Summary
AI Forward-Deployed Engineer who embeds with teams to ship production AI — LLM integrations, RAG systems, and workflow automation — backed by 10+ years building and leading SaaS platforms at scale with PHP, Laravel, MySQL, and React. I bring shipping discipline from products used by millions (OpticalCRM, a 1M+ session e-therapy platform) to AI work, and transfer ownership to teams rather than create lock-in.
Core Skills
AI EngineeringLLM Integration (OpenAI / Anthropic)RAG & Vector SearchAI AgentsWorkflow AutomationPrompt Engineering
BackendPHPLaravelMySQLREST APIsQueues & JobsRedis
FrontendJavaScriptReact.jsHTML5CSS3jQuery
LeadershipTeam LeadershipMentoringSystem ArchitectureCode Review
Experience
Tech Lead — TechUp Labs
May 2022 – Present · Remote / Gujarat
- Lead development of an e-therapy platform supporting 1M+ sessions across 30K+ students and 900+ institutions.
- Built KPI dashboards and a QuickBooks integration for finance and reporting workflows.
- Optimized database queries and architecture to reduce load times and support growth at scale.
Full Stack Developer — Freelance
Aug 2021 – Apr 2022
- Delivered multiple Laravel applications for international clients.
- Built innovation-management systems and service platforms end to end.
Team Lead / Senior Web Developer — DNB Management Applications
Jun 2014 – Jul 2021 · Bangalore / Rajkot
- Led creation of OpticalCRM, the company's flagship product, adopted by 3000+ optical stores worldwide — shaped Sales, Purchase, Inventory, and Accounts modules.
- Automated client onboarding (cPanel provisioning, database setup, tailored data import) for a seamless first-run experience.
- Delivered 100+ production Laravel applications across referral, financial, and distributed-ledger platforms.
- Progression: Junior Software Engineer (2014) → Senior Web Developer (2016) → Team Lead (2016–2021).
Selected Projects
- E-Therapy Platform — online therapy for students, institutions, and therapists. 1M+ sessions, 30K+ students, 900+ institutions. Laravel, React, MySQL.
- OpticalCRM — SaaS CRM for optical retail (sales, purchase, inventory, accounts). 3000+ stores. PHP, Laravel, MySQL.
- Innoplore — innovation-management system for tracking and driving organizational innovation. Laravel, MySQL.
- Kynderway — household-staff platform matching job seekers and employers. Laravel, React, MySQL.
References and a portfolio of live products available on request · akshaypatel.dev