Mason Simmonds
ConsultantLead Principal Delivery Consultant • iO Associates
Chris Dorward
CandidateLead Product Engineer & Monorepo Architect • London, UK (Hybrid / Onsite Ready)
36 Labs Requirements vs What I Bring
Direct comparison between Mason Simmonds' specification for 36 Labs (UCL Machine Learning lab origin) and 20+ years of hands-on product engineering delivery.
“A candidate who has built something independently, even outside their employment, could be particularly interesting. Has shipped a product from idea to real customers and can explain their personal contribution to design and architecture.”
Conceived, designed, built, and launched GPXRoute (https://gpxroute.pro) 100% independently outside employment. Built the entire WebGL 3D geospatial engine, complex GPS parsing, elevation flyovers, and polished UI without relying on a designer.
“Creative tools / media interfaces (Bonus). AI systems that generate, evaluate and improve creative content, using audience engagement data to inform how models and agents behave.”
Extensive experience building interactive creative canvas tools, media controls, and spatial visualizers (demonstrated in GPXRoute°). Skilled at designing intuitive user journeys for editing outputs, parameter tuning, and real-time generation previews.
“Full-stack engineering (Essential). Build and own the web interface, backend APIs and data model end-to-end. Turning underlying AI capabilities into a customer-facing, self-service product.”
Proven record architecting zero-to-one SaaS applications from relational data modeling to client micro-interactions. Comfortable owning the whole stack, making fast technical trade-offs, and taking full responsibility for what ships.
“TypeScript (Essential) & React (Essential). Strong software engineering fundamentals, component architecture, and high engineering standards.”
20+ years software engineering rigor. Deep daily practice in React 19, Next.js App Router, and strict TypeScript monorepos. Architect of NX° (nx.goldlabel.pro), enforcing strict module boundaries and zero-compromise type safety.
“Python or Node.js backend (Essential). APIs and PostgreSQL (Strongly preferred). Close collaboration with the CTO, ML engineers, and backend engineers.”
Experienced in building and scaling asynchronous Python (FastAPI) backends alongside Node.js microservices. Deep familiarity with PostgreSQL relational schema modeling, connection pooling, and resilient REST/RPC APIs.
“UI/UX and design engineering (Essential). Create intuitive user journeys, layouts, interactions, and polished interfaces without relying entirely on a designer.”
Natural design engineer. Every project shown (GPXRoute, AskLeida, ListingsLab) was designed and implemented directly in code without a third-party designer, balancing aesthetic polish with accessible, responsive UX.
“AI/LLM product experience (Highly desirable). Develop interfaces for streaming responses, long-running generation tasks, editing outputs, and handling failures.”
Author of @goldlabelapps/agent-layer on NPM. Deep experience designing streaming conversational UI, structured JSON tool calling, asynchronous generation queues with polling and fallbacks, and model evaluation boundaries.
“Product analytics / experimentation (Strongly preferred). PostHog / Sentry (Useful). Implement event tracking, conversion funnels, session replays, and feature flags to improve onboarding and self-serve pricing.”
Product-minded engineer who relies on data over assumptions. Hands-on experience with PostHog and Sentry instrumentation, tracking user drop-offs, analyzing session replays, and setting up feature flags for onboarding experiments.
Independent Product Showcase: GPXRoute°
A complex WebGL 3D geospatial visualization platform conceived, designed, and shipped autonomously from zero to live production outside of employment.
Autonomous Product Ownership
Built and launched independently outside employment. Owns every technical and product decision, telemetry, and UX detail from idea to paying users.
Creative Tools & 3D Canvas (Bonus)
Directly satisfies 36 Labs' bonus criteria: complex WebGL 3D rendering, interactive map canvas, and high-frequency GPS telemetry.
Polished UI Without a Designer
Demonstrates that Chris can design intuitive user journeys, layouts, and polished interfaces directly in code without relying on a designer.
Product Engineering in Practice: Leida
Working directly with founders to take an ambitious product idea and build it into a rock-solid, commercial SaaS platform without agency drag.
Direct Founder Partnership
Partnered with the founder from Day 1 to scope the MVP, eliminate agency drag, and ship fast on real user feedback.
Robust Full-Stack Engineering
Built an offline-ready, mobile-first PWA with instant load times, offline resilience, and zero-compromise security.
Modern AI & Rapid Delivery
Accelerated build velocity with agentic AI tooling while enforcing strict type safety, testing baselines, and clean architecture.
Ready to start the conversation and explore how 20+ years of product engineering can lead 36 Labs' first self-serve launch to market.
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