Ash Lane

Freelance Engineering Lead & MVP Builder

Dubai · Open to Global & Remote

Professional Summary

Freelance engineering lead who ships MVPs and production-ready products end-to-end. I scope, architect, and build web/mobile experiences, automations, and data flows—partnering with founders to move from idea to launch fast. Strong on integrations (WhatsApp, marketing automation, Google PPC data), AI workflows, and keeping reliability and observability in place so teams can scale without slowing down.

Core Skills

Rapid Product Delivery

Scope to launch for web/mobile MVPs, proofs, and v1 rebuilds
Product specs, UX flows, backlog shaping, and weekly delivery cadences
Feature flags, A/Bs, analytics, and rollout safety for fast iteration

Integrations & Automation

WhatsApp integrations, marketing automation, CRM/CDP, lifecycle triggers
Google PPC and ads data pipelines into reporting and activation layers
Payment, identity, messaging, and partner APIs with clean abstraction

Architecture & Quality

Edge/serverless backends, secure auth, data modelling, and caching
CI/CD, observability, incident response, and reliability baselines
Performance budgets, accessibility, and mobile responsiveness

Client Partnership

Translate business goals into scoped milestones and investment options
Clear docs, async updates, and decision logs for stakeholders
Handoff playbooks so in-house teams can own and extend safely

Director-Level Scope

Director-level ownership across product roadmap, delivery governance, stakeholder communication, vendor selection, budget trade-offs, and cross-functional operating cadence.
Experience leading product, engineering, operations, GTM, implementation, and partner teams through 0-to-1 launches, regional expansion, and platform scaling.
Translate founder, board, and executive priorities into OKRs, portfolio plans, hiring needs, delivery metrics, risk management, and customer-facing execution.

Professional Experience

Founder – Engineering Lead / MVP Builder

Topolo Technology Inc

Mar 2022 – Present Global / Remote

Built and shipped MVPs, v1 platforms, and internal operating systems, owning scope, architecture, delivery, and handoff.

Delivered business software across identity, CRM, roadmapping, billing, AI workflows, developer tooling, media operations, MDM/device operations, admin consoles, and customer-support workflows.
Built React/Next/Astro interfaces, Node/TypeScript APIs, Cloudflare Workers, mobile clients, serverless functions, SQL/D1 stores, R2 object storage, KV, queues, and deployment pipelines.
Implemented WhatsApp integrations, marketing automation, Google PPC data flows, CRM/CDP connections, and analytics dashboards for customer-facing and operator workflows.
Built AI workflows using prompts, embeddings, retrieval, structured outputs, human review loops, and reporting layers for internal and customer-facing systems.
Ran weekly delivery cadences, scope trade-offs, investor-ready updates, documentation, CI/CD, observability, and handoff guides for internal teams.

CTO / Builder – Food Tech Platforms

Fresh Ventures – Livefreshr, JustCook, JustFeed

Mar 2014 – Present Dubai, UAE

Owned end-to-end tech for subscription logistics, consumer apps, and partner integrations, taking products from MVP to scale.

Rebuilt ordering, logistics, and kitchen systems (JustCook) for reliability and throughput; added CI/CD and observability.
Shipped Flutter-based JustFeed app and kiosk flows with payments, identity, and analytics instrumentation.
Automated lifecycle messaging and marketing flows; integrated CRM, WhatsApp, and campaign data for retention.
Led hiring, vendor management, and cross-functional planning while reporting on delivery, cost, and risk.

Solution Consultant & Delivery Lead – Enterprise SaaS

XpertLearning

Feb 2013 – Sep 2016 UAE

Implemented learning and talent platforms for enterprise clients, bridging discovery, configuration, and launch.

Led solution design, RFP responses, and hands-on configuration as the first Cornerstone OnDemand certified consultant in the GCC.
Managed timelines, stakeholders, and enablement to ensure smooth go-lives and measurable adoption.
Integrated customer requirements into vendor roadmaps and post-launch optimisation cycles.

Technical Skills

Stacks

Node/TypeScript, React/Next, Flutter/Dart, Laravel/PHP, Vue, Go/Rust services, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Firebase, Cloudflare Workers/D1/KV/R2, Vercel/Netlify, VPS/cPanel, Git, GitHub Actions, Docker, CI/CD, and release workflows.

DevEx & Ops

GitHub Actions, CircleCI, ArgoCD, Backstage, Datadog, Sentry, OpenTelemetry, LaunchDarkly, feature flags, incident playbooks.

Integrations & Growth

WhatsApp, marketing automation, Google PPC/ads data, CRM/CDP, payments, auth, messaging, analytics, AI workflows, RAG/retrieval, Claude Code, Codex, MCP, prompt/eval workflows, and vector search.

SaaS Tools & Platforms

CRM, GTM & Lifecycle

Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Mailchimp, Braze, Customer.io, WhatsApp Business API, Stripe, Google Ads, and Meta Ads.

Product, Analytics & Support

Jira, Linear, Notion, Confluence, Figma, Airtable, GA4, Looker Studio, Mixpanel, Amplitude, Hotjar, Intercom, and Zendesk.

Delivery, Cloud & AI

Git, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, CircleCI, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, AWS, Google Cloud/Firebase, Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify, VPS/cPanel, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Sentry, Datadog, OpenAI API, Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, MCP, RAG, vector search, prompt/eval workflows, and agent tooling.

Selected Projects

Topolo platform: Edge-native business software ecosystem spanning identity/OIDC, developer onboarding, CRM, roadmapping, billing/payments, AI gateway, notifications, admin tooling, commerce, workflow automation, media operations, and customer support.
Platform infrastructure: Cloudflare Workers architecture with generated deployment manifests, staging/production targets, service-to-service auth, scoped JWT/JWKS authorization, CI/CD, D1/KV/R2/Vectorize/Queues/Durable Objects, and deployment orchestration tooling.
JustCook SaaS and JustFeed: Food-tech operations and mobile subscription platform covering ordering, inventory, recipes, procurement, routing, payments, lifecycle messaging, and reporting.