Technology
Software that changes how an organisation works. I started writing it, then ran the teams that write it, and now spend most days on what agentic AI is changing about all of it.
Story
Six places, one line through them
I have spent my career trying to change the world by making software move as fast as the business does, and by automating the making of it. It seems we were on to something. I did it across the world, helping a company grow and growing with it. Computer scientist and software engineer by training; consulting introduced me to the enterprise world through banks and insurers; before that I was a developer all through my studies, with some other fun jobs on the side. Here I write about what I think, mostly tech and business, and sometimes the more fun interests of mine. This is the short version of what has been keeping me busy, and where in the world.
Studies
MSc in Software Engineering
Universidade do Minho
Licenciatura in Maths & Computer Science, formal methods and cryptography
Universidade do Minho · Erasmus year at Utrecht University
Braga
2006–2008
2006–2008
Writing software
Developer at Wintouch, a restaurant software house, while still close to the university. On the side, freelance work for Delta Consultores, from camera-simulation software for photography lessons to assessments of e-learning tools, which kept me in touch with the industry while I was studying. My first job was at a summer library for kids, and through university I worked at everything: loading trucks, warehouses, factories, doorman, snack bar. Part-time jobs, but they left something I still abide by, from Fernando Pessoa: put everything you are into the smallest thing you do.
Lisboa · Luanda
2008–2013
2008–2013
Inside the banks
Deloitte, financial services IT consulting. My apprenticeship: it built a lot of my work ethic, working across major financial institutions, from the operational and accounting processes of big banks in Portugal and Angola and the systems that control them, to omni-channel for B2B and B2C, to core migrations. The best education I could have had in how a large business actually works, unit by unit and in different shapes.
Lisboa · the world
2013–2014
2013–2014
The acceleration team
Joined OutSystems when it was still a few hundred people, led delivery teams, then went around the world kicking off adoption teams: training them, and building their first apps with them. What a forward-deployed engineer does today for AI, before the name existed, and already automating part of the software development life cycle. Grew with the company and learned a lot in the startup stage, multi-tasking from sales to product; it built part of what I am today.
Dubai
2014–2017
2014–2017
Opening the Middle East
Moved to open the expert and customer-success practices for the region, then ran demand and product management for a while. Scaling a new territory: new work cultures, and the hardships of starting from scratch. Evolved from ad-hoc help to a customer-success practice. Fun fact: my first daughter was born here. Dubai became home, and still is.
Singapore
2017–2020
2017–2020
Three people to seventy
Grew the Asia-Pacific services team from three to seventy. Opened the Malaysia office, started practices in Japan, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, and built the delivery-centre model with local partners who became our delivery and sales partners in each country. Not starting from scratch this time, but growing and scaling a working geography, across so many cultures and ways of working: a very enriching and rewarding period. Fun fact: my second daughter was born here.
Global
2020–2022
2020–2022
How we work, written down
First time in a practice role, turning a back-office function into a field-support one. Led a global delivery organisation of over a hundred. Created the practices, the OutSystems way of working and the capability map; refactored the offering for billability and customer centricity; took a delivery-focused roadshow around the world for partner and customer teams. Formative in how to manage teams of real size, where broadcasting, delegating and different ways of changing behaviour are crucial.
EMEA
2022–now
2022–now
Back to the field, a new (but familiar) region
VP, Professional Services across EMEA, on the executive leadership team that sets the regional strategy. The team was operating well, so the mission was optimising and extracting maximum value: different, and very rewarding. Expanded the go-to-market team and the partner programmes, and took two years of meeting the revenue and bookings targets into three of exceeding them, as much on customer satisfaction and quality. A very interesting period of rebuilding our ways of working around AI, which opened doors to do amazing things faster and with a broader scope: back to practice, redefining how we interact in pre-sales and how we maximise delivery. Still rewarding, and still having fun.
