WASSIM BEN SASSI

Senior Drupal Developer & Technical Architect | Backend Specialist

📧 wass.bensassi@gmail.com📱 +1 (514) 655-9410🌐 wassimbensassi.com📍 Montreal, QC, Canada

Professional Summary

Senior Drupal Developer with 8+ years of proven expertise architecting enterprise-grade backend solutions for Fortune 500 clients across e-commerce, telecommunications, and education sectors. Technical leader specializing in scalable Drupal ecosystems (monolithic & headless), backend architecture, API design, and microservices integration with AI-enhanced development workflows.

  • Leading technical teams (4-5 developers) on mission-critical platforms serving 2M+ users
  • Driving 40-70% performance improvements through advanced optimization
  • Leveraging AI-powered development workflows (Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity) to deliver 35% faster while maintaining 95%+ code coverage

Recent Impact:

  • Architected microservices layer processing 50K+ daily updates
  • Reduced critical import processes from 8 hours to 15 minutes
  • Led zero-downtime Drupal 9→10→11 migration strategy

Core Competencies

Drupal Expertise: 8+ years | Drupal 8/9/10/11 | Commerce | Headless/Decoupled | Custom Modules | Migration
Backend Development: PHP 8.x | Symfony | NestJS | TypeScript | RESTful/GraphQL APIs | Microservices
Performance Engineering: Redis | Memcache | Varnish | Query Optimization | Caching Strategies | CDN Integration
Leadership & Process: Technical Architecture | Team Mentoring | Code Review | Agile/Scrum | CI/CD Pipelines
AI-Enhanced Development: Cursor | Windsurf | Antigravity | 35% faster delivery with maintained quality

Technical Skills

Backend & Architecture
PHP 8.x • Drupal 8/9/10/11 • Symfony • Laravel • NestJS • Node.js • TypeScript • RESTful APIs • GraphQL • Microservices Architecture • Design Patterns • Object-Oriented Programming
Drupal Ecosystem
Drupal Commerce • Custom Module Development • Headless/Decoupled Drupal • Migration API • Drush • Composer • Views • Paragraphs • Webform • Entity API • Plugin System
Frontend & JavaScript
TypeScript • JavaScript (ES6+) • React • Next.js • Astro • Vue.js • HTML5 • CSS3/SASS • Tailwind CSS • Bootstrap • Twig • Keystatic CMS
DevOps & Infrastructure
Docker • Lando • Kubernetes • Jenkins • CI/CD Pipelines • AWS • Platform.sh • Git • GitHub Actions • Grafana • OpenLens
Performance & Search
Redis • Memcache • Varnish • Solr • Algolia • Elasticsearch • Akamai CDN • Performance Profiling • Query Optimization
Quality & Testing
PHPUnit • Jest • Test-Driven Development • PHPCS • ESLint • Code Review • Technical Documentation • Unit Testing • Integration Testing
AI-Enhanced Development
Cursor • Windsurf • Antigravity • GitHub Copilot • AI-Assisted Code Generation • Prompt Engineering for Development • Intelligent Debugging

Professional Experience

ALITHYA (Client: Vidéotron)

Senior Backend Drupal Developer & Technical Architect

November 2023 – PresentMontreal, QC

Technical leader for Vidéotron's flagship telecommunications e-commerce platform (videotron.com), serving 2M+ customers across Quebec with integrated product catalogs, real-time pricing, and multi-channel cart synchronization.

Architecture & Leadership:

  • Architected microservices integration layer using NestJS and TypeScript for real-time product catalog synchronization between Drupal and external systems, processing 50K+ daily SKU updates with 99.9% accuracy
  • Led high-level technical refinements for commerce module evolution, designing intelligent eligibility engine for Helix/TMO offers based on address validation and business rules
  • Spearheaded Drupal 9→10→11 upgrade roadmap, conducting impact analysis, dependency mapping, and zero-downtime migration strategy for mission-critical platform

Performance & Optimization:

  • Engineered advanced caching architecture combining custom cache contexts, tags, and invalidation strategies—reduced page load times by 45% and enabled platform to handle 100K+ concurrent users during peak traffic
  • Designed and implemented automated product import system with dynamic mapping, batch processing, and error recovery—reduced manual import time from 8 hours to 15 minutes (94% improvement)

Development Excellence:

  • Integrated AI-powered development workflow using Cursor and Windsurf, accelerating feature delivery by 35% while maintaining 95%+ code coverage through comprehensive PHPUnit testing
  • Established CI/CD best practices: automated testing pipelines, PHPCS enforcement, comprehensive technical documentation standards, reducing production bugs by 60%
  • Mentored cross-functional team of 5 developers through code reviews, pair programming sessions, and knowledge-sharing workshops on advanced Drupal patterns and architectural decisions

Technologies: Drupal 10/11, PHP 8.2, TypeScript, NestJS, MySQL, Redis, Memcache, Algolia, Akamai, REST/GraphQL APIs, AWS, Grafana, Docker, Jenkins, PHPUnit

ALITHYA (Client: Miza)

Drupal Developer

October 2023 – November 2023Montreal, QC
  • Enhanced multilingual translation workflow with automated validation, reducing deployment time by 30%
  • Developed reusable configuration management system enabling 15-minute project initialization (previously 2 hours)

Technologies: Drupal 10, PHP, Docker, Ddev

NEOVIA

Technical Lead & Senior Drupal Developer

December 2021 – August 2023Remote

Led technical strategy, architecture, and development across multiple high-profile client projects spanning e-commerce, headless CMS, and corporate web platforms.

Tech Lead – Vins Richard E-commerce Platform

April 2023 – August 2023
  • Led team of 4 developers delivering e-commerce platform managing 5,000+ wine SKUs with complex inventory, aging, and vintage tracking
  • Architected custom recommendation engine analyzing customer preferences and purchase history, increasing average order value by 18%
  • Established code quality framework: comprehensive documentation standards, peer review processes, and automated testing—achieved 90% test coverage

Technologies: Drupal, PHP, Redis, Solr, Docker, Lando, Platform.sh

Tech Lead – Neovia Corporate Headless Site

December 2022 – March 2023
  • Architected and led end-to-end development of headless CMS solution: Drupal 10 (content management) + Next.js (presentation layer)
  • Designed GraphQL schema and API contracts enabling efficient data fetching, real-time previews, and decoupled frontend flexibility
  • Coordinated cross-functional team (backend, frontend, DevOps), conducting daily standups and sprint planning—delivered project 2 weeks ahead of schedule

Technologies: Drupal 10, GraphQL, Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, Redis, Platform.sh

Senior Drupal Consultant – Antargaz E-commerce

June 2022 – November 2022
  • Architected comprehensive Drupal Commerce solution for B2C energy products marketplace with complex product configurations and regional pricing
  • Built intelligent taxation engine with automatic calculation, promotional pricing rules, and dynamic discount application at checkout
  • Optimized checkout flow UX through A/B testing and analytics, reducing cart abandonment by 25%

Technologies: Drupal Commerce, PHP, Memcache, Solr, Tailwind CSS

Drupal Developer – Australlagons Travel Platform

December 2021 – June 2022
  • Developed booking-focused platform integrating third-party APIs for real-time availability, pricing, and reservation management
  • Built custom content migration framework handling 10,000+ travel packages with complex relationships—100% data integrity maintained

Technologies: Drupal, PHP, Redis, Platform.sh, REST APIs

INETUM GROUP

Backend Drupal Developer

July 2021 – November 2021Remote
  • Developed modular landing page system powering 20+ marketing campaigns with reusable component library
  • Implemented multilingual newsletter platform with HubSpot CRM integration—10,000+ subscribers within first month

Technologies: Drupal, PHP, Redis, Solr, Bootstrap, HubSpot API

INTUITIV GROUP

Senior Drupal Developer

June 2017 – June 2021Tunis, Tunisia

Delivered enterprise Drupal solutions for prestigious French academic institutions, specializing in large-scale migrations, multi-site architectures, and complex content workflows.

Sorbonne University – Platform Migration & Multi-Site Architecture

October 2019 – November 2021
  • Architected and executed Drupal 7→8 migration for France's premier university: 50,000+ pages, 20,000+ users, 12 departmental sites
  • Designed multi-site architecture consolidating disparate systems into unified platform with centralized user management and shared resources
  • Implemented Varnish caching strategy with intelligent cache warming and invalidation—improved response times by 70%

Technologies: Drupal 7/8, PHP, MySQL, Varnish, Solr, Docker, Lando

Université Paris-Saclay – Custom Development & API Integration

November 2018 – October 2019
  • Developed custom module suite for academic program management, course catalogs, and student services
  • Built robust migration pipeline from legacy CSV files and external research APIs—10,000+ records with complex field mapping

Technologies: Drupal, PHP, MySQL, Redis, Solr, REST APIs

Université d'Artois – Site Development

April 2018 – October 2018
  • Architected content modeling strategy with custom content types, views, and paragraph bundles for academic content hierarchy

Technologies: Drupal, PHP, MySQL, Redis, Webform

INTUITIV GROUP (Client: MES-JAMBES)

Magento Consultant

June 2017 – March 2018Tunis, Tunisia
  • Implemented Magento 2.3 CE platform for fashion retail with custom theme and payment integrations
  • Developed interactive size chart module with detailed measurements and fit recommendations—reduced returns by 15%

Technologies: Magento 2.3, PHP, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Varnish

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Information Systems Development

Higher Institute of Computer Science and Mathematics of Monastir, Tunisia | 2017

Certifications

Acquia Certified Drupal 11 DeveloperAcquia
TCF (Test de Connaissance du Français)French Language Proficiency
IELTS (International English Language Testing System)English Language Proficiency

Languages

Arabic: Native
English: Full Professional Proficiency (IELTS Certified)
French: Full Professional Proficiency (TCF Certified)

What Sets Me Apart

🎯

AI-First Developer

Early adopter of AI coding tools (Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity) delivering 35% faster while maintaining 95%+ test coverage—I don't just use AI, I integrate it strategically into development workflows for maximum impact

🏗️

Architect, Not Just Developer

I design systems thinking 2-3 years ahead—considering scalability, security, maintainability, and team velocity from day one. My solutions don't just work today; they evolve with your business

📈

Business Impact Obsessed

Every line of code ties to a business metric: 40-70% performance gains = happier users and lower infrastructure costs. 60% fewer bugs = faster feature delivery. 25% less cart abandonment = direct revenue increase

👥

Technical Leader & Mentor

I elevate entire teams through code reviews, documentation, and knowledge sharing. My junior developers become senior developers. My codebases become maintainable assets, not technical debt

🚀

Modern Stack Pioneer

While Drupal is my foundation, I bring cutting-edge tools: TypeScript for type safety, NestJS for scalable APIs, AI for productivity, comprehensive testing for reliability. I bridge 'traditional CMS' with 'modern architecture'

💼

Bilingual Technical Communicator

I translate between technical teams and business stakeholders in English, French, and Arabic—ensuring alignment, managing expectations, and delivering results that matter