Bertrand.xyz

Decades reading terrain and finding the line.

Head of Technology at Monito. Building production software since 1998. Still in the code.

SCROLL TO FOLLOW THE ROUTE

1998 — 2009France

First production code

I wrote my first production code in C++ in 1998, on a work-study programme at Dynadata. Then eleven years of Java and web engineering. Code quality analysis and tooling for SNCF at Teamlog. Project leader for the French Inland Revenue at Logica. Document composition at Generali. Web analytics at Audientia.

Different industries, different constraints, all of it in production. I learned a lot in those years.

2009 — 2015Lausanne

The traverse

Six years at SICPA Security Solutions, on track-and-trace systems for governments. I started as a developer and became a team leader.

That was the first time the job was as much about people as about code.

2016 — nowLausanne

The long run

Ten years leading engineering at Monito, a Swiss comparison platform for money transfers and eSIMs. I built the engineering team. I rebuilt the platform, and I still run it.

Close to the founders, and close to the code. It is a long run, and this point is still open.

Practice

How I work

Standards by example

I set standards by writing code, not documents. Review and architecture decisions are where I do it.

Decisions close to the code

I push ownership down. The people closest to a change decide it, and the senior engineers decide without me.

Review, and less code

Review is the practice I care about most. Does this change make sense, what can it break, does it reuse what we have. Simplicity used to be a preference. With agents in the loop it pays interest, so I defend it harder.

Working with agents

Agents run loose where a mistake is cheap. I stay in the driving seat on anything consequential. Generated code rarely fails loudly. It looks reasonable and is wrong in a detail. That is why I still read it.

Off the clock

Five routes

Five things I do outside work. They are all the same thing. You read terrain you did not design, you pick a line, you commit, and you adjust while moving. Falling is part of the practice. That is also the job.

SkateboardTRANSITION · COPING

SnowboardFALL LINE · POWDER

SurfFACE · SECTION

CyclingPROFILE · COLS

ClimbingPITCH · CRUX

Contact

Get in touch

Happy to talk about engineering, teams, or any of the five above.

olivier@bertrand.xyz LinkedIn GitHub

OLIVIER BERTRAND · SWISS RIVIERA REV. 2026.08 · 2026