Ajay Raj

Working with me

My clients usually have:

• safety-critical or mission-critical needs that have to be met above all
• MVPs in messy scientific domains
• inherited projects to decipher and ship

If that sounds like you, we'll work well together.

I enjoy messy intersections, where the science, the hardware, or the real world meets the code. I own products end-to-end: prototype quickly to iterate towards requirements and core features, then release. The version I ship is test-driven, traceable, documented, and mature enough for anyone to pick the work back up.

What I take on

• Embedded, firmware & OS — RTOS, kernel and driver work, BSPs, FPGA, system-level performance; compliance-ready (FDA / IEC 62304 / ISO 13485 background)
• Custom devices & co-design — full builds from spec to ship: enclosure, electronics, schematic-aware firmware, mechatronic integration; blissful end products
• Production ML — research code into systems that scale with load
• AI systems — MCP, RAG, agents, evaluators; implemented safely, fixing vibe-slop
• Prototype to production — quick first cuts, built to last
• Internal tooling — tools, workflow, and documentation your team will love
• Open-ended problems — exploratory R&D, scoping unknown territory, “we don't know what this needs to be yet”
• Architecture review & rescue — audits, refactors, inherited projects, getting unstuck

How engagements typically work

• Discovery — short paid scoping call or week. We figure out shape and fit before either of us commits.
• Build — fixed-scope when the work is well-defined, hourly when the shape is still emerging.
• Retainer — open to flexible arrangements: a committed bucket of hours plus stand-by support, for ongoing work or unpredictable needs.
• Handoff — code, tests, docs, runbooks. I leave the work better than I found it, so the next team can pick it up cold.