Ben Nitti
Senior Optimizely Engineering Lead
Henderson,Nevada
Summary
Senior Software Engineering Lead delivering Optimizely CMS and Commerce Connect implementations across DXP environments. Leads 3–5 CMS 11 to CMS 12 modernization migrations on .NET 6/8+, refactors legacy Episerver code into cloud-native patterns, and guides teams through scalable PaaS architecture. Shapes editorial, personalization, and platform health outcomes through migration planning, technical audits, and mentorship of 4–7 engineers.
Overview
4
4
Certifications
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Software Engineering Lead | Optimizely CMS & Commerce Connect Specialist
Valtech
03.2018 - 05.2026
- Platform Leadership & DXP Strategy: Directing full-lifecycle implementations within the Optimizely Digital Experience Platform (DXP). Expert in architecting scalable, high-performance PaaS environments and mentoring teams on the transition from legacy Episerver frameworks to modern, cloud-native design patterns.
- CMS Modernization & Versioning: Specialist in executing high-stakes migrations, specifically evolving enterprise environments from CMS 11 to CMS 12 (.NET 6/8+). Proven track record in refactoring legacy codebases to leverage the modern dependency injection and asynchronous capabilities of the latest Optimizely versions.
- Editorial Experience & UI Extensibility: Deeply specialized in customizing the Optimizely UI to streamline the "authoring" journey, including developing custom EditorDescriptors and UIDescriptors, building specialized Property Settings and custom Validation Attributes, and extending the CMS interface with custom Dojo/Vue.js components and sidebars.
- Streamlined Optimizely UI for authoring journey by customizing EditorDescriptors and UIDescriptors, building specialized Property Settings and custom Validation Attributes, and extending CMS interface with Dojo/Vue.js components and sidebars.
- Developed custom Visitor Groups, Virtual Roles, and Criterion providers using Optimizely Personalization Engine to deliver targeted content experiences based on user behavior and external data triggers.
- Technical Audits & Platform Health: Conducting deep-dive technical audits and Root Cause Analysis (RCA) for enterprise-grade CMS instances.
- Developed custom Scheduled Jobs, initialization modules, and advanced migration scripts, creating bespoke Geolocation routing and multi-site management tools for complex global content distributions.
- Technical Environment: Optimizely CMS 11/12 (.NET 6/8+), Optimizely Commerce Connect, Optimizely DXP (Azure PaaS), C#, ASP.NET MVC, Vue.js, Dojo, RESTful APIs, Optimizely Personalization Engine, Geolocation Routing Tools, Agile/Scrum.
Senior Software Engineer | Enterprise-Scale Solutions & Expert Services Partner
Optimizely
12.2018 - 03.2019
- Strategic Integration & Modernization: Partnered with North America Expert Services team to streamline complex integration efforts, enhancing operational efficiency for enterprise-scale clients.
- Legacy System Transformation: Engineered migration of high-complexity SSIS packages into native Optimizely Scheduled Jobs, consolidating data processes to enhance maintainability within platform solution.
- Data Architecture: Managed intricate data structures and external connections, ensuring seamless synchronization and enhancing process efficiency during transition.
- Rapid Delivery: Successfully navigated a high-pressure environment to meet critical, accelerated deadlines without compromising architectural integrity.
- Technical Environment: Optimizely CMS, C#, .NET, SSIS, Scheduled Jobs, Data Synchronization Pipelines, Enterprise Architecture.
Lead Episerver Trainer | Pre-Sales Strategy & Multi-Million Dollar Contract Wins
Celerity
12.2018 - 12.2018
- Business Growth: Supported the final stages of the pre-sales lifecycle by clarifying technical complexities for stakeholders, helping to secure a multi-million dollar enterprise contract.
- Strategic Client Engagement: Orchestrated a high-stakes, onsite technical residency in Washington, DC, delivering comprehensive Optimizely CMS (formerly Episerver) demonstrations and developer-led training to C-suite stakeholders and technical teams.
- Business Growth: Clarified technical complexities for stakeholders during final stages of pre-sales lifecycle, contributing to securing multi-million dollar enterprise contract.
- Technical Evangelism: Established best practices for platform configuration and feature extensibility, empowering client development teams for long-term project self-sufficiency.
- Technical Environment: Optimizely CMS (Episerver), Multi-site Architecture, Access Rights Management, Optimizely Graph / Search & Navigation (Find), Personalization Engine.
Senior Software Engineer Project Lead | Optimizely CMS (Mazda USA)
Mirum Agency
09.2016 - 03.2017
- Award-Winning Platform Delivery: Served as the Lead Engineer for MazdaUSA.com, winner of the Webby Award for Car Sites & Car Culture. Directed the technical execution and maintenance of this high-traffic, enterprise-level digital experience.
- Enterprise Platform Upgrades: Orchestrated and executed complex migrations through multiple major versions of the Optimizely (Episerver) CMS ecosystem (v9, v10, and v11), ensuring zero downtime and seamless feature parity.
- Global Technical Governance: Authored architectural blueprint and development documentation for Mazda Corporate Governance (Japan), establishing global standard for brand's software solution and service architecture.
- International Technical Lead: Led international deployment and developer onboarding for MazdaMX.com in Mexico City, providing onsite training and ensuring platform stabilization.
- DevOps & Modular Architecture: Spearheaded development of proprietary NuGet packages and established a private NuGet server for Mazda Digital Platform, reducing development overhead through reusable components.
- DevOps & Modular Architecture: Spearheaded the development of proprietary NuGet packages and established a private NuGet server for the Mazda Digital Platform, significantly reducing development overhead through reusable components.
- Technical Environment: Optimizely (Episerver) CMS 9/10/11, C#, ASP.NET MVC, API Development, NuGet Package Management, SQL Server, Agile/Scrum.
Solutions Architect
Church Pension Group
06.2015 - 03.2016
- Architectural Leadership: Served as the Lead Architect for the end-to-end redesign and platform modernization of a major publishing ecosystem (churchpublishing.org).
- Stakeholder Strategy: Collaborated directly with business departments to translate complex publishing requirements into technical roadmaps, delivering high-impact post-launch features and conducting executive-level demos.
- Stakeholder Strategy: Collaborated with business departments to translate complex publishing requirements into technical roadmaps, enabling delivery of high-impact post-launch features and facilitating executive-level demos.
- Search & Indexing Expertise: Engineered advanced search solutions by integrating Optimizely Search & Navigation (Find) and ElasticSearch APIs to handle complex content indexing and retrieval.
- Data Migration & Integration: Architected and implemented data import frameworks for migrating legacy publishing content into Optimizely DXC (Azure PaaS), ensuring seamless integration and accessibility.
- Team Mentorship & Onboarding: Established engineering standards and led onboarding initiatives for new developers, promoting a high-performance culture grounded in platform best practices.
- Industry Collaboration: Partnered with senior Optimizely (Episerver) core engineers to implement advanced platform optimizations and cloud-first strategies.
- Technical Environment: Optimizely CMS 9, DXC (Azure PaaS), C#, ASP.NET MVC, SQL Server, ElasticSearch, Agile/Scrum.
Senior Software Engineer | DevOps & Full-Stack
The Corcoran Group
08.2014 - 05.2015
- Mission-Critical Delivery: Excelled in a high-velocity development environment, delivering rapid-turnaround solutions for high-availability systems.
- Full-Stack Feature Engineering: Developed and optimized features across C#, ASP.NET MVC, and PHP for real-estate management applications.
- Designed and implemented comprehensive disaster recovery (DR) program, managing virtual server orchestration and website/database migrations to ensure system resilience.
- Integrated Google Visualization API and JSON data streams, engineered custom maintenance utilities to enhance data accessibility in Windows Server environments.
- Technical Environment: C#, ASP.NET MVC, PHP, JavaScript, JSON, SQL Server, Windows Server, Virtualization, DR Planning.
Software Engineer | Systems Automation & Infrastructure
CareerBuilder.com
03.2014 - 06.2014
- Migrated legacy IT intranet applications to C# Windows Forms environments, integrating Active Directory (AD) for enhanced security.
- Engineered custom security utilities, including the "Computer Termination Tool," to automate employee offboarding and Active Directory profile removal, streamlining identity management processes.
- Technical Environment: C#, .NET, Windows Forms, Active Directory, SharePoint, PowerShell/Scripting.
Software Engineer | Healthcare Data Systems
PracticeAdmin
04.2013 - 02.2014
- Enterprise Medical Software: Developed features for large-scale medical billing and RCM platform using C# and VB.NET, enhancing user functionality.
- High-Complexity SQL & ETL: Optimized T-SQL logic and led data migration projects using SSIS, transforming unstructured data into structured SQL Server environments.
- HIPAA-Compliant Reporting: Created secure web-based reporting applications in VB.NET, ensuring compliance with healthcare privacy standards.
- Technical Environment: C#, VB.NET, T-SQL, SQL Server, SSIS, HIPAA Compliance.
Skills
Optimizely CMS (v9–v12)
Optimizely Commerce Connect 14
Optimizely DXP (Azure PaaS)
Episerver CMS & Commerce
Optimizely Graph / Search & Navigation (Find)
Optimizely Personalization Engine
SharePoint
C#
NET (Core, NET 6/8)
ASPNET MVC
VBNET
Python
PHP
JavaScript (React, Vuejs, Dojo)
HTML5 / CSS3
Windows Forms
Azure PaaS
Cloudflare
Docker
CI/CD Pipelines
Microservices
Multi-site Architecture
Composition-Based Content Modeling
RESTful APIs
Disaster Recovery (DR) Orchestration
Geolocation Routing
SQL Server
T-SQL
PostgreSQL
ElasticSearch
SSIS (ETL Pipelines)
JSON Data Streams
Git / GitHub
NuGet Package Management
Private Server Administration
Scheduled Jobs
Custom Automation
Root Cause Analysis (RCA)
Agile / Scrum
Active Directory
PowerShell
Optimizely CMS architecture
Optimizely Commerce Connect
GraphQL
Solution architecture
Platform migrations
Technical roadmap planning
Developer mentoring
Root cause analysis
Architecture decision records
Technical governance
Azure DevOps
Microservices architecture
Certification
Optimizely PaaS CMS Certified Developer (2025)
Timeline
Senior Software Engineer | Enterprise-Scale Solutions & Expert Services Partner
Optimizely
12.2018 - 03.2019
Lead Episerver Trainer | Pre-Sales Strategy & Multi-Million Dollar Contract Wins
Celerity
12.2018 - 12.2018
Senior Software Engineering Lead | Optimizely CMS & Commerce Connect Specialist
Valtech
03.2018 - 05.2026
Senior Software Engineer Project Lead | Optimizely CMS (Mazda USA)
Mirum Agency
09.2016 - 03.2017
Solutions Architect
Church Pension Group
06.2015 - 03.2016
Senior Software Engineer | DevOps & Full-Stack
The Corcoran Group
08.2014 - 05.2015
Software Engineer | Systems Automation & Infrastructure
CareerBuilder.com
03.2014 - 06.2014
Software Engineer | Healthcare Data Systems
PracticeAdmin
04.2013 - 02.2014