Software Engineer - LLM Platforms
Turing
Palo Alto, CA, USA (Remote)
Sep 2024 – Present
Engineer within an applied research pod translating LLM breakthroughs into production-grade developer tooling.
Hi, I'm Joseph Gitonga
Based in Nairobi, I'm remote-first with 6 years of experience working with distributed teams. I consult with founders, operators, and enterprise teams who want to ship AI-enabled software without the drag of building a large engineering department. You might know me as Jay Kiharani elsewhere on the internet.
Over the past 8 years I've helped launch insurance portals, accounting automations, and customer-facing products that blend modern web engineering with trusted AI platforms like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini. My role flexes from architect and product strategist to engineer and coach - whatever gets your initiative into the hands of customers faster.
What You Can Expect
I join each project with a bias for clarity, measurable outcomes, and strong communication across technical and non-technical teams.
Remote-first collaboration
6+ years working with distributed teams across Kenya, Europe, and North America to launch AI-enabled products and customer experiences.
Hands-on delivery
Comfortable writing the code, designing the workflows, and working directly with stakeholders to hit deadlines.
Operator mindset
Treat every engagement like an in-house lead - aligned with revenue, retention, and customer satisfaction.
Strategic consulting
Step in as an embedded product and engineering consultant, keeping AI strategy and delivery on track without a full-time hire.
Who I Work With
Every engagement is tailored to your stage, from launching a first website to integrating AI copilots across global teams.
Built for Every Stage of Growth
From solo operators in Nairobi to enterprise teams across North America and Europe, I tailor AI and software support to match your goals, pace, and risk profile.
Creators & Solo Founders
- Launch a fast, modern website and landing pages
- Set up branded email, booking, and automation workflows
- Integrate ready-made AI copilots for research, writing, and outreach
Lightweight engagements to get you online quickly with future-proof foundations.
Micro & Small Businesses
- Manage web, e-commerce, and customer portals
- Connect CRM, billing, and marketing tools
- Automate support and sales processes with trusted AI platforms
I become your remote product & technology partner so you can stay focused on customers.
Growth Teams & Scaleups
- Embed state-of-the-art LLMs into products without rebuilding infrastructure
- Operationalize RAG pipelines with LangChain, LangGraph, and LlamaIndex
- Ship secure integrations across data, APIs, and cloud platforms
- Enable product, data, and support teams with AI-first workflows
Hands-on execution plus leadership to align AI initiatives with retention and revenue goals.
Enterprises & Corporate Teams
- Evaluate and integrate AI platforms within governance & compliance requirements
- Roll out global-ready web and data platforms with clear change management
- Upskill cross-functional teams to safely deploy AI in production
Strategic consulting and delivery sprints that respect complex stakeholders, security policies, and scale.
Recent Work
A glimpse into recent projects and the outcomes we achieved together.
Selected Client Results
Engagements that combined AI, data, and product engineering to unlock measurable impact.
Launch Website and AI Quote Assistant for Solo Insurance Founder
A Nairobi-based founder needed to validate a micro-insurance idea without hiring full-time engineers.
- Built a conversion-focused Next.js site and onboarding flow in three weeks
- Embedded a LangChain-powered RAG guide to explain policies and collect warm leads around the clock
- Delivered dashboards so pricing, copy, and funnel steps could be iterated daily
Next.jsSupabaseLangChainOpenAIVercelPostHog
Business Email Rescue for an Accounting Collective
An accounting firm with cPanel mailboxes was losing thousands of client emails to spam and outages, costing revenue and trust.
- Migrated 40+ mailboxes to Google Workspace with zero downtime and DKIM/SPF hardening
- Rolled out shared inboxes, retention policies, and automated discovery of missing threads
- Trained staff on a Claude-powered assistant that drafts replies and flags urgent messages within minutes
Google WorkspaceAnthropic ClaudeApps ScriptAppSheetLooker Studio
Retail Support Copilot for a Growing E-commerce Brand
A Kenyan D2C retailer wanted to scale personalized support across email, WhatsApp, and web chat without ballooning headcount.
- Integrated LangGraph-driven GPT-4 assistants that surface order data, inventory, and policy snippets in seconds
- Linked Zendesk, Shopify, and Stripe so the bot could draft responses and queue escalations
- Cut average handle time by 35% while maintaining human QA on final sends
LaravelLangGraphGPT-4Shopify APIZendeskRedis
Operational Insights Platform for a Logistics Scaleup
A logistics team expanding across East Africa needed a single source of truth for fleet telemetry, finance, and customer SLAs.
- Implemented event pipelines that stream telematics and finance data into a unified warehouse
- Built an Express.js + React control tower showing live route health and predicted delays
- Added Gemini-powered RAG summaries so execs received daily briefs without digging into dashboards
Express.jsLangChainReactBigQueryGoogle Geminidbt
Operating Stack
Opinionated choices across AI, data, and product engineering so your teams inherit maintainable systems.
AI & ML Tooling
- LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral)
- RAG pipelines & agent workflows (LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex)
- Vector DBs (Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector)
Data & Analytics
- Modern ELT (dbt, Airbyte, Dagster)
- Warehouses (Snowflake, BigQuery, Postgres)
- Metrics layers & BI (Mode, Metabase, Looker)
Product Engineering
- TypeScript, React/Next.js, Node.js
- Laravel, Express.js, Python (FastAPI)
- Event-driven & microservice architectures
Cloud & Platform
- AWS, GCP, DigitalOcean, Vercel
- Container orchestration (Docker, ECS, Kubernetes)
- CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)
DevEx & MLOps
- Feature stores & model monitoring
- Experimentation frameworks
- Infrastructure as code (Terraform, Pulumi)
Security & Compliance
- PII governance & access controls
- Threat modelling & secure SDLC
- Audit-ready documentation
Experience & Background
Consultant-level software engineer specialising in production-ready AI systems. Blend full-stack delivery, ML research, and systems architecture to help distributed teams ship resilient products. Comfortable leading discovery, architecting cloud and data platforms, and implementing LLM-powered workflows that drive measurable business lift.
18+
AI-native initiatives shipped
RAG copilots, automation pipelines, and ML-driven SaaS launches since 2020.
20M+
Transactions secured monthly
Payments infrastructure hardened across high-volume, regulated environments.
45 days
Speed-to-impact
Average time from discovery to production rollout on net-new client engagements.
Recent Roles
Lead Engineer / Fractional CTO
MjengoSmart
Nairobi, Kenya (Hybrid)
Jan 2023 – Present
Own the entire technology stack - from cloud infrastructure and security to business email suites and developer tooling - while scaling SaaS for construction project operations, payments, and supplier collaboration.
Software Engineer
Stax Payments
Orlando, FL, USA (Remote)
Dec 2021 – Mar 2024
Owned mission-critical payment and risk services across a high-throughput fintech platform.
Education & Credentials
BSc. Electrical and Electronics Engineering
University of Nairobi
Nairobi, Kenya • 2014 – 2019
Five years inside labs and control rooms that demanded systems thinking, fault-tolerant design, and optionality across hardware and software - discipline that still shows up in every production launch.
- Computer systems and data engineering fundamentals
- Control systems and industrial automation
- Telecommunications and signal processing
- Power systems and energy distribution
- Engineering design studios and rapid prototyping
- Operations, leadership, and project management
Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education
Siakago Boys' High School
Mbeere, Kenya • 2009 – 2012
Balanced maths mastery with national science congress wins to graduate with an A, earning admission to the prestigious University of Nairobi Dental School - then chose engineering for the bigger systems puzzles.
Let's ship your next milestone
Ready to explore where AI and software can unlock leverage?
I partner with founders, product leaders, and data teams to deliver production-grade solutions, from focused delivery sprints to ongoing fractional CTO support. Tell me about your goals and we'll design the most impactful path forward.
Typical engagements run 4-12 weeks with optional fractional CTO coverage for longer-term leadership support.