Senior Software Engineer / Solutions Architect

Tai Vu

Senior engineer with 15 years across enterprise systems analysis, offshore-delivery leadership, and full-stack product engineering. Currently building agentic infrastructure and same-day AI applications on Next.js, Cloudflare, and the Anthropic / Gemini APIs.

Melbourne, AU · Open to work · Hybrid / Remote

tai@trendai.au · linkedin.com/in/tristan-v

116 components in production

3 ventures running

15 years across roles

8 months solo to v1

Summary

Hands-on engineer comfortable across the full stack — from system architecture and infrastructure (OCI, Cloudflare, Tailscale, Docker) through backend (Python / FastAPI / Postgres) to modern frontend (Next.js / Astro / React / TypeScript). 15-year career spanning the Australian Taxation Office, offshore-delivery leadership, independent consulting, and three current ventures.

Selected projects

TrendAI OS — agentic infrastructure

Self-built operating system for solo founders: 5+1 architecture layers — substrate (OCI + Cloudflare + Tailscale), multi-LLM reasoning kernel (Claude + Gemini + self-hosted Qwen), Postgres + Supabase memory, four n8n orchestration instances, Claude Code agent team, BUD operator cockpit. 116 components live in production. Solo-built over 8 months and documented as binding doctrines.

OCICloudflareAnthropicGeminin8nSupabaseTailscale

Live: trendai.au

TrendAI Knowledge Engine — multi-source AI ingest

Four-workflow n8n pipeline ingesting YouTube transcripts, articles, and inbound email. AI-summarised with Gemini 2.5 Flash, persisted to Supabase, surfaced in an Astro 5 reading UI. Shared Summarise+Save sub-workflow keeps it DRY. End-to-end in one engineer-week.

n8nGeminiSupabaseAstro 5

Live: tube.trendai.au

fastapi-s07 — self-hosted AI content stack

FastAPI gateway fronting ComfyUI/Flux (image), Kokoro TTS (voice), Mermaid CLI (diagrams), Podcastfy (multi-voice podcast), and PaddleOCR — all on one OCI ARM box, called by n8n via webhooks. Replaces roughly $200/month of SaaS APIs.

FastAPIComfyUIKokoroPaddleOCROCI ARMDocker

BUD — operator cockpit on Cloudflare Pages

The operator dashboard for TOS: Cloudflare Pages + CF Access portal with eight modules — resource registry (121 items), sprint tracker, regression monitor, mobile-operator manual, weekly ops summaries, media library. Reads Supabase + Postgres; SSO-gated.

Next.jsCloudflare PagesCF AccessSupabasePostgres

Career history

2026 – present

Founder · AI-driven agile development

TrendAI — Melbourne

Built TrendAI OS solo over eight months: a 5+1 layer agentic operating system now running three of my own ventures end-to-end. 116 production components, four n8n instances, multi-LLM kernel, BUD operator cockpit. The agile loop itself runs on the system — sprint planning, time-logging, retrospectives, and deploys are AI-driven; I direct rather than execute. Consulting on agentic infrastructure for other solo founders and small teams.

2014 – 2023

IT consulting + non-IT operator roles

Independent — Melbourne / Ho Chi Minh City

Tan Minh Chau Glass Pty Ltd (2022–2023, HCMC) — Managing Director. P&L ownership of a float-glass import business sourcing from Asian manufacturers and supplying the Vietnamese market.
Home & Commercial Building Consultant (2018–2022, Melbourne) — Self-employed. Project planning, design oversight, and compliance for residential and commercial construction.
Software Engineering Consultant (2014–2017, Melbourne) — Self-employed. Independent consulting across mobile and web development, SaaS, LAN setup, and outsourced delivery management.

2009 – 2014

Business systems analysis, project management, team training

Enterprise + offshore delivery

Simbient (2013–2014, Sydney) — Scrum Master / Business Analyst. Led an offshore Vietnam team delivering for a Sydney mortgage-finance client; introduced Lean Agile.
4impact (2012–2013, Brisbane) — Development Coordinator. Integrated Vietnam dev teams with Australian IT teams in a blended-work model; capability building and team training.
Trend Consulting Pty Ltd (2011–2012, Melbourne / HCMC) — Product Owner / Delivery Manager / Business Analyst, then IT Associate. Co-managed a Vietnam IT company delivering e-commerce systems for an Australian parent.
Australian Taxation Office (2009–2011, Canberra) — Analyst progression: Automation Tester → QA Tester → Business System Analyst → System Analyst / Architect. Worked on cross-government authentication (ATO AUSkey), enterprise identity, and SharePoint-based collaboration.

2005 – 2008

Founder · Full-stack engineering & server admin

Seki IT Pty Ltd — Ho Chi Minh City

Co-founded an online services company. Built and operated a file-hosting service end-to-end — designed bandwidth load-balancing across ~10 servers, grew to 1,000+ active paid subscribers. Server administration on PHP/Apache, PayPal integration, audio/video encoding. Separately promoted a music and literature forum to the Alexa global top-1000 in 2006.

Education & credentials

La Trobe University

Graduate Certificate in Artificial Intelligence

Jul 2024 – Jun 2025

Swinburne University of Technology

Bachelor of Engineering, Telecommunications and Internet Technologies

Feb 2000 – Nov 2005 · Third Class Honours

Internship: Junior Research Scientist, Defence Science and Technology Organisation (Adelaide, 2002–03) — built Java proof-of-concept tools for an in-house fact-extraction system; authored evaluation reports on emerging information-extraction software.