Michael Long

Director of Engineering

London, England, United Kingdom16 yrs 7 mos experience

AI EnabledAI ML Practitioner

Key Highlights

Scaled engineering teams from 4 to 36+ engineers.
Reduced model deployment times from months to days.
Bridged cutting-edge ML research with production systems.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a leader in AI-driven software engineering for social commerce and media technology.

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Skills

Core Skills

Engineering LeadershipAi EngineeringMl EngineeringEngineering ManagementTeam LeadershipSoftware Engineering

Other Skills

Scalable InfrastructureAI-driven Performance IntelligenceReal-time SystemsVideo ProcessingWebGLTeam ManagementCoachingArchitecture DesignAnalytical SkillsFront-endUser ExperienceHTMLJavaScriptCSSjQuery

About

I am an engineering leader who specialises in bridging the gap between cutting edge ML research and scalable production systems. With over 15 years in software engineering, I've found my passion in making AI accessible and reliable at scale. My approach is simple, hire brilliant people, remove obstacles from their path, and ensure we're building in the direction that delivers the most business value. I believe the best engineering happens when teams deeply understand both the technical challenges and the commercial objectives. Having scaled teams from 4 to 36+ engineers while reducing model deployment times from months to days, I've learned that the real challenge isn't just making AI work, it's making it work reliably, at scale, for millions of users. Whether it's architecting training infrastructure for 250M parameter models or building live fine-tuning systems handling hundreds of concurrent requests, I focus on turning ambitious research into robust products.

Experience

Unbox

Director of Engineering

Jul 2025 – Present · 8 mos · London Area, United Kingdom · Hybrid

Leading engineering for AI powered social commerce platform launching in September 2025. Building proprietary tools for brands to optimise short form vertical video performance and creator partnerships.
Architecting real-time content analysis and brand safety monitoring systems
Developing AI-driven performance intelligence for social commerce optimisation
Focusing on scalable infrastructure to support the rapidly growing social commerce market

Engineering LeadershipTeam LeadershipEngineering ManagementScalable InfrastructureAI-driven Performance IntelligenceAI Engineering

Flawless

Senior Engineering Manager

Aug 2022 – Jul 2025 · 2 yrs 11 mos · London Area, United Kingdom · Hybrid

Led engineering efforts to transform cutting edge GenAI research into production ready film editing tools. Scaled the team from 4 to 36+ engineers while establishing robust ML engineering practices that reduced model deployment times from 6+ months to under 2 days.
Built out the ML Engineering function, bridging research and production
Managed 24+ reports across software and ML engineering teams
Established engineering standards that became foundational to company growth
Enhanced platform capabilities through video processing and WebGL expertise
Fostered engineering-science collaboration to maximise research impact

Team LeadershipEngineering ManagementML EngineeringVideo ProcessingWebGL

Pactio

Software Engineer

May 2022 – Aug 2022 · 3 mos · London Area, United Kingdom · Hybrid

Worked closely with the founding team during a critical growth phase. Provided technical expertise and strategic guidance to support the company's modernisation initiatives in the private equity space.

Papercup

Software Engineer

Oct 2019 – May 2022 · 2 yrs 7 mos · London, United Kingdom · Hybrid

Early engineer at AI dubbing startup, helping build their first product. Eventually transitioned into a more guiding role. Working closely with the Machine Learning team to integrate models into production at scale. Hiring and mentoring engineers to grow the team from 10 to over 50 individuals.
Integrated 5 ML models into production, establishing patterns for future model deployments
Guided system architecture decisions to support 5x growth in usage
Established engineering best practices and CI/CD pipelines that became company standards

Nimbus hosting

Lead Software Engineer

Jul 2017 – Oct 2019 · 2 yrs 3 mos

Sole engineer for extended periods, responsible for STORM, their bespoke hosting platform. Led complete architecture transformation while the business grew 10x.
Rebuilt core platform architecture while maintaining 99.9% uptime
Scaled platform to support 10x business growth
Hired and mentored team of engineers to support expansion
Introduced modern development practices and automated deployment pipelines

Team LeadershipCoachingTeam ManagementSoftware Engineering

Campaign works

Lead Software Engineer

Apr 2015 – Jun 2017 · 2 yrs 2 mos

Led digital transformation for traditional agency expanding into tech. Built technical capabilities from ground up through strategic hiring, mentoring, and process implementation.

Team LeadershipCoachingTeam ManagementSoftware Engineering

Askia

Front End Software Engineer

Aug 2009 – Apr 2015 · 5 yrs 8 mos

First professional software engineering role at market research software company. Developed expertise across full stack while contributing to core product evolution.

Analytical SkillsSoftware Engineering