Open to interesting conversations

    Engineering Intelligence,
    Curating Knowledge.

    Hi, I'm Max James Werner. I work across engineering, AI systems, and strategic thinking — a mix of builder, researcher, and generalist tinkerer. Engineering Lead by day, entrepreneur and voracious reader by night.

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    Portrait of Max James Werner

    About Me

    Engineering lead with broad interests across AI systems, software engineering, product design, and the craft of building things—whether products, companies, or ideas. I move fluidly between code, architecture, and long-range strategy, and tend to pick up new technologies quickly. I’m happiest in roles that mix thoughtful execution with shaping the broader direction.

    I am an INTJ (Architect) who thrives on structure, strategy, and execution. Outside of engineering, you’ll usually find me reading (several books at once), writing, or experimenting with new projects — from AI agents to fantasy novels. I tend to pick up new domains fast, connect them across disciplines, and follow whatever intellectual rabbit hole becomes irresistible.

    Education

    • MS Computer ScienceUniversity of Colorado Boulder4.0 GPA
    • BS Computer ScienceOstfalia University

    Interests

    • Entrepreneurship & company-building
    • AI systems & multi-agent behavior
    • Books — fiction, nonfiction, and everything in between
    • Alignment research (especially emergent dynamics)
    • Writing & worldbuilding
    • Systems thinking / general learning

    Experience

    A snapshot of where I’ve been so far — engineering, teaching, founding, and lately, exploring alignment and multi-agent systems.

    Python
    Kotlin
    AI Engineering
    LLMs
    Multi-agent Systems
    TypeScript
    Management
    Angular

    Co-Founder & CTO

    Aug '26 - Present

    Common Mechanics Ltd

    Design-build studio crafting design systems and digital products for the world's most pressing causes, with a focus on AI safety organizations.

    Engineering Lead, AI

    Dec '24 - Present

    conLeos GmbH

    Leading development of customer-facing voice agents and internal LLM tools. Managing a team, establishing architecture and code quality, and driving company-wide AI adoption.

    Alignment Research Fellow (part-time)

    Mar '25 - Sep '25

    AI Safety Global Society

    Researching alignment differences between single-agent and multi-agent AI systems, after going through the Alignment Research Engineer Accelerator (ARENA) curriculum.

    Co-Founder & CEO

    Jun '24 - Mar '25

    Nox Technologies UG

    Built and launched 'Bookaholic' from idea to MVP. Bootstrapped to ~$150 MRR before shutting down after market testing.

    Software Engineer

    Feb '21 - Dec '24

    conLeos GmbH

    Full-stack engineering for high-scale automotive systems (Audi Sport). Acted as Scrum Master and Agile Coach.

    Lecturer (Software Engineering)

    Mar '21 - Jul '24

    Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences

    Lecturer and teaching assistant for Software Engineering and Software Testing courses.

    Selected Projects

    A mix of professional work, research experiments, and side hustles.

    PoseLab - AI Headshot Generator

    AI-powered professional headshot generation product. Launched and managed ad spend, gained excellent customer feedback.

    Product
    Growth
    Marketing
    Ad Spend Management
    QuickStaging - AI Virtual Staging

    AI-powered virtual staging for real estate listings. Turns empty room photos into furnished, portal-ready images in about two minutes.

    AI Image Generation
    Product
    Full Stack
    Self-Modifying Agent Team

    Experimental multi-agent system capable of individual self-modification, and working as a team.

    AI Agents
    Multi-agent Systems
    Python
    LLMs
    Bookaholic

    A platform for book lovers. Built from scratch to MVP, achieving initial revenue before shutting it down.

    Full Stack
    Architecture
    Product Management
    Angular
    Kotlin
    MongoDB
    Heroku
    Building and Fine-Tuning a GPT-2 like model from Scratch

    Developed a GPT-2 style language model from the ground up, including data preprocessing, model architecture, training, and fine-tuning on a customer dataset.

    LLMs
    Transformers
    Python
    PyTorch
    The Sphereworld Chronicles

    A fantasy novel series set in a realistic world of many races, kingdoms, gods, and factions. The first book is in development. "Realistic Fantasy. Fantastical Realism."

    Fantasy Writing
    Worldbuilding

    Latest Essays

    Longer-form thinking on AI, building things, and books.

    1. Hello, World

      A placeholder to get the blog started. Real essays are coming soon.

    All essays