Linode