Vetted Vice President of Engineerings in California

Dan Gervais

Screened ReferencesStrong rec.

Executive technology leader specializing in big data, AI/ML, and SaaS platforms

Escondido, CA28y exp

“Hands-on IT/engineering executive who has led high-impact architecture changes and compliance-driven data systems. Notably built an internally developed columnar database at Troparé (with dual-support UI for legacy/new DBs) and shipped an MVP in 3–4 months with dramatic performance improvements, and previously delivered PCI/opt-out compliant deletion workflows while addressing DB performance and migrations.”

“Cross-functional product/engineering leader with startup and enterprise experience (Whimstay, Wells Fargo, Leap AI Technologies). Has owned end-to-end delivery including UI and payment architecture—built a multi-customer reservation payment flow using pre-auth plus event/timer-driven reminders and handled tricky edge cases like date changeover. Also introduced lightweight process (Jira, sprints, team/module structuring) to increase delivery speed in an early-stage AI document-matching startup.”

“Senior engineering executive with 8+ years leading large-scale SaaS modernization across AI, compliance, ecommerce, streaming, IoT, and travel. Has led a 150+ global engineering org, modernized seven cloud-native platforms for a $400M business, and consolidated travel systems processing $1B+ annually while staying hands-on in architecture, incident response, and AI integration.”

Chris Colinsky

Screened

Executive Technology Leader/CTO specializing in data platforms, AI agents, and e-commerce/payments

Los Angeles, CA23y exp

“Engineering leader with hands-on coding time who has driven major commerce and data-platform transformations: defined goop’s omnichannel strategy, unified payments to Square, and rebuilt real-time NetSuite inventory flows plus forecasting tools. Currently reorganized engineering into Product/Data/Support teams to hit aggressive seasonal roadmaps, and led a data-lake/medallion ELT refactor feeding embedded analytics (Tinybird) with improved reliability and cost efficiency; also accelerates onboarding via AI coding tools in a serverless, event-driven architecture.”

“Senior engineering executive with 20+ years combining architecture depth and org leadership, including teams up to 125 people across software, QA, hardware, and embedded engineering. Notable wins include rebuilding a logistics platform's data layer to sub-second latency with 250% higher throughput and driving 3-5x delivery speed through AI-assisted engineering workflows.”

Shady Alzayat

Screened

Executive engineering leader and full-stack builder specializing in platforms, payments, and healthcare

San Francisco, CA20y exp

“Serial entrepreneur building appetier.com, an agentic restaurant marketing and ecommerce automation platform for restaurants. Previously raised for Atlas Mental Health and brings thoughtful fundraising perspective centered on investor alignment, GTM partnership, and vertical SaaS/SMB infrastructure expertise.”

Serge Ahranovich

Screened

Executive CTO / Platform Architect specializing in IoT, telematics, and EV charging infrastructure

Los Angeles, CA20y exp

“Founder of TimeTick (timetick.io), an AI-powered diagnostics platform for IoT combining device simulation, automated testing, and real-time monitoring—initially focused on EV charger diagnostics. Former VP of Engineering with a track record of building IoT systems from scratch and applying AI to detect protocol-failure patterns that drive downtime; currently supporting existing customers and converting pilots (with leads like Siemens and ABB) into paid subscriptions.”

“Repeat founder/CTO with hands-on experience raising capital from friends and family, angels, corporate sources, federal grants, private equity, and venture capital. Built a startup in a software business incubator, later sold the company, and went on to serve as an Engineering Manager at the acquirer inside the Plug and Play accelerator ecosystem.”

“Silicon Valley operator with ~30 years of experience as a board member, advisor, VC, founder, and turnaround executive, claiming 50+ venture-backed turnarounds. Has driven outsized outcomes including a $1B Nokia spinout and a 9-figure Jaspersoft exit to TIBCO, and is known for pragmatic, people-and-financials-first operational diagnosis (including CRM forensics) and rapid team scaling via structured hiring pipelines.”