About

Ricardo is a seasoned engineer and technology leader with extensive experience in designing and delivering complex software systems across industries including legal tech, oil & gas, manufacturing, and open-source tools.

He has led teams of over 20 engineers, managed multi-million dollar projects, and authored influential open-source software like imgSeek. His expertise spans distributed architectures, real-time systems, content-based image search, enterprise integration, and the adoption of open-source solutions at scale.

Passionate about leveraging technology to solve real-world problems, Ricardo has contributed to building Brazil’s largest intelligent legal information platform and pioneered systems for industrial plants, laboratory automation, SCADA, and mobile transaction gateways.

Work Experience

Principal Engineer

Jusbrasil · Full-Time
May 2025 - Present · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Leading engineering initiatives at Brazil’s largest legal tech platform, focusing on scalable infrastructure, data processing, and machine learning applications to improve legal information access for citizens, lawyers, and judges.

Sócio (Partner)

Digesto · Full-Time
Sep 2013 - May 2025 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Co-founded and built Brazil’s largest intelligent legal information database, applying computer science techniques such as text processing, trend analysis, and machine learning to enhance legal practice and decision-making.

Author

imgSeek (Open Source Project) · Contract
Nov 2001 - Mar 2014 · Remote

Authored and maintained imgSeek, an open-source photo management system featuring content-based image search using multiresolution wavelet decomposition. Enabled users to search image collections via sketches or sample images.

Project Manager

Chemtech · Full-Time
May 2009 - Oct 2013 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Managed over 30 software development and consulting projects in Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods industries. Collaborated with sales teams to identify opportunities, closed millions in annual revenue, and led a team of 20+ engineers across local and global stakeholders.

Head of Engineering Applications

Chemtech · Full-Time
Jan 2008 - May 2009 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Led the Engineering Applications Team, overseeing investments in CAE tools, document management systems, and enterprise project management software. Managed interdisciplinary teams to optimize workflows, improve data quality, and reduce project risks across engineering departments.

Software Engineer

Chemtech · Full-Time
Nov 2004 - Jan 2008 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Designed and implemented a distributed SCADA system for oil & gas pipelines using Eclipse RCP and OMG DDS. Developed a multiplatform laboratory control system for high-pressure corrosion studies using XML-RPC. Built an SMS gateway for Globo.com using JMS and HTTP protocols, and developed high-traffic J2EE web applications with EJB, AJAX, and Oracle databases.

Systems Analyst

Electronic Data Systems · Full-Time
Mar 2004 - Dec 2004 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Worked on the Western Union account, developing on IBM AS/400 for electronic money transfer data warehousing. Improved legacy COBOL systems and transaction summary databases using mature software development methodologies in collaboration with U.S. teams.

Intern

Federal Service For Data Processing (SERPRO) · Internship
Jun 2003 - Apr 2004 · Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Evaluated open-source CMS platforms for Brazilian government adoption, implemented Plone-based websites, integrated ADABAS legacy databases with ZOPE frontends, configured clustered Apache-ZOPE deployments, and added X.509 and LDAP authentication to portals.

Education

MSc, Computer Science

Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)
2004 - 2007

MBA, Project Management

Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV)
2009 - 2010

Computer Graphics

National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA)
2001 - 2003

BSc, Computer Engineering

Instituto Militar de Engenharia (IME)
1999 - 2003

Skills

• Software Development
• Software Engineering
• Machine Learning
• Distributed Systems
• Project Management
• Open Source Development
• Python, Go, Java

Languages

• Portuguese – Native
• English – Fluent

Publications

• Sistema de Controle e Monitoramento Laboratorial para Ambientes Heterogêneos
• Ferramentas de planejamento e controle aplicadas ao Melhor Projeto do Ano 2009: Case Chemtech
• Distributed Laboratory Control and Monitoring System for Heterogeneous Environments
• RCP as the basis for a real-time distributed SCADA platform
• Decoupling Relational Database from Object Oriented Layers