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Ash Lane

Ash Lane

Head of Platform & Edge

Professional Summary

Platform and technology leader with a decade of experience designing shared services, developer experience, cloud/serverless backends, data platforms, and multi-product ecosystems. Hands-on across React/TypeScript frontends, Flutter apps, Firebase, SQL-backed services, Cloudflare Workers, Vercel/Netlify, and IoT/MDM infrastructure. I build the architectural guardrails, platform toolchains, and operating rhythms that let product teams ship fast without breaking the foundation.

Core Skills

Architecture & Shared Services

  • Designing auth, identity, billing, media, and data layers
  • Cloud/serverless orchestration, Firebase, SQL/data services, observability
  • Scalability, reliability, and security guardrails

Developer Experience

  • Reusable UI systems, SDKs, CLI tooling, and automation
  • Documentation, ADRs, architectural reviews, onboarding
  • Inner-source practices and contribution models

Platform Product Management

  • Roadmap prioritisation across product, ops, and GTM stakeholders
  • Usage analytics, platform telemetry, and service level objectives
  • Pricing & packaging alignment for platform capabilities

Edge & Device Domains

  • MDM, device fleets, and offline-first operator experiences
  • Media workflows, content delivery, monetisation, and analytics
  • AI workflows, WhatsApp automations, marketing platforms

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

Head of Platform & Edge (Founder & CEO)

Topolo Technology Inc

Mar 2022 – Present Global / Remote

Define and execute product strategy for an edge-native platform with interoperable services across identity, data, AI, billing, notifications, deployment, and operator tooling.

  • Oversaw conception, validation, and delivery of platform capabilities including OAuth/OIDC identity, developer onboarding, CRM, roadmapping, AI gateway, billing, admin tooling, media operations, MDM/device operations, and commerce.
  • Specified architectures using React/TypeScript, Astro, Workers, serverless APIs, D1/KV/R2/Vectorize/Queues, Durable Objects, service clients, and generated deployment manifests.
  • Structured shared platform layers for auth, identity, billing, tenant data, service scopes, API contracts, UI patterns, CI/CD, and deployment governance.
  • Led discovery and usability sessions with partners and internal stakeholders to iterate quickly on product-market fit, workflows, and UX.
  • Authored and maintained ADRs, onboarding guides, API contracts, runbooks, and deployment notes to standardise decisions across the product suite.

Platform & Technology Lead (Founder)

Fresh Ventures – Livefreshr, JustCook, JustFeed

Mar 2014 – Present Dubai, UAE

Owned the product vision and delivery for a vertically integrated food tech stack spanning consumer, operational, and SaaS layers.

  • Designed and implemented JustCook SaaS, an end-to-end platform (Laravel, Vue.js) for meal kit operations including orders, inventory, recipes, procurement, routing, and analytics.
  • Led design and development of the JustFeed Flutter app as a premium customer experience for managing subscriptions, browsing menus, and completing in-app checkout.
  • Translated operational constraints into product requirements, helping reduce manual effort and error rates through better tooling and automation.
  • Coordinated brand and marketing initiatives in lockstep with product launches to maximise adoption and retention.

Solution Consultant / Project Manager

XpertLearning

Feb 2013 – Sep 2016 UAE

Implemented enterprise learning and talent management platforms, bridging client requirements, vendor capabilities, and future roadmaps.

  • Served as the first Cornerstone OnDemand certified solution consultant in the GCC, leading discovery, configuration, and deployments for major regional clients.
  • Owned RFP responses, solution demonstrations, admin training, and post-launch optimisation for performance, learning, and talent products.
  • Provided structured feedback and enhancement requests to vendors based on real-world client usage and adoption patterns.

Mid-Market Sales Manager / TPP Partnerships Manager

Cvent

Apr 2019 – Mar 2021 Dubai, UAE

Brought a product-minded approach to selling Cvent's event tech platforms into the Middle East market.

  • Drove product-qualified opportunities through deeply consultative discovery and tailored demonstrations.
  • Partnered with product and implementation teams to ensure commitments made in the sales cycle translated into successful deployments.

Technical Skills

Platform Management

Service roadmaps, SLOs, observability, backlog triage, stakeholder governance, investment planning.

Core Technologies

Node/TypeScript, React, Astro, Next.js, Flutter/Dart, Laravel/PHP, Vue, Firebase, PostgreSQL, MySQL, REST/GraphQL APIs, queues, Vercel, and Netlify.

Practices

Multi-tenant SaaS, edge orchestration, DevEx tooling, documentation-first workflows, hexagonal architecture.

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.