Nicholas George Wieland ngw

Software Developer & Team Lead

Backend-focused engineer with 20+ years of experience shipping and leading production systems in Ruby, Elixir, and Go. Comfortable stepping into legacy codebases, leading microservices migrations, and mentoring teams, with a track record across startups, agencies, and government digital services in the UK and beyond.

Since early 2026, working daily in an AI-assisted, agentic development workflow: directing coding agents (Claude Code) to design, build, and ship two production systems solo, from architecture and code review to deployment and ops.

Last updated: August 17, 2026

Featured Projects

The two projects I'm proudest of and most actively building right now.

Built AI-first: both projects below were architected and directed by me, with the vast majority of code written by AI coding agents (primarily Claude Code) under my day-to-day technical direction, review, and product ownership — hands-on experience I'd now call expert-level.

Founder & Lead Developer

Torbido

The marketplace for Italian craft beer & artisanal spirits

Built and launched a full marketplace from scratch: producer storefronts, checkout, commissions, review system, AI-powered recommendations, and geo (km 0) search. Targeting a €800M+ underserved Italian craft beverage market.

153+ PRs merged, 185+ commits, in production. Sole developer, built almost entirely through an AI-agentic workflow: I drove architecture, prompts, and review; Claude Code wrote most of the implementation.

Stack: Ruby on Rails 8, Hotwire, PostgreSQL, Stripe Connect, Meilisearch, Claude API

torbido.it

Creator & Maintainer

Cicerone

Open-source, self-hosted batch recommender engine

Spun out of Torbido's recommendation needs into a standalone, generic open-source project: trains offline, writes top-K recommendations, and optionally serves them via a read-only HTTP API with an OpenAPI-documented interface and ops dashboard.

Hybrid strategies (collaborative filtering, item KNN, content cold-start fallback, popularity, latest) with priority or RRF fusion, plus policies, AutoML backtesting, and Prometheus metrics.

Another AI-agentic build: designed the architecture and ML strategy, then directed Claude Code through implementation, testing, and docs.

Stack: Python, FastAPI, LightFM, PostgreSQL, Prometheus

cicerone.dev · GitHub

Contact

Name: Nicholas George Wieland
Role: Software Developer
Location: Mantova, 46100
Phone: +39 375 809 1178
Email: ngw@nofeed.org
Web: nofeed.org
GitHub: github.com/ngw
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nwieland

Skills

Backend developer specializing in Ruby, Elixir, and Go, with active exploration of Rust. Also delivered frontend work using Elm for functional reactive programming.

AI-assisted & agentic development: daily driver of AI coding agents (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) since early 2026, using them to architect, implement, test, and ship two production systems (Torbido and Cicerone) end to end — from prompt/context engineering and multi-step agent orchestration to reviewing and correcting AI-generated code at scale.

Deep expertise in Ruby on Rails and Sinatra, with production experience in Padrino. Proficient in modern HTML and CSS, with a strong focus on accessibility standards and usability testing.

Broad database experience across MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle, with PostgreSQL as primary choice. Comfortable with NoSQL, particularly Redis for caching and session management.

15+ years on macOS with deep Linux experience, including system administration when needed.

Deploying and managing infrastructure on AWS, including EC2, S3, RDS, and Kubernetes clusters.

Best fit: Unix/Linux-based teams and infrastructure.

Education

Liceo Linguistico Redentore

Work Experience

Software Engineer

indigo.ai

September 2025 - Current position

Smart working

Joined as the engineer responsible for the test suite: audited, fixed, and expanded test coverage across the codebase, raising it from 16% to 40% and helping establish a stronger testing culture within the team.

Subsequently moved onto major platform features, contributing to core product development on the Elixir / Phoenix stack.

Stack: Elixir, Phoenix

Team Lead

Chorally

10 September 2023 - September 2025

Smart working

Led complete rebuild of legacy system architecture, migrating to microservices using Golang and Ruby (Grape framework with Karafka event streaming) deployed on Kubernetes.

Delivered significant performance improvements: reduced resource consumption by 70%, improved system stability, and enhanced data consistency across all services.

Stack: Go, Ruby, Grape, Karafka, Kubernetes, Docker

Lead Backend Engineer

IFAD

29 May 2023 - 10 September 2023

Smart working

Backend lead for OPEN, a complex Ruby on Rails procurement management system serving IFAD's international operations.

Key contributions: built comprehensive help system (backend + frontend), implemented file upload functionality with ActiveStorage, enhanced internal journal system, and resolved critical backend bugs impacting system reliability.

Architected multi-locale support (English, French, Spanish) with multi-currency handling for international operations across different regions.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, ActiveStorage

Lead Backend Engineer

Cabinet Office

1 February 2023 - 26 May 2023

Smart working

Built Data Catalogue web application from scratch, leading a development team of junior engineers.

Designed and implemented JSON API endpoints enabling ministries to upload data catalogues, with automated background job system for HTTP endpoint synchronization. Containerized entire application and established CI/CD pipeline for Heroku deployment.

Provided technical mentorship to junior developers throughout the project lifecycle. MVP delivered successfully, securing funding for continued development.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Docker, Heroku

Lead Backend Engineer

Mara

11 October 2022 - 10 January 2023

Smart working

Backend architect for MVP launch across web, iOS, and Android platforms, bringing cryptocurrency wallet access to African markets.

Developed critical microservices including administration service (Rails with SSO authentication) and user management service. Orchestrated service-to-service communication via HTTP APIs.

Scaled infrastructure in response to rapid user growth, collaborating with the DevOps team to handle increased traffic loads.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, Grape, PostgreSQL, Docker, AWS

Lead Backend Engineer

Soho House

1 February 2022 - 30 September 2022

Smart working

Backend developer on the Connect team, contributing to multiple microservices across Soho House's distributed architecture, including profile-service, checkin-service, and hook.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Docker, RabbitMQ, Kubernetes

Lead Backend Engineer

Department for Education

1 October 2021 - 28 January 2022

Smart working

Core contributor to the Early Career Framework application, supporting teacher professional development across England.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Docker, GitHub Actions

Lead Backend Engineer

Funding Circle

22 February 2021 - 30 September 2021

Smart working

Led dependency management and security vulnerability remediation across multiple production applications.

Orchestrated cloud migration strategy: containerized legacy applications with Docker, implemented security scanning pipelines, and deployed to AWS infrastructure with CI/CD automation via CircleCI and Jenkins.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, AWS, Docker, CircleCI, Jenkins

Lead Backend Engineer

Lawbite

11th May 2020 - 19 February 2021

Smart working

Lead backend developer for complete platform rewrite, architecting microservices-based solution.

Designed and built multiple microservices, developed custom CMS administration panel, and collaborated with external teams on main portal rebuild.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, AWS, Kubernetes

Senior Developer

Ministry of Justice

26th August 2019 - 22nd February 2020

102 Petty France, London, United Kingdom

Solo backend developer for Book a Secure Move API, managing prisoner transport logistics across UK prison system.

Normalized complex data structures, implemented document upload system with ActiveStorage, and built webhook infrastructure for real-time event notifications.

Gained expertise in API documentation with Swagger and JSON API specification compliance.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, AWS, Kubernetes, Swagger, JSON API

Tech Lead

Vzaar

2nd January 2019 - August 2019

London, United Kingdom

Tech lead maintaining video hosting platform and architecting microservices migration following Dacast merger.

Balanced legacy application maintenance with new feature development while planning and executing service decomposition strategy.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, AWS, Serverless Framework

Tech Lead

Utelier

1st December 2017 - 30th December 2018

London, United Kingdom

Evaluated existing application and led development relocation from Ljubljana to London.

Recruited and mentored junior developer, selected modern technology stack (Rails + Elm), and rebuilt entire platform including AWS infrastructure with guidance from The Scale Factory engineers.

Implemented functional reactive programming with Elm on the frontend, demonstrating ability to adopt emerging technologies.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, Elm, AWS

Senior Developer

mGage, a Vivial company

1st August 2016 - 30th November 2017

London, United Kingdom

Payments team member developing unified administration interface for all company services, built from scratch with Phoenix Framework and PostgreSQL.

Built authentication layer for Ruby API endpoints and developed Elixir library enabling cross-service communication between Phoenix admin application and Ruby microservices.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, Elixir, Phoenix Framework, PostgreSQL

Developer

The Fool s.r.l.

1st September 2014 - 15th July 2016

Milan, Italy

Developed several projects spanning digital asset management, copyright protection, and personal reputation monitoring.

The most prominent, EngagementConsole, is a gateway layer that collects user-generated content from digital properties (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Disqus, Wordpress) managed by a given customer, presenting it via a customized dashboard where moderators and managers can classify, analyze, and manage all the content.

It's used by companies including Banca Mediolanum , Radio24 , and Volkswagen to manage their online assets.

Also planned, developed, maintained, and deployed several other web applications and data extraction tools and services at The Fool s.r.l.

Primarily worked in Ruby, both plain and with frameworks such as RubyOnRails and Sinatra, with some work in Javascript.
Data stores included MySQL and MongoDB for larger projects, and smaller embedded engines like LMDB or GDBM for others.
Many projects integrated with Elastic Search.

Lead Developer

Antonioli.eu

1st April 2014 - 29th August 2014

Milan, Italy

Sole developer on Antonioli's new e-commerce site, coordinating with external developers on a complex, worldwide platform handling multiple tax rates and regulations, plus a thorough admin interface for non-technical staff to manage products and the sale process.

Also maintained their legacy website, a Ruby on Rails 2.0 codebase built up by many contributors over more than 6 years.

The new site was built with Ruby and RubyOnRails, using the Spree framework.

Developer

Sportboom

1st May 2012 - 29th March 2013

Milan, Italy

Built Sportboom, a marketplace for sport enthusiasts, porting the site from PHP/MySQL to Ruby on Rails/PostgreSQL and driving SEO strategy for organic growth.

Hired and managed a designer and junior developer to support delivery.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, Bootstrap

BDFL

StyleJam

3rd January 2011 - 17th February 2012

Seattle, WA

Founded StyleJam on seed funding from H-Farm: a reinterpretation of CSS Zen Garden where designers styled a shared page with their own data and CSS, similar to Carbonmade.

Sole founder handling development, PR, marketing, sales, accounting, and system administration.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, MongoDB, S3, Goliath.io

CTO

Zooppa

2nd April 2007 - 24th December 2010

Treviso, Italy,
Seattle, WA

Built and owned the architecture of Zooppa from the ground up, a crowdsourcing platform connecting brands with a creative community of 350,000+ members for video and graphic design campaigns.

Managed client relationships with Google, Microsoft, Sun, AT&T, Samsung, and Fiat, and built the development team from scratch (developers, designers, sysadmins).

Stack: Ruby on Rails, MySQL

Developer

Hotchalk

2nd October 2006 - 30th March 2007

Campbell, CA

Helped launch Hotchalk, rewriting a Java application in Ruby on Rails with full test coverage, enabling a low-defect release that grew to 30k+ registered users on day one.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, MySQL

Developer

Assembla

1st March 2006 - 29th September 2006

Needham, MA

Contributed to the initial implementation of Breakout, a precursor to GitHub for hosting source code and managing development teams via SVN and Trac.

Stack: Ruby on Rails, MySQL, Subversion, Trac

Author

Apogeo

1st May 2006 - 29th September 2006

Milan, Italy

Authored the database chapter of Ruby per applicazioni web, the first Italian-language book about Ruby, still referenced in Italian IT communities today.

Independent Consultant

Freelance / Various Clients

2003 - 2005

Italy

Worked as an independent consultant for Italian companies including Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Telecom, building websites and client software (including Fax Server clients), while contributing to open-source projects like Zope.

Stack: Python, PHP, Java

Developer

Neato Europe

2002 - 2003

Mantua, Italy

First professional role: built the e-commerce site (ported from ASP3 to PHP) and CRM system, and administered the company's FreeBSD servers.

Stack: PHP, Zope, FreeBSD

Other projects

Freelance Developer

Telecom Italia

September 2025 - February 2026

Italy

Developed a Python system integrating with Tenable to check the security posture of the company's machines, and helped deploy it to production.

Stack: Python, Tenable

Freelance Developer

Safer

February 2026 - March 2026

Suzzara, Italy

Built a Django dashboard for Safer to manage work orders, tracking how many pieces were produced and in what time. Now in production.

Stack: Python, Django

CEO

PetsWantPats

1st September 2015 - Present

Italy

A lifelong love of animals, dogs especially, motivated me to build something to help stray dogs find a new home.

Developed the PetsWantPats website to help people find the perfect dog to adopt.
PetsWantPats is a search engine that lets dog shelters list their dogs for adoption.

Self-funded and run as a nonprofit.

The website is in RubyOnRails with some Javascript. I wanted to experiment a bit and learn in the process, that's why the whole frontend is in HAML.
The DBMS is PostgreSQL and the search engine is built around Elastic Search.