Al Chang
Al Chang

Software Engineer & engineering leader.

20 years building and leading software teams across e‑commerce, platforms, and consumer apps. Recently completed an intensive 10‑week AI program at Gauntlet AI—shipping a new project each week across integrated AI features, agents, and real‑time voice.

Selected Projects

DevSwarm — Background AI agents

Jun 2025

CI/CD-like pipeline to run AI agents while you keep coding. Submit tasks; review results later.

AgentsKubernetesDocker
  • React and Next.js + CLI; parallelism via K8s/Docker
  • Claude/OpenAI interchangeable; logs and artifacts persisted

Voice‑Driven Chess — Real‑time voice UI

Jun 2025

Hands‑free chess via STT/TTS with live game state (Pipecat, Daily.co).

SpeechRealtimeGame

OpenEMR — AI Features

Jul 2025

Added Dictation, summarization, task management, messaging to the largest open‑source EMR.

HealthcareAIEMR

Hiring Partner Projects — Gauntlet AI

Jul 2025

Delivered multiple partner projects with tight scopes across web, desktop, iOS, and voice.

PrototypingReactNext.jsiOS
  • Othram (Docker/JS), Base Power (iOS, React, Next.js, Python), TimeBack Clock (Design)
  • Voice Thing (Pipecat/TS), Goals Page (Next.js), TalentFlow (Next.js/TS)

Wordwise.ai — AI editor for fiction writers

Jun 2025

AI powered drafting and revision assistant with scene outlines, tone shifts, and rewrite tools.

LLMWriting

Snapchat Creator Tools — Content automation

Jun 2025

Mobile flows in React Native with server‑side image generation in Python. Utilities for creators.

React NativePython

Patents

Method and Apparatus for Scalable Transport Processing Fulfillment System

2004

Chang, A. K., US7949686B2

Methods and apparatus for marketing profiling while preserving user privacy

2011

Chang, A. K., US7983961B1

iOS Applications

Locavore — Local food discovery

2012

#1 Paid Lifestyle (US); #64 Top Paid overall (US App Store).

Nearest — Local discovery

2011

Reached #10 in the UK App Store (Navigation).

Experience

  1. Challenger — Gauntlet AI
    Austin, TX (on‑site)
    Jun 2025 – Present
    • 60‑person cohort; ship a new AI project each week (AI applications, agents, voice, enterprise extensions).
    • Representative builds: Wordwise.ai, DevSwarm, Voice‑Driven Chess, OpenEMR AI extensions, partner prototypes.
  2. Consulting CTO / VP — Self
    San Francisco, CA
    2005 – 2016
    • Associated Press (for VP Strategy) — mobile product design & strategy.
    • Target.com — RFP to replatform from Amazon‑hosted; architecture, budget (~$50M), roadmap, vendor selection.
    • BestBuy.com — mobile strategy; social; M&A advisory.
    • Goldman Sachs — E‑commerce product design advisory.
    • RedEnvelope — Contract CTO; platform overhaul and vendor negotiations.
    • SAIC/TeamPatent — Architecture for winning USPTO $400M redesign (Phase I).
    • Ugobe (robotics) — Contract VP/CTO; e‑commerce, social, customer portals.
  3. Sr Director of Software Engineering — Walmart.com
    Brisbane, CA
    2001 – 2005
    • Led up to 40 engineers across all customer‑facing e‑commerce (main site, DVD, music, photo, pharmacy, registry, optical).
    • Revenue grew from ~$40M to nearly $1B; millions of customers served annually.
    • Developed technical strategy and business plans with business and product managers across multiple business categories, including budgeting, resource allocation, and product roadmaps.
    • Chief architect for DTC fulfillment (US Patent 7949686B2): linear scalability; ~ $1B/year via EDI/XML; −90% support costs.
    • Owned $17M "1‑hour photo to 2,500 stores" initiative; managed large partner integrations (UPS 3PL, Ingram Micro, Fuji, etc.).
  4. CTO (contract) — Fidget.com
    San Francisco, CA
    Jul 2000 – Dec 2000
    • Venture‑backed online newsletter "newsstand": high‑volume messaging + consumer destination site.
    • Owned architecture, technical strategy, recruiting, product engineering, and IT operations.
    • Stack: ColdFusion, MS SQL Server 7, IIS, Solaris.
  5. Vice President, Engineering — Violet.com
    San Francisco, CA
    Oct 1999 – Jun 2000
    • Executive team; owned strategy, engineering, program management, IT operations, and QA.
    • Designed platform architecture; recruited team; instituted structured dev/IT processes.
    • High-touch consumer gifting e‑commerce. Stack: MS SQL Server 7, SiteServer Commerce 3.0, ASP.
  6. Technical Manager / Lead Architect — WeddingChannel.com (Della.com)
    San Francisco, CA
    Apr 1999 – Oct 1999
    • Designed high‑volume e‑commerce and universal gift registry platform; led 7 engineers + external creative.
    • Invented cross‑channel integration framework; end‑to‑end from requirements to launch; presented to VCs/partners.
    • Stack: Oracle, Java, ASP/IIS, CGI/Perl, Apache/Tomcat, Solaris.
  7. Lead Architect / Technical Lead — Quickstart/Boeing (Rocketdyne)
    Canoga Park, CA
    Mar 1998 – Apr 1999
    • Created Buyer’s Workbench: web‑based MRP/procurement replacing multi‑platform legacy systems.
    • Designed system architecture & APIs; led 6‑person implementation team.
    • Bridged IMS/MVS mainframe, Oracle, and UNIX; core system remained in use years later.
    • Tech: C/C++, Server‑Side JS (Netscape Enterprise), SQL.
  8. Principal Consultant — Immediate Media Consulting Group
    Los Angeles, CA
    Mar 1995 – Sep 1995; Jan 1997 – Mar 1998
    • Built 3‑D game engine for two console titles; internet strategy and technology evaluations.
    • Web‑based database development and project management.
    • Win32 (Delphi/VC++/Oracle); extensive UNIX toolchain.
  9. Producer / Writer — Independent
    Los Angeles, CA
    Jun 1996 – Mar 1998
    • Produced two short 16mm films and one documentary.
    • Managed teams up to 25; budgets, schedules, permits, financing, pre‑ and post‑production.
  10. Senior Software Engineer — The 3DO Company
    Redwood City, CA
    Sep 1993 – Mar 1995
    • Shipped three game titles (see IMDB); image processing and video post‑production tools for 3DO console.
    • Built real‑time engine to composite streamed video with 3‑D rendered imagery.
    • Supported external third‑party developers. Tech: C/C++, SGI, Macintosh.
  11. Member of Technical Staff — Silicon Graphics (SGI)
    Mountain View, CA
    Jun 1990 – Aug 1993
    • International R&D: localization tooling for Asian & European markets.
    • UI engineer: 3‑D interface for non‑technical users; cross‑platform systems management products.
    • Tech: C/C++, IRIX, OpenGL, X/Motif.
  12. Systems Engineer — Wolfram Research (Wolfram)
    Champaign, IL
    Mar 1988 – Sep 1988; Aug 1989 – Jul 1990
    • Developed new features for the Mathematica UI (Mac & Windows).
    • Ported Mathematica to UNIX workstations (SGI, IBM, Data General).
    • Implemented networked software license management in C.

Skills

Core now

TypeScript, JavaScript, React/Next.js, Node.js, Postgres, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD

AI

OpenAI/Claude, RAG, agents, evals/observability, voice (STT/TTS), LangChain‑style orchestration

Cloud/Ops

Vercel, AWS

Past exposure

Java/J2EE, Oracle, .NET/C#, PHP, Perl, iOS/Obj‑C, C/C++, XML/EDI, SOAP

Get in touch

I'm open to Staff IC or engineering management roles — remote‑friendly or in‑person.

Email
alchang@pobox.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/heyalchang