About Me
AI-Native Backend Engineer & Technical Partner
I'm Ashraf Sjöholm, an AI-native backend engineer with 15+ years of experience building scalable, production-ready systems for startups and enterprises across fintech, SaaS, and AI-driven platforms.
My expertise spans backend architecture (Go, Python, C#/.NET), distributed systems (microservices, event-driven architectures, Temporal), and AI system integration (OpenAI, Google Gemini, LLM-based solutions). I specialize in helping non-technical founders make the right technical decisions from day one — avoiding costly mistakes and overengineering.
Through Foundation Lab, I provide CTO-level technical guidance to B2B startup founders, helping them build capital-efficient, scalable products without burning resources on the wrong stack or architecture.
What I Bring to the Table
15+ Years Backend Engineering
Deep expertise in Go, Python, distributed systems, and event-driven architectures
AI-Native Architecture
Building production LLM integrations and AI-powered systems, not just prototypes
Fintech-Grade Reliability
Experience with banking and payment systems where uptime and data integrity are critical
Startup & Enterprise Experience
Worked with 20+ companies from seed-stage startups to large enterprises
Selected Employment History
Key positions showcasing scalable systems and technical leadership
Chief Technology Officer
Betalo AB
📍 Fintech Platform
Hands-on technical executive combining deep implementation work with high-level financial systems strategy and governance.
Key Achievements
- →Architected and delivered a cloud-native fintech platform built according to PCI-DSS compliance requirements
- →Owned secure system architecture for regulated financial flows, directly contributing to production backend code
- →Integrated with Tier-1 banking and payment providers including Nordea, Nets, and Worldline
- →Led and mentored a team of senior software engineers, establishing high engineering standards and accountability
- →Built and maintained cross-platform mobile application using Expo and React Native (iOS & Android)
- →Established CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, observability, and TDD-driven engineering culture
- →Owned long-term technical roadmap, vendor strategy, compliance alignment, budgeting, and executive collaboration
Freelance Backend Engineer
Cerve
📍 Food supply chain platform
Contributed to the design and implementation of AI-native microservices for a food supply chain platform integrating enterprise partners (e.g., Coca-Cola).
Key Achievements
- →Built cloud-native services in Python and Go on GCP
- →Implemented LLM-powered ingestion and transformation pipelines using OpenAI and Google Gemini
- →Developed asynchronous processing and event-driven service communication patterns
- →Embedded AI-driven automation into operational workflows and data pipelines
Senior Backend Engineer
Animarum (Consultancy) — Client: Mimo
📍 B2B payments platform
Senior backend contributor to 'Mimo Associate', a SaaS accounting platform built on regulated B2B payments infrastructure.
Key Achievements
- →Designed and implemented distributed services handling accounting workflows and financial transaction lifecycles
- →Implemented durable workflow orchestration using Temporal, including sagas, retry strategies, and compensation logic
- →Ensured idempotency, data consistency, and fault tolerance across microservices operating on financial datasets
- →Collaborated on React frontend to align API design with complex accounting user flows
- →Improved observability and production reliability through structured logging, metrics, tracing, and Datadog monitoring
Senior Backend Engineer
PFC Technology AB
📍 B2C Payments Platform
Contributed to the architectural migration from monolithic PHP to Go-based microservices deployed on cloud platforms.
Key Achievements
- →Migrated monolithic PHP architecture to Go-based microservices on Heroku and AWS
- →Developed RESTful APIs and event-driven systems using RabbitMQ for asynchronous messaging
- →Improved scalability, performance, and long-term maintainability
- →Applied TDD methodology to ensure engineering rigor and robustness
Senior Backend Engineer
Animarum (Consultancy) — Client: Saibon
📍 SaaS consultant management platform
Contributed to backend development and architectural discussions for a secure multi-tenant SaaS consultant management platform.
Key Achievements
- →Built scalable services with C#/.NET and PostgreSQL on Google Cloud Platform
- →Contributed to scalable data models and service boundaries to support long-term platform growth
- →Applied TDD practices and upheld engineering quality standards within the team