nj@systems ~
$ whoami
Jedrzej Nowak (call me NJ)
$ cat role.txt
Systems Architect & Engineering Leader
$ head -3 priorities.txt
AI Agents // Distributed Systems // Infrastructure

I architect systems that scale and lead engineers who ship. 20+ years turning complex technical challenges into working infrastructure. Currently deep in AI agents and LLM-powered automation.

20+
years building
100+
engineers led
8
time zones
    +-----------------------+
    |  FOUNDING ENGINEER    |
    |  & ENG LEADER         |
    +-----------------------+
    |                       |
    |   [AI/ML SYSTEMS]     |
    |   [DISTRIBUTED]       |
    |   [INFRASTRUCTURE]    |
    |                       |
    |  status: employed     |
    |  mode: building       |
    +-----------------------+
                            
founding engineer @ stealth AI startup

// about

The easiest way to pronounce my name is NJ - my initials backwards. I've been architecting distributed systems and leading engineering teams for two decades, remote-first since before it was cool (2015).

I'm deeply technical - still write code, still review architectures, still debug production at 3am when needed. Currently deep into AI agents and how LLMs are reshaping how we build software and run businesses. Not the hype, the actual engineering challenges.

## current focus

[AI]

AI & Agent Systems

Building autonomous systems with LLMs. RAG pipelines, tool orchestration, multi-agent architectures. The interesting problems in AI aren't the models - they're the systems around them.

[SYS]

Distributed Systems

Kubernetes at scale, bare metal when it matters, infrastructure that doesn't page you at night. Systems that handle billions of requests without drama.

[LEAD]

Technical Leadership

Building teams across time zones that actually ship. Remote-first culture, async communication, engineering practices that scale with the org.

[INFRA]

Infrastructure

Cloud-native done right. Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD that doesn't suck. Sometimes the answer is bare metal. Sometimes it's serverless. Usually it's knowing when to use which.

// experience

20+ years of building things that work

Founding Engineer // Stealth AI Startup
Nov 2025 - present

Building a platform that bridges the gap between AI capabilities and real-world business outcomes—making advanced AI accessible and actionable for enterprises.

  • Delivering and shipping core product features end-to-end
  • Building the next-stage engineering team from the ground up
  • Architecting scalable AI infrastructure for enterprise use cases
AI/LLM Python TypeScript Cloud Infrastructure
Independent Consultant // self
2025

Between gigs. Building interesting things with AI, consulting on architecture, staying sharp while looking for the right next opportunity.

  • Deep diving into AI agent architectures and LLM-powered automation
  • Consulting on cloud architecture and distributed systems design
  • Building developer tools and exploring new patterns
AI/LLM Python TypeScript Kubernetes
Engineering Manager / Head of Engineering // Spacemesh
2022 - 2025

Joined post-Series A to fix engineering chaos and ship a mainnet. Built the org, launched the network, kept it running for 2+ years.

  • Led ~15 engineers across 10+ time zones (Taiwan to LA)
  • Successfully launched and maintained novel proof-of-spacetime blockchain
  • Cut cloud costs by $50k/month migrating to bare metal
  • Built security infrastructure: WAF, monitoring, anomaly detection
  • Restructured team: replaced 5 underperformers with 7 strong hires
Go Rust Kubernetes GKE/AKS Bare Metal Cloudflare
Head of Engineering // Travelping GmbH
2019 - 2021

Cloud-native mobile core for automotive and transportation. When your network goes down, cars stop working.

  • Led 15 engineers + 24/7 ops team for mission-critical deployments
  • Transitioned company from local-only to remote-first
  • Automated what telcos said couldn't be automated
  • Stabilized client relationships through improved reliability
Kubernetes Erlang Go Terraform Telco Core
Senior Engineer → Tech Lead → Engineering Manager // Mirantis
2015 - 2019

Joined greenfield project for large-scale OpenStack orchestration. Grew into Kubernetes work that became Mirantis's k8s distribution.

  • Built and managed 4 distributed teams across 4 countries
  • Worked on 5G edge cloud and SR-IOV networking for telcos
  • Created deployment orchestration for 1000+ OpenStack nodes
  • Led Tier-1 client pilots and community engagement
Kubernetes OpenStack Go Python Bare Metal
Co-Founder & CTO // Codernity
2011 - 2015

Co-founded software company. Built PaaS, crypto exchange, and distributed storage before any of those were mainstream.

  • Zero-downtime deployment PaaS before Docker existed
  • Cryptocurrency exchange years before the boom
  • Custom distributed storage with erasure coding
  • Grew from 2 founders to profitable company
Python Node.js Distributed Systems Bare Metal
Early Career // Various
2004 - 2011

Python engineer, independent consultant, open-source contributor. Built the foundation in the pre-cloud era when everything was bare metal.

// skills

[0x01]

AI & Automation

  • LLM Integration & Prompt Engineering
  • AI Agent Architectures
  • RAG Systems & Vector Databases
  • Tool Orchestration
  • Workflow Automation
[0x02]

Languages

  • Python // primary
  • Go // production
  • Rust // learning more
  • TypeScript // when needed
  • Erlang, C/C++ // past lives
[0x03]

Infrastructure

  • Kubernetes (GKE, AKS, Bare Metal)
  • Docker & Container Orchestration
  • Terraform & Ansible
  • CI/CD (GitHub Actions, GitLab)
  • Cloudflare (Workers, WAF, CDN)
[0x04]

Systems

  • Distributed Systems Architecture
  • High-Availability Design
  • Performance Engineering
  • Security & Observability
  • Database Design (SQL, NoSQL)
[0x05]

Leadership

  • Distributed Team Management
  • Remote-First Culture
  • Technical Strategy
  • Hiring & Team Building
  • Process Optimization
[0x06]

Domains

  • Blockchain & Cryptocurrency
  • Telecommunications
  • Cloud Platforms
  • Developer Tools
  • Open Source

// contact

contact.sh
$ cat contact.json
{
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "calendar": "cal.com/jedrzej-nowak",
  "linkedin": "linkedin.com/in/jedrzej-nowak",
  "github": "github.com/pigmej",
  "status": "founding engineer @ stealth AI startup",
  "focus": [
    "Delivering & fixing software",
    "Building next-stage engineering team"
  ]
}

Looking for someone to build your AI infrastructure, lead your distributed team, or architect systems that actually scale?