Arjun Kulkarni

I build AI you can trust in production.

Looking for Seed / Series A roles.

GitHub LinkedIn

New York City · Open to NYC / SF / Remote

Education

Georgia Institute of Technology
Jun 2026 – Jan 2027
M.S. Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Sep 2022 – May 2026
B.S. Computer Science & Materials Engineering

Experience

breken
sandbox · isolated vm
egress denied
customer system
web
next.js
api
node
worker
billing jobs
postgres
schema + seed
queue
redis · 4 consumers
third parties · answered inside
payments
sandbox responder
mail
sandbox inbox
storage
local bucket
$ breken up acme/checkout
cloneacme/checkout @ a41f2c✓
buildweb · api · worker✓
seedpostgres from schema✓
startqueue + 4 consumers✓
bindpayments → responder✓
bindmail · storage → local✓
netegress to internetdenied
ready in 41s · nothing mocked
Rebuild the customer's whole system on isolated machines. Payments, mail, database and queue all answer inside the sandbox: nothing mocked, nothing exposed.
Breken
Aug 2026 – Present
Founding Engineer · Production simulation
Production simulation that finds failures before customers do
Built the sandbox that rebuilds a customer's whole system in isolation, and the eval engine that finds the bugs customers would hit and drafts the fix.
SandboxingEnvironment ReconstructionDistributed SystemsSimulationTime VirtualizationState Generation
Backed by
PPareto Holdings
PPear VC
ZZ Fellows
CCory Levy
CCollective Global
mellea · skills
skills/summarize_ticket.py
from mellea import start_session
from mellea.stdlib.requirement import req, simple_validate
from mellea.stdlib.sampling import RejectionSamplingStrategy
skill
summarize_ticket
requirements
≤ 3 sentences llm
names service llm
cites ticket id code
retry
rejection sampling · budget 3
A skill is plain Python: an instruction plus requirements that are checked on every output, some by an LLM judge and some by code.
IBM
June 2026 – Aug 2026
Applied AI Research · Agent reliability research
Composable agent skills under IBM Fellow Dr. Kush R. Varshney
Wrote reusable Python skills with the Mellea Skills Compiler, each validated and repaired against its own requirements, and composed them into agent workflows.
MelleaAI SkillsLLM SystemsPythonTypeScriptAgentic AI
FitFo
Feb 2026 – June 2026
CTO / AI Systems · Mobile fitness app
40K users · $350K GMV · $50K raised
Led the mobile app and backend as CTO: share any workout video, get a structured plan, and train with an AI coach grounded in the creator's content.
FlaskDigitalOceanTypeScriptAgentic AIProductFundraising
kubricks · video eval
uploads
clip_0142.mp4 · 3:12
clip_0143.mp4 · 1:48
clip_0144.mp4 · 4:05
clip_0145.mp4 · 2:31
queue depth
48
celery workers · redis broker
6 workers
extract_framesffmpeg · 2 fps0 / 4 clips
transcribewhisper0 / 4 clips
describevision model0 / 4 clips
✓ 4 clips ready · 1,412 frames · 3 transcripts aligned
Clips go through Celery + Redis pipelines: frame extraction, Whisper transcription and model descriptions run in parallel per clip.
Handshake
Feb 2026 – May 2026
Software Engineer, AI Evaluation · Video model evals
Training-data QA for state-of-the-art vision models
Built Kubricks, an eval platform for video models: Celery ingestion and Whisper transcription, then scoring against gold annotations for hallucinations and temporal errors.
ReactTypeScriptFlaskCeleryRedisWhisper
sideshift · creator inbox
glowlab · spring launch
Maya C.TikTok · 48K
Andre D.Reels · 112K
Grace O.Shorts · 23K
+ 281 more applicants
Loved your morning-routine hook. Want in on the spring launch?
Yes! 3 TikToks this month works
Sending the contract now
request log
db reads / min
2,100
and climbing with every applicant thread
Brands message hundreds of creators per campaign. Every open, poll and re-render of a thread went straight to Postgres, so DB load grew with every applicant.
SideShift
May 2026
Software Engineer · Caching
~95% fewer database reads and writes on messaging
Added Redis + TanStack Query caching and built in-app contract signing.
RedisTanStack QueryTypeScriptPerformanceReactE-signatures
curator
ws ▸ run_8f2 · tenant brand_a · ops agent
user"Linen midi is low. Restock and tell the VIP waitlist."
plancheck stock → reorder → notify waitlist
toolinventory.get("LMD-221")→ 3 left
toolpo.create("LMD-221", qty: 40)→ PO-1043
toolemail.draft(segment: "vip_waitlist")→ draft
done3 tools · 2.4s · streamed 14 events
const app = new Hono()
app.get('/runs/:id/stream', upgradeWebSocket(streamRun))
stack · bun + hono
websocket stream
agent loop
tool registry · per tenant
postgres · tenant-scoped
The early agent infrastructure: a Bun + Hono backend runs a tool-calling agent loop and streams every step to the client over WebSocket.
Curator.to
Jan 2024 – Dec 2025
Founding Engineer · Agent infrastructure
4+ enterprise brands · $2M+ GMV
Built the early agent infrastructure (multi-tenant Bun + Hono backend, tool-calling agents streamed over WebSocket) and the web dashboard brands run it from.
TypeScriptBunHonoPostgreSQLAI AgentsSystem Design
Backed by
IIntel
UUpHonest Capital
UUpScaleX
AbbVie
Dec 2024 – Jun 2025
Software Engineer Intern · ETL
ETL over 120K+ reports · batch runs 4h → 45m
Built the ETL pipeline and dashboard that extracts, validates and embeds clinical trial reports, plus FastAPI + FAISS search that made R&D lookup ~3x faster.
FastAPIPythonReactPostgreSQLOpenAI EmbeddingsFAISS
rumor · iOS + api
Discover
⌕ roofto
Rooftop set · DJ Kovatonight · 0.4 mi
Warehouse open airfri · 1.2 mi
Late-night jazzsat · 0.8 mi
react native · redux · react navigation
searchGET /events/search?q=rooftop
navigateEventDetail { id: evt_93 }
dispatchrsvp/optimistic going: 143
POST/events/evt_93/rsvp → 201
shipped
Guest lists, RSVPs and discovery, end to end: screens, state, API and database.
React Native: search events, open one, RSVP and see the guest list update instantly with an optimistic Redux update.
Rumor
Oct 2025 – Jan 2026
Software Engineer Intern · Mobile full stack
800ms → 120ms search for 50K+ users
Shipped guest lists, RSVPs and discovery end to end in React Native and Node, and cut event-search latency ~85% with indexing and Redis caching.
RedisPostgreSQLSQLNode.jsReact NativeTypeScript

Full experience and research

Research

Undergraduate Teaching Assistant
Jan 2023 – Apr 2023
Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois
Project
TA for CS124 (Java Programming) and CS128 (Introduction to C++). Held office hours, gave one-on-one help, and graded assignments with detailed feedback.
Outcome
Helped students through coursework and projects in two intro CS courses.
JavaC++Data StructuresAlgorithmsCode Review
Sustainable Concrete with ML
Jan 2024 – May 2024
Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Illinois
Project
Analyzed lab data and designed a new concrete mixture with less clinker in the cement, using Random Forest models to predict how composition affects durability.
Outcome
10% lower carbon emissions.
PythonRandom ForestScikit-learnPandasNumPy
Autonomous EV Routing
Jan 2024 – Jan 2025
Illinois AI Group, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Illinois
Project
Put a reinforcement learning agent inside a model predictive control (MPC) system that routes electric vehicles, tested in SUMO traffic simulations.
Outcome
18% less traffic delay and 25% better control accuracy.
RLMPCSUMOROSC++Python
Human–AI Interaction Platform
Feb 2025 – Apr 2025
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Illinois
Project
Built a real-time React + Flask platform where multiple people talk to an LLM at once, with WebSockets and analytics logging for research experiments.
Outcome
Ran studies with 40+ subjects and zero lost messages.
ReactFlaskWebSocketsPostgreSQLLLM
Nanofluidic Energy Harvesting
Sep 2025 – Dec 2025
Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST), University of Illinois
Project
Modeled ion-electron Coulomb drag to predict voltage and current in silicon nanochannels, then designed carbon nanotube channels to harvest more energy.
Outcome
Channel designs aimed at higher energy-harvesting efficiency, building on work published in Nano Energy (2023).
PythonCOMSOLMATLABNanofluidicsDevice Physics

Projects

Congruence · AI pipeline & backend · clinical documentation

Session recordings to insurance-ready progress notes in under a minute.

UCSF Health

culin · iOS

Profile

age

176 cm

height

75 kg

weight

sex

Goals

Lose weightGain muscleGut health

Health conditions

Type 2 diabetesHigh blood pressurePCOS

targets + constraints

calories2,000 kcal

protein150 g

carbs≤ 180 g · low glycemic

sodium≤ 1,500 mg

budget$15 / meal

Conditions become hard rules the engine can't trade away for taste.

Set body metrics, goals and health conditions once. Culin turns them into daily macro targets and constraints.

Culin · Full-stack · nutrition

Decides your next meal from your macros, goals and health conditions, then gets you to food.

UC San Diego Health

NestléRHRiverside Health

Hanger · ML & backend · fashion discovery

Vibe-based fashion search with fine-tuned CLIP. 2K+ users, +40% CTR.

Skills

Languages (Core): PythonTypeScriptJavaScriptC++SQLJava
Frameworks: ReactReact NativeNext.jsFlaskFastAPINode.jsExpressDjangoSpring Boot
AI/ML: PyTorchTensorFlowLangChainRAGRLLLM OpsOpenAI AssistantsGeminiVector SearchLangGraph
Cloud/DevOps: AWSECSFargateDigitalOceanDockerTerraformKubernetesGitHub ActionsLinuxCI/CDJenkinsGitLab CI/CD
Tools: PostgresMongoDBRedisKafkaTemporalClickHousePineconeTurbopufferROSSUMOCOMSOLGitJiraLinearAsana

4,750 contributions in the last year@arjunpkulkarni

OctNovDecJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOct

MonWedFri

LessMore

Clubs & community

IEEE · Talks on hardware, quantum, and ML.
Illinois Business Consulting · Go-to-market with CIOs and CTOs.
SIGPwny · Secure UART and Rust firmware for a medical device.
NOBE Tech Lab · Shipped sites and tools for 30+ clients.