About
Hi, I'm CJ.
I build software at the intersection of AI and real user problems. Technically rigorous, but always grounded in what people actually need. I'm completing an M.S. in Computer Science (AI) at Stanford, on top of a B.S. in CS with a focus in Human-Computer Interaction.
What I'm working on
Right now I'm an AI Engineer and Technical PM on VIA, a Stanford course project in partnership with NVIDIA. I built an agentic pipeline that ingests regulatory data and geospatial context to auto-generate autonomous vehicle safety scenarios - and pitched it as a subscription product to the California DMV.
I'm also building a computer vision system to automatically classify tactical situations in water polo game film - using YOLOv8, DBSCAN, and a CNN to turn raw footage into top-down pool diagrams labeled by play type. A direct collaboration between five years on the pool deck and my CV coursework.
Background
In 2025, I shipped a production React Native app for NFL wide receiver Equanimeous St. Brown - Figma to App Store MVP in under 6 months on a 3-person team. Prior to that, I co-founded The Market, a peer-to-peer marketplace for Stanford, and led technical decisions from the ground up.
I also spent four years as a Division I water polo player at Stanford, including a year as team captain and two NCAA Championship Semi-Final appearances. Competing nationally while maintaining a rigorous academic course load and shipping production software taught me more about operating under pressure than anything else.
What I'm looking for
Applied AI Engineer or Forward Deployed Engineer roles - where I can translate technical capabilities into real business outcomes, stay close to the customer, and move fast. I'm most energized when engineering and customer impact coincide.
How I work
When I'm stuck, I find the sharpest people I trust and think through it out loud. Most of my best decisions have come from those conversations, not from sitting alone until something clicks.
The thing I find most limiting about traditional engineering is how removed it can be from the people it's actually building for. The best call I made on VIA wasn't technical - it was stepping back and asking what the DMV actually needed from us, then reshaping the product around our real value to them. That kind of thinking isn't always rewarded in purely engineering-focused environments. It is in forward deployed roles, which is a big part of why I'm drawn to those positions.
In water polo, being team captain wasn't about leading practice. It was daily conversations - with players who were struggling, with coaches about the direction of the team, with other leaders trying to stay aligned through a long season. You learn to communicate honestly and often, and to hold people together when things are hard. I carry that into how I work on technical teams.
Outside of work
I grew up in Danville, CA with my parents Bennett and Nikki, my sister Lauren, and a big extended family close by. They raised me with a simple idea: be respectful, do things the right way, and the rest will follow. That's stuck with me in everything I do.
Outside of family, you'll find me playing water polo, corn hole, backpacking, fly fishing, playing piano, or building something new - with strong opinions about mac and cheese.