I work with founders and engineering leaders when the technical problem is too important for another layer of management but too complex for a typical implementation team.
I'm a Principal Engineer and Fractional CTO with experience spanning Apple, Box, Consumer Reports, venture-backed startups, and enterprise organizations. Most recently, I led engineering for an AI company through acquisition and have focused heavily on production AI systems, agent architecture, evaluation, observability, and complex application platforms.
I stay hands-on. Depending on the engagement, that can mean defining the architecture, building the critical path, stabilizing an existing system, leading a technical transformation, or helping an engineering team operate at a higher level.
Typical engagements include:
AI / agent architecture and productionization
Fractional CTO and technical strategy
Principal-level architecture and implementation
0→1 product and platform builds
Architecture audits and modernization
Engineering team leadership and technical mentoring
I've built systems for organizations ranging from early-stage startups to globally recognized enterprises, including products used across Fortune 100 organizations.
Jamal delivers high-quality work while also being a great mentor to other engineers. Scope of work covered three areas for us: team mentorship, developing our engineers and raising the bar on how the group worked; refining the product for enterprise scale, getting it ready to handle larger customers and real load; and leading a team of six-plus engineers to scale the product and refactor key parts of the codebase. Successfully delivered a scalable product while improving developer experience.
Jamal has been an absolute pleasure to work with over the past 6 months. The core functionality of our product is reliant on taking large, unstructured data and transforming it into consumable, but deeply detailed, outputs. Jamal's experience over the past few years has placed him in the upper echelon of engineers that are able to accomplish this. Taking the problem head on, Jamal was able to overhaul our entire processing framework to improve accuracy and efficiency within the product.
Jamal is a true all-round engineer. At Circular, he helped us set a mature direction on how we integrate LLMs into our product. In a team, he is thoughtful, respectful of others and always gives valuable perspectives.
Jamal has a deep sense of building for scale and setting up systems and processes that provide efficiency for the long term. He has a way of simplifying complex engineering concepts for customers and helping them connect technology to business objectives. Jamal is also atypically reliable and keeps his commitments. He is also willing to go above in beyond in that he not only executes from a "hands-on" builder perspective, but he's willing to mentor and provide leadership to those more junior.
I've had the pleasure of working closely with Jamal on a project, and I can honestly say he's one of the best collaborators I've had the chance to work with. From the outset, our communication was seamless, making even the most complex tasks feel manageable. Jamal has an incredible ability to take technical ambiguity and turn it into clear, actionable deliverables. He's extremely thorough, transparent in his approach, and makes sure that everyone is on the same page every step of the way. It's not just about getting the job done; it's about doing it in a way that everyone involved understands the process and the end goal. He makes the complicated seem straightforward, and that's a rare talent. But what really sets Jamal apart is his knack for roadmap development. He is very detailed, logical, and most importantly makes sure that everything is achievable. On top of all this, Jamal is just plain easy to work with. His passion for his work is contagious, and he knows how to inspire and drive things forward. I highly recommend Jamal!
Working with Jamal was seamless from the start. He quickly aligned on goals, communicated openly, and showed rare flexibility with timelines and budget. His technical expertise was evident from day one, translating complex requirements into reliable solutions and collaborating effectively with offshore teams. As needs evolved, he remained adaptable and professional, going the extra mile at handoff. It was clear he cared deeply about project success.
Led engineering and architected the core platform for an AI startup acquired in 2025. Built the multi-tenant application architecture, LLM orchestration layer, agent systems, real-time interfaces, and engineering organization supporting enterprise entertainment customers.
Roles And Responsibilities as Head of Engineering:
Circular's platform delivers cost savings and efficiency gains by connecting buyers and suppliers through advanced AI-powered sourcing and analysis capabilities. I spearheaded the development of core AI infrastructure that enables automated document analysis and material lifecycle tracking across the platform.
Improved critical Admin Console navigation performance by 5–15× while serving as technical lead for the enterprise administration experience used by some of Box's largest customers.
Led architecture, technical standards, feature-framework development, performance measurement, mentoring, and cross-functional delivery.
My role on this project was:
Reimagined the AI pipeline for processing meetings to be scalable, and future proof using best practice agentic patterns and prompting. As well as outlined and implemented evaluation, observability, and Chatbot architecture.
Collaborated with Consumer Reports R&D division on two concurrent AI projects: 1) improving the current AskCR chatbot's long-term memory, and 2) developing an MVP for agent-to-agent communication via a user-personified agent communicating with third-party agents.
AskCR
Agent-To-Agent
Senior member of iCloud R&D Technical Staff from 2015 to 2016. During my time there I was tasked with building out internal tools used to support and elevate the infrastructure of iCloud. Allowing for it to grow into what it is today.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Albertsons is the second-largest grocery chain in North America. I was brought on as an architect-level contractor in 2020 by one of their vendors to define the architecture of a new supply chain management application for Web and Mobile.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Founder | Fractional CTO & Architect
FAI is my engineering and AI consultancy for companies that need senior technical ownership without adding a full leadership layer. I work as a Principal Engineer and Fractional CTO across product architecture, production AI, platform modernization, and complex 0→1 builds. Recent work includes agentic systems, AI sourcing, meeting intelligence, enterprise architecture, and engineering team scaling.
Head of Engineering
Led engineering for an AI entertainment company through acquisition, owning product architecture, technical strategy, and engineering execution. Architected the core multi-tenant platform, LLM and agent systems, real-time product experiences, and infrastructure supporting enterprise workflows while building and leading the engineering function.
Engineer | Architect
Snackpass is social commerce for restaurants ✨ We started Snackpass at Yale and within a few months of launch we had over 80% of Yale using Snackpass. Several years later, we are in 30+ markets with a goal of scaling Snackpass to every college campus and city in the country. Snackpass has raised over $90M from the top investors in the country such as Craft Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, First Round, Y Combinator along with leading voices in entertainment and hospitality such as the Jonas Brothers, Steve Aoki, Draymond Green, and David Grutman.
Senior Software Engineer | Tech Lead
Led architecture and technical direction for Box's enterprise Admin Console, including performance work that improved key application experiences by 5–15×. Established frontend architecture and engineering standards, built reusable platform capabilities, mentored engineers, and partnered across product and design on enterprise-scale delivery.
Senior Software Engineer
The first and most experienced company in bitcoin payments, BitPay builds powerful tools for spending, accepting, and building with bitcoin. The company has offices in North America, Europe, and South America and has raised over $70 million from top investors including Index Ventures, Aquiline Technology Growth, Menlo Ventures, Founders Fund, and Sir Richard Branson.
Sr. Application Engineer(iCloud R&D)
Worked within Apple's iCloud R&D organization on product engineering, prototyping, and production systems. Built and evaluated new application experiences while operating within the engineering, quality, privacy, and reliability constraints of Apple-scale software.
Senior Web Developer
As an Atlanta Digital Marketing Agency, we combine future-focused strategy with expert execution across traditional, digital and social channels. We pair mad skills with killer creative to implement innovative solutions to help you drive growth and convert leads. We have content, design and development -- all under one roof. Come on. We're ready. Check us out at brownbagmarketing.com
Application Engineer
PGi powers virtual events and meetings for customers safely and reliably, helping people, teams, and enterprises connect worldwide with advanced broadcasting and webcasting solutions. To learn more about empowering advanced virtual experiences that enable the future of work, visit pgi.com.
Web Developer
At BKV, we're passionate about direct marketing. We've been delivering integrated marketing solutions since 1981, so we really know what we’re doing. With a staff of over 100 direct marketers in Atlanta, we work alongside clients whose names show up on Fortune 500 lists and among the top nonprofit organizations in the world. Our experts address the entire marketing picture using a combination of traditional and digital media—all to ensure we’re measurably growing clients’ brands and sales. We measure success one call, click or visit at a time. Because that's how we know our strategic innovation and creative imagination are doing their jobs: driving brand, response, results and revenue for your business. Specialties: Strategic account planning Brand identity & execution Media planning and buying: digital, broadcast (DRTV) and print Creative development: digital and traditional Digital marketing: Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Display, Video, Shopping feeds, Cost Per Action, Email Mobile Marketing Social planning/marketing: monitoring, planning, development and engagement Website development & analysis: e-Commerce, landing pages, campaign sites Tracking, reporting & analytics Database management & analysis Data modeling CRM strategy; execution Broadcast, print, direct mail & email production List management Public relations Market research iMap: website usability analysis
What a GTM engineer does, the skills and tools they use, salary ranges, and how to hire one, backed by real 2026 fractional rate data.
Learn what a forward deployed engineer does, how the role differs from traditional software engineering, and why hire one to support enterprise customers.
Discover top engineering recruitment agencies to hire skilled and vetted engineers for your business. Also, explore flexible, fractional hiring solutions.
20 Years Delivering Success: From Startups to Giants.
Lead technical architect for Mirror, sold to Lululemon, 2x founder
