Experience
AI Software & Product Development Lead, Applied AI
I spend half of my time leading an Applied AI intellectual property (IP) portfolio consisting of 35 differentiated Hybrid AI, On-device AI and Agentic AI software product concepts. I own its strategy, prioritization, and lifecycle, and I contribute directly, working with a core team of five other inventors and multiple legal teams. Key responsibilities:
- Initiating and developing AI product concepts aligned with Dell's AI Strategy, targeting competitive differentiation, defensible IP positions, and potential growth vectors.
- Driving the patent development process from opportunity discovery through iterative refinement, business‑case development, technical design and visual prototyping (e.g. Visio).
- Defining portfolio, patent, and product strategies by identifying underserved technological whitespace and novel positioning opportunities, aligning with the company's strategy and discontinuing IP initiatives when necessary.
- Managing the AI IP portfolio backlog using Kanban and EBM to maximize long‑term strategic value.
- Creating detailed technical architectures that enable independent execution by engineering teams.
Notable outcomes:
- What started as a complementary effort to existing IP portfolios evolved into a distinct portfolio that I own and drive.
- Filed 12 USPTO patents (10 as first inventor) and delivered 8 internally recognized inventions. I am one of the most active first inventors at the Romania site, having 14 additional invention disclosures in development.
AI Software Developer, Hybrid Conversational AI
I spend half of my time as a primary contributor to seven Small Language Model (SLM) services and three Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) services that power privacy‑first, on‑device conversational AI for Dell AI PCs. These services enable enterprises to run AI workflows without cloud dependency and are part of Dell’s AI PC platform, featured as a flagship AI initiative at CES, DTW, and GTC. This work provides foundational capabilities for multiple on‑device agentic AI and hybrid edge‑cloud AI initiatives. Key responsibilities:
- Designing and implementing on‑device AI inference pipelines for open‑source ONNX models, enabling efficient execution across heterogeneous CPU, GPU, and NPU hardware, using various execution providers such as AMD Ryzen AI, Qualcomm QNN and Intel OpenVINO.
Notable outcomes:
- All services are the only solutions in their hardware class, and two were developed from 0-to-1, establishing a foundation for future initiatives.
- Delivered services that played a key role in enabling internal teams, customers, and ISVs to rapidly deploy on‑device and hybrid conversational AI across heterogeneous AI PC fleets.
- Led and contributed as primary developer across seven Conversational AI services built as part of a strategic partnership with a leading hardware vendor. This represents 80% of the entire scope that was delivered as part of the partnership.
- Led and contributed as primary developer to an ASR and an SLM-based service supporting a second strategic partnership. This represents two of the three services available for the respective hardware platform.
- Served as primary ASR contributor, owning more than half of the platform's entire ASR scope.
Software Developer, Web Services
I was part of a department building an enterprise web platform that enabled large customers to order and receive fully configured PCs that are ready to use. The platform supported pre‑shipment configuration of operating systems, applications, and hardware options, eliminating manual IT setup and supporting configuration continuity across repeated orders as hardware and software options evolved. Key responsibilities:
- Collaborated across eight service teams to design, develop, and operate system configuration workflows and cross‑cutting services.
- Served as a point of contact for UAT and E2E testing in non‑production environments, fixing defects and performing hands‑on triage and root‑cause analysis across services, configuration data, and test environments.
- Built a strong foundation in CI/CD and observability, leveraging GitLab pipelines, automated testing, and observability tooling to improve service reliability and surface configuration issues earlier in the delivery lifecycle.
Notable outcomes:
- I was a core contributor to 15 .NET Web APIs used to orchestrate pre‑shipment order configuration workflows.
- Onboarded and mentored seven developers, transferring deep product and system knowledge to accelerate ramp‑up and reduce dependency on TLs for day‑to‑day operational issues.