Cristian E. Caroli

Director of Engineering @ ChessKid (Chess.com)

Mar 2025 – Present | Remote (Barcelona, Spain)

Leading engineering at ChessKid, part of Chess.com, the world's number one kid-safe chess platform with over 13 million global users and more than 600K monthly actives.

• Hands-on with backend, mobile, and web systems while driving architecture, reliability, and product delivery.
• Partnering directly with the CTO and VPs, TLs and PMs across Chess.com to align technical execution, product strategy, and long-term platform growth.
• Driving the adoption of agentic coding practices across the team, integrating AI-assisted development into daily workflows.
• Focused on building high-performing teams and ensuring our little users have as much fun as possible without any downtime other than early bed times.

Director of Engineering @ Stuart

Aug 2024 – Mar 2025 | Remote (Barcelona, Spain)

Head of engineering for the Delivery Network Optimization convoy — 8 teams of engineers, analysts, data scientists, and product/program managers.

• Led 8 teams of ~40 engineers and managers across Europe.
• Delivered routing algorithms and internal tools powering millions of monthly deliveries across 128+ cities in 3 countries.
• Improved delivery network performance serving 25,000+ business clients including Tesco and Pizza Hut.

Senior Engineering Manager @ Stuart

Feb 2023 – Aug 2024 | Remote (Barcelona, Spain)

• Oversaw engineering teams in the Supply & Demand organization for Europe's leading last-mile logistics platform.
• Drove incentive and demand management systems optimizing courier allocation across millions of monthly deliveries.

Engineering Manager @ Twitter

Aug 2021 – Feb 2023 | Remote (Barcelona, Spain)

• Led 2 ad products teams (~12 engineers).
• Delivered Quick Promote and Simple Ads.
• Managed career growth and hiring.
• Led launch of Boost (iOS version).

Tech Lead @ ThoughtWorks

Apr 2019 – Jul 2021

• Led teams and technical delivery in AutoScout, ImmoScout and Zalando Warehouse.
• Facilitated React/TypeScript trainings and tech leadership workshops.

Senior Consultant @ ThoughtWorks

Jan 2017 – Apr 2019

• Delivered and maintained critical services.
• Built client relationships and aligned strategy.
• Contributed to internal and external events.

Head of Product Design @ Chalk

Aug 2015 – Jan 2017

• Co-founded Chalk, a fantasy sports site.
• Led product design and frontend development, brand identity, and UI.

API Solutions Engineer @ 3scale

May 2015 – Aug 2015

• Led API implementations for high-profile launches using the 3Scale API Gateway.
• Managed inductions of external teams into our architecture, code, support, and training for integrations.

Game Developer @ Akamon Entertainment

May 2013 – May 2015

• Built social games in mundijuegos.com where we had a daily revenue of ~$50k in a platform of +11M users.