Product engineer · AI systems
Nima Aref
I build AI systems end to end, from agents and retrieval to the cloud infrastructure they run on. Lead Product Engineer at Omega Business Solutions and technical lead at InPaceline. Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee (Go Vols!).
Where I work
Experience
The teams I'm building with now, and where I started.
Currently
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Apr 2026–now
Omega Business Solutions Lead Product Engineer
I deliver AI systems end to end, from architecture through production deployment, drawing on a background in cloud development, cybersecurity and applied AI.
Sightline Co-founder · An Omega venture
Developer tooling that gives engineering teams visibility into, and guardrails around, the AI coding agents they use.
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May 2025–now
InPaceline Technical Lead & Development Consultant
I lead product and engineering at InPaceline, building and running InPaceline OS: the product, its infrastructure, and the integrations and AI behind it. I also provide development consulting to InPaceline clients, helping founders plan, build and ship their own products.
Before that
- 2025AI Research Intern, LEGO × Google
- 2024Security Analyst Intern, Precise Cyber Solutions
- 2022–2024Cybersecurity Instructor, Independent. 2nd of 1,100 teams at CyberPatriot
- 2022AI & Autonomy Trainee, Tesla
- 2020–2024Coding Instructor → Center Director, Code Ninjas
- 2022–2026B.S. Information Sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. AI & Cybersecurity concentration
Where things got built
Selected work
What I've built for clients, then the side projects I built for fun, with what I did on each.
Client work
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Gut Girls Hub
The online home for a gut-health coaching business. Members subscribe, then log in for coaching calls, training videos, podcasts, a private journal, Q&A, messages with their coach, and supplement and lab-test ordering. I also built the public marketing site, blog, lead quiz and workshop sign-ups, all feeding the client's email marketing.
Visit gutgirls.health -
Fit + Faith 615
The website for a faith-centered fitness community in Nashville. Their team updates events, photos, partners and stories themselves through a built-in editor, events move from "next up" to "past" on their own, and sign-ups flow straight into HubSpot. It runs on Cloudflare's edge, and I wrote a guide so they can run it without me.
Visit fitandfaith615.comEvent lead capture Web app · 2026
At their monthly events, vendors scan a guest's QR wristband with their own phone to save them as a lead: no forms, no typing. The wristbands carry no personal data, scans keep working when the venue wifi drops, and organizers get a console for check-in, printing wristbands and watching live numbers.
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ExitRich.ai
A valuation tool for small-business owners thinking about selling. Owners work through a short questionnaire while their score and estimated price range update live, ending in a prompt to book a call with an exit advisor. I also built a generator that turns the question set into the client's sign-off document, so what they review always matches what the app asks.
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Polk & Associates Construction
Designed and built the company's website from scratch to give a growing construction firm a credible online presence. I handled everything from design to deployment: a clean, responsive site that reflects the brand and makes it easy for customers to get in touch.
Visit polkconstructiontn.com -
CardStock
Worked with a business to build an app that scans sports cards and instantly returns each card's current market value.
Side projects
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A-List Accessories
Started with my roommate as a way to make money in college: a shop for 3D-printed, celebrity-inspired planters and home décor. I modeled the products and set up the brand and storefront. We won $2,000 in startup funding at an entrepreneurship competition, and the overall profits paid for a trip to Japan in our senior year.
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FaceX
Built during the pandemic to make better COVID masks. The iPhone app uses the TrueDepth camera to scan a face into a 3D model, which we used to produce custom-fit masks. The same scans later made personalized action figures.
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PickleTrack
A single-camera referee for pickleball. It detects when the ball lands out of bounds and when a player steps into the kitchen during a volley, in real time.
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Boston Dynamics' Spot
Programmed dance routines for Spot to perform at a basketball game, and built autonomous navigation so it could deliver mail and packages to classrooms.
Watch the video
Hire me
What I can build for you
I take on a small number of freelance projects at a time, from a first website to a working AI prototype.
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01
Websites
Marketing sites and landing pages for small businesses. Fast, responsive, easy to update, with analytics and SEO basics set up.
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02
iOS & mobile apps
Native Swift apps, including camera, 3D and on-device machine learning features like the face scanning in FaceX.
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03
AI & computer vision
Prototypes that see and decide: detection, tracking and video analysis with YOLO, OpenCV and PyTorch.
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04
Backends & automation
APIs, serverless functions and integrations that take repetitive work off your team's plate.
How a project runs
- 1Talk. A short call to understand the problem, the budget and the timeline.
- 2Build. Short cycles with a working preview you can click through early and often.
- 3Launch. Deployment, a hand-off guide, and help after launch.
The stack behind the work
Toolbox
What I use to ship AI systems: agents and retrieval, the cloud and infrastructure they run on, and the languages that tie it together. Grab a piece and throw it.
- AI agents
- MCP
- RAG
- Vector databases
- PyTorch
- JAX
- OpenCV
- YOLOv8
- Core ML
- AWS
- Google Cloud
- Azure
- Vercel
- Cloudflare
- Docker
- Kubernetes
- Terraform
- CI/CD
- Observability
- Python
- TypeScript
- Next.js
- React
- Node.js
- FastAPI
- Swift
- Postgres
- Supabase
- Redis
- Queues
- Stripe
- Auth
- AI & agents
- AI agents, MCP, RAG, Vector databases, PyTorch, JAX, OpenCV, YOLOv8, Core ML
- Cloud & infrastructure
- AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Vercel, Cloudflare, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, Observability
- Languages & frameworks
- Python, TypeScript, Next.js, React, Node.js, FastAPI, Swift, Postgres, Supabase, Redis, Queues, Stripe, Auth
Off the clock
Top five films
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InceptionInception
2010
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Knives OutKnives Out
2019
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Return of the KingThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2003
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Jojo RabbitJojo Rabbit
2019
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Spider-VerseSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2018
Off the clock
Traveling
I want to travel intentionally in my twenties, and everything I'm working toward goes into making that happen. This map counts the trips I've planned and paid for myself. So far, that's Japan. Next up: backpacking through England, Switzerland, Italy and Czechia in summer 2027.
Get in touch
Let’s build something
Have a project, a role or a rough idea? Tell me what you're working on.
Prefer email?
