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Resume

Last updated May 18, 2026

Farzin Shifat

farzinshifat@gmail.com · GitHub · LinkedIn · farzinbuilds.com

Summary

Founding-stage CTO and solo product engineer building production systems across backend, infrastructure, and AI-powered applications. Experienced leading engineering execution while independently architecting and shipping full-stack platforms at scale. M.S. in Computer Science (AI Optimization).

Technical Skills

Languages and Data: TypeScript, Node.js, Python, SQL, PostgreSQL, Supabase (RLS), Redis

Backend: REST API design, NestJS, auth (JWT, OAuth, MFA, RLS), Stripe Connect, webhook idempotency, CI/CD (GitHub Actions), Docker, Nginx, observability

Testing: Playwright, Vitest, integration and accessibility testing, Spec-Driven Development

Frontend: Next.js, React, TypeScript

AI: Retrieval-augmented generation, OpenAI embeddings, vector retrieval

Cloud: AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda), Vercel, Cloudflare

Experience

Founding Engineer and Solo Architect (Contract)

StrictlySurf LLC, New York, NY (Remote) | Jan 2026 to Present

Sole engineer for a production surf marketplace shipped in four months: 301 API routes, 231 Postgres migrations, 754 React components, and 339 automated tests.
Built enterprise-grade auth: separate customer and admin sessions, MFA, step-up re-authentication, hierarchical authority policy, and full audit logging.
Enforced per-vendor data isolation with Supabase row-level security across 231 migrations.
Integrated Stripe Connect payouts and Shippo with idempotent, HMAC-verified webhooks and integer-cent money handling.
Authored 339 automated tests (integration, Playwright E2E, accessibility, security, static analysis) gated in a GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline.
Ran 22 production cron jobs: marketplace lifecycle, dispute auto-resolution, shipping and tax reconciliation, surf-data refresh.
Shipped a production RAG surf-report chatbot grounded in live swell data via OpenAI embeddings and request-time vector retrieval.

CTO / Lead Software Engineer

Sports Excitement, New York, NY (Remote) | Jan 2025 to Present

Lead engineering for a founding-stage sports platform: system architecture, engineering standards, and delivery across web and mobile.
Architected and own the production NestJS backend (auth, payments, core product) shared by web and mobile under one service contract.
Designed and operate hybrid VPS and AWS infrastructure: containerized services, CI/CD, centralized logging and observability.
Hardened the security posture: Cloudflare-tunnel-only default-deny ingress, Zero Trust SSO, JWT and OAuth with row-level security.
Shipped the public marketing site solo, then folded it into the product backend.
Own cross-repo engineering execution, the engineering hiring bar, and code-review standards.

Lead Software Engineering Fellow

Headstarter Fellowship, Remote | Jul 2024 to Sep 2024

Led full-stack and LLM-powered feature builds using vector search and REST APIs.

Education and Certifications

M.S. in Computer Science (AI Optimization), Western Governors University, expected May 2026
B.S. in Computer Science, Western Governors University, 2025
AWS Machine Learning Associate, 2026
AI Optimization Developer Certificate, WGU (2025); IBM AI Developer Professional, IBM (2024); Backend Developer, Boot.dev (2024)

Production work, founding-stage depth.

Backend, infra, applied AI, and full-stack features shipped to real users. Filter by capability domain to see the depth in each.

Architecture that survives scale: Production systems built so the team can iterate without rewriting them.
Engineering leadership: RFCs, standards, and a review cadence that turn juniors into shippers.
Applied AI in production: Stripe Connect, Postgres RLS, RAG and embeddings, all live in real users' hands.

Sports excitement and live competition: the world Spex serves, captured rather than the app surface itself

01CTO + Lead EngineerSports Excitement (Spex)

Spex

CTO and Lead Software Engineer at Sports Excitement. I own engineering across web, mobile, and infra: public landing page shipped solo, hands-on mobile development, and the production API surface running on hybrid VPS plus AWS.

Full-Stack
Next.js
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
NestJS
+6

5.0

The Bounds command-line tool rendering a verified architecture contract in a terminal, the map it hands AI coding agents in place of raw source

02Creator and MaintainerOpen Source (MIT)

Bounds

Verified architecture context for AI coding agents. Bounds hands the agent a map before it searches, catches architectural drift in CI, and keeps zero language-model guesswork on the structural paths.

Applied AI
Python
Tree-sitter
SQLite
PostgreSQL
+2

5.0

Surfer riding a wave, the world StrictlySurf serves, captured rather than the marketplace UI itself

03Sole engineer (contract)StrictlySurf

StrictlySurf Marketplace

Sole engineer for the marketplace launch. Stripe Connect payouts, Postgres row-level security, and a retrieval-augmented surf-report chatbot live in production.

Full-Stack
Next.js
TypeScript
PostgreSQL
Stripe
+2

5.0

Notebook + workspace evoking the structured knowledge-graph behind Life OS

04BuilderPersonal

Life OS

Evidence-first career graph that powers this site, my resume, and my chatbot's RAG corpus. Built for honesty, not hype.

Applied AI
Obsidian
GitHub Actions
OpenAI Embeddings
Markdown + YAML

5.0

Real-estate deal-room subject matter: the wholesale market Property Pear serves

05Engineer (contract, prior engagement)Property Pear

Property Pear

Wholesale real estate deal room with 24/7 lead capture and AI-assisted deal analysis. Prior contract.

Full-Stack
Next.js
TypeScript
Tailwind CSS
Node.js
+6

4.9

Founding Engineer Available

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