SIMONE DI COLA, PHD

Blockchain Developer | DeFi Engineer | Technical Lead

Nottingham, UK.

About

PhD-qualified Software Engineering Leader with over a decade of experience, specializing in building large-scale, high-performance systems from enterprise payment solutions to cutting-edge Web3 and DeFi protocols. Proven expertise in smart contract development, driving significant improvements in system efficiency, security, and scalability across diverse technical environments.

Work

property.xyz

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Co-Founder And CTO

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Summary

Spearheaded the development and launch of a property tech platform, scaling operations to handle over 15 million monthly requests while securing significant funding.

Highlights

Led the property tech platform from concept to market, scaling to handle 15M+ monthly requests while maintaining 99.9999% uptime.

Reduced operational costs by 65% year-over-year by optimizing platform architecture and managing £450K in cloud credits.

Successfully led a platform migration with zero downtime and secured £270K in seed funding, building and directing a team of 5 engineers to launch.

DWP

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Lead Software Engineer - Contractor

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Summary

Led enterprise API infrastructure modernization for the UK's largest government department, significantly enhancing system efficiency and release cycles.

Highlights

Reduced API onboarding time by 70% through implementing a department-wide system, streamlining integration processes for external partners.

Cut configuration errors by 85% leveraging a real-time validation framework, improving system reliability and data integrity for critical operations.

Achieved 48% faster releases with 99.9% configuration accuracy, accelerating deployment cycles and ensuring high-quality software delivery.

DWP Digital

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Lead Software Engineer

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Summary

Directed the technical transformation of welfare payment processing systems, significantly improving system reliability and performance for mission-critical services.

Highlights

Reduced integration issues by 75% via contract-first development, enhancing system interoperability and reducing rework.

Improved service response times by 60% through reactive programming, significantly boosting system responsiveness and user experience.

Achieved 99.9% uptime for mission-critical services, ensuring continuous availability and reliability of payment systems.

Booking.com

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Principal Software Engineer

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Summary

Led payment systems transformation processing billions in transactions globally, optimizing performance and reducing incidents.

Highlights

Improved transaction processing efficiency by 40% via an event-driven architecture, enhancing scalability and data flow for global transactions.

Reduced API latency by 65% through distributed caching, significantly speeding up data retrieval and system responsiveness.

Cut deployment incidents by 70% while maintaining 99.99% availability, ensuring robust and stable system releases.

Booking.com

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Senior Software Engineer

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Summary

Optimized core platform performance for 1.5M+ daily bookings, significantly enhancing deployment efficiency and user experience.

Highlights

Reduced deployment time by 65% through CI/CD implementation, accelerating software delivery cycles and increasing developer productivity.

Improved page load times by 40%, achieving a 92% PageSpeed score and enhancing user experience for 1.5M+ daily bookings.

Increased test coverage by 75% via automated visual regression, improving software quality and reducing post-deployment issues.

The University of Manchester

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Research Associate

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Summary

Led technical contributions to a €100M EU-funded EMC² project, developing and disseminating component models across international partners.

Highlights

Developed innovative component models adopted by over 100 partners across 19 countries, contributing to a €100M EU-funded EMC² project.

Increased project visibility by presenting research on software component modeling to an audience of approximately 500 at CBSE.

Authored comprehensive technical specifications for critical automotive and aerospace sectors, ensuring compliance and guiding development.

Education

Metana

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Solidity Bootcamp Computer Science Grade:

The University of Manchester

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Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Computer Science Grade:

Sapienza Università di Roma

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Master of Science - MS Computer Science Grade:

Sapienza Università di Roma

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Bachelor of Science - BS Computer Science Grade:

Skills

Solidity

Solidity.

Java

Java.

TypeScript

TypeScript.

JavaScript

JavaScript.

Shell

Shell Scripting.

Python

Python.

Kotlin

Kotlin.

HTML/CSS

HTML, CSS.

GraphQL

GraphQL.

Mocha/Chai

Mocha, Chai, Testing Frameworks.

Jest

Jest, Testing Frameworks.

Cucumber

Cucumber, BDD.

JUnit

JUnit, Unit Testing.

PyTest

PyTest, Testing Frameworks.

EVM

Ethereum Virtual Machine, Blockchain.

Hardhat

Hardhat, Smart Contract Development.

Foundry

Foundry, Smart Contract Development.

Ethers.js

Ethers.js, Web3 Development.

Web3.js

Web3.js, Web3 Development.

Viem

Viem, Web3 Development.

Slither

Slither, Smart Contract Security.

Solhint

Solhint, Smart Contract Linting.

OpenZeppelin

OpenZeppelin, Smart Contract Libraries.

WalletConnect

WalletConnect, Web3 Integration.

Quarkus

Quarkus, Java Framework.

Kafka

Kafka, Message Broker.

Redis

Redis, In-memory Data Store.

MongoDB

MongoDB, NoSQL Database.

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL, Relational Database.

Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch, Search Engine.

AWS

AWS, Cloud Computing.

GCP

GCP, Google Cloud Platform.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes, Container Orchestration.

Docker

Docker, Containerization.

Gitlab-CI

Gitlab CI, CI/CD.

Crossplane

Crossplane, Cloud Native Control Plane.

Github Actions

Github Actions, CI/CD.

FastAPI

FastAPI, Python Web Framework.

Deno

Deno, JavaScript Runtime.

Node.js

Node.js, JavaScript Runtime.

Spring Boot

Spring Boot, Java Framework.

Azure

Azure, Cloud Computing.