resume
Name: Fernando França (フランサ)
Location: Porto, Portugal
Short bio: Agnostic software engineer, technology enthusiast with high rates of caffeine and solid knowledge in software specification, architecture, design, development and testing.
PhD student in Formal Methods Applied to Artificial Intelligence in Safety-Critical Systems, also focused on the application of Artificial Intelligence to support the development life cycle of safety-critical projects.
Master in Software Engineering with 20+ years working in aerospace, defence, railway, medical, finance and insurance, and digital services industries.
Full-time dad, (surf|skat)er and guitar player during free time.
External links:
Professional Experience
Critical Software
Lead AI Engineer
Period: Jan 2025 - Present
Location: Porto, Portugal
Main activities: Design, development, testing and deployment of GenAI-based applications to support multiple phases of the Software Development Life Cycle, as part of the innovation team.
Design and implementation of machine learning pipelines as part of the innovation team.
Development and implementation of data pipelines and data governance best practices for railway systems, as part of the digital transformation strategy.
Skills: Communication, Team Work, Leadership, Technical Writing, DevOps, AIOps, MLOps, GenAI, Microsoft Azure, Data Architecture, Data Engineering, Collibra, Python, Semantic Kernel, LangChain, DeepEval, OpenAI, Ollama, MCP, A2A.
Software Architect
Period: Jan 2024 - Jan 2025
Location: Porto, Portugal
Main activities: Architecture, design and implementation of a cloud-based platform for a railway automatic train supervision, ATS.
Architecture, design, implementation and testing of a railway data management system, as part of the modernization of a legacy automatic train supervision, ATS.
Skills: Communication, Technical Writing, Team Work, Leadership, Scrum, Microservices, Pub/Sub, REST, Golang, Python, SQL, Apache Active MQ, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, Microsoft Azure, Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment.
Senior Software Engineer
Period: Apr 2022 - Jan 2024
Location: Porto, Portugal
Main activities: Architecture, design, implementation and testing of a railway data management system, as part of the modernization of a legacy automatic train supervision, ATS.
Development, testing and support for a railway automatic train supervision, ATS, mission-critical distributed legacy system.
Mentor as part of the company internship program supporting high-school and undergraduate students.
Skills: Communication, Technical Writing, Team Work, Leadership, Scrum, Microservices, Pub/Sub, REST, Golang, Java Enterprise, Python, SQL, Payara, Apache Active MQ, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kubernetes, OpenTelemetry, Microsoft Azure, Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment.
Software Engineer
Period: Jul 2021 - Apr 2022
Location: Coimbra, Portugal
Main activities: Development, testing and support for a railway automatic train supervision, ATS, mission-critical distributed legacy system.
Skills: Communication, Technical Writing, Team Work, Leadership, Scrum, Java Enterprise, Python, SQL, Payara, Apache Active MQ, PostgreSQL.
Academic Experience
Centro de Informática e Sistemas da Universidade de Coimbra, CISUC
AI4Certification, Student Researcher
Period: Jan 2026 - Present
Location: Coimbra, Portugal
Main activities: Design and development of Agentic AI platform to support continuous certification processes in safety-critical software projects.
Skills: Communication, Technical Writing, Quality Processes, GenAI.
Universidade de Coimbra
CAMELOT, Student Researcher
Period: Sep 2020 - Sep 2021
Location: Coimbra, Portugal
Main activities: Architecture, design and implementation of a pipeline to automate the training, deployment, and monitoring the performance of machine learning models applied to financial fraud detection, as part of the CAMELOT research project at the Department of Informatics Engineering, DEI.
Skills: Communication, Technical Writing, Data Engineering, DevOps, MLOps, Apache Airflow, PostgreSQL, Python.
Education
Universidade de Coimbra
Doctor of Philosophy in Informatics Engineering
Period: Oct 2025 - Present
Focus: Formal Methods Applied to Artificial Intelligence in Safety-Critical Systems
Masters in Software Engineering
Period: Oct 2020 - Jun 2025
Focus: Software Architecture and Software Quality
Final grade: 17/20
Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, PUC Minas
Specialization in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Period: Jan 2019 - Not concluded due to the COVID-19 pandemics Focus: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, UTFPR
Specialization in Embedded Systems for Automotive Industry
Period: Jun 2017 - Jun 2018
Focus: Cyber Security Considerations in Automotive Embedded Systems
Final grade: 8.7/10
Universidade Estácio de Sá, UNESA
Bachelor of Electric Engineering
Period: Jun 2010 - Jun 2016
Focus: Embedded Systems for Monitoring and Characterizing Power Quality in Residential Electrical Installations
Final grade: 8/10
Other activities: Finalist at Microsoft's Imagine Cup competition on embedded systems development, Paris 2008.
Training and Certification
Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
Issued: Mar 2025
Credential ID: F0ECEA9D517EA963
Certiprof Scrum Foundation Professional Certificate
Issued: Jun 2020
Credential ID: JLSRFFLDPJ-VVHBBNVZ-YBJQBSSDGQ
EXIN ITIL v3 Foundation
Issued: Oct 2010
Credential ID: 171750