Tom Curtis

Staff Software Engineer | Strategic Platform Engineer | London

Who I am

I'm a Staff Software Engineer with a unique background in data and ML infrastructure, trust and safety, medical records, customer support, and forensic accounting. I specialise in spotting patterns across diverse domains and building strategic platforms that drive long-term leverage.

I’ve worked in both London and Silicon Valley, and I bring a systems mindset shaped by the best of both worlds — balancing strategic platform thinking with pragmatic execution, and always with an eye on long-term maintainability.

My approach is characterised by thoughtful problem identification, user-centered design in the backend space, and a focus on long-term impact over immediate output. I care deeply about how developer experience accelerates impact.

My Experience

Staff Software Engineer at Wayve - AI data platform
Senior Software Engineer at Google - ML data and model lifecycle platform
Manager, Forensic at KPMG - Financial investigations

Full CV | LinkedIn

Hire Me For

Building strategic platforms that provide leverage across multiple teams or domains.
Designing systems with clear boundaries, empowering abstractions, and well-defined contracts.
Bridging deep technical expertise with business understanding and user needs.
Simplifying complex systems by focusing on thoughtful design and architecture.
Leading teams with a focus on impactful outcomes, not just output.
Creating user-centric solutions that prioritise problem understanding over rushing to implementation.

Domains of interest

Developer tooling
Data platforms
ML lifecycles and feedback loops
Trust and safety
Experiment velocity

Don't Hire Me For

Surface-level productivity - I thrive in environments that prioritize strategic problem-solving over short-term activity.
Constant urgency - I do my best work when I have time to think strategically, align with long-term goals, and focus on lasting improvements.
Rushed feature delivery - I prefer environments where success isn't just measured by how quickly features are delivered, but by the value created for users and the long-term impact of our work.
Rigid roles - I excel when I can adapt and shape my responsibilities to drive meaningful outcomes, rather than being confined to narrowly defined tasks.
Top-down decision making - I perform best in environments that value psychological safety, where teams solve problems together and individuals are empowered to contribute meaningfully.
Low-level optimisation - I care more about accelerating developers than CPUs, despite having strong C++ skills. Turning days of work into minutes is more satisfying to me than shaving milliseconds off code execution.

My Ideal Environment

Allow time and space to understand problems before jumping to solutions.
Measure impact by results, not just activity.
Build supportive teams where struggles are seen as collective challenges, and growth is shared.
Design roles around people rather than forcing people into predefined roles.
Foster authentic collaboration, where creativity, input and growth are valued over rigid processes.

If you're building an organisation that values these principles and are looking for someone who can help create leverage through thoughtful platform work, I'd love to talk about how we can create lasting impact together.

Email me