Arnaud Valensi
AI Engineer & Software Architect | Agents, LLMOps
Summary
I build generative AI (GenAI) systems, deploy them on the infrastructure of your choice, and operate them in production over time: agents, LLM integration, LLMOps.
I designed and run Merlin Cloud (merlincloud.dev), a SaaS agentic coding platform built solo, end to end. Open source, in production.
Product software engineer, 15 years of experience. 4 years owning the architecture of critical financial systems at XBTO (crypto-finance), in a regulated environment on sensitive data. Before that: L'Oréal, Ekimetrics, Forest Admin (eFounders / Hexa, the startup studio behind Aircall and Spendesk).
I work with the best existing models, proprietary (GPT, Claude, Gemini) or self-hosted open-source (Llama, Qwen, Mistral), depending on your constraints; I don't train models. Whether you start from a POC, from scratch, or from a live product (finance, regulated or sensitive environments), I deliver a reliable system in production.
Skills
AI / Agentic
- AI Agents
- Multi-agent orchestration
- Large Language Models (LLM)
- Generative AI (GenAI)
- LLMOps
- RAG
- LangChain
- pgvector
- MCP
- Prompt engineering
Roles
- Forward Deployed Engineer
- Platform Architect / Engineer
- Tech Lead GenAI
Security & governance
- DevSecOps
- CI/CD vulnerability scanning (Snyk, Trivy)
- Enterprise SSO (Okta, Keycloak)
- GDPR
- AI Act
Languages
- Python
- TypeScript
- C#
- Go
- Rust
Backend
- FastAPI
- Node.js
- PostgreSQL
- SQL Server
- Redis
- NATS
- REST
- BigQuery
Frontend
- React
- Next.js
- HTMX
- Tailwind CSS
Infrastructure & operations
- Linux
- Docker
- Podman
- Kubernetes
- CI/CD
- OpenTelemetry
- Datadog
- Grafana
- Sentry
Cloud
- AWS
- Azure
- Google Cloud
- OVH
Domains
- SaaS platforms
- Financial systems (crypto-finance)
- Regulated and sensitive environments
- Business process automation
- Full-system product engineering
Projects(1)
- AI Agents
- Multi-agent orchestration
- LLM
- MCP
- LLMOps
- Python
- FastAPI
- Podman
- Stripe
- Clerk
- PostgreSQL
- SaaS
- GDPR
Production SaaS agentic coding environment at merlincloud.dev. An AI-native product, built and operated solo, end-to-end.
Multi-agent and multi-model orchestration, scheduled agents; plug in any model, proprietary or self-hosted open-source.
Security and governance: authentication, CI/CD vulnerability scanning, tests, observability, data governance (GDPR).
Deployment on infrastructure I control; multi-tenant container isolation and reverse tunneling for public dev-environment URLs.
The full product around it: positioning and pricing, UX/UI and marketing landing pages, billing, admin dashboard with events and analytics.
Stack: Python/FastAPI, HTMX, Tailwind, rootless Podman, PostgreSQL, Stripe, Clerk, MCP.
Work Experience(10)
Merlin Cloud is a production SaaS agentic coding environment (merlincloud.dev) that I designed, built, and operate solo, end to end, under my company BigSeed Studio. An AI-native product: multi-agent and multi-model orchestration with scheduled agents; plug in any model, proprietary (GPT, Claude, Gemini) or self-hosted open-source (Llama, Qwen, Mistral); security and data governance (GDPR); and the full product around it (positioning, pricing, UX/UI, landing pages, billing, admin dashboard).
Stack: Python, FastAPI, HTMX, Tailwind, rootless Podman, PostgreSQL, Stripe, Clerk, MCP.
I built and re-architected the financial data platform (crypto-finance, ~100 employees), in a regulated environment on sensitive data: ingestion and processing of high-volume market data (time series), reference data, balance and position engines, and the computation of AUM, NAV, PnL, and exposures.
I unified access to all this data behind a single self-service API (a single source of truth), also exposed via MCP servers, with two uses:
- for the teams (accounting, operations, product): investigate issues faster and get natural-language answers to their financial questions;
- for AI agents: triggered on error, they autonomously detect data anomalies and alert early, speeding up reconciliation and integrity checks, including finding the root cause where existing systems failed.
I also trained the tech teams on LLM tools.
Security and operations: enterprise authentication (Okta), CI/CD, data integrity checks, observability (Grafana), Kubernetes deployment on AWS.
Stack: Python, C#, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, ClickHouse, NATS, AWS, Kubernetes, Okta, Grafana, MCP.
Full-stack engineer for a major cosmetics group: I built a web platform that surfaces the outputs of a machine learning pipeline to business teams.
Stack: Node.js, React, Next.js, BigQuery, Google Cloud.
Built a full-stack application from scratch for a strategic L'Oréal cosmetics project.
Stack: Node.js, React, Next.js, BigQuery, Google Cloud.
Full-stack engineer at Forest Admin, a SaaS that plugs into a database to generate a full-featured admin panel.
Joined as the company scaled from seed to Series A ($3M then $7M raised). Forest Admin was part of eFounders (the startup studio behind Mailjet, Spendesk, Front, Slite, Aircall), a high-growth ecosystem that shaped how I think about scaling early-stage products.
Stack: Node.js, Ruby on Rails, React, Ember.js, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Docker, Redis.
CTO of a real estate company specialized in high-quality goods. Built and managed the technical stack.
Stack: Node.js, AngularJS.
Built an interactive online platform offering coding courses in different programming languages.
Stack: React, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Docker.
Co-founder and lead developer of MindUp, a mobile proximity-chat startup. Reached 10,000 users.
Stack: JavaScript, MongoDB.
R&D on a big-data platform for large French telecommunications companies.
Stack: C, C++.
R&D internship on a big-data platform.
Stack: Java.
Education(3)
Languages(2)
French
English
References(7)
“ I've had the pleasure of working with Arnaud at XBTO for over 4 years — he is an exceptional full-stack engineer who moves from inception to delivery with incredible speed without sacrificing quality. He builds solutions that are intuitive, highly performant, and scalable — consistently meeting the most demanding requirements. Beyond his skills, Arnaud's positive attitude and collaborative spirit make him a true asset to any team. ”
“ J'ai eu la chance de travailler avec Arnaud sur le développement d'une web app métier. L'app était basée sur la visualisation de data complexe. J'étais dans l'équipe design et Arnaud recevait nos maquettes haute fidélité en input pour le développement. Arnaud a un sens du détail, il s'appliquait à respecter les maquettes à la lettre (Pixel perfect). Nous prenions le temps de revoir son développement ensemble. Arnaud a un bon sens de la communication, il a également su nous challenger sur certaines interactions, il a toujours eu de bonnes propositions. ça a été un plaisir de travailler avec lui ! ”
“ J'ai eu la chance de travailler avec Arnaud sur un projet de développement web pour un grand groupe international. Arnaud est à la fois efficace, teamplayer, et apporte cadrage et bonne humeur à l'équipe. Son implication sur ce projet nous a permis de produire une application de grande qualité en un temps record en tirant parti de ses fortes compétences techniques, de ses suggestions pertinentes alliant innovation, réalisme et valeur à l'usage. Je le recommande et espère pouvoir collaborer à nouveau pour nos futurs projets. ”
“ Je suis impressionnée par le travail d'Arnaud sur ce projet : il est efficace, soigneux et attentif, il arrive à faire vivre les maquettes sophistiquées. J'espère que nous pourrons à nouveau travailler ensemble sur un nouveau projet. ”
“ Nous avons fait appel à Arnaud sur un projet stratégique avec des délais de livraisons très courts. Il a fallu monter une appli web from scratch. Arnaud a été un super partenaire sur la mission et a amené ses compétences de dev (React/Node), sa polyvalence et sa bonne humeur au projet. Il a un bon état d'esprit et a mené avec succès plusieurs demo à nos clients internes. Je le recommande ! ”
“ Arnaud worked at Forest Admin for nearly 2 years and the whole technical team is sad to lose him. Arnaud has brought us a lot both technically and humanely. Passionate about code and avid learner, he has strongly contributed to improving our codebase while delivering quality features in a short time. Arnaud is also a person you can count on when it comes to passing on knowledge and helping his team members. ”
“ Arnaud spent about 6 months with us, and he will be missed. He is a passionate, result-oriented software engineer with the drive of a reckless entrepreneur. Both opiniated and constructive, Arnaud also has a very good sense of humor that comes with consistently high spirits, and I have absolutely no doubt he will succeed in turning his projects into successful products & services. ”