Fabio Scopeta

The spirit of Brazil reverberates in Fabio Scopeta’s journey to the Microsoft CSE team.

It is not uncommon for people in Latin American countries to start working at a young age to help support their families. That is how Fabio Scopeta’s journey into tech began. A native of Brazil, Fabio began as a courier around the city, delivering letters and packages to help his family, and fund his video game habit. His passion for gaming helped him learn how to speak English too. He wanted to understand the dialog in the games, so he attended English courses until he got it right. One company recognized his passion and invited him to learn how to code. By 16 years old, he ditched his delivery job, and was coding full time with the company. Within 3 years, Fabio was promoted to tech lead. And by 22, he was moved to interim manager. With the heft of the promotion came sacrifices. Fabio began working longer hours as a manager and he was spending less time on coding. He decided to drop out of computing college to focus all his energy on being a supportive manager to his team.

Fabio’s passion for continued education never ceased. He knew he needed stronger managerial skills. No longer willing to manage his team on intuition alone, he was ready to dive into theory to support his natural instincts, build a stronger mental framework, and fulfill his intellectual curiosity. After many months of studying, he passed the national test for the most competitive university in Latin America. He returned to school with his sight set on completing a degree in Business Administration, that was followed by an international MBA.

By 2007 he was working for a company that was acquired by IBM. Tasked with closing the development team, Fabio had a different idea. He became an advocate for the team and traveled around IBM selling the team’s potential. They cemented their position with IBM Latin America and created hundreds of jobs for the people of Brazil.

Working for IBM brought new thought-provoking experiences to Fabio, like his role in Watson for Health Care. His curious nature was challenged again, as he submerged himself into topics like artificial intelligence, genetics, and the biology of cancer. His work was recognized by some of the top leaders in health care, making him more visible to the outside world. During this period in his career, Microsoft began building a relationship with him.

After 10 years with IBM, Fabio was ready to make a move. He joined the Microsoft CSE family in 2016 and has led development teams across 5 continents. He loves the opportunity and ability to code with software engineers from the largest companies and not-for-profits around the world. His role is constantly pushing his boundaries and comfort zone, making it the perfect fit for his inquisitive nature. There is a component of unpredictability to this role that keeps Fabio on his toes, ready to deliver at a moment’s notice. He stands for building tech that can solve world problems and looks forward to what is coming up next.

Fabio is still learning, both on the job, and at UC Berkley. He is currently working towards a master’s degree in data science. Fabio loves to keep his mindset wide open and intellectually challenged every day.