Jerry D. Boonstra
About
A hands-on technical builder with the perspective of a former CTO.
I am a hands-on AI and founding engineer with a forward-deployed approach. I like working close to a difficult domain problem, making the real workflow explicit, and owning the whole path to a production system: discovery, product framing, architecture, implementation, evaluation, deployment, and the feedback loops that make the result better over time.
I have also been the CTO in the room. At Jukin Media, I modernized the core platform and built a 30-person technology organization. I left in 2018; the systems and team continued with the company through its 2021 acquisition. Earlier, I spent eleven years at CNET growing from a hands-on Software Engineer into platform and site-engineering leadership. That perspective is useful now because I understand the organizational consequences of technical decisions. But I am looking for roles where building remains central.
What I bring
- End-to-end ownership. I can move between product questions, system design, code, operations, and customer feedback without losing the thread.
- Forward-deployed delivery. I can embed in an unfamiliar workflow, build alongside the people who understand it, and turn the resulting field knowledge into reusable product and infrastructure.
- Applied AI judgment. I focus on the unglamorous parts that separate a demo from a product: evaluation, observability, latency, cost, failure modes, and usable interfaces.
- Founder context. I know how to make progress when the requirements, resources, and route to market are all still moving.
- Clear technical communication. I make architecture and tradeoffs legible to engineers, founders, and stakeholders.
What I am looking for
I am most interested in Forward Deployed Engineer, founding-engineer, and staff/principal IC roles building AI agents, LLM infrastructure, and technically ambitious products. I am especially useful on small teams that need senior judgment, direct engagement with users or domain experts, and someone who still wants to make the thing.
I am based in Los Angeles. See selected work or start a conversation.