Ali DHIBI
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Ali DHIBI · Fractional CTO, former CTO and Executive Committee member (OpenBee)

Turning technological complexity into strategic advantage.

A technology leader with 20+ years of experience, at the intersection of IT strategy, software engineering, sovereign AI and cybersecurity.

I set the vision, shape the teams and turn it into reliable, scalable architectures.

Explore my career Get in touch Résumé (PDF, EN)

Areas of focus

  • IT strategy & governance
  • Sovereign AI
  • Architecture & cloud
  • Security & compliance

  • 20+

    years of experience

    Since October 2005: web and software development, architecture, engineering management, IT governance and advisory.

  • 6,000+

    customers on a shared infrastructure

    I designed the architecture of the shared OpenSearch cluster that serves them, at OpenBee.

  • ISO 27001

    certification effort

    I took an active part, within the technical task force. The overall programme is a collective effort.

  • LLMs

    running on-premise

    An on-premise environment on Kubernetes to process sensitive documents.

Career path

  1. Web developer
  2. Technical lead
  3. Quality & production
  4. CTO · Executive Committee
  5. Fractional CTO

Profile

A global vision. Hands-on technical depth.

I started my career in October 2005 as a web developer, first at REAL GOLF, then at E-next WEB, where I also worked on search engine optimization. In 2008 I joined OpenBee, a French software vendor. Over ten years, from senior full-stack developer to team lead, I learned the craft by doing it: PHP/Symfony, Java and Scala architectures, enterprise integrations and international projects.

Running technical production at Neovia Crew, then software quality at OpenBee, widened my view: a reliable system is as much a matter of method as of code. In November 2020 I joined OpenBee’s executive team as CTO and member of the Executive Committee, a role I held until it came to an end. Since August 2026 I have been supporting the technical leadership of a digital company as Fractional CTO.

I can work across strategic direction, architecture decisions, engineering practices and team organization, with experience coordinating and governing distributed teams between France and Tunisia. What I bring is that connection: linking strategy, governance, engineering and execution.

Expertise

Four domains, one standard: technology that serves decision-making.

IT strategy and leadership

Aligning technology with business goals and giving teams a framework to deliver.

  • Technology strategy and roadmaps
  • IT governance and decision support
  • R&D leadership and management of multidisciplinary teams
  • Organization of the software development lifecycle
  • Quality, delivery and continuous improvement
  • Optimization of technology resources and costs

Artificial intelligence and sovereignty

Bringing LLMs into existing systems without data leaving the controlled infrastructure.

  • Integrating LLMs into existing systems
  • On-premise environments and data control
  • RAG architectures and business assistants
  • Granite, SGLang, Mistral and LangGraph
  • Deployment and operation on Kubernetes
  • Assessing use cases, risks and operational constraints

A fast-moving field: practiced as CTO and complemented by courses completed in 2026.

Architecture, cloud and engineering

Designing distributed systems that stay maintainable, performant and operable.

  • Software architecture and distributed systems
  • PHP, Symfony, Java, Scala and Node.js
  • Docker and Kubernetes
  • OpenSearch, RabbitMQ and event-driven architectures
  • CI/CD and development industrialization
  • Modernization, performance and maintainability

Security, compliance and resilience

Building security into design and operations, in regulated environments.

  • ISO 27001 and risk management
  • DevSecOps and automated controls
  • Securing applications and infrastructure
  • Data protection and confidentiality
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery
  • Software environments with strict regulatory requirements

Experience

From code to the boardroom: a career built from within.

A steady progression since 2005, from web development to technology leadership, and then advisory work.

Each item states my role: led, designed, contributed, industrialized or advised.

  1. Since August 2026

    SMI

    Fractional CTO | Technology advisory and support

    Advisory engagement with the technical leadership of a digital company: assessment, prioritization and structuring of engineering practices.

    • AdvisedAssessed the development lifecycle, project management, quality, security and documentation, through discussions with the product, development, QA and DevOps teams.
    • AdvisedBuilt a register of findings and risks, then a prioritized 30, 60 and 90 day roadmap with a longer-term vision.
    • DesignedDesigned a six-step development workflow with a definition of done for each step, adopted as a working baseline with the technical leadership.
    • AdvisedMade recommendations on code review, Git strategy, secrets management, automated quality controls and the engineering handbook.
    • AdvisedSupported the technical leadership on decisions about team organization and the delivery cycle.
    • DesignedProposed a minimal framework for the use of generative AI in the teams (shared rules, safeguards) and prepared an AI-assisted development harness.

  2. November 2020 – role ended

    OpenBee

    CTO and Executive Committee member

    Technical strategy and governance for a French document management software vendor.

    • LedExecutive Committee seat: translating business objectives into a technical roadmap and reporting to stakeholders.
    • ContributedTook an active part in the ISO 27001 certification effort, within the technical task force.
    • ContributedContributed to defining the EDAS (electronic archiving) roadmap and to the related compliance work.
    • DesignedDesigned an on-premise LLM environment (Granite, SGLang) on Kubernetes to classify sensitive documents without exposing the data.
    • DesignedArchitected a shared OpenSearch cluster serving more than 6,000 customers.
    • ContributedContributed to the design of the scalable infrastructure for the French electronic invoicing platform.
    • DesignedReplaced legacy stacks with a private cloud (Nginx, ModSecurity, RabbitMQ) to improve resilience and control costs.
    • IndustrializedBuilt automated security audits (ZAP, SQLMap, Nuclei) into Jenkins and GitLab pipelines.

  3. April 2019 – November 2020

    OpenBee

    Software Quality Manager

    Continuous improvement and a more dependable development pipeline.

    • LedEstablished a continuous improvement framework (PDCA) across the R&D department.
    • IndustrializedRolled out performance profiling (BlackFire) and private package management (Verdaccio) to secure the software supply chain.

  4. 2018 – 2019

    Neovia Crew

    Production Manager

    Coordinating technical production for strategic accounts.

    • LedDirected technical production and delivery, keeping client needs and technical execution aligned.

  5. July 2008 – September 2018

    OpenBee

    Lead Developer and Senior Expert

    From senior full-stack developer to team lead on international projects.

    • LedLed the PHP engineering team and ran international projects with Scrum and TDD.
    • DesignedDesigned and maintained critical architectures: Java (Play!) and Scala for performance, PHP/Symfony for business logic.
    • DesignedDelivered enterprise integrations with SAML, LDAP and Active Directory.
    • IndustrializedAutomated release cycles (Ant, NSIS, Grunt) for reproducible builds.

  6. May 2007 – June 2008

    E-next WEB

    Web Developer and SEO Specialist

    Web development and search engine optimization: an early step towards site visibility and performance.

  7. October 2005 – April 2007

    REAL GOLF

    Web Developer

    First role, in web development, at the start of my professional career.

Selected work

Four topics, four ways of linking strategy and execution.

Presented at a publishable level: context, challenge, approach and my exact role. Team results remain team results.

An on-premise LLM environment for sensitive documents

Context
A document management vendor whose customers entrust it with confidential documents.
Challenge
Use LLMs to classify documents without the data ever leaving the controlled infrastructure.
Approach
Granite models served with SGLang, orchestrated with LangGraph, deployed and operated on Kubernetes.
My role
Designed the environment and made the architecture trade-offs.
  • Granite
  • SGLang
  • LangGraph
  • Kubernetes

A shared OpenSearch infrastructure for 6,000+ customers

Context
A customer base of more than 6,000 to serve with search and indexing.
Challenge
Serve a very large number of customers on a shared infrastructure that stays scalable and manageable.
Approach
A shared OpenSearch cluster deployed on Kubernetes.
My role
Architecture of the cluster. Operations are a collective team effort.
  • OpenSearch
  • Kubernetes

The ISO 27001 certification effort

Context
A vendor subject to demanding security and compliance requirements.
Challenge
Structure security and risk management so that they are demonstrable and sustainable.
Approach
A technical task force and automated security controls in CI/CD pipelines.
My role
Active participation in the technical task force. The overall programme is a collective effort.
  • ISO 27001
  • DevSecOps

Software quality and industrialization

Context
An R&D department to be structured around dependable releases.
Challenge
Make releases reproducible and the development pipeline trustworthy.
Approach
A PDCA continuous improvement framework, performance profiling, private package management, automated builds.
My role
Set up the framework and rolled out the tooling.
  • PDCA
  • BlackFire
  • Verdaccio
  • CI/CD

Education

Education and continuous learning.

Degrees

  • Higher Technician Diploma in Computer Science

    ISET Nabeul · 2005

  • Baccalaureate in Experimental Sciences

    Lycée Boudhina, Hammamet · 2002

Courses completed

  • Model Context Protocol (MCP): Advanced Topics

    Anthropic · March 2026

  • AI Fluency Framework & Foundations

    Anthropic · March 2026

  • Claude Code in Action

    Anthropic · March 2026

  • ISO 27001 Lead Implementation Training

    Self-led, as part of the certification task force

Courses completed, not official professional certifications.

Articles

Articles and insights

Lessons learned and technology watch, with a bias for technical explanations, diagrams and methods you can apply.

Topics

  • Software architecture and IT governance
  • Applied AI, LLMs and data sovereignty
  • DevSecOps, cybersecurity and compliance
  • Engineering team organization and software quality
  • Lessons learned and technology watch

All articles (6)

Contact

Let’s talk about your technology challenges.

For a leadership opportunity, a professional conversation or an advisory engagement, write to me directly.

Send an email Download my resume

Subject of your message

Email
alidhibi@gmail.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/ali-dhibi-805a6638
Location
Based in Tunisia, open to international opportunities (Gulf, Europe)