Taking on select SaaS + AI projects

Hi, I’mAlex Thomas.

Bring me in asFractional CTO

Have a product idea or a stuck project? I design it, build it, and launch it: SaaS platforms, AI features, and internal tools.

years of professional engineering
21+
apps and systems shipped
20+
third-party APIs integrated
30+
Alex Thomas
Local time 

Kuwait City · GMT+3

Kerala → Kuwait

Ask my AI

Right for your project? Ask now, no call needed.

SaaS platforms built to last

One platform for all your customers, with roles, permissions, and monitoring built in from the start.

AI inside your product

Assistants and automation that do real work in your product, not a demo chat box.

One person, the whole product

Design, code, infrastructure, and product decisions from one person. Fewer meetings, faster launches.

Selected work

Proof, not promises.

Ajar

PropTech platform · Live · In production

apps in Ajar Listing
4
languages, full RTL
2
Read the case study
  • Built solo

    Ajar Listing

    API, admin, public site, and iOS and Android app.

  • Contributor

    Ajar PMS

    Tenant mobile app, backend, web, and on-call support.

  • Contributor

    Marketing site

    CRM forms, analytics, SEO, and deployment.

Sakan

Live · 5 roles · 5+ years

Built the Holiday marketplace end to end, then moved up to lead the product.

  • Laravel
  • MySQL
  • K-Net

BambooHR MCP

Shipped

A custom Model Context Protocol server exposing BambooHR HR systems to Claude Desktop.

  • TypeScript
  • MCP SDK
  • Zod

AI Automation

In production

Production AI workflows: code review pipelines, content generation, custom MCP tooling — used in real operations, not as demos.

  • n8n
  • Claude
  • MCP
  • Also shipped

  • Rento

    PropTech

  • International Travel Eagle

    Hotel booking

  • Star Holidays

    Hotel booking

  • Roomsbox

    Hotel booking

  • TravelHost

    Travel tech

  • XmlLive

    Travel tech

  • CodeMaker

    Tech company

Career path

Two decades of shipping.

21+ years · 6 companies

Select a company to see its roles.

  • Ajar

    Jan 2026 — Present · 10 mths · Kuwait City, KuwaitCurrent

    1. Product & Tech Lead

      Jan 2026 — Present
      • Ajar Listing
        Built solo

        Sole architect of a four-app monorepo: API, admin, public marketplace, and iOS and Android app. Listing lifecycle, Elasticsearch search, dual-provider maps with national GIS, RBAC across ~37 modules, a permission-aware AI operations assistant, and full EN/AR RTL.

      • Ajar PMS
        Contributor

        Tenant mobile app, backend and web features on the team codebase, including landlord-to-tenant announcements, maintenance messaging and ratings, and tenant login, plus on-call support for production data and engineering requests.

      • Marketing site
        Contributor

        Forms wired to the CRM, per-page SEO, accessibility, and the production deploy pipeline.

      • Next.js 15
      • Expo · React Native
      • Tailwind
      • Node.js
      • Express
      • Prisma
      • PostgreSQL
      • GCP Cloud Run
      • Cloud SQL
      • Pub/Sub
      • Redis
      • Elasticsearch
      • Cloudflare R2
      • Firebase Auth
      • Groq LLM
      • GA4
      • Angular
      • BullMQ
      • MyFatoorah
      • Playwright
  • Sakan Global

    Aug 2020 — Jan 2026 · 5 yrs 5 mths · Kuwait · 5 roles

    1. Product Experience Lead

      Apr 2025 — Jan 2026

      Led product experience efforts across web and mobile platforms — combining UX strategy, wireframe planning, and user validation with post-sprint UAT. Reviewed user flows, built design prototypes, validated key feature journeys, and partnered with QA + Product to streamline UAT cycles and cross-functional collaboration.

      • UX Strategy
      • Wireframing
      • Prototyping
      • UAT
      • Figma
      • Jira
    2. Tech Operations Lead

      9 months

      Consolidated and managed critical tasks across UAT, mobile app reviews, and Jira board management. Reviewed QA tickets, validated mobile app functionality and UX, and ensured all tickets were properly described, categorized, and prioritized.

      • UAT
      • Jira
      • Mobile Reviews
      • QA Process
    3. Acting Product Manager

      6 months

      Led product development as Acting PM reporting directly to the CEO. Drove strategic vision and product innovation to keep the platform competitive. Owned strategic planning, backlog management (Agile), team leadership, product roadmap, customer engagement, and cross-functional collaboration across marketing, sales, and customer support.

      • Agile
      • Roadmap
      • Team Lead
      • Strategy
    4. Product Owner

      8 months

      Product Owner at Sakan, a leading regional PropTech platform. Oversaw end-to-end development and delivery of software solutions for the real-estate market. Documented software workflows + code, oversaw development responsibilities, and drove user-centric design and innovation.

      • Product Ownership
      • Documentation
      • User-Centric Design
    5. Full-Stack Web Developer · Holiday platform

      3 years, 7 months

      Built the Sakan Holiday B2C rental platform end-to-end — chalets, apartments, resorts, farmhouses, caravans, both short and long-term. Shipped multi-country, multi-currency, multi-payment-gateway support; seekers + owner dashboards; multi-region CMS; global sales agent modules; availability calendars; content scoring; bookings; user wallets; affiliate program; SEO; and a full mobile app.

      • Laravel
      • MySQL
      • PHP
      • K-Net
      • MyFatoorah
      • Mobile App
      • CMS
      • SEO
  • CodeMaker

    Feb 2018 — Aug 2020 · 2 yrs 6 mths · Self-employed

    1. Creative & Development Director

      Feb 2018 — Aug 2020

      Founded CodeMaker, an online startup focused on Online Travel & Insurance Technology solutions. Self-employed across consulting, product strategy, and full-stack delivery for clients in travel-tech and insurance.

      • Full-Stack
      • Travel Tech
      • Insurance Tech
      • Consulting
  • International Travel Eagle

    Jul 2013 — Apr 2018 · 4 yrs 9 mths · Kuwait

    1. Business Consultant & IT Manager

      Jul 2013 — Apr 2018

      Built B2B + B2C travel-tech platforms — hotels, flights, car rentals, transfers, sightseeing, and holiday packages. Developed XML/JSON outputs for travel agents, hotel extranets with hotel chains, city/hotel mapping, an automated accounting system, regional offices, and admin back-office. Also acted as Business Consultant — client requirements, situational assessments, and detailed business plans for product changes.

      • PHP
      • MySQL
      • XML/JSON
      • B2B/B2C Travel
      • Extranet
  • Star Holidays

    Mar 2007 — Jan 2013 · 5 yrs 10 mths · Hawally, Kuwait

    1. IT Manager · Web Programmer & Designer

      Mar 2007 — Jan 2013

      Built travel-based web applications with B2B technology features. Designed websites, integrated XML suppliers, ran newsletters/promotional emails, supported customers, and managed bookings. Trained internal staff and agents on the platform.

      • ASP.NET
      • jQuery
      • MySQL
      • XML
      • Web Design
  • Info-Tech (Paradise Group)

    Jan 2005 — Sep 2006 · 1 yr 8 mths · Kerala, India

    1. Software Programmer

      Jan 2005 — Sep 2006

      First professional role. Built application software, did hardware maintenance, wireframing, website design, UI/UX, and frontend development (HTML/CSS). Designed banners and worked with a US marketing team to plan and implement digital marketing assets.

      • HTML
      • CSS
      • UI/UX
      • Web Design

About

I think about your product the way you do.

From writing code in Kerala to leading products in Kuwait. That’s why I build what your business needs, not only what the ticket says.

Roles along the way

  1. Software Programmer
  2. IT Manager
  3. Product Owner
  4. Product Experience Lead
  5. Product & Tech Lead

My own products

I build my own products too.

Launching soon

Kifaya

The ERP small businesses can actually use.

Big-company ERP software is expensive and built for big companies. Kifaya is made for small business owners: everything needed to run and improve the business, and nothing they’ll never use.

  • Sales & invoices

  • Inventory

  • Purchases

  • Accounts

  • Customers

  • Reports

Kifaya Link · A built-in MCP server, so AI assistants can answer questions about sales, stock, and invoices.

Launching soon

Masar

Project tracking for teams that work with AI.

Plan the day’s work and keep every project on track, with tickets, boards, comments, and user permissions in one focused tool.

  • To do2

    • MSR-12

      User permissions

    • MSR-14

      Daily tracking

  • In progress1

    • MSR-18

      Comment threads

  • Done2

    • MSR-07

      Ticket boards

    • MSR-09

      MCP access

Masar Link · A built-in MCP server, so AI agents can read, create, and update tickets.

Process

How your project stays on track.

  • Nothing lives only in my head.

    Decisions are recorded before code is written, in a knowledge base covering architecture, permissions, and deployment, so new engineers can start without onboarding meetings.

  • AI speeds up the work.

    AI coding agents are part of the daily workflow, governed by a written knowledge base so they meet the same standards as the engineering team.

  • Fewer bugs reach your users.

    Zod validates every API boundary, and shared packages carry Prisma types from the database to the interface.

  • Problems get caught early.

    Error tracking, structured logs, metrics, and audit trails ship with the first release, not after the first incident.

  • Releases without the drama.

    Each branch maps to its own isolated environment, from development through staging to production, with no manual deployments.

  • I’ll challenge scope when it helps.

    Experience as a Product Owner and Acting Product Manager informs every technical decision, including when to challenge scope.

Stack

The tools behind the work.

3,408GitHub contributions in the last year
  • Web & backend

    • Next.js
    • Node.js
    • TypeScript
    • Express
    • Prisma
    • PostgreSQL
    • Redis
    • Elasticsearch
    • React
    • Tailwind
    • shadcn/ui
    • PHP
    • Laravel
    • MySQL
  • Cloud & DevOps

    • GCPCloud Run, Cloud SQL, Pub/Sub, Cloud Tasks, Secret Manager
    • Firebase
    • Docker
    • CloudflareR2, WAF, CDN
    • Vercel
    • GitHub Actions
  • AI & Automation

    • OpenAI
    • Anthropic Claude
    • Groq
    • Google Gemini
    • Meta Llama
    • Model Context Protocol
    • Claude Desktop
    • Claude Code
    • Cursor
    • Codex
    • n8n
    • pgvector
  • Mobile

    • React Native
    • Expo
    • Expo Router
    • EASbuilds + OTA updates
    • TanStack Query
    • Zustand
    • MMKV
    • MapLibre
    • Firebase Cloud Messaging
    • Flutter
  • Past stacks (still fluent)

    • jQuery
    • ASP.NET
    • 20+ travel APIsHotelBeds, Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, etc.

Engagements

Is this you?

Strong fit

  • Launching a new SaaS

    New products that need production-grade foundations from day one.

  • Adding AI to your product

    AI and LLM capabilities built into the core product, not added as a widget.

  • Your project is stuck

    Stalled Next.js and Node.js projects brought back on track.

  • Building for the Arab market

    Arabic RTL, regional payments, and bilingual content, built in from the start.

  • No CTO yet

    Senior technical leadership for founders and seed-stage teams before a full-time hire.

When I’m not the right fit

  • Choosing on lowest price alone.
  • Just closing tickets, with no say in the product.
  • WordPress, Shopify, or Wix sites. Others do these better.
  • Unclear scope, with no paid phase to define it.

Contact

Have a problem worth solving?

Tell me what you’re building. In a free 15-minute call, we’ll work out what it takes and whether I’m the right fit. I take on only a few projects at a time.

Alex Thomas — Product & Tech Lead, Full-Stack + AI