Ahmed KhanAI Engineering Leader, Founder & Fractional CTO
NASA Award-winning AI leader building production AI systems. Currently running three tracks: Founder & CTO, Head of Applied AI, and Fractional CTO serving multiple startups. 20+ years shipping software across aerospace, manufacturing, energy, climate tech, and enterprise platforms.
About Ahmed
Ahmed Khan is a CTO, Head of Applied AI, and software engineering leader with over 20 years of hands-on delivery experience across aerospace, manufacturing, energy, healthcare, real estate, climate tech, and enterprise platforms. He currently builds production AI systems as a founder, head of applied AI, and fractional CTO serving multiple startups simultaneously.
He architects and ships production agentic AI systems using Claude (Opus 4.6, Code, Agent SDK), GPT-5, Codex, Gemini, LangGraph, LangChain, MCP, and RAG pipelines. His expertise spans the full AI stack — from prompt engineering and evaluation frameworks (DeepEval, OpenAI Evals, LLM-as-Judge) to multi-provider orchestration, guardrails, and production LLMOps.
Ahmed is a former NASA Mission Control software lead and certified International Space Station Flight Controller, recipient of the NASA Public Achievement Medal for technical leadership. He has extensive experience working directly with C-level executives, Fortune 500 stakeholders, and startup founders, translating ambiguous business challenges into concrete technical roadmaps, POCs, MVPs, and production systems.
At Avanade (Microsoft Partner), he led large-scale enterprise modernization programs with 20+ person cross-functional teams across Fortune 100 clients. At Halliburton, he created the industry's first mobile geosteering application, featured by Microsoft for mobile innovation in the energy industry.
Education
B.S. Computer Science — University of Houston, Clear Lake
Mechanical Engineering — Stony Brook University
Graduate Coursework in Technical Management
Experience
Founder & CTO
Current- Technical co-founder building AI-driven recommendation and market intelligence platform for senior living
- Hands-on ownership of LLM workflows, retrieval logic, prompt design, guardrails, and full-stack integration
- Designed GraphQL APIs and vector pipelines unifying housing, health, and financial datasets
Head of Applied AI
Current- Designed complete AI platform architecture for smart city startup with active municipal pilot programs (City of Olympia, WA)
- Architected intelligence layer with multiple AI frameworks for climate resilience, biodiversity, and regulatory compliance
- Built AI MCP Registry for standardized tool/model connectivity; designed semantic models with ontology and knowledge graph
- Created smart city AI agent with academic literature RAG + web search for urban planning intelligence
CTO & Co-Founder
- Led hands-on engineering for AI-native agentic compliance platform (CORA) for regulated manufacturing
- Launched to 7 enterprise customers including Fortive Corporation (Fortune 500, $5.4B revenue)
- Built production agentic workflows using LangGraph, LangChain, Pydantic, multi-modal LLMs
- Implemented LLM evaluation pipelines using DeepEval, OpenAI Evals, and LLM-as-Judge
Fractional CTO, Applied AI Consulting
Current- Advise and build for multiple AI startups simultaneously — from architecture through production deployment
- Projects span legal tech, HR tech, procurement, AI search, enterprise RAG, and agent orchestration
- Developed cutting-edge Generative AI prototypes and production systems for diverse industries
- Delivered AI enablement and training — coaching teams on agentic workflows, evaluation frameworks, and governance
CTO, Head of Engineering
- Led technology vision for a 40-person digital agency delivering AI, data, web, mobile, and cloud solutions
- Developed industry-first Generative AI solutions for clients in energy and property management
- Partnered with sales and leadership to scope opportunities and support go-to-market efforts
Senior Software Manager
- Led large-scale enterprise modernization programs with 20+ person cross-functional teams
- Fortune 100 retail modernization: 2-year program supporting 2,000+ global stores
- Fortune 100 funeral services: tablet platform deployed to 1,000+ locations, contributing to ~$90M sales increase
- Worked directly with Fortune 100 executive stakeholders translating business challenges into technical roadmaps
Head of Mobile Delivery
- Created the industry's first mobile geosteering application (DecisionSpace) for iPad and Android
- Led architecture, solution development, product management, and Xamarin development
- Featured by Xamarin/Microsoft for mobile innovation in the energy industry
NASA Flight Controller, Sr. Software Engineer
- Served in NASA Mission Control supporting real-time International Space Station operations
- Technical Lead for ISSLive and mission planning systems used across Mission Control centers worldwide
- Recipient: NASA Public Achievement Medal for technical leadership and innovation
- Winner of Johnson Space Center Software of the Year award
Featured Projects
Select flagship projects from my work as CTO, Head of Applied AI, and Fractional CTO.
Certivo (CORA)
Manufacturing / Compliance AI · Nov 2024 – Apr 2025
Built an AI-native agentic compliance platform (CORA) serving regulated manufacturing environments. Led hands-on engineering from zero to production, launching to 7 enterprise customers including a Fortune 500 industrial conglomerate.
Ecoheart AI Platform
Smart City / Climate AI · Aug 2025 – Present
Designed complete AI platform architecture for a pre-seed smart city startup with active municipal pilot programs. Architected intelligence layer with multiple AI frameworks for climate resilience, biodiversity, risk management, and regulatory compliance.
Housing Solutions.ai
PropTech / Senior Housing AI · 2025 – Present
Technical co-founder building an AI-driven recommendation and market intelligence platform for senior living. Hands-on ownership of LLM workflows, retrieval logic, prompt design, guardrails, and full-stack integration.
Skills & Expertise
79+ skills across 9 domains
AI Enablement & Training
Accelerate Your Team's AI Capabilities
Your team doesn't need to figure out AI alone. With 20+ years leading engineering teams and 3+ years shipping production AI, I deliver hands-on training that gets developers building with agentic AI, RAG, and LLMs in days — not months.
For Engineering Teams
Claude Code, agentic workflows, LangGraph, RAG pipelines, MCP integration, prompt engineering, and AI-assisted development
For Product & Leadership
AI strategy, identifying high-ROI use cases, evaluating build vs. buy, and understanding what's actually possible with today's AI
For Non-Technical Stakeholders
Demystifying AI for executives, PMs, and business teams — what it can do, what it can't, and how to make smart investment decisions
Press & Publications
Certivo raises $4M to automate supply chain compliance with AI
GeekWire coverage of Certivo's $4M funding round
Certivo, a new PSL spinout led by Seattle tech vet, brings AI to compliance management
GeekWire press release for AI SaaS company Ahmed co-founded
Bridging the Tech Gap: How AI Can Transform Industries
AI Podcast
NASA Public Achievement Medal
NASA Agency Honor Awards — Technical Innovation
ISSLIVE! – Bringing the Space Station to Every Generation
NASA Technical Paper
Johnson Space Center Software of the Year
ISS Plan Manager Online System — JSC Award
Get In Touch
Ahmed is available as a Fractional CTO, Head of AI, and for contract consulting engagements. Reach out to discuss how his expertise in applied AI, agentic systems, and technical leadership can help your team build and ship production AI.