Engineering leader · Los Angeles
I build the teams and the systems, and I still write the code.
I lead the teams that build AI products for real businesses: conversational agents, retrieval over a customer's own content, and machine learning that runs on live production. I came up as an engineer and still write code, so I can take a product from an empty repo to paying customers and build the team that keeps it running.
- Now
- Founding Engineering Manager, EasyMate AI
- Before
- Keebo · Gusto · Ardius · Liferay
- Start with
- Workslop and who pays for it
Where I've worked
I'm drawn to putting AI and data to work where mistakes are expensive: live production systems, money, tax credits, and regulated data. The business goal comes first, and the model is there to serve it.
- 2025 → now
EasyMate AI
Founding Engineering Manager
First engineering hire at a conversational AI platform that gives small and mid-sized businesses AI agents for support, sales, and account management, grounded in retrieval over each business's own content. Rebuilt engineering as a small, senior, AI-native team so a young company could ship faster and stretch its runway. Natural-language-to-database and AI messaging features ship behind eval gates, and every pull request runs through a pipeline where Claude writes, Gemini reviews, and a human decides.
- 2024 → 2025
Keebo
Senior Engineering Manager
Led the teams behind a reinforcement-learning optimizer that tunes customers' Snowflake warehouses on live production, lowering their cloud data costs without giving up performance or availability. Turned research models into a dependable product with experiments behind flags, held-out controls, and guardrails, and built Workload Intelligence from scratch.
- 2021 → 2024
Gusto
Senior Engineering Manager
Brought AI into a tax-credit business where every answer has to hold up under federal rules. Built an AI intake agent that interviews a company and finds every credit it qualifies for, and shipped it into the product. Behind it, the automation decided case by case what could pass straight through and what needed a person, with a full audit trail, so the share that needed a person kept shrinking. Also owned invoicing, revenue recognition, and onboarding for small businesses, where every state transition has to be correct and auditable.
- 2021
Ardius acquired by Gusto
Director of Engineering
Joined a startup mid-acquisition and turned a manual, document-heavy R&D tax-credit process into automated software. Built the engineering team from the ground up, kept it together through the acquisition, and grew the product into part of Gusto's core onboarding.
- 2011 → 2021
Liferay
Support engineer → Staff engineer → Engineering Manager
Grew up with the company, from core infrastructure to architecting Analytics Cloud, Liferay's first SaaS product, end to end: a data platform that turned how visitors used enterprise sites into insight, with security and privacy compliance built in. Moved into management through it and led teams across the U.S., Brazil, and Spain.
How I work
- 01
Trust first, then autonomy.
I start with one-on-ones and ask what each person needs from me. Some want a sounding board, some want context and room. Skilled people get strong autonomy. I get hands-on when something is stuck or the stakes are high.
- 02
Early, specifically, and in writing.
Patience with underperformance isn't kindness. It moves the cost onto everyone else. The bar goes in writing at the first conversation, with a review point, not at the third.
- 03
Product owns what and why. I own how, how fast, and whether it works.
I'm on the customer calls with my PM. The split keeps both of us honest about the trade-offs.
- 04
If I'm drawing the architecture, the team isn't growing.
My job in a design review is the sharp question and the risk nobody named, especially around data, security, and anything a customer will feel. Not the diagram.
- 05
AI is how we build, not a slogan.
Most of my team's code is AI-assisted. The payoff came from everyone using the same tools the same way, with evals gating what ships, not from any one tool.
Contact
[email protected]I read everything. If you're building something where correctness matters and the team needs to reach the next level, I'd like to hear about it.