AI App Developer for Hire
I build complete AI products, not prototypes. Backend, frontend, database, integrations and the model logic, designed around the workflow they are supposed to fix.
133 completed contracts, 106 five-star reviews and a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork. 71% of that work came from clients who hired me again.
Where these projects go wrong
The demo works. Then real users arrive with messy input, the data turns out to be inconsistent, an integration rate-limits at the worst moment, and the thing that looked finished needs a second engineer to explain it.
AI features are ordinary software with an unusual failure mode: they fail quietly and plausibly. The work is building the product around that fact, and being honest about where the model should not be trusted.
What I build
AI features inside an existing product
New capability added to software you already run, without rewriting it and without breaking what your customers depend on.
AI-first SaaS products
Multi-tenant applications with authentication, roles, billing and dashboards, plus the model logic underneath.
Internal tools and copilots
Software for your own team that removes a manual step, where adoption matters more than novelty.
The unglamorous half
Data cleanup, evaluation, monitoring, cost control and the deployment pipeline, which is where most AI projects actually stall.
How the work runs
- Understand the workflow firstUsers, approvals, exceptions, handoffs and edge cases. Architecture decisions come after that, not before.
- Prove the risky part earlyWhatever is most likely to fail gets built first, on your real data, so a bad assumption costs a week rather than a quarter.
- Build the product around itBackend, frontend, database and integrations, in small releases you can see and steer.
- Hand it over properlyDocumentation that matches the code, and a system another engineer can continue without calling me.
Proof
A referral rewards SaaS built solo to production
Live at francofunrewards.ca. Schema, payments, deployment and the reward ledger where every change is auditable.
21 product contracts for one platform company
Between 2019 and 2025, on shared standards, with handovers that let the next engineer continue.
Stack
Python, FastAPI, Django, Node.js, React, Next.js, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, Supabase, AWS, Docker, OpenAI, Claude, LangChain
Questions clients ask
Can you work with our existing codebase?
Yes, and I prefer it. Most of my longest engagements were maintaining and extending someone else's system, including a Laravel API behind a doctor and patient app pair that I built and then extended across three contracts.
What if the AI part turns out not to work?
Then you find out in week one rather than month four. I build the risky part first on your real data, and if the signal is not there I will say so and tell you what would need to change.
Do you work with a team or alone?
Alone, end to end, which is why clients hire me for work that would otherwise need a frontend developer, a backend developer and someone to own the model.
What does an engagement look like?
Usually a scoped first milestone with a fixed price so we both learn how the other works, then either continued milestones or a monthly arrangement.
Tell me what is broken
Send the workflow, the system or the idea. You get a straight answer on whether it is worth building, and what it would take. If I am not the right person, I will say so.