Enterprise-Grade Platform and Sovereign AI Infrastructure Without the Full-Time Executive Overhead.
I help Seed to Series B startups and established enterprises slash cloud OpEx by up to 64%, deploy private On-Premise AI, and pass strict SOC2 Type II audits on the first try. I step in as a playing coach who actually logs into the terminal and fixes the bottlenecks.
Hard Business Outcomes, Not Theoretical Slides
Deterministic infrastructure results delivered across regulated enterprises and high-growth startups.
Achieved through architectural optimization and cloud repatriation.
Average reduction in infrastructure bills, including 50% cut in 30 days on Nebius Cloud.
Passed audit requirements on the first try in regulated FinTech and Wealth Management environments.
High-load production resilience across banking, IIoT, and data-intensive platforms.
Built, mentored, and led high-performing DevOps, SRE, and Platform Engineering teams.
How We Can Work Together
Deterministic engagement models designed for US founders, VCs, and technical executives. No open-ended consulting bills or hand-waving presentations.
Cloud & AI Cost and Security Audit
Startups and companies bleeding cash on AWS/GCP or commercial AI APIs.
Rapid diagnostic of your infrastructure spend and threat posture with immediate, high-ROI action items.
- Deep-dive audit of Kubernetes clusters, cloud resources, and token consumption loops.
- Identification of security holes, single points of failure, and vendor lock-in risks.
- Actionable remediation roadmap to cut monthly infrastructure OpEx by 30% to 60% without sacrificing throughput.
Sovereign On-Prem AI & Compliance
Companies needing private AI without data leakage or preparing for enterprise sales.
Production deployment of dedicated AI models and compliance frameworks built for strict audit readiness.
- Migration from overpriced third-party LLM APIs to local, fine-tuned models (vLLM, Ollama, open-weights) on dedicated bare metal or custom GPU clusters.
- Implementation of Read-Only MCP servers and strict sandbox isolation for AI agents.
- End-to-end preparation for SOC2 Type II and Zero Trust FinTech-grade compliance.
Fractional CTO & Head of Platform
Pre-Seed to Series B startups needing senior technical leadership on demand (10-20 hrs/wk).
Playing coach executive leadership to build team muscle, establish architecture, and execute roadmaps.
- Hands-on architectural ownership, technical roadmap execution, and vendor negotiations.
- Hiring, scaling, and mentoring internal DevOps, SRE, and software engineering teams.
- Bridging the gap between engineering perfectionism and urgent business velocity for the board and investors.
Direct Technical & Architectural Advisory
Available for incident post-mortems, vendor contract negotiations, technical due diligence for VCs, and hiring interviews for your lead infrastructure engineers.
Retainer blocks and advisory agreements tailored to startup stage and urgency.
Why Hire a Playing Coach
Most advisors produce theoretical slide decks and disappear before deployment. I log into the terminal, resolve the architecture bottlenecks, and train your team to maintain operational velocity.
Cloud Repatriation & Bare Metal
Escaping hyperscaler lock-in across AWS, GCP, Azure, and Nebius Cloud when unit economics demand dedicated silicon. Bringing stable workloads to bare metal cuts recurring cloud bills by over 60% without sacrificing throughput.
Pragmatic Edge & Local AI
Deploying specialized 8B-30B open-weight models that outperform bloated general APIs on narrow enterprise tasks at a fraction of the cost. Local inference with vLLM, Ollama, and read-only MCP server guardrails.
Zero-Failure FinTech Standard
Bringing 15+ years of battle-tested practices from Nokia, Wealth Management, Regulated FinTech, and Industrial IoT (Demetra IoT) to growing tech teams. Deterministic CI/CD pipelines, strict sandbox isolation, and first-pass SOC2 Type II compliance.
15+ Years of Deterministic Systems Engineering
Recognized by the US Government under the EB-1A classification for Extraordinary Ability in Cloud Security, AI Infrastructure, and Scalable Platform Architecture. I partner with founders, venture capital partners, and enterprise executives who need uncompromised technical rigor.
Trusted By Leadership at Regulated Organizations
Delivered systems and architectural reviews for teams connected to Goldman Sachs, Alliance Insurance, Cambridge Investment Research, and Douglas Elliman Realty.
Enterprise Leadership Background
15+ Years of Battle-Tested Authority
Direct executive and engineering leadership across high-load banking, regulated FinTech, telecom, and industrial infrastructure.
Head of Infrastructure, Security, & AI Strategy
Oct 2022 - PresentInvent (Austin, TX)
- Lead infrastructure, security, and AI strategy for cloud-native platforms serving regulated fintech institutions globally.
- Designed a private AI platform on bare-metal GPU clusters (CozyStack, K8s), enabling compliant LLM inference and RAG pipelines.
- Deployed open-weight models (GPT-OSS-120B, QWEN, Llama) via Kubeflow for strict data-sovereignty requirements.
- Shipped internal AI products: on-prem coding agent, client-facing financial chat (RAG), MR reviewer, and log analyzer.
- Achieved 64%+ annual cloud savings through strategic rightsizing and architecture redesign.
Senior DevOps Manager
Aug 2020 - Oct 2022Innotech / VTB Bank
- Led DevOps for a division of 550+ engineers at a bank with $460B+ annual turnover.
- Reduced deployment time from hours to minutes using automated Teamcity with Kotlin DSL auto generated pipelines.
- Implemented production-grade OpenShift and microservices infrastructure.
- Spearheaded observability transformation with Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK.
Principal SRE
Mar 2019 - Aug 2020Nokia
- Led deployment of the Nokia IMPACT IoT platform for large enterprise and telecom clients.
- Designed high-availability infrastructure for geo-distributed environments.
- Optimized platform scalability for millions of connected devices.
- Automated lifecycle management using Ansible and Python.
Lead DevOps Engineer
Jun 2015 - Mar 2019Gazprom
- Re-architected enterprise infrastructure and implemented a 3-2-1 backup strategy for critical data clusters.
- World's first integration of PureStorage NVMe via 10Gb iSCSI with VMware vSphere.
- Deployed Thin Client terminal solutions to create highly secure, cost-effective workspaces.
- Implemented complete workspace control and audit solutions for government compliance in the energy sector.
Lead Infrastructure Architect
Jan 2012 - May 2015Demetra IoT & Industrial Automation
- Engineered telemetry ingestion pipelines for distributed Industrial IoT sensors.
- Designed fault-tolerant SCADA-adjacent gateway infrastructure with strict latency thresholds.
- Implemented bare-metal server provisioning and high-availability clustered storage.
Master's Degree in Computer Science
2005 - 2011Let's Discuss Your Architecture
Inviting founders, CTOs, and VCs in Austin, TX and across the US to discuss cloud OpEx reduction, sovereign AI deployments, or fractional technical leadership.
Book a 45-Min Architecture Discovery Call
Select a time on the calendar below for a focused, zero-fluff technical discovery session.