Johansen AI LogoJohansen AI Solutions

// technical fellow & solutions architect

Building AI Agents That Let Small Teams Do Big Things

I help early-stage startups scale to 100M+ calls without the 100-person overhead. Enterprise architecture on a shoestring budget — backed by 40+ years of building and scaling systems.

// about

Background

I'm a hands-on product and engineering executive with over four decades of experience building software systems — from bare-metal infrastructure to cloud-native platforms to AI-powered automation. My career spans enterprise architecture, startup CTO roles, and engineering leadership across fintech, e-commerce, and developer tools.

I've built and led globally distributed, 100% remote engineering organizations, and I'm a strong believer that the best teams are built on mentorship, trust, and asking the right questions — not micromanagement.

These days, I'm focused on the intersection of AI agents and startup efficiency. I believe small, well-tooled teams can outperform organizations ten times their size when they leverage intelligent automation strategically. This conviction led me to build Kaigents, a production-grade substrate for operating AI agent teams in complex enterprise environments.

Based in Pasadena, California, I work with founders and engineering teams to design and build AI agent systems that handle the work of entire departments — letting humans focus on the creative, strategic work that actually moves the needle.

// quick facts

Independent Consultant
Pasadena, CA
Western Governors University

Programming

TypeScript95%
Python90%
Rust85%
Go80%

Languages

EnglishNative
SpanishProfessional
GermanLimited Working
Mandarin ChineseElementary

Certifications

CompTIA A+
CompTIA Network+
CompTIA Security+
CompTIA Project+
Certified Scrum Master
OCA Java 8 (IZ0-808)
OCP Java 8 (IZ0-809)

// focus areas

What I Work On

AI Agent Engineering

Featured

Designing and building autonomous AI agent systems that handle complex workflows — from LLM orchestration and tool use to RAG pipelines and multi-agent coordination.

LLM SystemsAgent OrchestrationTool UseRAG

System Architecture

Crafting scalable, maintainable architectures for products that need to grow. Microservices, event-driven systems, and cloud-native infrastructure designed for real-world load.

MicroservicesAPI DesignCloud-NativeKubernetes

Data Engineering

Building data pipelines and ML infrastructure that turn raw information into actionable intelligence. From ETL to real-time analytics to ML model deployment.

Data PipelinesML OpsAnalyticsReal-Time

Engineering Leadership

Building and scaling engineering teams that ship great software. Mentorship, technical strategy, and creating cultures where engineers do their best work.

Team BuildingMentorshipStrategyRemote Teams

// engineering advisory

How I Work With You

Four services across the startup lifecycle — from pre-seed technical co-founding through post-Series B transformation. All backed by 40+ years of engineering judgment and AI-accelerated delivery.

Fractional CTO Retainer

Most Requested

Senior engineering leadership without the full-time overhead.

Series A–C companies need senior technical leadership but can't justify a $400K CTO hire. I provide hands-on architectural guidance, direct team mentorship, and board-level technical communication — on a retainer that scales with the engagement.

When to reach out:

Your technical co-founder is maxed out, you're approaching a Series B, or your last CTO just left.

Series A–CArchitectureTeam LeadershipBoard Prep

$6K–$10K / month

3-month minimum · 1–2 clients maximum

Learn more

Co-founder CTO

A technical co-founder for serial entrepreneurs building their next venture.

Serial entrepreneurs with proven go-to-market instincts and a new venture to build. I architect, build, and scale the product through initial launch — with 40+ years of judgment on what to build and AI acceleration on how fast to build it.

When to reach out:

You've launched and sold before. You have a validated concept. You don't want a dev shop.

Pre-seedMVPTechnical Co-founderAI-Accelerated

2–4% equity + $2.5K/month

or $25K–$40K fixed build · equity path requires prior exit

Learn more

AI-Accelerated MVP Build

Production-ready software in 6–10 weeks. Not a prototype.

Traditional dev shops charge $150K–$300K and take 6–12 months. AI-accelerated senior engineering changes the equation. You get the same quality of architectural judgment at a fraction of the cost — because scaffolding, plumbing, and first drafts are AI-accelerated, leaving senior judgment for the 20% that matters.

When to reach out:

You have a validated concept, funding to build, and need it in production — not in a demo.

Fixed Fee6–10 WeeksProduction-ReadyAI-Accelerated

$25K–$45K fixed fee

Milestone payments · scoping sprint required first

Learn more

Tech Stack Transformation

Simpler architecture, lower TCO, higher scalability. Phase-gated delivery.

Growing companies accumulate technical debt until engineering velocity collapses and infrastructure costs run ahead of revenue. Phase 1 is a full architecture audit and transformation roadmap. Phase 2 is execution — AI-accelerated, milestone-gated, with your team enabled to own the result.

When to reach out:

Your infra costs are growing faster than revenue, or you're hiring DevOps/SRE to hold together a system that shouldn't need that.

Post-Series BLegacy ModernizationCost ReductionPhase-Gated

$7.5K audit + $8K–$15K/month

Two-phase model · Phase 1 deliverable is yours regardless

Learn more

// the shared differentiator

Every engagement is backed by the same combination: 40+ years of software engineering, 25 years of engineering management, and Kaigents — a production-grade AI agent platform I built and run. This is engineering judgment backed by deployed infrastructure, not AI consulting backed by slide decks. The value equation: $300K–$500K quality of output at $30K–$75K engagement cost.

// projects

What I'm Building

TeamKnowl

Active

A Kubernetes-native, Git-driven knowledge base platform. Features an Obsidian-like experience with sharded indexing and S3-compatible storage (CEPH) for AI + Human teams.

Impact

Enables horizontally scalable, self-healing shared memory for autonomous AI agents and engineering teams.

GoKubernetes OperatorS3/CEPHReact

CodeKnowl

Active

On-prem, local-first codebase analyst that provides a structured relationship store and knowledge base for high-parallelism AI agent workflows.

Impact

Provides deep codebase understanding with citations, enabling AI agents to reason accurately about complex systems.

RustPythonGraph DBAI AgentsView on GitHub

AI Agents for Startup Automation

Active

A suite of autonomous agents handling operational workflows from customer support triage to internal knowledge management.

Impact

Reduces operational overhead by 40%, letting lean teams punch 10x above their weight.

AI AgentsLLMAutomationTypeScript

Kaigents

Active

A production-grade, Kubernetes-native substrate for operating AI agent teams. Built for low TCO on AMD Ryzen AI hardware with durable execution via Temporal.

Impact

Provides the enterprise-grade visibility, durability, and governance needed to move AI agents from prototype to production at scale.

RustGoTemporalKubernetesAI AgentsView on GitHub

AMD Ryzen Monitoring in Linux

Active

High-performance Rust CLI tool for real-time AMD Ryzen AI NPU telemetry and AI workload optimization.

Impact

Enables hardware-aware AI workload scaling for edge and local processing.

RustCLIHardwareNPUView on GitHub

Enterprise IoT Infrastructure

Maintained

Architected high-availability systems for real-time asset tracking and IoT telemetry.

Impact

Supports 100k+ devices with sub-second latency and five-nines reliability.

IoTKubernetesArchitectureGo

// contact

Let's Connect

I'm always interested in talking with founders building ambitious products, engineers solving hard problems, and anyone thinking about how AI agents will reshape how we work.