Independent Software Architect · Fractional CTO
I help teams get the expensive-to-reverse decisions right, then build them.
Eight years of architecture and platform work across insurance, Web3 and health-tech. I'm hired for judgment on the calls that are hard to undo: auth, data, system boundaries. And for the engineering to ship them.
Selected work
A few engagements where the decision mattered more than the keystrokes. Full case studies
- 2025—26
Auth system re-architecture
Lead Architect & Engineer · Pie Insurance
Owned the authentication track of a unified frontend re-architecture across a Partner Portal of 100+ backend microservices. Wrote the ADRs (framework, token storage, OAuth, multi-pool Cognito) and migrated the legacy Amplify/SRP auth to a modern OAuth flow on Cognito Managed Login.
- 2025
Notifications & self-serve documents
System Design · Pie Insurance
Designed a generic notification system that works with 100+ services, and shipped a self-serve document-generation feature that cut manual support load by roughly 80%.
- 2024—25
Event-driven microservices backend
Lead Backend Architect · Bullseye Web3 Studio
Architected and led the event-driven microservices backend for two greenfield Web3 products, from zero to 150,000+ registered users. GCP stayed under $500/month across 10+ services, mostly by deciding what not to build before product-market fit.
- 2020—25
Healthtech, zero to one
Fractional CTO · Parentool
Took a health-tech product from idea to 10,000+ users and 7% paid conversion. Peaked at #3 in App Store Health & Fitness. Owned stack, team and delivery end to end.
How I engage
I sell engagement formats, not job titles. Each one is scoped around the decisions you're trying to get right.
Architecture Advisory
Reviews of your system, infrastructure or roadmap, on retainer or per engagement: boundaries, auth, data, cloud spend, modernization paths.
Best before an expensive-to-reverse callSystem redesigns · auth & data · modernization
Fractional CTO & Tech Lead
Senior technical judgment for early-stage teams that need direction, hiring signal and architectural ownership, without the full-time hire.
For teams scaling past their first decisions0→1 · technical direction · team building
Hands-on Senior Engineering
For complex initiatives that need someone who can design and build: re-architectures, platform builds, modernizations.
When design and delivery can't be separatedRe-architecture · platform · auth & security
What teams say
From the people who hired me: enterprise leads, founders, clients.
Before diving into the code, he takes the time to thoroughly understand the business requirements — that meticulous upfront analysis lets him anticipate complex edge cases and architectural roadblocks long before they reach production. He has the rare maturity to provide constructive pushback when necessary.
Shilpi ReddyEngineering Leader · Pie Insurance One of those valuable developers you'd want to build your team around. A pragmatic problem solver, keen to improve code and product quality while always keeping the user in mind.
Sebastiaan OrdelmanProduct Director & CTO He delivered a highly functional, almost bugless solution in the exact timeline we agreed — and could explain to us, non-technical people, everything happening in the backend.
Petruța CosteaFounder · Parentool
On agentic development
Where the real work is now that the typing is cheap.
I use agentic tools, mostly Claude Code, daily on production work. Scaffolding, refactors and exploratory design are nearly free now. But the judgment doesn't get outsourced; the typing does. Architecture and review decisions stay with me.
- Quality
Evals & AI quality engineering
"Is this output good?" usually means three different questions from three different stakeholders. You have to decide which one you're answering before you can measure anything.
- Design
Agentic system design
Agents as production components: MCP, multi-agent workflows, permission and trust models.
- Security
AI security
Prompt and indirect injection, agent permission models. The failure modes compound with the auth and security work I already do.
- Systems
Distributed-systems depth
The work agents are worst at, and where the expensive-to-reverse decisions still live.
Writing
Architecture decisions, written up in full.
Securing auth in a large-scale production system — and why three standard architectures didn't survive a closer look
Sketching out the extremes: designing architectures for highly unpredictable projects
Start a conversation
Have a decision worth getting right?
A system review, a fractional engagement, or a build where design and delivery belong to the same person. Tell me what you're weighing and I'll tell you straight whether I can help.