Experience & Credentials
Lead AEM Developer and Adobe Experience Cloud architect with 15+ years in enterprise engineering. Adobe-certified in Real-Time CDP. Remote across the US, UK and Europe.
- Years building software
- 15+
- Years building software
- Years on enterprise AEM
- 8+
- Years on enterprise AEM
- Years on one contract, same team
- 6+
- Years on one contract, same team
- Lead roles since 2023
- 4
- Lead roles since 2023
Independent, hands-on, accountable
I'm an independent contractor, and I stay for the long run. Since 2020 I've worked on one continuous contract: it started at Maark and continued through Maark's acquisition by WillowTree and WillowTree's acquisition by TELUS Digital, with mostly the same 30–40 people for 6+ years. Before that I led full-stack development at IBM and built front ends at Pentalog. I've worked with AEM almost continuously since 2017.
My work sits where content, data and code meet in the Adobe Experience Cloud: AEM architecture and the Java back end (Sling Models, OSGi, HTL, dispatcher), Next.js and React front ends on AEM GraphQL and Universal Editor, and Real-Time CDP and Journey Optimizer for personalization.
Since 2023 I've held four lead roles: an 18-month lead on a financial-services platform, AEM Front-End Lead across three teams, lead developer of an Adobe Summit demo, and tech lead of an AI search visibility platform. I write decisions down in architecture docs and ADRs, call risks early, and measure before I claim a result.
Real-Time CDP Developer
- • ID: AD0-E602
- • Status: Active & Verified
- • Expiry: November 2027
- • Audience Award, TELUS Digital AI Challenge 2025
- • IBM Mentor, 2019
- • Contentful Certified Professional
- • IBM Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner
Career Milestones
Independent Contractor · Laurențiu Nichitean PFA
My own software engineering consultancy. Since 2020, one continuous contract of 6+ years: it started at Maark, which was acquired by WillowTree, which was acquired by TELUS Digital, with mostly the same 30–40 people and the same client relationships throughout.
Staff Software Engineer (contract) · TELUS Digital
Lead developer of the agency's Adobe Summit 2026 demo. AEM Front-End Lead across three legacy teams on a migration program. Full-stack AEM for a US hotel group: test-strategy ADR, CI cut from ~16 to 3 minutes, agentic-coding rules. Tech lead of an AI search visibility platform for a telecom brand.
Staff Software Engineer (contract) · WillowTree
Lead developer for 18 months on a financial-services platform (React and .NET), the longest lead role of my career so far. Then AEM components and templates for a hotel group and a publisher.
Senior → Staff Software Engineer (contract) · Maark
Three years on one AEM account for an audio-software company, including a custom email template system on Adobe Campaign. Three.js data visualization for a global CDN provider, and AEM for a rail operator. Promoted to Staff in 2022.
Full Stack Lead Developer · IBM
Led full-stack development in IBM's client delivery practice (React, Java, Spring Boot, CI/CD and DevOps), after two years in Experience Engineering building React apps and AEM implementations. IBM Mentor, 2019.
Senior Front-End Developer · Pentalog
Front ends for tourism web apps with 5M+ unique visitors, and a service-design platform (AngularJS, Three.js). Conference speaker on VR and the immersive web (2017) and front-end frameworks (2015).
Core Competence Matrix
Direct engineering capabilities for enterprise environments.
How I work
The habits clients and colleagues point to most.
Measured, not assumed
Every number I report is labeled measured, modeled, estimated or assumed. A pilot turns the last two into the first.
Plans with exits
Larger pieces of work get staged gates with clear stop criteria, so you see results before most of the cost is spent.
Risks called early, in writing
Architecture docs and ADRs record decisions and trade-offs, so delivery leads can act on them, change orders included.
Edge cases before QA
I trace root causes through code history and test beyond the happy path, so bugs stop before QA and production.
AI with guardrails
Software became faster to write. It did not become easier to be responsible for. AI tools speed me up; people still own the policy and the judgment calls.
What colleagues say
Excerpts from project feedback, shared by role. Names are omitted; some of the reviewers have since moved on.
Vital in helping to bring the demo for Summit to completion, and drove much of the development.
Without your technical foresight, we wouldn't have been able to keep the project on track or protect the integrity of the code delivered to the client.
He demonstrated exactly what I'd want from a lead. His attention to detail in code reviews was much appreciated.
He traced through the code history and added detailed comments to the ticket. His analysis revealed the root cause of other issues we subsequently resolved.
When you pick up a ticket, you don't just look at the happy path; you actively hunt for edge cases to ensure all possibilities are covered. This resulted in very robust code.
He navigated what felt like ever changing front end scope while leading and providing guidance to contractors and newly hired employees allocated to the project.
He was the central connecting point of the project, integrating multiple platforms such as AEM, Next.js, call center app, AEP, AJO, and others.
He is not only able to see the bigger picture, but he helps break down larger tasks into more digestible actions.
Communication was great internally and with client, also jumped in to help with code reviews and QA on pages and components, which the team really needed.