pavloff.dev

Ros Pavloff · Senior AI Engineer

Ship your AI product — or hire the senior engineer to lead the team that will.

I work with founders two ways: as your Fractional AI CTO ($3–8K/mo, hands-on technical leadership) or by building your AI MVP in 90 days (fixed scope, fixed price). 15+ years shipping production software. Anthropic-certified on Claude APIs and agentic workflows.

Let's talk — book a 30-min call See how I work →

No pitch deck. We'll map your idea or your current product in 30 minutes, and you'll leave with at least one concrete next step — whether or not we work together.

why me

Why founders hire me instead of an agency or a junior team.

I've shipped, not just studied AI.

15 years building production systems before AI became hype. I know what breaks at scale, what investors look for in the codebase, and what a $20/mo OpenAI bill becomes at 10,000 users.

I speak founder, not just engineer.

Most non-technical founders get burned hiring overseas devs who code what's asked, not what's needed. I push back, prototype fast, and translate “I think we need a vector DB” into “here's what it costs you and whether it's worth it.”

AI-native by certification, not by trend.

Certified by Anthropic on Claude APIs, agentic workflows, and Claude Code (May 2026). My day-to-day stack is Claude + n8n + TypeScript + Python. No “we'll figure out AI when we get there.”

You get a partner, not a vendor.

One Slack channel. Weekly calls. Decisions documented. Code your next hire can read. I write you out of bus-factor risk from day one.

Background also includes algorithmic trading systems, computer vision pipelines, and blockchain dApps. If that's what you need, ask.

services

Two ways to work with me, plus two productized engagements for narrower needs.

Primary offer

Fractional AI CTO

For: pre-seed to Series A founders who need senior technical leadership without a $250K hire.

I plug into your team 1–3 days a week and own the technical roadmap end-to-end: architecture, AI strategy, hiring, code reviews, vendor decisions. You stay focused on customers and fundraising.

What you get

Weekly strategy calls + async Slack/Linear access
Architecture and AI stack decisions with cost projections
Hands-on code review and pair-programming with your team
Engineer hiring screens (you keep the final call)
Investor-ready technical narrative for your deck

Engagement: $3K–$8K/month · 3-month minimum

Primary offer

AI MVP — 90 days to ship

For: founders with validated demand and budget to build, not just prototype.

Fixed scope, fixed timeline, fixed price. I design and build the v1 of your AI product so you can ship to first users within a quarter — without coordinating five freelancers yourself.

What you get

Production codebase + deployed infrastructure
AI integration (Claude / OpenAI / open-source models)
Admin panel, observability, basic analytics
2 weeks of post-launch support

Engagement: $15K–$45K · 8–12 weeks

AI Automation & Agentic Workflows

For: founders drowning in ops while their team should be building.

Custom internal tools and agentic workflows that take 40+ hours of weekly busywork off your team — customer support, lead qualification, content ops, data pipelines.

What you get

n8n / Claude agent workflows tailored to your stack
Integrations with HubSpot, Stripe, Notion, and more
Monitoring and alerting on workflow health
Handoff documentation your team can maintain

Engagement: $5K–$20K · 2–6 weeks

AI Architecture Audit

For: founders inheriting code, evaluating a CTO candidate, or pre-fundraising due diligence.

5-business-day deep dive into your codebase, AI choices, infrastructure, and cost model. You get an honest answer on “is this scalable?” and a prioritized fix list.

What you get

25–40 page written report with red flags
Prioritized remediation plan
90-minute walkthrough call
30 days of follow-up Slack access

Engagement: $2.5K · 1 week

Looking for Computer Vision, Algorithmic Trading, or Blockchain work? Ask directly →

recent work

Anonymized to respect NDAs. References available after our second call.

AI-Powered Document Intelligence

LegalTechSeries AUS

Problem

Team manually reviewed 800+ legal documents/month, capping growth. A previous GPT-3.5 attempt hallucinated case citations.

Solution

Claude-based RAG pipeline with citation verification, hybrid search (PGVector + BM25), and human-in-the-loop QA for low-confidence outputs.

Result

92% review-time reduction. False citation rate dropped from 14% to under 0.5%. Roughly $18K/month saved in paralegal hours. Now serving 6× document volume with the same headcount.

AI MVP for B2B Sales Intelligence

SaaSPre-seedEU

Problem

Non-technical founder with a 12-week deadline to demo to a strategic partner. No engineering team.

Solution

Claude + n8n agentic stack scraping public signals, scoring accounts, and drafting outreach. Deployed on Vercel + Supabase so the founder operates it solo.

Result

Shipped on week 10. Demo closed a $45K LOI. Founder used the working product to raise pre-seed two months later.

Trading Signal Execution Engine

Algorithmic TradingGrowth-stageUS

Problem

Quants wrote logic in notebooks; nothing ran reliably in production. 30% of signals were missed in live markets.

Solution

Event-driven Python execution engine with strict latency budgets, structured logging, and a backtesting/paper-trading parity harness.

Result

Sub-100ms signal-to-execution latency. Missed signals dropped to under 2%. Team now ships new strategies in days, not months.

Names withheld by request. Happy to connect you with a reference once we agree it's a serious fit.

stack

The stack I work with daily. Not a CV checklist — these are the tools I actually reach for when shipping.

AI Stack

Claude API

OpenAI

n8n

LangChain

TensorFlow

PyTorch

scikit-learn

Backend & Infra

Node.js

Python

.NET

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Redis

Docker

Kubernetes

GCP

Azure

Frontend

React

TypeScript

Next.js

Angular

Quality & Ops

Playwright

Jest

GitHub Actions

GraphQL

REST

gRPC

certifications

My six most recent — all AI-focused. Anthropic-issued certifications on Claude APIs, agentic workflows, and Claude Code, plus an IBM AI Engineering specialization.

Building with the Claude API

Issued May 2026

AI Fluency Framework & Foundations

Issued May 2026

Claude Code in Action

Issued Apr 2026

Introduction to Claude Cowork

Issued Apr 2026

IBM AI Engineering Specialization

Issued Apr 2024

Deep Learning with TensorFlow

Issued Apr 2024

Show 11 earlier certifications

Claude Code 101

Issued Apr 2026

Claude 101

Issued Apr 2026

Deep Neural Networks with PyTorch

Issued Apr 2024

Introduction to Computer Vision and Image Processing

Issued Mar 2024

Deep Learning Essentials with Keras

Issued Feb 2024

Machine Learning with Python

Issued Feb 2024

MCSD: Web Applications

Issued Apr 2014

MCPS: Microsoft Certified Professional

Issued Mar 2014

MS: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3

Issued Mar 2014

MCPD: ASP.NET Developer 3.5

Issued Mar 2010

MCTS: .NET Framework 3.5, ASP.NET Applications

Issued Dec 2009

faq

Eight questions founders ask me before our first call. If yours isn't here, just email me.

I have an idea but no technical co-founder. Should we work together first, or should I keep looking?

Both, in parallel. A Fractional CTO is the fastest way to validate that your idea is buildable before you commit equity with a co-founder. Many of my engagements end when the founder hires a permanent CTO — and I help them screen candidates.

How is this different from hiring an agency?

One senior person owns your product end-to-end instead of a project manager coordinating four juniors who rotate off your account. You ping me directly. I'm accountable for outcomes, not billable hours.

What do I get in the first month?

Week 1 — full audit of your current state (code, AI choices, infra, team). Week 2 — written technical roadmap with priorities, costs, and risks. Weeks 3–4 — execution starts on the top 2 priorities. You leave the first month with clarity, not slides.

I'm pre-revenue. Can I afford this?

The Architecture Audit ($2.5K, one week) is usually the right starting point pre-revenue. The retainer makes sense after you've validated demand or raised pre-seed.

My idea is sensitive. Can we sign an NDA before talking?

Yes. I'll send a mutual NDA before the first call if you prefer. Most founders find that 90% of the first conversation is about market, traction, and team — none of which is the secret part.

Will you build it, or just advise?

Both. On the retainer I'm hands-on (architecture, code review, sometimes writing the gnarly parts myself). On MVP projects I do most of the coding. I'm not a slides-only consultant.

I already have a team. Where do you fit?

I work with your team, not around it. I review PRs, pair with your engineers on AI integration, and write the kind of documentation that survives turnover. I never make your team look bad.

How do we start?

A free 30-minute discovery call. If we're a fit, I send a written proposal within 48 hours. The Architecture Audit is the lowest-risk way to start working together.

Let's see if your idea is worth building — in 30 minutes.

No pitch. No slide deck. We'll talk about your product, your timeline, and whether you actually need a CTO right now (sometimes the answer is no — I'll tell you). You leave with at least one concrete next step. If we're a fit, we talk about working together.

Email me — [email protected]WhatsApp — +371 27 75 44 55

Trusted with NDA-protected work for startups across US, UK, and EU. References available on request.