Founding engineer for hire · Since 2008
I’m Dmitry Buslaev — a founding engineer four times over. Startups bring me in to design, build, and ship production software: web apps, mobile apps, APIs, cloud infrastructure, and AI features that survive real customers.
Fixed scope agreed up front. Working software every week. The code lives in your repo and your cloud account from day one.
15+ yrs
Shipping production software
4×
Companies built from the first commit
3
Acquisitions taken through diligence
2×
ISO 27001 certifications delivered
$50M+
Raised by teams I helped build
What I build
Pick one or stack several. Every engagement is scoped and priced before any work starts, so you know what you are buying.
An empty repo turned into a product real customers can use. Web app, API, database, auth, payments, deployment — the whole thing, not a prototype that has to be thrown away.
Typical: 6–12 weeks
Most AI features fail on cost, latency, or accuracy rather than on the model. I build the retrieval, evaluation, and fallbacks around it so the feature holds up once customers touch it.
Typical: 3–8 weeks
The infrastructure a startup needs and nobody wants to own: AWS accounts, environments, pipelines, monitoring, and a deploy that takes minutes instead of an afternoon.
Typical: 2–6 weeks
One React Native codebase for iOS and Android, wired to your backend and shipped through both app stores — including the review process, which is usually where teams get stuck.
Typical: 6–12 weeks
If enterprise buyers are asking for a security questionnaire, this is the work that unblocks the deal. I have taken two companies through ISO 27001 and kept them certified.
Typical: 4–10 weeks
You inherited a codebase, your build is slowing down, or an investor wants technical diligence. I read the code, run the numbers, and give you a written assessment with a plan you can act on.
Typical: 1–2 weeks
How it works
No discovery phase that bills for a month before code exists. The first working version is usually running in week one or two.
Thirty minutes, no charge. You describe what you need and who it is for. I tell you honestly whether I am the right person, and what I would build first.
You get a written plan: what gets built, in what order, what it costs, and when it lands. Fixed price per phase. If the plan looks wrong to you, we change it before anyone commits.
Work happens in your repository in weekly increments. Every Friday there is something running you can click on, plus a short note on what moved and what is next.
Your repo, your cloud account, your domain, documented and deployed. I can stay on for support or step away completely. Nothing is locked to me.
The trade-off
I am not the right answer for every situation. Here is the honest comparison so you can place me against the alternatives.
Right answer once you know exactly what you need every week, and can lead them.
Right answer for large parallel teams and long roadmaps with a budget to match.
Right answer when you need working software soon and cannot afford a wrong hire.
Engagements
Tell me the outcome you need and the budget you have. I will tell you which of these fits, or tell you that it does not.
A tight, well-defined piece of work: a prototype for an investor meeting, an integration that is blocking a launch, a deploy pipeline that keeps breaking.
The full job, split into phases you approve one at a time. Each phase ends with something deployed, so you can stop, extend, or redirect at any boundary.
A reserved share of my week for a company that has shipped and now needs steady progress, on-call cover, and someone who already knows the system.
Architecture reviews, hiring your first engineers, vendor and build-versus-buy calls, technical due diligence for a raise or an acquisition.
Track record
Not a résumé — context for what you are buying. Each of these started with an empty repository and ended with software that customers, auditors, and acquirers relied on.
2024 — 2026
AI model compression · Salesforce Ventures, M13
Founding engineer. Built the Go backend, the React dashboard, the React Native app, and the Python tooling that enterprise customers used to compress and deploy models. Ran technical discovery and onboarding for those customers myself, from the first call through production rollout.
2022 — 2024
Mental health platform · 1M+ patients
Principal engineer on platform and infrastructure. Cut deploy cycle time in half with ephemeral environments, finished the move to Kubernetes and Terraform, prepared the company for its first ISO 27001 audit, and merged two acquired systems into the platform.
2017 — 2022
Brain health SaaS · 20+ countries
Founding engineer. Built the backend and AWS platform from nothing, then grew the team to 25. Migrated off Rackspace and halved infrastructure cost, delivered and maintained ISO 27001, and led the technical relationship with Boeing, AARP, and Accenture from pre-sales to delivery.
2015 — 2017
Spatial intelligence and energy analytics
Founding engineer. Built the API and analytics dashboard behind multi-million dollar government research contracts, and a data system that lowered energy cost across 250+ Hawaii school classrooms.
2008 — 2015
Video editing SaaS · acquired
Founding engineer. Architected and patented the video editing platform, built engineering from one person to thirty through Series A to C and $50M+ raised, and ran the technical side of the acquisition.
Stack
I pick what your team can maintain after I leave, not what is interesting to me this year.
Questions
Usually within one to two weeks, sometimes sooner for short work. Availability is on the job card at the top of this page and I keep it current.
Often. You bring the problem, the customers, and the decisions about what matters. I handle the technical choices and explain them in plain language, without turning every question into a meeting.
You do, from the first commit. Work happens in your repository and your cloud accounts. There is no proprietary framework and nothing that stops another engineer from picking it up.
Yes. I join your standups, your repo, and your review process. I have hired and mentored engineers for fifteen years, so I can also help your team level up rather than working around them.
Every engagement is quoted as a fixed price before work starts, based on scope. Send a short description of what you need and you will get a number and a timeline within a few days.
I will say so on the first call. For larger builds I bring in engineers I have worked with before and stay accountable for the delivery, or I help you hire the team directly.
Yes to both. I have worked under HIPAA and GDPR, delivered ISO 27001 twice, and been through enterprise security review with companies like Boeing and Accenture.
San Diego, California, working Pacific time. Every engagement in the last several years has been remote, with overlap hours agreed up front.
Contact
A paragraph is enough to start. You will hear back within one business day, with either a plan or an honest pointer to someone better suited.