Open to VP · Director · Fractional CTO
Abraham Jun Zou, PhD · Palo Alto, CA

Engineering the AI Era.

Turning probabilistic AI into deterministic outcomes.

VP of Engineering · GenAI Architect · Founding CTO

I help companies build AI-native systems that actually work in production, and help engineering leaders design the teams, processes, and governance that turn probabilistic AI into deterministic business outcomes.

Mastercard
VP of Software Engineering
2020 – 2025 · San Francisco
Sunsea AIoT
Chief Technology Officer
2017 – 2019 · China & San Jose
Cisco Systems
Technical Leader
2008 – 2017 · San Jose
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About

Built for this
moment.

I've spent 20+ years at the frontier of large-scale distributed systems — building the infrastructure that moves money at Mastercard, connects millions of IoT devices at Cisco, and now powers the next generation of AI-native applications.

At Mastercard, I served as VP of Engineering and directed the company's GenAI strategy — defining LLM-powered agentic workflows, shaping data governance for secure AI integration, and delivering the event-driven streaming platform underpinning Mastercard's real-time clearing services. Zero production incidents at launch. Millions of daily transactions.

Before that, I was recruited as founding CTO of Sunsea AIoT — scaling the organization from 0 to 75 engineers in nine months, launching a device-edge-cloud physical AI product suite, and winning Product Innovation of the Year.

I hold a PhD in Computer & Electrical Engineering, a U.S. patent in event-driven systems, and have published 10+ peer-reviewed papers in IEEE and ACM journals.

20+
Years in platform engineering & technical leadership
0→75
Engineers scaled in nine months as founding CTO
5K+
Engineers using standards I authored at Mastercard
10+
Peer-reviewed papers in IEEE & ACM journals
What I do

Three ways
to work together.

01

AI-Native
Application Build

I design and build production-grade AI applications using LLMs, agentic workflows, and modern AI infrastructure. Not demos — systems that handle real load, maintain data governance, and deliver measurable outcomes.

LLMs Agentic Workflows RAG Edge AI GenAI Architecture
02

Agent-Era Team
Consulting

I help engineering leaders design the operating models, processes, and measurement systems for teams that include AI agents. The core challenge: converting probabilistic AI outputs into deterministic, accountable business outcomes.

AI Governance Eng Metrics Team Design Fractional CTO Process Design
03

Career
Coaching

I coach software engineers, engineering managers, and technical PMs on deliberate career growth during the AI transition — using a Mindset · Skillset · Toolset framework built from 20+ years of leading and building technical organizations.

Staff+ Track EM Transition Technical PM Career Strategy Leadership
Experience

Where I've
built things.

2025 – Present
Abraham Zou AI
Founder & Principal AI Engineering Consultant
  • Building AI-native applications using LLMs, agentic workflows, and modern AI infrastructure
  • Consulting engineering leaders on agent-era team design and AI governance frameworks
  • Coaching engineers, EMs, and technical PMs on deliberate career growth in the AI era
2020 – 2025 · San Francisco
Mastercard
Vice President of Software Engineering & Senior Principal
  • Directed GenAI strategy and architecture — defining LLM-powered agentic workflows and data governance for secure AI integration
  • Delivered event-driven streaming platform underpinning Mastercard's first real-time clearing service — millions of daily transactions, zero production incidents at launch
  • Launched InnerSource program, eliminating ~360 engineer-months of duplicate effort across siloed organizations
  • Built and revitalized global engineering teams across USA, Canada, Ireland, and India
  • Authored observability and data standards adopted by 5,000+ engineers enterprise-wide
2017 – 2019 · Shenzhen & San Jose
Sunsea AIoT
Chief Technology Officer
  • Recruited as founding CTO — scaled organization from 0 to 75 engineers in nine months
  • Led device-edge-cloud strategy, launching first physical AI product suite and winning Product Innovation Award of the Year
  • Secured strategic partnerships with Qualcomm, NVIDIA, and HPE
  • Established on-device inference ML practice — slashing latency and enabling offline operations
2008 – 2017 · San Jose
Cisco Systems
Technical Leader
  • Architected IoT cloud platform from scratch — managing complete data lifecycle for millions of devices
  • Delivered five products (IoT, SDN, network management, routing & switching) — each adopted by Fortune 500 customers
  • Achieved ~0.5 bugs per 1,000 lines — 10x better than industry average
Recognition

Credentials &
recognition.

PhD, Computer & Electrical Engineering
McMaster University, Canada · Postdoctoral Fellowship $80,000 — Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada
#
U.S. Patent Co-inventor
Cross-region transfers in event-driven systems · Wide Area Event Emitter architecture
10+ Peer-Reviewed Publications
IEEE and ACM journals and conferences · Selected as IEEE Journal Editor and Conference TPC Member
Industry Influential Figure of the Year
2018 China Finance Summit · Recognized for leadership in AIoT and fintech platform innovation
Product Innovation Award
Sunsea AIoT · Device-edge-cloud physical AI product suite — first-to-market in category
Graduate Certificate, Business Administration
Ontario Centres of Excellence · Bridging deep technical expertise with executive business leadership

Ready to build
something that lasts?

Whether you need an AI engineering partner, a fractional CTO, or a thinking partner for your next career move — I'd like to hear from you.

me@abrahamzou.ai
Palo Alto, CA · abrahamzou.ai
linkedin.com/in/jzou