I wrote my first production code in 2000 — C/C++ for a software house in São Paulo, Brazil. Since then, I've lived through every major paradigm shift in our industry: from procedural to object-oriented, monoliths to microservices, on-prem to cloud, Web2 to Web3.
At Credit Suisse, I led the technical implementation of a new investment fund management platform, migrating from monolithic legacy systems to a microservices architecture using Rust — long before Rust was fashionable. I designed and built a sophisticated Asset Pricing Engine from the ground up.
At HSBC, I led the Global Standards regulatory project in Brazil, liaising with multidisciplinary teams across the US and UK to develop enhanced anti-money laundering solutions within Global Banking & Markets. At Rabobank, I led cybersecurity programs and partnered with the Netherlands core banking team on global AML solutions.
These weren't startup experiments — they were mission-critical systems at some of the world's largest financial institutions, where failure meant regulatory consequences and real financial impact.
At Thoughtworks — one of the most respected software consultancies in the world — I built DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and cross-chain interoperability systems. I delivered solutions for clients including Voyager, ZeroHash, FTX, and Binance. I implemented zero-knowledge proofs at the protocol level and architected EVM-compatible systems.
Thoughtworks taught me something crucial: how to deliver transformational change at scale. Not just writing code, but changing how organizations think about and build software.
At UpSide, I designed and engineered a multifaceted DeFi protocol integrating automated liquidity vaults, decentralized lending markets, and leveraged trading — securing over $1B in TVL. I pioneered novel liquid staking solutions that capture and distribute MEV rewards, and built integrations with protocols like Kamino, Jito, Aave, and Solend.
Most recently, at Neon Labs, I've been working at the intersection of Solana, zero-knowledge proofs, and EVM compatibility — building the infrastructure that lets Ethereum protocols run natively on Solana. This is the bleeding edge of systems engineering.
Throughout my career, I've never stopped learning or teaching. I've published three technical books — on Rust ownership, the OOP-to-Rust mental model shift, and Zig programming. I earned a MicroMasters from MIT in Statistics & Data Science, completed the UCLA Executive Leadership Program, earned an MBA from USP (the top university in Latin America), and I'm currently pursuing my MS in Computer Science at CU Boulder with a specialization in Applied Cryptography.
I say all this not to impress — but to make a point: I've been through paradigm shifts before. Every time, the same pattern plays out. There's fear, then hype, then a quiet period where the engineers and companies who did the hard work of understanding the architecture of the new paradigm pull ahead. Everyone else scrambles to catch up.
AI is the biggest shift yet. And I'm here to make sure you're in the first group.