Pouya Nafisi

Pouya Nafisi

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I build & grow things
products
teams
companies

Hands-on technical leader with over two decades of experience building operating models, teams, and systems that scale.

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The short version

Two decades of building, and growing.

I've spent my career building products, teams, and companies. I start by understanding the problem deeply, then do whatever it takes to solve it. Design the experience. Write the code. Build the go-to-market. I've been deep enough in each discipline to lead them honestly. I've done this for Puma, Nike, Universal, MGM, Live Nation, Tillys, and a dozen others. In 2018 I founded a consultancy to scale this kind of work, grew it to 60+ people, and led it through two acquisitions.

How I think

I'm a systems thinker.

I see everything as a system. Not just the code or the architecture, but the team, the incentives, how decisions get made, how value actually moves from idea to customer. Most of the problems that persist in organizations aren't failures of people. They're failures of structure. I've spent my career understanding, designing, and building these structures. Simple, repeatable, measurable, and built to work in the real world.

On AI

AI changed everything. Except how we work.

Most organizations are stuck in the same place. They know AI matters. They've bought the tools, got the licenses. But adoption is uneven, policies are unclear, and the security questions remain unanswered.

The delivery methodologies we've relied on for decades no longer work. Story points, sprints, velocity. All of it was built for a world where people did all the work. What do you measure when agents share the workload? How do you track cost when it spans people and compute? How do you tie any of it to value?

And underneath it all is the hard part. How do you get your teams to embrace this new shape of work when there's a real fear of being replaced by the very thing you're asking them to embrace?

I co-authored 7 Wave to give shape to all of this. Mostly to structure my own thinking, but also for the teams I work with and the companies I advise. It's an operating model for product and engineering teams in this new era.

What I've done

AI Startup

Head of Engineering

2025 – Present

I left Huge (IPG, 1,600+ employees) to lead engineering at an early-stage AI company. More on this soon, but what drew me to this opportunity was the chance to be hands-on again. Not just to build the operating model and lead it, but to be in the trenches with the team — designing autonomous environments and agentic workflows, building the data layers that feed them, and partnering with other companies who are innovating in this space.

The work
  • Architecture Design: Design scalable, modular architectures for AI-driven applications and agentic workflows. Define technical standards, design patterns, and best practices for building systems that use LLMs, multi-agent orchestration, and data consolidation across structured and unstructured datasets.
  • Agentic Workflow Design: Design and implement multi-agent systems (planner-executor, tool-calling, memory, state management, evaluation loops). Design agent-to-agent communication patterns, state management, and orchestration strategies for autonomous workflows.
  • Data Architecture & Consolidation: Architect solutions that unify and reason over structured and unstructured data sources (databases, documents, APIs, logs, event streams) to power intelligent AI agents with RAG, hybrid retrieval, and semantic search capabilities.
  • Security, Privacy & Compliance: Design secure data handling, encryption at rest and in transit, audit logging, PII/PHI redaction, tenant isolation, and role-based access control for sensitive data in AI systems. Align to compliance frameworks including HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 2, GDPR, and CCPA, with privacy-by-design principles applied end-to-end across ingestion, training, inference, and storage.
  • AI Tooling & Velocity: Use modern AI development tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, v0.app, Lovable etc.) to create hands-on architectural solutions, proof of concepts, and prototypes that validate decisions and guide product strategy.
  • System Integration: Integrate AI-driven and agentic solutions with existing enterprise systems, SaaS platforms, and third-party applications. Ensure seamless data flow, API design, and interoperability across complex ecosystems.
  • Technical Leadership: Provide architectural guidance, mentorship, design reviews, define standards, and improve engineering quality in AI-first systems.
  • Stakeholder communication: Collaborate with product managers, designers, data teams, and leadership to transform ambiguous problems into clear technical strategies using prototypes for alignment and decision-making.
The stack
Engineering Foundations
TypeScript, Python, Node.js, SQL, React, Next.js, NestJS, FastAPI, MCP, WebMCP, A2A, UCP, gRPC, WebSocket, SSE, JSON-RPC, OAuth 2.0 / OIDC
AI Frameworks
LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, Haystack, DSPy, Instructor, Pydantic AI, Vercel AI SDK, AutoGen, Strands Agents SDK, Semantic Kernel, Unstructured.io, LlamaParse, PyTorch, Transformers, SentenceTransformers
AI Capabilities
LLMs, RAG, Hybrid Retrieval, Semantic Search, Agent-to-Agent Communication, Multi-Agent Orchestration, Prompt/Context Engineering, LoRA/QLoRA Fine-Tuning, Evaluation Pipelines, Guardrails, PII/PHI Redaction, Tenant Isolation
AI Platforms
AWS Bedrock, Bedrock AgentCore, Azure OpenAI, Vertex AI, HuggingFace, Replicate, Modal, Langfuse, LangSmith, Arize AI, Weights & Biases, Braintrust, LiteLLM, OpenRouter, Portkey, Langflow, n8n, Dify
Data
PostgreSQL + pgvector, MySQL, Cosmos DB, Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, Chroma, FAISS, Neo4j, Redis, Kafka, MongoDB, Snowflake, ClickHouse, dbt, Supabase, Prisma, S3
Architecture & Compliance
Microservices, Multi-Tenant, Event-Driven, Contract-First, Privacy-by-Design, Zero-Trust, Defense-in-Depth, HIPAA, HITRUST, SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA
Infrastructure
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, RunPod, Docker, Kubernetes, BullMQ, SQS, SNS, RabbitMQ, NATS, CI/CD Pipelines, Datadog, OpenTelemetry, Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management

Huge

SVP Engineering

2018 – 2024

I founded a digital consultancy. Grew it from sole contributor to 60+ strategists, designers, engineers, PMs, and architects across entertainment, retail, CPG, and DTC. We built and integrated the full commerce stack — from storefront and personalization through every system behind the transaction.

Built reference architectures across Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify Plus, Magento, and composable stacks. Each one made the next engagement faster without cutting corners.

Hero Digital acquired my company in 2023. Huge absorbed Hero Digital in 2024. More on that here PR Newswire: Hero Acquires Omnichannel . I continued to manage the entire global commerce delivery team through both transitions with direct service line P&L responsibility.

The work
  • Practice Leadership: Owned end-to-end P&L across the commerce service line — forecasting, utilization, margin, staffing plans, and revenue growth. Defined the go-to-market motion, pricing model, service offerings, delivery methodology, and operating cadence across a 60+ person practice spanning engineering, PM, AE, creative, QA, and delivery.
  • Commerce Architecture: Designed reference architectures across Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify Plus, Magento / Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, commercetools, and composable stacks. Defined reusable patterns for catalog, cart, checkout, inventory, loyalty, personalization, search, and fulfillment that carried between engagements and accelerated each new build without cutting corners.
  • Systems Integration: Integrated the full commerce stack — storefront, OMS, POS, ERP, CRM, marketing, CDP, PIM, loyalty, reviews, payments, tax, EDI, and 3PL — across enterprise and hypergrowth retail clients. Owned API design, event contracts, data flow, and interoperability across headless, composable, and monolithic architectures.
  • Pre-Sales & Solutioning: Led solutioning, technical discovery, architecture, scoping, estimation, and proposal design for every deal across the service line. Partnered with account executives and leadership on pitch narratives, client roadmaps, and commercial structure.
  • Client Leadership: Ran strategic relationships across entertainment, retail, CPG, and DTC accounts — from hypergrowth direct-to-consumer brands to enterprise retailers. Owned executive stakeholder alignment, roadmap negotiation, escalation management, and account expansion.
  • Talent & Org Design: Grew the practice from sole contributor to 60+ strategists, designers, engineers, PMs, and architects. Defined the engineering operating model, career ladders, hiring bar, performance management, and retention strategy across ICs and leads.
  • M&A Leadership: Navigated two consecutive acquisitions — Hero Digital acquired my company in 2022; Huge absorbed Hero Digital in 2023. Retained and integrated the team, preserved delivery quality, aligned operating models, and continued growing the practice through both transitions with direct service-line P&L continuity.
  • Technical Leadership: Provided architectural guidance, mentorship, design reviews, standards, and platform-level decisions across every engagement. Raised engineering quality, delivery predictability, and solution consistency across the service line. Collaborated with product, design, strategy, and client-side leadership to turn ambiguous business problems into clear technical strategies.
The stack
Engineering Foundations
TypeScript, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Liquid, ISML, SQL, React, Next.js, Vue, Nuxt, Remix, Hydrogen, Express, Laravel, Django, GraphQL, gRPC, WebSocket, OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, SAML, EDI, AS2, SFTP
Data & Instrumentation
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS SQL Server, MongoDB, Redis, Elasticsearch, Algolia, Snowflake, Databricks, Fivetran, dbt, Looker, Prisma, Google Analytics / GA4, Adobe Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel, Heap, FullStory, Hotjar, Segment, mParticle, Tealium AudienceStream, Adobe Real-Time CDP, Amperity, Google Tag Manager, Tealium iQ, Adobe Launch
Commerce & Operations
Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify Plus, Magento, Adobe Commerce, commercetools, BigCommerce, Manhattan Associates, Aptos OMS, Aptos POS, Envista OMS, NewStore, Deck Commerce, Kibo, Salesforce Retail POS (PredictSpring), Square POS, Shopify POS, Lightspeed, Revel, NetSuite ERP, SAP, Epicor, WMS, 3PL, Stripe, Braintree, Adyen, PayPal, Avalara, TaxJar, Accertify, Akeneo, inRiver, Salsify
Experience & Optimization
Contentful, Sanity, Prismic, WordPress, Builder.io, Umbraco, Sitecore, Adobe Experience Manager, Optimizely, Adobe Target, VWO, Mutiny, Dynamic Yield, Bloomreach, Nosto
Customer Engagement
Klaviyo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Cordial, Braze, Iterable, Attentive, Postscript, Salesforce CRM, HubSpot, Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Gorgias, Yotpo, PowerReviews, Bazaarvoice
Integration & B2B
MuleSoft, Boomi, Celigo, SPS Commerce, TrueCommerce, EDI
Architecture & Compliance
Microservices, Event-Driven, Contract-First, Headless Commerce, Composable Commerce, MACH, PCI DSS, GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2
Infrastructure
AWS, GCP, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, CI/CD Pipelines, Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management

JustFoodForDogs

CTO (Fractional)

2019 – 2021

JustFoodForDogs was a client of the consultancy I founded. The relationship ran deep enough that they brought me in as fractional CTO to build the entire technology organization during PE-backed national expansion.

Connected 120+ retail locations into a unified commerce platform spanning e-commerce, order management, point of sale, ERP, fulfillment, and marketplace channels. Led the ERP transformation from QuickBooks to NetSuite across every department. Established the controls and audit trails for IPO readiness.

The work
  • Technology Leadership: Built the technology organization from zero as fractional CTO during PE-backed national expansion. Defined the engineering operating model, hiring plan, architecture standards, and roadmap in lockstep with the CEO, CFO, COO, and board. Partnered on board-level reporting, investor readiness, and technology strategy across every phase of growth.
  • Unified Commerce Platform: Connected 120+ retail locations, e-commerce, subscriptions, wholesale, and marketplace channels into a single commerce platform with real-time inventory, unified order management, and consistent customer data across every touchpoint. Defined the integration architecture spanning storefront, OMS, POS, ERP, CDP, loyalty, and fulfillment.
  • ERP Transformation: Led the end-to-end migration from QuickBooks to NetSuite across every department — finance, procurement, supply chain, inventory, and AR/AP. Owned vendor selection, implementation partners, change management, data migration, cutover planning, and post-launch stabilization.
  • Order-to-Cash Orchestration: Orchestrated the full O2C lifecycle across e-commerce, retail stores, subscriptions, wholesale, and marketplaces. Established a single source of truth for inventory, orders, customers, and financial data, with event-driven flows between commerce, OMS, POS, WMS, 3PL, and ERP.
  • Compliance & IPO Readiness: Established SOX controls, audit trails, segregation of duties, access management, systems documentation, and change management required for IPO readiness across every system and department. Partnered with finance, legal, and external auditors on evidence collection and control design.
  • Marketplace & B2B Integration: Integrated with Chewy and Petco via EDI and AS2 through TrueCommerce and SPS Commerce for orders, invoices, inventory, and shipment notifications. Managed 3PL and WMS partnerships for retail fulfillment and direct-to-consumer shipping at scale.
  • Vendor & Platform Strategy: Led vendor selection, contract negotiation, and implementation for Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Salesforce CRM suite, NetSuite ERP, OMS, POS, CDP, marketing, loyalty, and identity/device management platforms. Owned total cost of ownership analysis, build-vs-buy decisions, and multi-year platform roadmap.
  • IT Operations & Service: Ran engineering, project management, service desk, device management, identity and access, and IT operations across headquarters, distribution centers, and 120+ retail locations. Established the service catalog, SLAs, on-call rotation, incident response, and IT support model for a fast-growing national footprint.
The stack
Engineering Foundations
ISML, JavaScript, Apex, SuiteScript, SQL, OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, SAML, EDI, AS2, SFTP
Data & Instrumentation
Snowflake, dbt, Looker, Google BigQuery, Segment, Google Analytics
Commerce & Operations
Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Salesforce OMS, Envista OMS, Lightspeed POS, NetSuite ERP, NetSuite Procurement, NetSuite Supply Chain, NetSuite Financials, Stripe, Braintree, Avalara, Chewy, Petco, TrueCommerce, SPS Commerce, EDI, WMS, 3PL
Customer Engagement
Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Data Cloud, Salesforce Loyalty Management, Klaviyo, Attentive, Bloomreach CDP, Dynamic Yield, Nosto, Yotpo, LoyaltyLion, Gorgias, Zendesk, Recharge, WordPress
Architecture & Compliance
Microservices, Event-Driven, Unified Commerce, SOX, PCI DSS, CCPA
IT & Infrastructure
AWS, Docker, CI/CD Pipelines, Okta, Azure AD, Jamf, Microsoft Intune, Meraki, Ubiquiti, Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management

Tillys

Head of Digital Technology

2015 – 2018

Hired as the hands-on technical lead for Salesforce Commerce at Tillys, a publicly traded retailer with 300+ stores. Promoted three times in three years. Technical Lead to Technical Architect to Head of Digital Technology.

Led the omnichannel rollout. Ship-from-store, BOPIS, endless aisle, cross-location inventory lookup, mobile app. Each capability required its own routing logic, inventory reservation rules, and store-side workflows. Managed inventory positions across 300+ locations in near-real-time.

The rollout drove a 26.7% increase in comparable sales. Highest since Q1 2012. That number was reported in public earnings calls. Not a projection. Not an estimate. More on this here SGB Media: Tilly's Delivers Strongest Comp In Seven Quarters.

The work
  • Omnichannel Orchestration: Led the omnichannel rollout across 300+ stores — Ship-from-Store, BOPIS, endless aisle, and cross-location inventory lookup — with dedicated routing logic, inventory reservation rules, and store-side workflows for each capability. Managed inventory positions across every location in near-real-time to enable a single unified experience across web, mobile, and store.
  • Commerce Engineering: Owned the Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform end-to-end — catalog, cart, checkout, promotions, content, site search, and personalization — for a publicly traded specialty retailer. Led the re-platform, feature delivery, and continuous improvement of the storefront experience across web and mobile browsers.
  • OMS & Store Systems: Integrated Aptos OMS and POS across 300+ stores with real-time inventory, order routing, fulfillment prioritization, and cross-channel returns. Defined the order lifecycle, exception handling, and store-side operational workflows in partnership with retail operations and store leadership.
  • Mobile & Digital Products: Led the design and rollout of the native iOS and Android mobile app — product discovery, checkout, store locator, loyalty, barcode scanning, and push. Defined the mobile product roadmap, vendor relationships, release management, and store-associate use cases.
  • Loyalty Platform: Architected and implemented a custom loyalty platform — accrual, redemption, tiering, segmentation, and cross-channel recognition — integrated with commerce, POS, OMS, CRM, and marketing. Replaced legacy third-party loyalty with an in-house solution designed for brand control, margin, and customer data ownership.
  • Fraud & Risk: Deployed and operated Accertify for fraud scoring, rule-based review, and chargeback management. Partnered with finance and customer service to lower chargeback rates, reduce manual review volume, and protect revenue while preserving checkout conversion.
  • Performance & Peak Readiness: Owned high-traffic performance engineering — caching strategy, CDN configuration, storefront optimization, and peak-event readiness for Black Friday / Cyber Monday, back-to-school, and holiday. Ran load testing, incident response, and cross-team peak war rooms across commerce, OMS, POS, and marketing.
  • Engineering Leadership: Promoted three times in three years — Technical Lead to Technical Architect to Head of Digital Technology. Built the digital engineering team, defined the multi-year technology roadmap, established delivery standards, and partnered with the executive team on technology strategy and investor communication. Drove a 26.7% comparable sales increase reported on the public earnings call — the highest since Q1 2012.
The stack
Engineering Foundations
ISML, JavaScript, Swift, Java, SQL, OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, SAML, SFTP
Data
MS SQL Server, Redis, Elasticsearch
Commerce & Operations
Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Aptos OMS, Aptos POS, Stripe, Braintree, Accertify, Custom Loyalty Platform, Native iOS, Native Android, Push Notifications, App Store / Play Store Release
Customer Engagement
Salesforce CRM, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud
Architecture & Compliance
Microservices, Event-Driven, Omnichannel, PCI DSS, SOX
Infrastructure
AWS, Docker, Jenkins, CI/CD Pipelines, Akamai, Fastly, Varnish, New Relic, Jira, Confluence

Lumina Media

Director of IT

2009 – 2015

Promoted from full-stack engineer to Director of IT. Led technology across 12+ high-traffic digital publications spanning CMS, ad monetization, and audience infrastructure.

Replatformed the CMS stack, built the data pipelines that drove ad revenue, and scaled infrastructure supporting millions of monthly pageviews. Delivered audit-ready platforms for the eventual asset sale to Petco and Chewy.

The work
  • Technology Leadership: Promoted from full-stack engineer to engineering manager to Director of IT across a six-year tenure. Led technology across 12+ concurrent high-traffic digital publications spanning editorial, ad monetization, audience infrastructure, and corporate IT. Partnered with executive leadership on technology strategy, budgeting, and vendor selection.
  • CMS Platform Engineering: Re-platformed the CMS stack across the portfolio — WordPress and Drupal — with shared templates, reusable components, editorial workflows, and multi-site content models. Standardized publishing tooling and author experience to accelerate new title launches and reduce per-property maintenance cost.
  • Ad Monetization & Revenue Systems: Built and operated the ad tech stack across 12+ properties — Google Ad Manager, DoubleClick, direct-sold and programmatic — with the data pipelines, placement logic, and reporting that drove ad revenue across the portfolio. Partnered with sales and operations on yield optimization, inventory forecasting, and campaign delivery.
  • Data Pipelines & Audience Insights: Designed the data pipelines, ETL jobs, and reporting infrastructure that powered audience analytics, content performance, and revenue reporting. Unified Google Analytics, Omniture, and ad server data into portfolio-level views used by editorial, sales, and executive leadership.
  • Performance & Scale: Scaled infrastructure supporting millions of monthly pageviews across 12+ publications. Owned caching strategy, CDN configuration, storefront performance, database optimization, and peak-event readiness for viral traffic spikes and seasonal surges.
  • SEO & Audience Growth: Owned the technical SEO foundation across the portfolio — site architecture, structured data, page performance, canonicalization, and crawl health. Partnered with editorial and marketing to grow organic traffic and diversify audience acquisition channels across every property.
  • PMO & Delivery: Ran the project management office and cross-functional delivery across engineering, editorial, design, ad operations, and vendor teams. Defined the delivery methodology, intake process, release cadence, and resource planning model for concurrent property work.
  • M&A & Divestiture Readiness: Delivered audit-ready platforms, documentation, data exports, and operational runbooks for the eventual asset sale to Petco and Chewy. Led technology diligence, data migration, and knowledge transfer through the transition.
The stack
Engineering Foundations
PHP, JavaScript, Python, SQL, jQuery, Backbone.js, Smarty, OAuth 2.0 / OIDC, SAML, SFTP, RSS / Atom
Data & Analytics
MySQL, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, Memcached, Redis, Google Analytics, Omniture
Content & Publishing
WordPress, Drupal, Brightcove, Vimeo, Disqus
Monetization & Engagement
Google Ad Manager, DoubleClick, AppNexus, Mailchimp, ExactTarget
Architecture
LAMP, Service-Oriented
Infrastructure
AWS, Rackspace, Akamai, CloudFront, Fastly, Varnish, Puppet, Chef, Jenkins, CI/CD Pipelines, Nagios, New Relic, Jira, Confluence

Technical Consulting

Technical Consultant

2001 – 2009

Consulting for global brands across entertainment, retail, and sports. Nike, Universal Pictures, MGM, Billabong, Live Nation, UFC, PacSun. Full-stack engineering through solution architecture. Commerce platforms, middleware, APIs, ETL pipelines, and system integrations across the full enterprise stack.

International rollouts with multi-currency, localization, tax compliance, and regional fulfillment. Legacy replatforming across headless and monolithic architectures.

The work
  • Enterprise Commerce Engineering: Built commerce experiences on Demandware, ATG, Magento, and Salesforce across global brands — Nike, Universal Pictures, MGM, Billabong, Live Nation, UFC, and PacSun. Delivered catalog, cart, checkout, promotions, and content across entertainment, retail, and action-sports verticals.
  • System Integration & Middleware: Designed and built middleware, APIs, and ETL pipelines connecting e-commerce, OMS, POS, ERP, CRM, and fulfillment across the enterprise stack. Owned contract design, data mapping, and reliability for B2B and system-to-system integrations across retail and entertainment clients.
  • International Rollouts: Delivered international commerce rollouts with multi-currency, localization, locale-aware content, tax compliance, regional fulfillment, and regional payment gateway integration. Navigated cross-border data, currency rounding, and country-specific compliance for global retail launches.
  • Platform Modernization: Replatformed legacy commerce systems across headless and monolithic architectures. Owned discovery, target architecture, data migration strategy, cutover planning, and post-launch stabilization for enterprise-scale replatforming engagements.
  • Search & Catalog: Engineered search and catalog experiences on Endeca and search platforms of the era — merchandising rules, faceted navigation, taxonomy, synonyms, and relevance tuning — for catalog-heavy retail and entertainment clients.
  • Infrastructure & Operations: Operated enterprise infrastructure on BEA WebLogic, Akamai CDN, dedicated hosting, and Rackspace. Owned release management, deployment automation, source control migrations (CVS → SVN), and production support for high-traffic commerce workloads.
  • Client Delivery & Consulting: Ran the full consulting lifecycle — discovery, architecture, estimation, build, deployment, and stabilization — across entertainment, retail, sports, and action-sports clients. Partnered with client-side product, marketing, and IT leadership on roadmaps and delivery plans.
  • Solution Architecture: Progressed from full-stack engineer to solution architect. Defined enterprise architecture patterns, system designs, integration blueprints, and vendor selections for global brands across the digital commerce and entertainment ecosystem.
The stack
Engineering Foundations
Java, JavaScript, PHP, C#, ActionScript, SQL, XSLT, ASP.NET, ColdFusion, Flash/Flex, jQuery, Prototype, Spring, SOAP, XML-RPC, AS2, EDI, SFTP
Data
MS SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, Access
Commerce & Integration
Demandware, ATG, Magento, Salesforce, Endeca, TIBCO, webMethods, BizTalk, BEA WebLogic
Architecture
SOA, ESB, Monolithic, Client-Server
Infrastructure
Rackspace, Dedicated Hosting, Akamai, Omniture, SVN, CVS

From the people I've worked with

“Working for Pouya was one of the most formative experiences of my career. He's a rare mix of visionary technologist, hands-on operator, and calm, strategic leader, the kind of person who can see around corners while still staying grounded in execution. His technical knowledge runs deep, but he never loses sight of the human side of leadership. He leads with clarity, empathy, and a drive to bring out the best in everyone around him. Pouya doesn't just build systems; he builds teams, cultures, and momentum.”

Andrew McNeill, Salesforce Practice Director, Huge

“Pouya is one of the finest CTOs I've had the pleasure to work with. A unique balance of an ability to create an inspiring strategic consumer focused vision, while also driving foundational excellence across security and infrastructure needs. His communication style sets him apart from others in his peer group.”

Gavin Lindberg, CFO/COO, Metagenics (ex-CFO, Nike)

“Pouya is one of those leaders who just get it. He created a space where people felt trusted, heard, and genuinely supported. That kind of leadership makes a big difference, not just in how teams work, but in how they feel showing up every day. I really appreciated his calm approach, his ability to zoom out when needed, and the way he brought people along with him.”

Rafael Nascimento, Senior Software Engineer, Crocs

“His leadership goes far beyond just managing a team, he leads by example, with deep technical knowledge and a hands-on approach that inspires everyone around him. Pouya wasn't just overseeing the work, he actively contributed to software architecture discussions, supported developers when needed, and even played a key role in sales. It's rare to find someone who excels across such a broad spectrum of skills, and even rarer to find someone who does it all so effectively.”

Max Russo, Technical Lead, Huge

“The first time we had a systems problem, he was there — not to get a status report but to help find a solution. Calm and positive. Enough for me to see that this was not a one off; this is the kind of leader he is — one that is able to wear different hats and is willing to do so to help the team.”

Brenno Maeji, Solutions Architect, Salesforce

“Pouya is a motivated, forward-thinking team lead who has lots of knowledge in and around e-commerce and omni-channel. He is very sharp technically and has always been a great advocate of good design and architecture. He keeps his team motivated, backs them up in difficult situations and always finds ways to move forward along with the team.”

Ashay Chourey, Senior Consultant, Deloitte

“Pouya is one of the best, most efficient and all-around awesome developers I've had the pleasure of working with. He was an asset on each project — working all hours to do the technical heavy lifting, advising our team on best practices and seeing us through various launches. Pressure was high, deadlines were endless, and he always delivered.”

Janine Kahn, Head of Content, WhatsApp

“Pouya and I have worked together for the better part of 5 years and have collaborated on 50+ projects and counting. If you want to work with the best of the best, he is your guy. He gets it done right the first time and consistently exceeds all expectations.”

Marc Takemiya, Vice President & General Manager

“Pouya's work as CTO was and still is unparalleled when it comes to understanding a CEO's direction and taking charge of implementation of design, form and function. Highly recommend for any type of web work that needs to implement B2B or B2C revenue streams.”

Bill Brown, CEO, ToyEnvy

“When Pouya was brought to PacSun he was described to me as 'the fixer', he was this and more. Pouya recommended high-value fixes, committed to a strict timeline, and delivered. Very professional, very easy to work with. I would recommend Pouya again for any job, any time.”

Peter Corsello, VP of E-Commerce, PacSun