13+
Years shipping software
Jared Smith.
Systems. AI. Execution.
I build production AI products, high-scale backend platforms, and resilient cloud infrastructure for teams that need strong technical judgment as much as strong delivery.
100K+
Users on live AI products
$400M+
Fintech customer assets protected
40K+
Telematics devices streaming data
Selected Work
Recent roles shaped by high-stakes systems and high-trust teams.
Lavender
Director of Information Security · Staff Software Engineer
Shipped production AI features in Go for 100K+ users, ran a multi-cloud migration that cut $350K in spend, and built the security program to SOC 2 Type II.
AAMP Global
Senior Elixir Engineer
Built high-throughput ingestion for telemetry from 40K+ telematics devices on GCP Kubernetes while modernizing legacy Ruby services.
BlockFi
Senior Backend Engineer
Led identity and authentication for a fintech platform serving 225K+ users and $400M+ in assets, including the migration from AWS Cognito to Auth0.
InsideTrack
Senior Backend Engineer
Built analytics and real-time messaging for 450K active students across 900+ universities; led a Ruby-to-Elixir migration that cut service count and cost.
PopSocial
Co-Founder · Engineering Lead
Co-founded and architected the platform from zero. Scaled engineering from 1 to 15+ and shipped alongside product and design through multiple launches.
Capabilities
Technical depth, product momentum, operational calm.
I'm most effective where product ambition meets operational complexity — modernizing core systems, shipping AI-powered features, and bringing reliability to teams that need to move fast without creating long-term chaos.
AI Product Engineering
Production LLM systems, agentic workflows, retrieval pipelines, and AI-assisted development shipped at pace for real users.
Backend & Distributed Systems
High-throughput services in Go, Elixir, and Ruby with a bias toward clarity, observability, and predictable failure.
Cloud & Reliability
Multi-cloud architecture across GCP, AWS, and Azure with Kubernetes, Terraform, and SRE discipline baked in.
Security Leadership
Hands-on execution across SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, ISO 27001, IAM, incident response, and vulnerability management.
Trusted by
Teams across fintech, edtech, AI, and IoT.
Lavender
BlockFi
InsideTrack
AAMP Global
One Month
Qualaroo
Staff software engineer with 13+ years designing and operating distributed systems, microservices, and production AI. I've led engineering, security, and infrastructure at Lavender, BlockFi, InsideTrack, and AAMP Global — pairing hands-on delivery with architecture that holds up under production load.
I've co-founded a startup, scaled an engineering team from one engineer to fifteen, rebuilt core platforms across Ruby, Elixir, and Go, and operated infrastructure across three major clouds. I've been an early adopter of AI-assisted development since 2023 — Claude Code, Copilot, and Codex are core parts of how I work — and I bring that discipline into every team I join.
My sweet spot is pairing staff-level architecture with hands-on delivery. That usually means designing the system, shaping the roadmap with product, and helping the team actually ship it — without leaving behind a trail of operational debt.
Engagements
- Staff engineering & technical leadership
- Production AI and LLM product delivery
- Cloud platform modernization
- Security & compliance leadership
Writing
Notes, essays, long-form thinking.
The Illusion of Privacy in Your Email Inbox: How to Safeguard Your Information
Your email inbox is less private than you think. The business model behind free email, and the concrete steps you can take to harden it.
Secure Your Data: 5 Essential Information Security Tips
Protecting your data starts with five habits — strong passwords, MFA, phishing awareness, staying patched, and backing up. A practical guide.
Executing Raw SQL with Ecto
Sometimes the right answer is raw SQL. How to run it safely in Elixir with Ecto.Adapters.SQL — params, logging, and when to reach for it.
Contact
Tell me what
you're building.
Hiring for a staff or principal role, need an AI product delivered, or modernizing a backend platform? I read every message.
Direct: jared@sublimecoding.com
LinkedIn: @jared-smith
Message received.
Thanks — I read every note personally and will reply within a couple of days.