Lead AI Engineer

Paul Schulz

Commercial AI products and agentic systems, delivered hands-on.

Lead AI Engineer profile

Hands-on AI and software professional with commercial experience delivering agentic AI services and AI-enabled products. Through Ask the CTO, I work with clients to shape AI opportunities and bring them into production, while helping teams adopt AI tools in product development and software engineering with attention to risk, quality and measurable value. My technical background includes Python, LLM integrations, agentic frameworks, RAG architectures, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, cloud platforms and data stores.

Product AI ServicesHave delivered production services with Vertex AI (Gemini), the Anthropic API, LangChain/LangGraph and LangSmith.
AI in the SDLCI’m authoring Method.AI, an AI deployment methodology for high performance software product and platform engineering teams.
High performance engineeringAm an active and proficient user of Claude, Kimi and Copilot.

Role-fit capabilities

TypeScript / JavaScriptNode.jsReact / React NativePythonAWS / GCPAPIs & distributed systemsPostgreSQL / MySQL / MongoDBDocker / KubernetesAnthropic / OpenAI / Kimi / LlamaOpen / Closed LLMsClaude / Kimi / CopilotRAG architecturesVector & Graph DBsAgentic workflowsAgent observability

Selected impact

Commercial agentic AI services

Through Ask the CTO clients, delivered agentic AI services commercially and helped shape practical AI-enabled products.

AI-enabled engineering performance

For the past two years, helped clients apply AI tooling in product development and software engineering, managing risks while maximising value.

Early NLP and agent technology

At Talking Point Australia, explored NLP and agent technology deployed on a JavaCard SIM; the innovation received the Golden Palm award at Mobile World Congress.

AI and ML in global SaaS

At Skedulo, led technology teams working with ML and generative AI alongside a global cloud product platform.

Professional experience

Nov 2025 - Nov 2026
Australia

Technical Lead · MEGT Innovation and Digital Enablement

Lead the architecture, hands-on development and daily operation of the AI-enabled enterprise SaaS platform being developed and deployed nationally at MEGT through the Innovation and Digital Enablement team as part of an overall enterprise-wide digital transformation programme. Delivered an orchestrated, AI-driven candidate assessment microservice using Vertex AI and Gemini. AI coding tools used in the SDLC include Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot.

Technology: TypeScript, React/React Native, AWS/GCP/Azure, AWS Lambda, GCP Cloud Run, Kubernetes, Postgres, Python, GraphQL, Microsoft Graph APIs, Vertex AI/Gemini, BigQuery, Airflow / Cloud Composer, LangChain/LangGraph and LangSmith, enterprise architecture, micro-services, CI/CD, RAG and vector databases, Temporal.io. Compliance: ISO 27001, GDPR, RFFR and SOC 2.

Mar 2025 - Nov 2026
United Kingdom

Principal Engineer · Dotzle (UK)

Led proof of concept work, then the architecture, detailed design and build of a TypeScript-based, agentic B2C platform that catalogues and values household belongings using AI and ML. Brought the team together to create the beta offering, led all sprints and delivered production code as lead engineer. AI coding tools used in the SDLC include Claude and Kimi.

Technology: TypeScript, React/React Native, AWS, AWS Lambda, Kubernetes, Postgres, Python, Anthropic/OpenAI APIs, LangChain/LangGraph and LangSmith, agentic architecture, microservices, CI/CD, RAG, graph and vector databases, WhatsApp and Messenger bot applications, OpenAPI and MCP implementations.

May 2025 - Oct 2025
Australia · Offshore

Interim CTO / Technical Lead · Motor Platform

Led the development and daily operation of Motor Platform’s PHP/Laravel, TypeScript, React and React Native marketplace and SaaS offerings on AWS. Partnered with the Head of Product to lead the engineering team in Australia and offshore during a six-month interim CTO engagement.

Jan 2020 - May 2024
UK · US · Australia · Vietnam

Executive VP, Technology and Innovation · Skedulo

Led the end-to-end Product and Technology function for a global workforce management SaaS business (including contributing production code). At the core of the platform is an ML based Optimisation engine. Built a high-performance organisation across four countries with product, UX, customer support, cybersecurity, infrastructure, platform, application and solutions engineering capabilities. Championed the Deskless Productivity Cloud and worked across the business to improve customer outcomes and delivery.

Technology: Kotlin, Node.js, TypeScript, React, React Native, Kubernetes, AWS, serverless, PostgreSQL, Python, GraphQL, Salesforce, ML and generative AI. Compliance: HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001.

Mar 2018 - Jan 2020
London · Sheffield · Paris · Sydney

Chief Product and Technology Officer · Perkbox

Led a 100-person product and engineering team delivering an AWS-based SaaS platform across the UK, Ireland, France and Australia, serving thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of employees. Combined hands-on technical work with product, people, operational and board-level responsibilities.

Technology: Node.js, React, React Native, Go, TypeScript, Salesforce, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and AWS. Compliance: ISO 27001, GDPR.

Sep 2009 - Dec 2014
London · New York

Founder and CTO · Open Video Ads

Created an open-source initiative for IAB VAST/VPAID-compliant video player technology, then built a commercial business serving millions of video ads daily. Sold the business and technology to JW Player in 2014.

Sep 2009 - Jul 2013
Global

Group CTO · Zattikka

Led technology across five game studios in a social and casual gaming group, managing teams and platforms spanning web and mobile.

Technology: Java, native mobile, C++, AWS, Node.js and TypeScript.

Apr 2002 - Dec 2006
London · Global

Head of Mobile Technology · Yahoo!

Built Yahoo!’s global mobile engineering unit from London and led an organisation of 350+ engineers across the UK, Europe, the US, South America, China, Australia and Southeast Asia. Delivered mobile products including Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Finance, the first Yahoo! Mobile Apps and the FIFA World Cup mobile service. Oversaw technology aspects of acquisitions and strategic integrations.

Technology: PHP, C++, native mobile and database technologies.

Feb 2001 - Mar 2002
London, UK

Interim CTO · XTempus

Led technology and product strategy for an early-stage mobile venture through its 2002 exit.

2000
Sydney, Australia

CTO · Talking Point Australia

Led early R&D into natural language processing and agent technology deployed on a JavaCard SIM. The innovation received the Golden Palm award at Mobile World Congress.

1997 - 1999
Sydney · Helsinki

Research and Development Manager · Nokia

Managed Nokia’s Australian mobile R&D centre following the acquisition of my consulting company, supporting the integration of the team into Nokia. Delivered multiple complex software projects across the hardware and software lifecycle for mobile devices and mobile network products.

Technology: C++, embedded JVM, JavaScript and Java.

1996 - 1999
Sydney, Australia

Co-Founder and CTO · The Indigo Corporation

Built an object-oriented technology consultancy serving telecommunications and finance clients, including HP R&D, Nokia R&D, Macquarie Bank and FAI. Sold the business to Nokia in 1999 to support its Australian R&D presence.

1993 - 1996
Australia

Senior Consultant · Object Consulting Pty. Ltd.

Delivered object technology and distributed computing consulting, and co-authored Mentor, a full-lifecycle object-oriented methodology.

1989 - 1993
London, UK

Contract Software Engineer · Chase Manhattan Bank

Lead developer for dealing-floor position management software, including development, deployment and operational maintenance.

Technical breadth

Cloud & platform: AWS (including Bedrock), GCP (including Vertex AI), Terraform, serverless, Docker, Kubernetes, infrastructure and cloud-native systems. Languages & application: TypeScript, JavaScript, Node.js, React, React Native, Python, Java, Go, PHP, C++, Swift and Kotlin. Data & integration: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, graph and vector databases, REST, GraphQL, RAG and agentic frameworks. Security & compliance: ISO 27001, SOC 2, HIPAA and GDPR. Engineering practices: Git, CI/CD. AI & data: OpenAI, Anthropic, BigQuery, Airflow / Composer and Medallion Architecture. Services & workflows: Micro-services and Temporal.

Education & additional

B.Inf, Computer Science

Griffith University, Australia · 1987-1989
University Medalist · graduated top of year

Languages

English · Native
Japanese · Beginner

Professional interests

Technology-led market disruption, AI and NLP, high-performance team culture, and commercial value through technical excellence.