Stefano Solinas

About my coding

I started coding when I was 14 because I wanted to do more with the 2.86 on my desk than playing games, and I've always loved the relationship between coding and visuals. I studied computer science engineering because I wanted a solid foundation and have worked in various UI and coding fields over the years, from pure frontend to complex backend systems.

When I moved to London, I abandoned every hobby and focused on a single goal: I aimed to be in the top 3% of developers. I would go to work, return home, and study relentlessly. I relinquished my position as head of UI in a large company because I wanted to prioritize becoming a better developer first. Many years later, satisfied with my level of expertise, I transitioned to management while still actively coding and teaching.

About my life

Coming from a small town in Sardinia where you can either stare at trees or chase cats, and considering the latter made him fall on a wooden pole and almost die when he was 8. At the age of 18, Stefano Solinas moved to Pisa to check that the leaning tower was still standing up. This is where he met an Indian shaman that gave him the name obsidian (transformed to obsidianart for SEO).

After 10 years in Pisa working as a developer, designer, video editor and trainer, Stefano felt the call of a bigger city and took a flight to London. He's currently a team leader, JavaScript developer, spare time designer, and forum fairy when in a good mood. Google him for more...
(This CV has only a subset of my experience, check Linkedin if you want more history)

Software Skills

Stefano Solinas: Comptia CTT+
Stefano Solinas: Adobe Certified Expert Photoshop CS4
Stefano Solinas: Professional Scrum Master I
Stefano Solinas: ECDL Core Examiner

Engineer

  • ReactJS Superior knowledge
  • JS / Typescript Superior knowledge
  • React native High knowledge
  • Node.js / Express High knowledge
  • MongoDB Superior knowledge
  • GraphQl Medium knowledge
  • TDD/BDD Medium knowledge
  • Angular.js Medium knowledge
  • Postgres/MySQL Medium knowledge

Various

  • HTML5 Superior knowledge
  • SASS / CSS3High knowledge
  • Agile Superior knowledge
  • NLP Superior knowledge
  • i18n, l10n High knowledge
  • Webmaster Tools Medium to Superior knowledge
  • Google Analytics Medium knowledge
  • WordPress Medium knowledge

Design/UX

  • Photoshop Superior knowledge
  • Sketch/Figma Superior knowledge
  • Illustrator High knowledge
  • Premiere High knowledge
  • Davinci Superior knowledge
  • After Effect Medium knowledge
  • Acrobat Medium knowledge
  • Indesign Medium knowledge
  • Superior Superior knowledge
  • High High knowledge
  • Medium Medium knowledge

"Personal" projects

Imagzle (2019 - Mobile App)

  • Interactive game to stimulate your curiosity and improve your knowledge
  • Over 1.5 Millions downloads
  • React Native - Android and IOS

Meet4tea.uk (2014 - 2018 - Meeting website)

  • Meet interesting people to explore the city together
  • Frontend: Angular.js

Studies & Certs

NLP Practitioner

Neuro-Linguistic Programming: "A model of interpersonal communication chiefly concerned with the relationship between successful patterns of behaviour and the subjective experiences underlying them. - Richard Bandler

Computer Science Engineering

University of Pisa
14 out of 16 Exams made

Professional Scrum Master

Even if I personally prefer Kanban :)

Coursera

Internet History, Technology, and Security

Comptia CT++

This certification is accepted by Microsoft, Adobe and many other as a proof of the ability to teach technical subject

Companies

Finance (remote)

May 2019 - present

Engineer Manager / Senior Engineer

First year: contribute to the migration of the website from php to React focusing on deposit and withdrawal of any asset

Second to third year: I was in charge of coordinating the release of new products, update the interface as needed, assist during the launch and handle any incident related to new products listing

Forth year and ongoing: Improve the automation of the listing process while building all the tools needed to monitor, prevent and speed up any future release. The process also involve talking with any stakeholder around the company to understand each specific need and implement those changes into the administration system (either directly or delegating to my team)

Experian (London - Covent Garden)

experian.com
Oct 2018 - Apr 2019

Senior Frontend

Helped building a new product for Experian. The main challenge was to find the best way to convey the complexity of the insurance parameters to the user keeping a nice and smooth process.

Tokencard (London - Covent Garden)

tokencard.io
Apr 2018 - Jun 2018

Senior JS

Hired to implement graphQL on both the server and React Native and bring a static app to life. My main job was to interface the graphQL resolvers with all the other REST services and to interface the app with the new data format. The job also required a good understanding of the Ethereum blockchain.

Beamly, part of Coty (London - Covent Garden)

www.beamly.com
Jan 2017 - Apr 2018

Team leader / Senior JS dev

Hired as part of the Beamly restructuring process after Coty acquisition, I lead the first "delivery team" in the company. My main focus is to ensure that the websites they agreed to deliver are high quality, automated tested and delivered in time while taking care that everyone in the team is happy and works at their best.

Yoti (London - Trafalgar Square)

www.yoti.com
Aug 2015 - May 2018

Fullstack developer / Angular / React / Express / SASS

As JS team, we manage all the projects with an interface around the Yoti platform: main website and blog, users and customers administration website , internal administration and monitor, clients' demos and libraries for external developers. We also write most of the unit and e2e tests, continuos integration scripts, deployment scripts, etc. ES6 Node.js, Mongoose, Passport, MongoDB, PostgreSQL - Angular, React.js - Selenium, Protractor, Mocha, Chai
I also took most of the photos on website and newsletters :)

Bodog (London - Oxford Circus)

www.bodog.eu
Aug 2014 - Aug 2015

Angular.js developer (CoffeeScript)

My key responsibilities were to write and maintain the frontend application. The company works using BDD/TDD (strictly), code reviews and an Agile workflow (SCRUM). The app is developed in CoffeeScript, SASS and HTML5.

LocalWorld (London - High Street Kensington)

www.localworld.co.uk
Jan 2014 - Aug 2014

Head of User Interface / Angular.js Dev

I joined local world as Head of UI in January. My key responsibilities were to hire a new team and organize the workflow for the London office while developing a new internal publishing platform based on Angular.js. I was also responsible for implementing TDD and an Agile workflow. Local World decided in June to outsource the development, my duty was to facilitate the transition.

Gamesys (London - Piccadilly Circus)

www.hotshottrader.com/
Sept 2012 - Jan 2014

Backbone.js Developer / Frontend developer

Working as a Backbone.js expert for Hotshot Trader (HST). HST is a new game, released in October 2012 for Facebook and mid-2013 on a standalone website. HST allow players to demonstrate their abilities on the Stock market playing tournaments with virtual money. To get a sneak peek of this project check the conference about i18n at the bottom.

FullSignal LTD (London - Silicon Roundabout)

www.fullsignal.co.uk
Oct 2011 - Sept 2012

Motorola (Hardware Company)

  • Adv web-app: JS, HTML5, CSS 3, offline storage

Brandsapplied (Advertisment Agency)

  • Main company website: HTML5, CSS 2.1, PHP

Samsung

  • Flash banners for the new Angry Birds Space: Flash, AS3, Mediamind tracking system

Lebara Mobile (Mobile company)

  • Ringtone generator (14 languages): Flash AS3, CodeIgniter, XHTML4.1

Allianz (Insurance Company)

  • WordPress website for the Investors Blog: HTML5, CSS 3, JS, jQuery

3logic M.K. (Italy - Pisa)

www.3logic.it
2007-2011

Teaching

Self-Created & Self-Organized

Memorization Tecniques & NLP

  • Trainer, Course Organizer, Course Manual Creator

Digital Photography

  • Trainer, Course Organizer, Course Materials Creator

Ec council

Hands-on React Native

  • Record online course on the plaform

The Knowledge Academy

https://www.theknowledgeacademy.com/ - 2016 - 2019

React Native

  • Course creation & Teaching
  • 2 weeks intensive course

NLP Foundation

  • 2 days intensive NLP foundation course

Tavola della Pace e della Cooperazione (Peace and Cooperation NGO)

pacecooperazione.it - 2008-2011

Junior High & High School Media Education

  • Course Co-creation & Teaching

Formatica s.r.l. (Training agency)

www.formatica.it - 2009-2011

Web Design Courses

  • Course Creation & Teaching:
  • Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash

Web Development Courses

  • Course Creation & Teaching:
  • HTML, CSS, JS, jQuery, Dreamweaver

Conferences

From React to React native

  • The journey of building, publishing and following your own app, taking cryptoviewer as the example app

Evil Design - Brown bag

  • User interfaces design to trick people