Kai Krause

CTO

Switzerland14 yrs 4 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchAI Enabled

Key Highlights

Led engineering for a platform with 50M+ users.
Architected scalable systems reducing costs and latency.
Built multiple successful SaaS products from scratch.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a SaaS architect with extensive experience in scalable systems and engineering leadership.

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Skills

Core Skills

Engineering LeadershipScalable Systems ArchitectureAi/ml SystemsProduct EngineeringTechnical LeadershipCloud InfrastructureData EngineeringDistributed SystemsTechnology LeadershipSite Reliability EngineeringSaas DevelopmentFull-stack DevelopmentC#Asp.net

Other Skills

Technical StrategyGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP)Node.jsTypeScriptGoNestJSCloud-Native ArchitectureDevOpsMicrosoft AzureKubernetesContinuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)React NativeProduct DevelopmentTeam BuildingCI/CD Pipelines

About

I build things that work at scale. Currently leading engineering at Speechify (50M+ users). I went from founding engineer (0→1 to CTO) to principal engineer to VP. At every level, I stayed in the codebase. I architect systems, I review PRs, I debug production. The title changed, the work didn't. Before Speechify: co-founded an automation agency, shipped across healthcare, blockchain, and cloud infrastructure. I write about engineering leadership and what actually holds up in production.

Experience

14 yrs 4 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 11 mos

Average Tenure

4 yrs 1 mo

Current Experience

Speechify

2 roles

VP Engineering & AI

Promoted

Mar 2024 – Present · 2 yrs 2 mos · Remote

Engineering leadership for Speechify's consumer platform and AI infrastructure. 50M+ users, millions of daily requests.
Rearchitected a fragile, duct-taped inference stack into a production-grade serving platform - cut latency by 20-30%, reduced serving costs by ~40%, introduced proper capacity planning, and eliminated constant outages. Grew what started as a 2-person payments squad into the company's platform team (~15-20 engineers) - now owns the entire backend: auth, subscriptions, library, content pipelines, inference, and every API the product teams ship on top of. Designed and launched Speechify's TTS API platform.
Took a siloed team and restructured it around shared goals and clearer ownership. Replaced third-party churn tooling with in-house ML model, killed the 9% revenue share. Cut inference costs by nearly 50%.
Rebuilt the entire hiring loop - assessment structure, interview process, bar-raising practices. Partner closely with recruiting on engineering pipeline. Negotiate technical partnerships and enterprise contracts that set us up strategically and save real money.
I direct the tech and I never stopped being hands-on.

Engineering LeadershipScalable Systems ArchitectureAI/ML SystemsProduct EngineeringDistributed SystemsTechnical Strategy

Principal Engineer

Mar 2022 – Feb 2024 · 1 yr 11 mos · Remote

Owned the hardest problems across platform, payments, and AI.
Built the audiobooks backend from scratch - 500K+ titles from top publishers, BISG-compliant reporting, cross-platform checkout. Basically built Audible's infrastructure in a fraction of the time.
Architected the AI Studio and dubbing backend - full pipeline across ASR, TTS, and transcoding.
On the payments side: reduced Stripe passive churn by 45% (1.7x above target), unified 74 subscription events into 17 (10x lifecycle revenue), shipped 1-Click Checkout (35% conversion lift), replaced RevenueCat with in-house system.
Implemented engineering controls for SOC 2 Type 2 certification. Cut 96% of wasted logging costs in an afternoon. Killed 98% of duplicate billing cases.
Built the centralized data warehouse, stood up Looker, and introduced the dev portal (Backstage) as single source of truth.
I raised the engineering bar. Most of the foundation the company runs on today was built during this period.

Technical LeadershipScalable Systems ArchitectureDistributed SystemsCloud InfrastructureData EngineeringGoogle Cloud Platform (GCP)+4

Diversify.io

Senior Blockchain Engineer (Contract)

Mar 2021 – Dec 2021 · 9 mos · Remote

Contract work during the crypto boom. Built smart contract infrastructure for a DeFi project managing $50M+ in assets.
What I shipped:
→ 5 production smart contracts (ERC20 token, vaults, reward distribution, seed sale)
→ Solidity with 95% test coverage, full Hardhat typing for maintainability
→ Next.js web3 app for token sales, processed $10M+ in funding rounds
→ Transparent proxy architecture for upgradeable contracts
Open source: github.com/Diversify-io/diversify-core
This was a side project to learn blockchain/Web3 during the 2021 crypto wave. Learned smart contract security, gas optimization, and how to build financial infrastructure with zero margin for error.

VMWare ESXiVirtualisierungSystemadministrationIT-Infrastruktur-ManagementShell-Scripting

Easycode-it ag

3 roles

Staff Engineer (Advisory/Consulting)

Jan 2020 – Jan 2022 · 2 yrs

Part-time advisory role during leadership transition after leaving CTO position to join Eloq.
Maintained platform stability and drove infrastructure improvements while new CTO ramped up.
Key contributions:
→ Zero production-critical failures during 2-year transition period
→ 5× performance improvements via Azure optimization
→ React Native mobile app development for client projects
Stayed on because the platform needed continuity and the technical problems were interesting.

Cloud-Native ArchitectureDevOpsMicrosoft AzureKubernetesSite Reliability EngineeringTechnical Leadership+5

CTO

Promoted

Jan 2018 – Dec 2019 · 1 yr 11 mos

Led technical strategy for WebFrame, an ambitious SaaS suite competing with Shopify, Mailchimp, and WordPress (EasyShop, EasyNews, EasyWeb, headless CMS modules).
Owned everything: architecture, infrastructure, team scaling, technical execution.
What I built/shipped:
→ Multi-tenant white-label SaaS platform
→ Full DevOps transformation: Git, CI/CD, Docker/Rancher, automated deployments
→ Cloud migration to Azure cutting infrastructure costs 40%
→ High-profile client projects (SwissHomeGuard home security platform)
→ Nearshore development team delivering on aggressive timelines
The product was technically solid. GTM challenges (Swiss market focus, CEO direction) led to team split. I left with the CFO to co-found Eloq, stayed on part-time to ensure platform continuity.

Technology LeadershipTechnical StrategySaaS DevelopmentScalable Systems ArchitectureCloud InfrastructureMicrosoft Azure+3

Senior Software Engineer (Founding Engineer)

Aug 2015 – Dec 2017 · 2 yrs 4 mos

Employee #1. Built WebFrame from 0→1 and scaled it to production.
Shipped everything: mobile apps (Xamarin C#), backend APIs (REST/ASP.NET), modern frontend, multi-tenant SaaS architecture, and custom build automation.
Key milestones:
→ Designed and built core modules (Shopify clone, Mailchimp alternative, WordPress competitor, headless CMS)
→ Introduced modern dev infrastructure: Git, CI/CD (Jira/Bamboo), Docker/Rancher
→ Built deployment pipelines scaling to hundreds of customer environments
→ Delivered complex client projects alongside product work
This was my founding engineer experience - learned to build fast, own the full stack, and ship products from scratch.
Promoted to CTO after proving technical leadership and execution velocity.

SaaS DevelopmentFull-Stack DevelopmentDevOpsCI/CD PipelinesDockerCloud Infrastructure+3

Nhc connector ag

Senior Solution Architect (Consulting)

Apr 2019 – Jan 2022 · 2 yrs 9 mos · Bern · Hybrid

Part-time consulting role building healthcare data infrastructure for 500,000+ patients. NHC was founded by another ECIT engineer - I helped get them off the ground while serving as CTO at Eloq.
What I built:
→ Centralized healthcare data platform integrating EHR, billing, and operational systems
→ GraphQL API enabling real-time analytics across 500K+ patient records
→ Operating room material tracking PWA (automated accounting, reduced manual errors)
→ Migration from on-premise to Azure, cutting infrastructure costs 45%
→ Automation eliminating 2 FTE worth of manual maintenance work
Impact: 15% reduction in operational material costs, 99.99% reliability SLA, 50% less downtime.
Healthcare tech is complex - this project taught me how to navigate compliance, legacy integrations, and mission-critical reliability requirements.

C#Version ControlWorkflow AutomationSharePointASP.NET

Eloq gmbh

CTO

Jun 2018 – Feb 2022 · 3 yrs 8 mos

Led technology for a web/ecommerce agency focused on rapid client delivery.
Built the entire cloud infrastructure to serve 30-40 client sites with a 4-5 person team. The challenge: scale agency operations without scaling headcount.
What I built:
→ Automated hosting platform with zero-touch updates
→ Shared code abstractions and boilerplate system to ship sites in days, not weeks
→ Internal tooling that turned manual processes into autopilot operations
→ Infrastructure redesign cutting costs by 40% while improving reliability
The result: 35% YoY revenue growth driven by operational efficiency. We could deliver more, faster, with the same small team.
This role taught me how to build leverage systems - extracting maximum output from minimal resources. Small teams, high velocity, ruthless automation.

Technology LeadershipTechnical StrategyScalable Systems ArchitectureCloud InfrastructureNode.jsProduct Engineering

Unic

Software Engineer

Aug 2013 – Jul 2015 · 1 yr 11 mos · On-site

Agency work building custom SharePoint and ASP.NET solutions for 20+ enterprise clients.
What I shipped:
→ Migrated 60+ repositories from Subversion to Git with zero downtime
→ Automated development workflows: code scaffolding, 1-click prod→local data sync
→ Custom enterprise solutions for blue-chip clients
This role taught me how to ship fast in enterprise environments, deal with legacy systems, and automate away pain.

Glas trösch group

System Engineer

Aug 2011 – Jul 2013 · 1 yr 11 mos · On-site

IT infrastructure and support for 100+ employees.
Automated software distribution, built monitoring systems, reduced downtime 25%.
Early career role - learned systems thinking, automation, and how to support users at scale.