Olivier Pons

Software engineer & project lead — Python/Django, Rust, AI

A CNAM-qualified engineer, I have been taking software projects from specification to production — and keeping them running for years afterwards — since 1997. I lead teams of developers and, these days, teams of AI agents too: I set their rules, their guardrails and the bar their work has to clear.

first websites in production
1997
technical books credit me in their preface (Packt)
11
lines of Rust in hqf-pdf
400 k
domain names managed
600+
of university and engineering-school teaching
180 h
Stack Overflow reputation
15 k+
reputation across 42 Stack Exchange sites
25 k+
answers posted on Stack Overflow
348

Strengths

Profile

Autonomy, speed, team spirit, a strong sense of ownership and a teacher’s clarity: that is what my clients get on every project. I have headed the IT department of an insurance broker, delivered projects for large corporate clients and lectured at a university institute of technology and an engineering school; eleven technical books credit me in their preface, and I run a multi-site production Linux server hosting around ten websites.

My home ground: Python and Django for the web, Rust when performance and reliability are non-negotiable, and AI applied to software engineering. I run AI coding agents like a team — one role per agent, cross-reviews, rules enforced by tooling, and quality proven by mutation testing and fuzzing — rigour demonstrated, not assumed.

Artificial intelligence

I lead teams of AI coding agents the way I lead developers: one role per agent, cross-reviews, guardrails enforced by tooling. And to understand these models from the inside, I wrote and trained one.

Featured project

A GPT-style transformer, written and trained from scratch

Written end to end and trained on GPU with PyTorch and CUDA. Training is resumable: an interrupted run picks up from its last checkpoint.

parameters
33.6 M
training tokens
87.7 M
corpus chunks
3,876
automated tests
31
surviving mutants under mutation testing
0
  • PyTorch
  • CUDA
  • Python
  • mutation testing

Local-LLM translation benchmark

14 models compared with Ollama (Gemma 3 and 4, Qwen 3 and 3.5, TranslateGemma, Hunyuan-MT, EuroLLM, Ministral, Salamandra…) on German, Spanish and Italian: automatic checks, then scoring by an LLM judge.

  • Ollama
  • 14 models
  • LLM as judge

Experience

  1. Consultant, project lead and trainer

    2011 – present

    HQF Development (EURL), founder and managing director · Provence

    • Python / Django consulting and development for Econocom, Visitadom, Cogofly and Ergofip; JSON REST APIs, JavaScript.
    • Krystallopolis (CNRS, CEA): development assistance, then site maintenance, including a custom-built quiz plugin.
    • Software publishing: hqf-pdf, a Rust library for generating and importing PDF (about 400 k lines, 2.6 k commits) supporting PDF/A, PDF/UA-1, PDF/UA-2 and Factur-X; an HTTP rendering server in Rust (about 80 k lines) and the service’s Django website (about 220 k lines).
    • E-invoicing in production: Factur-X, EN 16931 fields in the CII stream, Sage export, migration of 9.6 M rows.
    • Leading teams of AI coding agents: breaking work down, running agents in parallel, multi-agent reviews, guardrails and hooks, acceptance criteria checked by tests.
    • Administration of a multi-site production Linux server: nginx, multiple PHP-FPM versions, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Let’s Encrypt HTTPS, incident response.
    • Python
    • Django
    • Rust
    • AI
    • Linux

  2. Project lead and web technology expert

    2011 – 2013

    Engagements for Bull, Business & Decision and Ingeneo · Marseille, Vitrolles, Marignane

    • Bull: senior web quality engineer for the SNCF staff pension fund (CPRP SNCF — Drupal, application maintenance) and the City of Marseille.
    • Business & Decision: PHP expertise, project follow-up, development, maintenance and client relations.
    • Ingeneo: Xeonys (Symfony 2) and Ferrari Shipping Agency (Delphi).
    • PHP
    • Symfony 2
    • Drupal
    • Delphi

  3. Head of IT

    2007 – 2011

    PlusValue, loan insurance broker · Vitrolles

    • Project management and development of all the company’s websites, including pretassur.fr, visa-schengen-assurance.com and acarat.fr.
    • Designed a highly configurable, multilingual in-house MVC framework — the subject of my engineering thesis.
    • Online pricing, mobile versions, search engine optimisation, per-product theming.
    • Joint work with AssurOne and La Mondiale (web and Delphi).
    • PHP
    • MySQL
    • Smarty
    • Delphi

  4. Project lead, Delphi developer

    2003 – 2007

    MIOS (IT services) · Aix-en-Provence

    • Management and emergency-call response software used on motorway networks, among others: development and ongoing maintenance.
    • Fish auction software for ports in the south of France (Visual Basic).
    • Delphi
    • Visual Basic

  5. Project lead

    2001 – 2003

    ACARAT, high-risk insurance · Vitrolles

    • acarat.fr website (PHP, MySQL) and the insurance management intranet connected to it (Delphi).
    • Automated photo capture and retouching, smart card reader (Delphi).
    • Data exchange between a server and payment terminals (C, C++).
    • PHP
    • Delphi
    • C/C++

  6. Developer

    1995 – 2000

    FDA (vending machines), EBIM (Aérospatiale, Cannes), MTDA · South of France

    • FDA: proprietary Windows server in Delphi, DOS utilities including 65k-colour image display.
    • EBIM and MTDA (fire risk prevention): C development.
    • First websites in 1997.
    • C
    • Delphi
    • HTML

Skills

Languages

  • Python
  • Rust
  • PHP 8
  • JavaScript
  • SQL
  • C
  • C++
  • C#
  • Delphi (Object Pascal)
  • GDScript
  • Bash

Web and back end

  • Django
  • JSON REST APIs
  • Rust web services (axum, tokio)
  • Jinja2
  • Symfony
  • Drupal
  • WordPress: custom themes and plugins, maintenance
  • Smarty
  • jQuery
  • Ext JS

Software quality

  • mutation testing (cargo-mutants)
  • fuzzing (cargo-fuzz)
  • Clippy
  • dependency and licence auditing (cargo-deny)
  • pytest
  • mypy --strict
  • Black
  • PHPUnit
  • PHPStan max level
  • benchmarks at every milestone

Artificial intelligence

  • leading teams of AI coding agents
  • multi-agent reviews
  • guardrails and hooks
  • MCP servers
  • local LLMs with Ollama: benchmark of 14 translation models
  • GPT-style transformer written and trained from scratch (PyTorch, CUDA)
  • corpus extraction and analysis

Linux and production

  • multi-site host administration
  • nginx
  • multi-version PHP-FPM
  • PHP built from source
  • security incident response, emergency patching
  • Let’s Encrypt HTTPS (acme.sh)
  • MariaDB
  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis
  • memcached
  • DNS
  • automation scripts with backup, checks and rollback

Performance, accessibility, documents

  • PageSpeed and Lighthouse
  • server response time (TTFB)
  • Schema.org
  • GDPR
  • PDF/A
  • PDF/UA-1 and PDF/UA-2
  • Factur-X (EN 16931)
  • XMP

Project management

  • specifications
  • architecture
  • team leadership
  • client relations
  • agile, Scrum
  • Git, GitLab CI
  • acceptance testing and release

Games, 3D and hardware

  • Godot 4: 2D, 3D, Android, ENet and WebSocket multiplayer
  • Unity, C#
  • Blender
  • QMK keyboard firmware (embedded C, STM32)
  • AutoHotkey

Credited in the preface of 11 technical books

Packt Publishing entrusted me with the technical review of these eleven books before publication; each one credits me in its preface.

Teaching and training

IUT d’Aix-en-Provence (university institute of technology) 100 h

From first year to professional bachelor’s degree: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Node.js, C++, Linux, Apache and virtual hosts, DNS, website security, Symfony, MVC. Supervision of student projects.

École des Mines engineering school, Gardanne 80 h

Web and mobile development, Apache, DNS.

CESI, G4 Marseille, m2i-Formation, Seayard

Professional training and engineering schools: Python, Django, PHP, HTML, CSS, Linux, MVC, Node.js.

Cipen

Game and app development with Unity and C#.

Artificial intelligence

Prompt engineering for developers, bringing a coding agent into a production pipeline (standards, hooks, review, CI), governing an autonomous agent, training a small model live.

Selected work

krystallopolis.eu WordPress

The International Year of Crystallography (2014) website, co-produced by the CNRS, the CEA, the ESRF, La Casemate and Université Joseph Fourier. Design and illustrations by BlackMuffin Studio. My part: development assistance, then maintenance, including a home-made quiz plugin.

hqf-pdf Rust · Django

Fast, low-dependency PDF generation and import: PDF/A for legal archiving, PDF/UA-1 and PDF/UA-2 for accessibility, Factur-X e-invoices, Python bindings, an HTTP rendering server driven by a JSON layout schema.

time-for-fun.com Django

A social network translated into 18 languages.

visitadom.fr Django

Design, development, optimisation and maintenance.

ergofip.com Django

Multilingual website for a made-to-measure ergonomic keyboard.

chouetteensemble.fr HTML · nginx

Responsive, accessible redesign, custom GDPR cookie banner, HTTPS; 100/100 for SEO and best practices in Lighthouse.

papdevis.fr PHP · Smarty

Connecting individuals and tradespeople around quote requests.

groupe-synergies.fr PHP · Smarty

Corporate website: development and maintenance.

Godot and Unity games Godot 4 · Unity

2D platformer for up to four networked players (ENet, WebSocket), Android task planner, 3D prototypes, Sokoban in C#.

interlock-new-challenges C

3D file (OBJ) generation in plain C, released as open source.

ZSA Moonlander firmware QMK · C

Custom layers, music mode, automatic mouse movement.

Education

Languages

  • French — native
  • English — fluent, professional use (TOEIC 895/990)

Community

  • Stack Overflow: 15 k+ reputation, 348 answers, 28 gold, 126 silver and 225 bronze badges; member since May 2009. Top-scoring answers in mod_rewrite, .htaccess, PHP, Apache and Django.
  • Stack Exchange network: 25 k+ reputation across 42 sites, including Ask Ubuntu (1.5 k+), Super User (894) and Server Fault (622).
  • Technical blog: more than 18 k unique visitors a month.
  • GitHub: open-source code.