Curtis Blanchette

Lead Software Engineer at Metalab. AI-native delivery, secure AI enablement, and the engineer workflows that turn judgment into the priced layer.

hello@curtisblanchette.com
github.com/curtisblanchette
linkedin.com/in/curtisblanchette
Salmon Arm, BC · UTC−8

01 Summary

A decade engineering software from startup MVP to enterprise platform. Leads AI-native delivery at Metalab — recommendation, longevity risk, workflow orchestration — and the internal tooling (MCP servers, skill systems, coding harnesses) that encodes engineering judgment for the wider team. Treats judgment as the priced layer; everything else compounds.

02 Experience

2024 — present Remote · CA

Lead Software Engineer

Metalab

  • Leads AI-native engagements across recommendation, longevity risk, and enterprise workflow orchestration — scoping, architecture, and delivery for clients with senior internal teams.
  • Builds the internal AI substrate: MCP servers, agent-coding harnesses, skill registries — tooling that captures how senior engineers ship and makes it available to the rest of the practice.
  • Publishes on how agencies should adapt as execution gets cheap — judgment, not velocity, as the priced layer.
2021 — 2024 Wilmington, NC · remote

Full-Stack Software Engineer

4iiz Software

  • Owned architecture and delivery of the flagship legal-tech platform on Angular, Node, Postgres, and AWS.
  • Translated business intent into scoped, estimated, documented engineering plans legible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Ran cross-functional remote teams — engineers, QA, support — through continuous delivery.
2019 — 2021 Wilmington, NC · remote

Senior Software Engineer

4iiz Software

  • Authored the SQL surface area for marketing, client-lifecycle, budget, and compliance reporting.
  • Integrated VoIP into customer-facing web applications powering large North-American call centres.
  • Hardened the design → engineering → QA loop into a continuous-delivery cadence.
2017 — 2019 Kelowna, BC

Lead Software Engineer

QHR Technologies

  • Bridged Shoppers Drug Mart and QHR's healthcare platforms — Angular, Java Spring Boot, MSSQL — under enterprise compliance constraints.
  • Owned hiring and scaled cross-functional remote teams across Canada.
  • Coached individual contributors on technical growth and career arc.
2015 — 2017 Kelowna, BC

Lead / Frontend Software Engineer

JBF Sports

  • Shipped Ionic / Cordova hybrid-mobile apps for NHL and NFL franchises to the App Store and Google Play.
  • Engineered white-labelled real-time chat for kids' sports communities on WebSockets.
  • Designed and shipped onboarding plus a proprietary campaign builder for sports marketers.

03 Stack & tools

Languages

  • TypeScript everywhere
  • Python AI · data · control
  • Rust latency-critical
  • Java enterprise stints
  • SQL fluent · Postgres
  • Bash too much, probably

Platforms & Infra

  • Postgres the one true DB
  • Redis queues · caches
  • AWS ECS · CDK · S3
  • GCP Vertex RAG
  • Terraform IaC
  • Vercel edge + RSC

AI / ML

  • MCP model context protocol
  • Anthropic Claude code + API
  • Ollama local LLMs
  • Vertex RAG vector retrieval
  • Pi.dev coding harness

IoT & Control

  • ESP32 MicroPython
  • MQTT telemetry spine
  • OSQP convex QP
  • EKF state estimation
  • MPC model predictive control
  • FastAPI control surface

Frontend

  • React 19 RSC + suspense
  • Next.js 15 app router
  • Tamagui RN + web
  • Tailwind v4 CSS-first
  • Angular legacy carried
  • MDX long-form

How I work

  • Trunk-based small, frequent
  • Design docs before code
  • RFCs for the big stuff
  • Review SLA same day
  • Senior-heavy from day one
  • On-call fair rotations

04 Selected signals