Salmen Hichri

Senior Product Engineer ─ Applied AI
Entrepreneur, Startup Founder
accurate cv as per Q4 2025
contact and more info at

Summary

Built customer-facing products at Amazon and led engineering initiatives at Goldman Sachs and other tier-1 firms. Founded several startups and learned hard lessons in product-market fit, execution, and navigating uncertainty. Created an open-source conversational AI library, and recently led product development at an AI-native startup.

Currently working on a new venture in stealth mode, while open to collaborating with innovative teams and startups looking to ship exceptional AI products at scale.

Applied AI Projects / Roles

Founder, AI-Native Platform

Oct 2025 - Present
Early-stage startup in stealth mode
  • Building an AI-native platform in a high-impact domain. Leading all aspects of the project in founder-mode, from product discovery, to technical implementation, and product-market fit. Utilizing modern AI tooling and systems throughout the whole process to significantly boost efficiency and speed. More to be disclosed in the coming weeks.
Responsibilities:Product DiscoveryTechnical ArchitectureImplementationGrowth Hacking
Tech Stack:Go LangGoogle CloudGenKitOpenAI APIsReactNext.jsCursorNoSQLPostgreSQLCI/CD

Product Development Lead, AI-Enabled EdTech Product

Mar - Sep 2025
Led the project GOMYTEACHER at digital skills training company GOMYCODE
Website: gomyteacher.com
  • Worked with education company GOMYCODE to build a standalone AI-assisted grading solution, GOMYTEACHER, aimed at university professors, evolving internal APIs from the company's LMS into an external-facing product.
  • Collaborated with the founders to spec out product scope and narrow down product/market fit; established design partner program with one university and several independent professors; and actively contributed to commercial efforts and fundraising.
  • Led technical architecture, research, tech stack selection; implemented core features; set up CI/CD pipeline and development practices.
    Hired/trained a team of 4 developers; and iterated on the product based on feedback from the market.
  • Re-built grading engine using Go GenKit AI library with Chain-of-Thought reasoning to enable advanced grading capabilities;
    Architected system as MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for improved scalability and modularity.
  • Successfully evolved the product to meet the design partners' requirements, leading to the company fundraising based on milestones.
Responsibilities:Iterative Product DevelopmentProduct-Market FitTechnical ArchitectureImplementationTalent DevelopmentContributing to Commercial EffortsContributing to Fundraising
Tech Stack:Go LangPythonNext.jsCypressGenKitMCP ServersCI/CDGoogle Cloud

Founding Engineer, Open-Source Maintainer

Nov 2023 - Present
Created the conversational AI UI Library NLUX
Website: docs.nlkit.com/nlux
  • Created NLUX, a JavaScript/TypeScript library that simplifies integrating conversational AI into web apps and production UX flows.
  • Implemented streaming of AI-generated content into web UI, configurable conversation interfaces, pluggable adapters for any inference API, and event hooks for custom runtime behaviors.
  • Led architecture, coding, documentation, support, troubleshooting, developer advocacy, community management, and planning.
    Grew open-source traction to 1200+ GitHub stars and 10K+ weekly npm downloads through community collaboration, talks, blog posts.
Responsibilities:ArchitectureCodingDocumentationDeveloper AdvocacyCommunity ManagementRoadmap Management
Tech Stack:JavaScriptTypeScriptReactNext.jsPythonUI StreamingLangChainVercel AI SDK

Engineering / Technical Leadership Roles

Senior Software Engineer, Consultant

Nov 2020 – Oct 2023
As a freelance consultant / contractor, at Bank of America and Standard Chartered
Contributor to the open-source project AG Grid
  • Core contributor at the leading open-source data grid library AG Grid (1M+ monthly downloads); worked on features such as grid pagination, Excel export; enhanced React rendering performance for mission-critical financial apps (link to contributions).
  • Led UI engineering for FX Options product at Bank of America, and contributed to Standard Chartered's own FX Options trading platform — owning architecture, event-driven UI development, micro-frontends, and supporting trading teams using the platforms.
  • Partnered with senior managers, font-office stakeholders, and technology heads to steer strategy, advise on platform architecture, and mentor engineering teams delivering enterprise-grade trading systems.
Responsibilities:ArchitectureCodingPerformance OptimizationMentorshipTechnical AdvisoryFront-Office Support
Tech Stack:JavaScriptTypeScriptReactAG GridNode.jsOpenFinWebSocketsPythonCI/CDJiraConfluence

Executive Director, Digital Trading Tech

Sep 2018 – Aug 2020
At Goldman Sachs, Marquee Platform
Website: marquee.gs.com
  • Contributed to building Marquee, Goldman Sachs's next generation digital finance platform, focusing on derivatives trading capabilities.
    Led the UI development of Marquee’s cross-asset derivatives trading app (FX / EQ / Commod).
  • Built and managed a globally distributed engineering team across three time zones, overseeing hiring, onboarding, and delivery cadence.
  • Partnered daily with traders, sales, designers, and core platform teams (execution, pricing, data, quant, and risk) to translate requirements into detailed specs, co-own system design, and ship reliable workflows that met Goldman Sachs’s scale and regulatory rigor.
  • Provided white-glove front-office support during trading hours—joining early morning desk standups, shadowing quants and traders, and resolving production issues in minutes so traders never missed client flow.
Responsibilities:Technical LeadershipArchitectureTalent DevelopmentStakeholders ManagementFront-Office Support
Tech Stack:JavaScriptTypeScriptReactAG GridNode.jsOpenFinWebSocketsPythonMongoDBGraphQL

Senior Software Engineer

Oct 2012 - Nov 2016
At Amazon, Prime Video team
  • Designed, developed, and maintained widely used cross-platform video streaming applications; Contributed to the design and development of a rendering engine and an SDK for interactive smart TV applications.
  • Contributed to the launch of Amazon Prime Video streaming apps on new smart TVs, game consoles, and Fire TV Stick platforms, driving millions installs across several countries and helping Prime Video become the #2 paid streaming service after Netflix.
  • Rebuilt the Amazon Prime Video movie detail page from its legacy retail template into a cinematic experience with autoplay previews, richer metadata, and playback-first flows that boosted engagement and conversions.
  • Owned Prime Video’s 24/7 on-call rota one week every month, triaging global customer-impacting incidents under minutes-level SLAs and communicating directly with VP-level leadership —including responding to few Jeff Bezos escalations— to keep streaming uptime rock solid.
Responsibilities:Product DevelopmentSystem DesignContinuous DeliveryProduction Support
Tech Stack:JavaScriptC++PythonV8 JS EngineOpenGLAWS

Technology Consultant

Sep 2010 - Sep 2012
At Accenture, forward-deployed on client projects
  • Began my career as a forward-deployed Accenture consultant embedded on client sites, translating ambiguous asks into cohesive specs, aligning architecture, design, and delivery teams, and keeping client communications and support clear and concise.
  • At SFR Mobile, coordinated between client stakeholders and offshore engineering teams for web-based sales application development.
  • QA automation at EDF on Project Linky, automating functional tests to ensure quality for France's nationwide smart meter deployment.
Responsibilities:Client CoordinationOffshore Team ManagementQA AutomationSystem DevelopmentClient Delivery
Tech Stack:Java EESOAPOracleHP Quality CenterLinux

Startup Projects

Below are 2 startup projects that I co-founded. Every startup here shipped production software, supported real users, drove meaningful traction, and included serious attempts to fundraise and scale.
For each project, I summarize the work I owned and the main learnings — with detailed write-ups on salmenhq.com/projects.

Refill Express ― Zero-Waste Shopping and Delivery Marketplace

2021 – 2023
Co-Founder
Project: Born out of my own frustration with single-use packaging and the lack of convenient refill options, Refill Express was a zero-waste shopping and delivery marketplace that let London refill stores sell online while orchestrating the pick-up, refill, and drop-off of customers’ reusable containers.
Work done: Researched the plastic-packaging problem, designed the marketplace UX, shipped consumer web/app and seller dashboard, implemented container-tracking and payments APIs, onboarded multiple London refill stores, fulfilled hundreds of two-journey orders, and led fundraising efforts, and commercial partnerships.
Learnings: Circular packaging logistics hinge on meticulous container instrumentation and multi-party ops; converting offline refill shops requires solving supply onboarding and customer convenience simultaneously. The mission resonated, but market readiness and a clear path to healthy margins never materialized, and scaling ops-heavy businesses proved slower and costlier than planned.

WeEvolve ― No-Code VR/AR App Creation Platform

2017 – 2018
Founder
Project: Built WeEvolve, a no-code VR/AR app creation platform that let brand and agency teams design immersive product demos and experiential marketing activations without expert 3D skills.
Work done: Specced and shipped the browser-based Weevolve Builder, the companion Player apps, and the cloud build pipeline that produced white-labeled apps; led a distributed team (concept, technical art, engineering) to craft template libraries, marketplace components, and agency-ready demos while driving go-to-market with marketers allocating VR/AR budgets; Ran in-person showcases for 300+ brand decision makers, secured pilots with Universal Music and News Corp.
Learnings: By deliberately riding the VR/AR hype cycle we generated meaningful PR and media interest, yet learned firsthand that headlines rarely convert into revenue without airtight ROI proof; in-person events and hands-on demos were the real accelerants, helping educate 300+ brand stakeholders, forge relationships, and secure the first pilots.

Education & Training

Licence (BSc) in Computer Science

2009
Sorbonne Université, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Paris
Completed the French Licence in Computer Science with a strong foundation in software engineering, algorithms, and applied mathematics at Sorbonne's research-driven Faculty of Science and Engineering.

Master MIAGE – Computer Methods Applied to Business Management

2010 – 2012
Completed the MIAGE master’s track focused on computer methods applied to business management—an elite Dauphine PSL program that blends advanced software engineering with organizational strategy and data analysis.
Followed the research-driven syllabus covering algorithms, Python/Java/C development, systems design, databases, finance, and management sciences, with project work tied directly to Dauphine’s industry-linked labs (program detail).
Graduated with the hybrid technical-business skill set MIAGE is known for: modeling information systems, leading organizational IT projects, and translating data insights into executive decisions.

Harvard Business School Online Business Certificates

2020 - 2021
Financial Accounting · Management Essentials · Leading with Finance
Earned three HBS Online certificates covering financial reporting, managerial decision-making, and capital strategy, each delivered through the interactive case-based Harvard platform with weekly deadlines and peer collaboration.
Financial Accounting: Built fluency in interpreting balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements, applying GAAP/IFRS concepts to evaluate company performance and forecast scenarios.
Management Essentials: Practiced HBS leadership frameworks for diagnosing issues, sequencing change, and driving execution across cross-functional teams.
Leading with Finance: Strengthened ability to explain valuation, capital allocation, and stakeholder trade-offs when guiding product and growth investments.

Fundamental Machine Learning Training

2024
Coursera · DeepLearning.AI & Stanford (Andrew Ng)
Completed the Coursera Machine Learning Specialization led by Andrew Ng, covering the full supervised and unsupervised learning stack with a focus on practical ML deployment.
Built hands-on projects in Python using NumPy and scikit-learn to implement and tune regression, classification, decision tree, ensemble, clustering, and anomaly detection models.
Constructed and trained neural networks with TensorFlow, applying best practices for regularization, evaluation, and shipping ML-powered product features.

Activities

Sailing

Began sailing as a student with in France, learning technical handling on high-performance catamarans.
Completed the Royal Yachting Association's Day Skipper track in the UK, enabling me to charter and skipper vessels up to 24m.
Now I sail several times per year in the Solent or Mediterranean — often chartering boats with friends — treating each passage as a way to reconnect with wind and sea, share real adventures together, and keep decision-making sharp in a living, changing environment.
Skippering is leadership in action: you recruit the crew, sell them on the adventure, chart a weather-aware plan, assign roles people can actually execute, ensure social cohesion and collaboration, and adapt calmly when the wind or sea state forces a course change.