Paul Keen
Berlin, Germany • - •-• linkedin.com/in/paul-keen
Startup CTO / Head of Engineering / Director of Engineering
With over 20 years of experience, led cross-functional teams of 40+ remote engineers. Built
from scratch 3 R&D departments for SaaS businesses. Helped 10+ startups deliver products
to the market and assisted 5+ companies in scaling up. Helped 30+ companies with
continuous delivery processes onboard to improve team effectiveness. Top 50 Ruby on Rails
Contributors in 2012.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Fractional-CTO Consultant & Co-Founder • Board
09/2008 - Present
JetThoughts • Remote
• Aligned team decisions with a business vision, resulting in a 97% customer satisfaction
rate and generating $1M in annual revenue.
• Staffed and executed processes for 3 R&D offices in Ukraine for the US SaaS businesses.
• Attained a 90% referral rate, leading to customers gaining through recommendations,
ultimately driving business growth and customer retention.
• Implemented project & people management tools that improved workflow efficiency,
enabling non-technical founders to manage 5+ developers without managers; this
enhanced productivity by 30% and reduced development costs by 45% while
maintaining high quality deliverables.
• Collaborated with clients to identify specific needs, tailoring service offerings that
increased retention rates by 20% and expanded the range of services provided,
establishing long term partnerships.
• Spearheaded marketing initiatives that elevated JetThoughts' brand presence, leading to
a 50% increase in inbound inquiries from potential clients seeking outstaffing and
software development solutions.
• Implemented a streamlined hiring process for consultants that matched startup cultures,
leading to the successful onboarding of 200+ consultants who thrived in self-directed
environments without managerial oversight.
• Created a robust consultancy framework that aligned with client needs, securing long
term contracts with 10+ small to medium-sized businesses, thereby contributing to a
sustained revenue growth of 25% year over year.
• Directed the software delivery process through continuous delivery and lean techniques,
achieving a 50% reduction in delivery time for custom web and mobile applications,
thereby enhancing overall operational efficiency.
Chief Technology Officer • Full-time
04/2023 - 04/2024
Showca.se • Remote
• Developed an innovative software solution currently serving over 10,000 active users;
the product drives user engagement and generates actionable insights that inform
future enhancements for improved customer satisfaction.
• Spearheaded the development of a strategic roadmap that prioritized key business
initiatives; engaged stakeholders to streamline communication processes, resulting in a
20% reduction in decision-making time.
• Analyzed data from 5 user experience surveys, identifying pain points that led to targeted
product adjustments; adjustments decreased customer support inquiries by 15% within
three months of implementation.
Staff Ruby on Rails Engineer • Freelancer
12/2019 - 06/2023
Crosslake Technologies • Remote
• Decreased the release cycle from 2 months to 2 days by streamlining automated
processes.
• Engineered and executed code optimization strategies, leading to a remarkable 90%
decrease in average request processing time from 5 seconds to 0.5 seconds, and
improving overall system efficiency.
Fractional CTO • Freelancer
11/2021 - 04/2023
OrchestrateCS • Remote
• Developed an MVP that incorporated user feedback from over 100 potential customers;
the insights gained laid the groundwork for a refined product roadmap that resonated
with investor interests.
• Owned the entire software development cycle by assembling a remote team of 5
seasoned engineers.
• Established a feedback loop for continuous improvement of deployment practices,
leading to an impressive change failure rate of only 0.01%, thus reinforcing the
commitment to high quality software releases.
Director of Engineering • Full-time
09/2014 - 05/2017
OpenApply / Faria Education Group • Lviv Region, Ukraine
• Spearheaded a comprehensive optimization initiative for product development
operations within 3 months, achieving a reduction in time to market by 20% and
generating annual cost savings of $0.5M.
• Led the engineering division of 25 developers in developing an innovative, market
disrupting product, overseeing a 500% department growth over 6 months.
• Established a mentorship program to develop upcoming engineering leaders, enhancing
team capabilities and contributing to a 30% increase in staff retention.
SKILLS
Entrepreneurship, Software Development, Change Management, Software Development Life
Cycle (SDLC), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Software as a Service (SaaS), Scalability,
Integration, Machine Learning, Programming Principles, MVP, Start-ups, Cloud Computing, IT
Strategy, Web Applications, Technical Recruiting
Management: Project Planning, Lean Software Development, Scrum, Engineering
Management, Stakeholder Management, Change Management, Agile Project Management,
Project Management, Agile Methodologies, Product Development, Product Management,
Project Management, Technical Leadership, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery
(CI/CD), Continuous Improvement
Technical: Architectural Design, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, Linux, Test Driven Development (
TDD), Web Applications, RSpec, Ruby, Web Development, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL, ObjectOriented Programming (OOP), Design Patterns, Web Development, Code Review, TDD,
Functional Programming, Technical Proficiency, Enterprise Architecture
EDUCATION
Master in Applied Mathematics
Donetsk National University
CERTIFICATIONS
«Team Management, Business Communication and Negotiation
Course» (September 2022)
09/2022 04/2023
STRATOPLAN MANAGEMENT SCHOOL
TeamOps Certification
02/2023 - 02/2023
GitLab
Functional Programming Principles in Scala
09/2012 - 11/2012
Coursera
Supervised Machine Learning: Regression and Classification
08/2012 - 10/2012
deeplearning.ai
PROJECTS
Ruby on Rails
01/2010 - Present
Open Source
Drove enhancements to the Ruby on Rails framework by submitting over 50+ pull requests
that resolved critical bugs and optimized existing functionality. Earned the Top 50 Ruby on
Rails Contributor badge in 2012.
