Kristi Buda

AI engineering firm that unlocks hidden capacity in businesses by replacing manual workflows and operational bottlenecks with custom-built intelligent systems.

• Designed and built real-time collaboration engines enabling conflict-free concurrent editing across distributed user bases.
• Architected high-throughput, high-concurrency services for fintech, engineered to handle massive traffic spikes under heavy load.
• Built agentic AI integrations, embedding autonomous agents into client workflows to automate complex multi-step processes.

AI platform transforming how humans acquire, structure, and interpret biomedical knowledge across large-scale scientific datasets.

• Led engineering for the company's most strategic vertical.
• Built the core platform for large-scale scientific data extraction using streaming, agent-driven pipelines with parallel LLM processing to ingest and structure heterogeneous research datasets.
• Delivered the end-to-end pilot in direct partnership with one of the world's largest biotechnology organisations, entrusted with multi-billion-dollar proprietary research datasets.
• Led delivery of cloud-agnostic private infrastructure across multiple isolated environments for secure automated multi-cloud deployments.
• Led a team of 8 engineers across Data, Application Engineering, and DevOps with an average experience of 15 years.
• Transformed releases from 2 per week to daily, eventually achieving fully automated Continuous Delivery.
• Built hiring pipelines for Agentic Engineering, evaluating applicants on autonomous systems design and applied LLM delivery capability.
• Led development of Identity and User Management systems and deployment orchestration across cloud-agnostic private environments.
• Hands-on across all domains, coding IAM services, data extraction pipelines, and infrastructure alongside NLP engineers.

Open-source SDK enabling world-class companies to build infinite canvas applications with real-time multiplayer capabilities.

• Owned the full engineering function, reporting directly to the CEO.
• Built scalable hiring pipelines for engineering and quality assurance to support team growth.
• Designed and implemented end-to-end engineering processes from scratch, transforming a processless environment into a high-performance delivery team.
• Implemented a dual-track agile workflow to drive continuous product discovery while maintaining strong delivery momentum.
• Contributed directly to the core product, designing and shipping new user-facing features.
• Developed internal data infrastructure and ETL pipelines to empower other departments with actionable insights.
• Defined and executed the customer success and support strategy, significantly improving user retention and satisfaction.
• Fostered a culture of cross-functional collaboration by enabling engineers to work closely with design, growth, and operations teams.
• Owned company-wide roadmapping processes, aligning technical execution with strategic business objectives.
• Architected team structure and development strategy to support long-term scale, incorporating robust QA and delivery practices.

AI platform for freight forwarders and customs brokers, automating document processing, finance workflows, and customer operations.

• Led and mentored a high-performing engineering team of 30+, fostering a culture of continuous learning and cutting-edge technology adoption.
• Headed the Research and Development department, driving the company's technical innovation strategy.
• Established a custom design system and component library, defining new frontend development standards.
• Led teams across Full-stack and AI departments in creating core microservices used by ML models.
• Scaled the Vision team from a research experiment to a core company pillar.
• Developed growth roadmaps to guide engineers' professional advancement into advanced roles.
• Built a data processing pipeline handling millions of records daily for multiple organisations.
• Designed and built a high-performance, event-driven microservice architecture for ETL across teams.
• Implemented a multi-database querying system spanning multiple PostgreSQL instances and an in-app search engine.
• Optimized technical debt management while consistently delivering scalable, high-quality solutions on time and within budget.
• Bridged communication gaps between technical and non-technical stakeholders, ensuring alignment of engineering projects across the organisation.
• Spearheaded company-wide engineering strategy, aligning technical initiatives with business objectives.
• Developed and implemented performance management frameworks, accelerating career growth for engineers and team leads.
• Restructured recruitment pipelines for product and engineering, optimizing processes to attract and retain top talent.
• Led several high-impact projects that directly contributed to securing Series B funding.

Smart Governance Platform for cities and towns, helping mayors, treasurers, and department heads make smart decisions with better data.

• Built an advanced dashboard builder used by data analysts across German municipalities.
• Engineered the desktop app architecture (Electron) and the platform's frontend foundation.
• Developed a custom state management library serving as the platform's core data bridge.
• Contributed to the design and implementation of the platform's distributed system structure, emphasizing scalability and reliability.

Virtual Social Media Superhero for scheduling and analyzing posts across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

• Built the frontend architecture and component system from the ground up.
• Designed the product UI and company branding.
• Collaborated with cross-functional teams, contributing to product direction and overall project success.

Built products end-to-end across social media, fintech, enterprise SaaS, e-commerce, and non-profit sectors, working with organisations ranging from early-stage startups to companies like Siemens, Universal Music, and MyMuesli.

• Lead engineer across multiple platforms, designing and implementing core architectures from the ground up.
• Built mobile applications using React Native and Firebase across multiple client projects.
• Collaborated with product managers on project scoping, evaluations, and estimations.
• Built custom search engines, state management solutions, CI/CD pipelines, and internal tooling.
• Managed open-source community contributions and helped define contribution guidelines for self-hosted software.
• Designed user interfaces and brand identities, bridging engineering and design.

Albania's oldest and largest public university. The ICT program is designed to equip students with practical system implementation and a comprehensive understanding of computer technology.

Partnership using open data to address societal challenges and reach net-zero goals.

• Identified crucial data on public buildings' energy consumption, locations (GIS), and electric grid.
• Designed a secure data architecture combining 8 different data sources.
• Conducted deep analysis on energy usage in public buildings.
• Developed a no-code data tool to assess power availability and calculate CO2 emissions reduction per school.

Interactive access to hundreds of award-winning picture books via video chat.

• Built the front-end and mobile architecture.
• Led development and built a custom book reader.
• Collaborated with co-founders to shape a pleasant user experience.
• Established front-end development conventions and standards for the team.

2-day hackathon engaging young engineers in finding solutions for current problems.

• Served as tech consultant, reviewed solutions, and awarded winning teams.
• Presented on "How to build better UX based on data."

Digital wallet for loyalty cards.

• Developed the company website in close collaboration with Marketing, Design, and Creative Strategy.
• Created a CMS and built custom component localization.

Customized web and mobile solutions through cutting-edge technologies.

• Guided technical direction, crafted user interfaces, and engineered architectural solutions for diverse clients.

Talked about building faster React applications at OSCAL. Presented a gentle introduction to WebAssembly at SFK19.