Fernando BevilacquaSoftware engineering · Technical leadership
Fernando Bevilacqua / Engineering & leadership

Engineering complex software.
Making teams better at building it.

I'm a software engineer and technical leader with 20+ years across enterprise SaaS, distributed systems, developer tooling, AI and open source. Currently CTO / Head of Software at Optidata.

20+ years engineering · PhD in Informatics / HCI · Open-source maintainer
View engineering work Read my writing ↗
An imagined portrait of Fernando floating above Earth in a vintage spacesuit, holding a rugged laptop.
Personal exploration program / Est. 2009
20+ yearsBuilding software and products
PhDHCI, computer vision and AI
32% moreTasks with a smaller department*
Open sourceCreator, maintainer and contributor

*Comparing January–July 2026 with the same period in 2025, the development department completed 32% more tasks with average staffing down from 17 to 9. Read the published account ↗

Mission record / 01

Selected impact

Products shipped, engineering systems improved, and tools shared with other developers.

Platform / Optidata

Enterprise collaboration platform

Architected a SaaS spanning drive, office, chat, video, social, calendar and email around tenant-level federation. Customers can use dedicated infrastructure and keep data in their chosen country. It became the company’s second-highest grossing product.

Explore the work
Engineering system / Optidata

More delivery from a smaller team

Across the development department, average staffing fell from 17 to 9 while completed tasks rose 32% year over year. From January to July 2026, tasks per month rose from 170 to 348. The work involved training, automation, process changes and AI.

Explore the work
Developer experience / Open source

Tools for the people building the product

Built a browser-based game IDE, created and maintained cvui for OpenCV, and contributed to game development tooling. The work connects API design, documentation and developer workflow.

Explore the work
Operating principles / 02

How I work

Architecture serves change

I work toward boundaries a team can understand and evolve as the product changes. Infrastructure choices matter when they improve delivery, reliability or user experience.

Improve the engineering system

Tooling, review, documentation and training shape what a team can ship. I treat that workflow as a system worth designing and measuring.

Build team capability

I share context and develop practices that let more people make sound technical decisions, rather than routing every hard problem through one person.

Stay close to the problem

Research, healthcare software, enterprise products and games taught me to understand constraints before choosing a technology.

Selected work / 03

Work worth a closer look

01 / Enterprise SaaSCollaboration platform at OptidataProduct · Architecture · Leadership ↗ 02 / Engineering productivityTooling and AI-assisted deliveryWorkflow · Measurement · Training ↗ 03 / HealthcareMedical imaging and speech technologySystems · APIs · Research ↗ 04 / Developer toolsCodebot, cvui and Flixel StudioOpen source · Developer experience ↗ 05 / ResearchRemote emotion detectionPhD · Computer vision · HCI ↗ 06 / GamesRyudragon and Decadium StudiosCo-founder · Nearly 300,000 players ↗

Explore the project archive ↗

Flight history / 04

Experience

Overlapping roles reflect consulting and teaching alongside product work.

  1. OptidataCTO / Head of Software
  2. AmplimedTechnology Consultant · technical debt, architecture and process
  3. AnimatiSoftware Engineer · radiology information systems and medical imaging
  4. Iara HealthSoftware Engineer / Architect · speech technology for healthcare
  5. Federal University of Fronteira SulAdjunct Senior Lecturer · computer science and HCI research
  6. Decadium StudiosCo-founder / Software Engineer · games and supporting tools
Field notes / 05

Thinking in public

I’ve written about software and experiments since 2009. Start with my essay on AI and developer work, then browse the complete logbook.

Read the AI essay ↗   Writing archive ↗

Personnel file / 001

The person behind the helmet

I’m Fernando Bevilacqua, currently CTO and Head of Software at Optidata. I have a PhD in Informatics from the University of Skövde, a master’s in Computation and a BSc in Computer Science from UFSM. I still care about curiosity, games, teaching and the open web.

Research and publications ↗   GitHub ↗