Kai Sellgren

Kai Sellgren

Lead Developer / AI Engineer

I am a senior software consultant with over 16 years of experience building and maintaining software systems that businesses rely on every day. Over the years I have worked on many parts of the stack, from architecture and backend development to frontend work, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing and production support. While I have worn many hats, I particularly enjoy solving problems in distributed backend systems and working with cloud platforms such as AWS and GCP.

For the past decade, I have worked with OP Corporate Bank on financial services used at scale. One of the most significant projects has been OP Lasku, a buy-now-pay-later solution used by customers across hundreds of Finnish online stores. My role has evolved over time depending on what the team needed: contributing to architecture and API design, building backend and frontend features, working with AWS infrastructure, improving test automation and helping keep services running smoothly in production. I take a lot of satisfaction in maintaining systems that people depend on every day. Looking back, I am especially proud that these services have remained highly available for years, with only a single planned downtime.

As a consultant, I value being approachable, straightforward and easy to work with. I enjoy collaborating closely with both developers and business stakeholders to understand what problem we are actually trying to solve. In my experience, the best solutions are rarely the most complex ones - they are the ones that fit the real needs of the business and can still be understood and maintained years later.

I have used AI-assisted development tools in my line of work. They help me speed up testing, documentation and exploring different implementation approaches, allowing me to focus more of my time on judgement, trade-offs and the bigger picture. Beyond developer tooling, I am genuinely interested in exploring how AI can be applied to real business needs: reducing manual work, supporting decision-making and creating practical value. However, I think their worth should be measured by the outcomes they enable rather than just the excitement surrounding them.

Node.js TypeScript AWS GCP Claude Codex Vertex AI AI Engineering PostgreSQL Terraform CDK(TF) GitHub Actions React DevOps Test Automation CI/CD REST Arch Linux

Recent Projects

May 2026 -
Jun 2026

Demo Project|AITalent AI Search Engine (Vertex AI)

Sole Developer

A platform that connects sales people and talents. Features an AI-powered search that uses LLM agents to triage, find, rank and summarize talents.

Hosted on Google Cloud: https://talents-iqgi7ee7uq-ey.a.run.app/
GitHub source code: https://github.com/kaisellgren/talents

Studied and learned to do AI engineering to better understand how to utilize AI agents for real-life business use cases.

Implemented a multi-agent architecture with agent orchestration:
Triage agent: classifies intent by figuring out what is needed & what requirements are
Research agent: integrates to an external PostgreSQL database for matching talents
Ranking agent: determines the ranking/order of talents
Summarizer agent: writes out detailed summaries for each talent ("why is this talent a good match")

Implemented Google Cloud infra and deployment pipeline.

Rust GCP Vertex AI TypeScript AI Engineering AI Agents Multi-agent architecture Agent orchestration React
Jan 2020 -
Dec 2025

OP Corporate Bank|OP Lasku

Lead Developer / Software Architect

An e-commerce payment method for customers of any Finnish bank. Similar to Klarna payments. This is available in hundreds of Finland's e-commerce stores.

I was one of the core technical owners of the service from day one, wearing whatever hat was needed. I worked on architecture, development, testing, cloud infrastructure, operations and stakeholder collaboration.

On the architecture side, I focused on building a resilient, production-grade system. I designed the APIs, handled the database modeling and implemented patterns like circuit breakers and distributing tracing to ensure we actually had visibility when things went south. I paid a lot of attention to data consistency and transactions to ensure data validity without forgetting GDPR compliance.

I took ownership of our AWS infrastructure: treating everything as code using AWS CDK to manage our networking, load balancing, firewalls, database, CDN, container and CI/CD pipelines.

As a full-stack engineer, I was just as comfortable working in the codebase as I was provisioning servers. I built our backend APIs, handled session management and developed React frontends. I had to pay special attention to accessibility and screen readers. To keep production deployments stress-free, I built a parallelized automated testing suite that ran thousands of tests across unit, integration and E2E layers.

Beyond this, I ran and evolved the production system for years. I helped to resolve police investigations related to payment fraud and over several years, managed to keep the service always-on with only a single planned downtime - an achievement I'm proud of.

AWS Cloud Architecture Node.js TypeScript React PostgreSQL CI/CD REST API design DevOps GitHub Actions Splunk Docker npm Jest Playwright Figma Express AWS DynamoDB OpenAPI Software Architecture Software Engineering System Integration System Design GDPR HTML CSS JavaScript
Jun 2019 -
Nov 2025

OP Corporate Bank|AWSAWS Platform and Delivery Automation

Cloud Infrastructure & DevOps Enablement

Enablement of cloud infrastructure and deployment practices supporting several OP Corporate Bank's applications and our development team.

I designed and implemented AWS infrastructure and deployment processes that improved delivery reliability and reduced manual labor massively.

I introduced and maintained CI/CD pipelines, automated operational tasks and improved the developer experience and demanded higher operational maturity from the team. DevOps became the new norm.

I also helped to create a fully automated testing environment in terms of infra and day-to-day developer practices.

AWS Cloud Architecture GitHub Actions Docker CI/CD DevOps System Design
Jan 2019 -
Dec 2024

OP Corporate Bank|OP's online financing service

Lead Developer / Software Architect

A platform to easily manage hire-purchase financing, one-off loans, overdraft facilities and OP Lasku.

You can view your financing agreement details and invoices. Make requests for a change in the financing agreement. Determine outstanding debt for the current day. Apply for an authorization to take a motor vehicle abroad.

Corporate customers can manage their investment financing.

I was with this service from day one, which meant doing a bit of everything: architecture, writing code, setting up infrastructure and talking with business representatives to figure out what we actually needed to build.

When designing the system, my main goal was making sure it wouldn't fall over and that we'd actually know why if it did. I handled the database design and set up distributed tracing so we weren't running blind in production. A huge chunk of my time went into learning BanqSoft View21 ledger system inside out so I could deeply bake it into our platform. That integration handled all our invoicing, accounting, and payment schedules. On top of that, I built an asset management system from scratch for corporate clients who needed to track massive fleets of vehicles and machinery.

I also looked after our AWS setup. I didn't want to click around in the console, so I used AWS CDK to manage absolutely everything as code: networking, firewalls, databases, containers, and the CI/CD pipelines.

I've always worked across the whole stack. I wrote the backend services and ledger logic, but I also built the React frontends, where I spent a lot of time making sure everything was fully accessible and worked well with screen readers. To make sure deployments were a success, I built a test suite that ran hundreds of unit, integration, and E2E tests in parallel so we got fast feedback.

I ended up running and scaling this system for years. Between writing new features, I was hands-on with fixing tricky customer issues in tight communication with stakeholders, and I'm proud that we kept the platform highly stable and accessible to users with disabilities the entire time.

AWS Cloud Architecture Node.js TypeScript PostgreSQL React Software Architecture Software Engineering System integration System Design Databases CI/CD DevOps GitHub Actions Splunk Docker Jest Playwright
Jan 2016 -
Jan 2020

OP Corporate Bank|OP Vendor Finance

Software Engineer

A highly specialized sales finance ecosystem designed for point-of-sale merchants allowing partnering businesses to provide credit directly for big-ticket purchases.

I engineered solutions ranging from paperless electronic signing capabilities to the design and implementation of customer-facing APIs used by over a thousand client organizations. My responsibilities spanned backend and frontend development, integration work and long-term production support for business-critical services.

I also helped to create a tablet-friendly UI for Puustelli and a complex multi-language contract PDF generation system.

Spring Spring Boot Java Kotlin React TypeScript JavaScript Maven npm Webpack Node.js IBM DB2
Jan 2016 -
Dec 2016

OP Corporate Bank|Git version control

Git "Evangelist"

Replacing existing source version control (SVN) with Git.

The customer previously relied on dated SVN to handle source code versioning. I was the first to propose Git and I pushed for it and our team pioneered it within the organization. Years later mostly every team had migrated to Git.

Git Bitbucket

Recommendations

Kai brings confidence, high quality, and strong end-to-end ownership to projects, which is why I highly recommend him for demanding expert and architecture roles.

Peter Olsson, Principal Consultant at Reaktor

I can warmly recommend Kai for roles that require both strong architectural leadership and hands-on development, as well as reliable delivery.

Juha Kokko, Principal Consultant at Reaktor

Work Experience

Feb 2016 -
Dec 2025

OP Corporate Bank|Software Consultant / Lead Developer

Lead Developer / Software Architect responsible for designing, building and operating OP's payment and financing systems end-to-end including cloud architecture, backend services, frontend applications, CI/CD pipelines and long-term production reliability.

May 2014 -
Jan 2016

Reaktor|Software Consultant

Delivered modern web applications for enterprise clients, contributing to architecture, backend services, frontend interfaces and high-quality engineering practices in fast-moving cross-functional teams.

Jan 2013 -
Aug 2014

Cindela|Software Consultant

Built custom software solutions for international clients while rapidly expanding technical expertise through intensive client interaction, full-stack development and active participation in the developer community.

Aug 2011 -
Jan 2013

Loiste|Software Developer

Developed internal business applications and automation tools, including sales and product management systems that streamlined operational workflows and quotation processes.

Apr 2010 -
Jun 2011

Nord Software|Software Developer

Developed features for E-autokoulu, a SaaS platform for driving school management, working within a small team responsible for delivering customer-facing functionality.

Skills

Administration

  • Teams
  • Jira
  • MS Office

AI, ML & Data Science

  • Vertex AI
  • Claude Code
  • Agent orchestration
  • Multi-agent architecture
  • OpenAI API
  • LangGraph
  • LangChain
  • Model Context Protocol (MCP)
  • AI Engineering
  • AI Agents

Architecture

  • Serverless
  • Functional programming
  • Microservices
  • Cloud Architecture
  • Software Architecture

Backend

  • Node.js
  • TypeScript
  • Express
  • Fastify
  • Spring / Spring Boot
  • Prisma.js
  • Slonik
  • Java
  • Kotlin
  • Scala
  • Rust

Cloud Platforms

  • AWS
  • GCP

Data & Integrations

  • PostgreSQL
  • Redis
  • OpenAPI
  • Swagger
  • Apigee API
  • GraphQL
  • API development
  • OAuth 2
  • Relational databases
  • JSON
  • Integrations
  • REST
  • Databases
  • REST API design
  • SQL Databases
  • Postman
  • Opensearch
  • MySQL
  • DynamoDB
  • System integration
  • NoSQL
  • DB2
  • WSDL
  • SOAP
  • JDBC
  • Google Firebase
  • XML
  • Spring REST
  • Flyway
  • Elasticsearch
  • MongoDB

Design/UX Tools

  • Figma

Dev Tools

  • JetBrains
  • VS Code
  • npm
  • Git
  • Bash
  • Zsh
  • Gradle
  • Maven
  • tmux

Domain Knowledge

  • IT & Technology
  • Banking and Finance

Frontend

  • Storybook
  • RxJS
  • Zod
  • Webpack
  • JavaScript
  • Bacon.js
  • AJAX
  • TypeScript
  • ESLint
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • Lodash
  • React
  • Babel.js
  • Material UI
  • Styled Components
  • Prettier
  • Vitest
  • Vite
  • NVDA
  • Electron.js
  • esbuild
  • Bootstrap

Infrastructure & CI/CD

  • Terraform
  • Docker
  • CI/CD
  • DevOps (culture)
  • DevOps (tools)
  • AWS CDK
  • DevOps automation
  • DevOps
  • Bitbucket
  • GitHub Actions
  • Pulumi
  • nginx
  • Jenkins
  • Kubernetes
  • Travis CI

Methodologies

  • Code reviews
  • Reactive Programming
  • Functional Programming
  • System Design
  • DDD
  • Agile software development
  • Kanban
  • Pair programming
  • Extreme Programming
  • TDD
  • Agile Development
  • Human-in-the-loop design
  • Scrum
  • SAFe

Mobile Technologies

  • Jetpack Compose

Other Technologies

  • Arch Linux
  • Windows

Program & Project Types

  • Multi-Vendor Environment
  • Brownfield
  • Greenfield

QA & Accessibility

  • Playwright
  • Jest
  • Unit testing
  • Puppeteer
  • Functional Testing
  • Integration testing
  • Automation Testing
  • Test Automation
  • Product QA
  • JMeter
  • k6
  • Accessibility
  • Splunk
  • Manual Testing
  • Selenium
  • WebDriver
  • React Testing Library
  • jUnit
  • SonarQube
  • Jasmine
  • Xray
  • Chai
  • Supertest
  • Mocha
  • Sinon

Security

  • Web Application Security
  • GDPR
  • OWASP