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Serena Piccioni
Sitting at my desk in the year 2000, when I worked for Altoprofilo.

Hi, my name is Serena.
My job is Senior Software Engineer, and I have over 25 years of experience in the digital and IT industry.

Throughout my career I have also held roles as team leader, mentor and line manager. Problem-solving is my core competency, but I also have high-level skills in cloud architecture, data management, software security and general software management.

I started in 1998 by creating HTML pages and taking an ASP 3.0 course. In 1999, I completed my first website based on ASP 3.0, Access and HTML, and then worked as a Webmaster for some web agencies. In 2007, I did my first PHP project; in 2008, I built a business website based on WordPress.

My primary skills are WordPress, PHP, Databases, JavaScript, CSS and HTML. I made a speech at WordCamp Milan in 2019 about How to develop themes with Timber and Twig, and one at WordCamp Verona in 2023 about Block Editor tricks for lazy people.

Skills

Problem-solving • Information Architecture • User Experience • User Interface • Web Development • E-commerce • Project Management • Mentoring

PHP, Python, Perl • JavaScript, CSS, HTML • GIT, SVN, CVS • REST API, SOAP • WordPress, Django, Zend, Symfony, Laravel • MySQL, Apache, Nginx • Linux, Ubuntu, CentOS • AWS, Docker

Education

WP Development Courses: Building Custom Blocks, Teach:able, 2023

November 2023, a masterclass for WordPress professionals that want to master custom block development

Advanced PHP, Training Dragon, London (UK), 2016

21 – 24 March 2016, a four-day course about Advanced PHP web programming, including OOP, MVC, and introduction to MVC framework (with course completion certificate).

Rails Girls Milan, WCAP Accelerator, Milan (Italy), 2013

14 and 15 November 2013, a two-day Ruby and Ruby on Rails course.

Learning Drupal: Global Training Day, Wellnet S.R.L., Milan (Italy), 2012

14 September 2012, a one-day course about the structure and functionalities of Drupal.

Java Programming Language (SL-275), SUN Microsystems Italia, Milan (Italy), 2005

The Java Programming Language course provides students with a solid foundation for programming with Java, including information about the syntax of the Java programming language; object-oriented programming with the Java programming language; creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs), exceptions, file input/output (I/O), and threads; and networking.

European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (Italy), 2004

ECDL is the International standard in digital skills’ certification; I am certified in all the standard modules.

System Administrator Training at ISOPIA INC., Toronto, Ontario (Canada), 2000

13 and 14 November 2000 (with course completion certificate).

Laurea in Filosofia (Bachelor in Philosophy), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (Italy), 1998

Thesis title: I software didattici multimediali: una ricognizione critica (Multimedia educational software: a critical analysis). This is a formal 4-year degree followed by a research thesis; its best approximation in the UK would be Bachelor plus Master (3+2).

Teaching and publications

Centro Italiano Formazione Aggiornamento (CIFA)

2004

I was a JavaScript, VBScript, SQL, ASP, and XML teacher for the European Social Fund course Esperto Web Developer (Web Developer Expert).

Talentnet

2002

I was an HTML, JavaScript, VBScript, SQL and ASP teacher for the Master Web Developer.

Software for learning

Franco Angeli

2000

I developed (programming and graphics) the CD-ROM distributed with the book Software per l'apprendimento (Software for learning), Franco Angeli, Milano, in Macromedia Director. I was directly involved in the IRRE Lombardia research with the schools.

Work Experience

BBC Studios

BBC Studios

Senior Software Engineer

02/2025 – present

London, United Kingdom

The BBC Studios programme I am involved in was launched in 2022 to strengthen the BBC's presence abroad and consolidate news, video and audio into a single source for the international market.
The project is managed by ingesting BBC content from different sources into an infrastructure consisting of a backend, a CMS for curating content and a custom frontend and mobile app, both for iOS and Android.
The CMS is a headless WordPress multisite instance, and I am one of the senior engineers developing REST APIs and custom blocks for the programme's editors.

WordPress • PHP • MySQL • Git • React.js • AWS

View all work experience

Let's get in touch

If you would like to get in touch, please send me an email.