Cornel
I enjoy the balance of applying technical expertise, leadership, design, research, and experimentation to create user experiences that are straightforward, scalable, and captivating. I thrive on new challenges, embarking on adventures, and discovering the unknown.

I aim to lead by example (coding every day), mentor team members and foster a culture of flexibility, transparency, trust and continuous improvement.

17 years
Experience

Aug 2021 present
Head of Technology
Bob Group
Responsible for ensuring that our technology infrastructure and software development processes are efficient, effective, and scalable. I lead a team of developers and engineers in the design, development, testing, and deployment of software solutions that are hosted on AWS and developed using React, React Native, Golang, Aurora PostgreSQL and Java.

Bob Group was formed by the merger of uAfrica.com and bidorbuy. At Bob Group we develop:
  • An online payment solution, Bob Pay
  • An online marketplace, Bob Shop
  • A platform for order management and smart shipping, Bob Go
  • A courier-agnostic parcel locker network, Bob Box
  • A shipping software solution, Ship Logic
Dec 2019Aug 2021
Head of Development - Ship Logic
uAfrica.com
Leading the development of a shipping software solution that revolutionises the way parcels are delivered. Using React on the web frontend, React Native for the driver app and Golang for the backend on an AWS serverless stack with Aurora PostgreSQL, the technology is ideal for rapid development and scale at the same time.
Mar 2019Dec 2019
Solution Architect
ITSI Holdings
  • Conducting the analysis of and designing sustainable, scalable technical solutions based on the business requirements whilst overseeing that development efforts are aligned with the overall strategy.
  • Overseeing and participating in technology selection for new projects.
  • Development of a feature-rich web e-reader (PWA using Vue.js) to enable users to access all of their e-learning content on the go. This includes making highlights, drawing on PDFs, uploading content (similar to Google Drive), doing assessments and more.
  • Developing real-time analytics state verification (Node.js) to ensure app analytics are indeed correct.
  • Development of automated API integration tests using Mocha and Chai.
Mar 2017Mar 2019
Head of Mobile Application Development
ITSI Holdings
  • Leading and managing a team of Android, iOS and Windows developers – providing guidance, strategy and collaboration with other departments.
  • Maintaining an Android app (Java and Scala), implementing new features and optimizing the codebase to improve functionality on older devices.
  • Development of an app for parents (Xamarin) to view learner activity, calendar events and newsletters.
  • Implementation and coordination of automated UI test frameworks for native apps.
  • Development of a project management tool (Vue.js) to ensure teams are always up to date with tasks, milestones and commits.
Jan 2014Mar 2017
iOS Mobile Application Developer
ITSI Holdings
  • Implemented a feature-rich iOS e-reader (Objective C and Swift) that involves complex user interfaces, encryption, compression and server-communication (REST).
  • Developed libraries for highlighting, generating summaries and rendering a tree-view of data (JavaScript).
Mar 2011Oct 2013
Technical Consultant
EPI-USE America Inc.
Feb 2012 Oct 2013
Full Stack Developer
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts
Led the discovery, design and development of various rich mobile web applications that integrate with a SAP backend (SAP ABAP, JSP, Java, Struts, HTML and JS).
Aug 2011 Nov 2011
Flash Developer
Starwood Hotels, New York
Developed an e-learning engine (Flash) that hosts and tracks e-learning content, simulations and animations.
Apr 2011 Aug 2011
Java Developer
Genentech and Roche, California
Developed a set of Content Migration Accelerators (Java) – tools built to automate content migration from legacy systems to the SAP LSO AE.
Jan 2010Mar 2011
Java Developer
GEW Technologies
Development (Java) of signal intelligence tools, which include the following:
  • Video chat and voice calls using radio signals.
  • Battlefield planning based on signal intelligence.
Jul 2007Dec 2007
Assistant Lecturer
University of Pretoria, South Africa
Assisting with and teaching the "Multimedia for the Web" course.

Education

Aug 2018 Sep 2018
Agile Project Management
Torque IT
Jan 2015 Dec 2017
MBA (Cum Laude)
Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Scotland
This Masters programme covers key management disciplines, including people skills, economics, marketing, accounting, finance, strategic planning and project management.
Jan 2009 Dec 2009
BSc (Hons) Computer Science (Cum Laude)
University of Pretoria, South Africa
This degree focusses on a range of complex computer science topics such as artificial intelligence, advanced computer graphics and network security.
Jan 2006 Dec 2008
BIS Multimedia (Cum Laude)
University of Pretoria, South Africa
The BIS Multimedia degree combines the computer science and information science disciplines, focusing on software development and UI/UX design.