Christopher A.

I help founders and growing companies design, build, stabilize, and scale SaaS products, AI-enabled applications, and business-critical software platforms. My work combines fractional CTO leadership with hands-on architecture and engineering. I can help shape the technical strategy, design the system, build critical components, guide the development team, and remain accountable for the quality of the final product. Clients typically bring me in when they need to: • Turn an idea, prototype, or internal tool into a production-ready product • Add AI capabilities to an existing SaaS platform or business workflow • Architect a new SaaS product with a secure and scalable foundation • Stabilize, modernize, or take ownership of an existing application • Audit a codebase, cloud environment, or third-party development effort • Design APIs, integrations, automation, and event-driven workflows • Improve software security, reliability, maintainability, and performance • Gain experienced technical leadership without hiring a full-time CTO AI-ENABLED PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT I help companies apply AI where it creates practical product or operational value. This may include: • LLM integrations using platforms such as OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini • AI agents and agentic workflows • Retrieval-Augmented Generation and private knowledge systems • AI-powered SaaS features • Document processing and information extraction • Internal AI tools and workflow automation • API and tool integrations for AI systems • Architecture for secure, observable, and maintainable AI applications An AI demonstration can be assembled quickly. The harder part is turning it into dependable software that handles real users, business rules, permissions, sensitive information, integrations, failures, and ongoing product changes. That production foundation is where my broader architecture and engineering experience adds the most value. SAAS, CLOUD, AND SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE I specialize in systems that need to remain reliable as their users, features, data, integrations, and operational complexity increase. My work commonly involves: • Multi-tenant SaaS architecture • AWS cloud infrastructure • TypeScript, Node.js, React, and Next.js • Serverless and containerized applications • REST APIs, WebSockets, and event-driven systems • SQL, NoSQL, DynamoDB, and relational databases • Infrastructure as Code with Terraform and CloudFormation • Authentication, authorization, and identity integrations • Third-party APIs and business-system integrations • CI/CD, deployment automation, testing, and observability • Security-sensitive and compliance-aware applications SELECTED EXPERIENCE • Architected and implemented a HIPAA-aware, multi-tenant SaaS platform involving AWS infrastructure, connected devices, event-driven services, identity, authorization, APIs, and sensitive healthcare data. • Led development work for a business-critical enterprise platform used by a Fortune 50 organization. • Helped build a fintech product from the ground up, contributing across architecture, implementation, integrations, infrastructure, and product development. • Delivered a turnkey e-commerce platform integrated with a retailer’s point-of-sale and operational systems. • Designed AWS-native applications using Lambda, ECS Fargate, API Gateway, EventBridge, SQS, DynamoDB, Cognito, Terraform, CloudFormation, and other cloud services. • Supported long-running engagements requiring technical leadership, hands-on engineering, product ownership, and clear communication with both technical and nontechnical stakeholders. HOW I WORK I approach software as a complete product and operating system, rather than a collection of isolated tickets. That means thinking carefully about: • Product and business requirements • System boundaries and data flows • Security and access-control risks • Failure modes and operational visibility • Maintainability and future development • Infrastructure and deployment practices • The tradeoffs between speed, cost, and long-term quality I communicate directly, surface risks early, and explain technical decisions in practical language. My goal is to give clients a clear understanding of what is being built, why it is being built that way, and what decisions will matter as the product evolves. WHO DOES THE WORK? I personally lead architecture, technical strategy, client communication, and critical implementation. For projects that benefit from additional capacity, I can bring in trusted engineers from my team while remaining directly responsible for system design, technical quality, and delivery. You will always know who is working on the project and how responsibilities are divided. UPWORK TRACK RECORD • 100% Job Success • 5.0 client rating • 5,700+ hours completed on Upwork • Successful short-term projects and multi-year client relationships If you need someone who can