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I’m Ashley Romano, a responsible AI leader and hands-on full-stack engineer who ships production code while building governance that actually works in practice. In six months, I went from contract build work to leading product and engineering for a 21-person startup, and I still own delivery the way I always have: break the hard problems into small shippable pieces, keep the team moving forward, and measure success by how the user feels during and after using the product. I’ve written governance playbooks, built EU AI Act Article 50 compliance programs before enforcement, and shipped the Claude-based product that those programs govern—so governance is an engineering standard, not a binder. I care deeply about safety-by-design (human-in-the-loop escalation, disclosure architecture, moderation cascades, drift reviews) and about building systems that respect user intent, privacy, and accessibility from day one.…I’m Ashley Romano, a responsible AI leader and hands-on full-stack engineer who ships production code while building governance that actually works in practice. In six months, I went from contract build work to leading product and engineering for a 21-person startup, and I still own delivery the way I always have: break the hard problems into small shippable pieces, keep the team moving forward, and measure success by how the user feels during and after using the product. I’ve written governance playbooks, built EU AI Act Article 50 compliance programs before enforcement, and shipped the Claude-based product that those programs govern—so governance is an engineering standard, not a binder. I care deeply about safety-by-design (human-in-the-loop escalation, disclosure architecture, moderation cascades, drift reviews) and about building systems that respect user intent, privacy, and accessibility from day one.

Ashley Romano

AI Engineer, App Developer, Cloud Developer, +7

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I’m Ashley Romano, a responsible AI leader and hands-on full-stack engineer who ships production code while building governance that actually works in practice. In six months, I went from contract build work to leading product and engineering for a 21-person startup, and I still own delivery the way I always have: break the hard problems into small shippable pieces, keep the team moving forward, and measure success by how the user feels during and after using the product. I’ve written governance playbooks, built EU AI Act Article 50 compliance programs before enforcement, and shipped the Claude-based product that those programs govern—so governance is an engineering standard, not a binder. I care deeply about safety-by-design (human-in-the-loop escalation, disclosure architecture, moderation cascades, drift reviews) and about building systems that respect user intent, privacy, and accessibility from day one.…I’m Ashley Romano, a responsible AI leader and hands-on full-stack engineer who ships production code while building governance that actually works in practice. In six months, I went from contract build work to leading product and engineering for a 21-person startup, and I still own delivery the way I always have: break the hard problems into small shippable pieces, keep the team moving forward, and measure success by how the user feels during and after using the product. I’ve written governance playbooks, built EU AI Act Article 50 compliance programs before enforcement, and shipped the Claude-based product that those programs govern—so governance is an engineering standard, not a binder. I care deeply about safety-by-design (human-in-the-loop escalation, disclosure architecture, moderation cascades, drift reviews) and about building systems that respect user intent, privacy, and accessibility from day one.

Available to hire

I’m Ashley Romano, a responsible AI leader and hands-on full-stack engineer who ships production code while building governance that actually works in practice. In six months, I went from contract build work to leading product and engineering for a 21-person startup, and I still own delivery the way I always have: break the hard problems into small shippable pieces, keep the team moving forward, and measure success by how the user feels during and after using the product.

I’ve written governance playbooks, built EU AI Act Article 50 compliance programs before enforcement, and shipped the Claude-based product that those programs govern—so governance is an engineering standard, not a binder. I care deeply about safety-by-design (human-in-the-loop escalation, disclosure architecture, moderation cascades, drift reviews) and about building systems that respect user intent, privacy, and accessibility from day one.

Skills

Experience Level

Expert

Expert

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Expert

Expert

Expert

Intermediate

Language

English

Fluent

Work Experience

Remote Expert Contributor, AI Benchmarking (Contract) at Snorkel AI

August 1, 2026 - Present

Reviewed and hardened agentic software-engineering benchmark tasks built from real open-source pull requests. Focus included verifying oracle solutions by execution, closing test-coverage and reward-gaming gaps, and documenting grading defects and task solvability.

President at StayRele (formerly ReleHelp)

May 1, 2026 - August 31, 2026

Accountable executive for all technical deliverables at a 21-person startup. Authored the StayRele AI Governance Playbook and led EU AI Act Article 50 compliance program work, including a two-layer AI disclosure architecture and human-in-the-loop escalation for irreversible actions. Designed a tiered image moderation cascade (hash matching, small classifiers, Claude vision adjudication, human review) using a three-state ALLOW/BLOCK/REVIEW decision model with stakes-based precision/recall floors. Led end-to-end delivery of prelaunch Handshake experience using Anthropic Claude with server-side SSE streaming, deterministic routing, and strengths-first archetypes. Built data governance as a visible product feature (firewall separation for intention data, 90-day deletion promise, unbundled opt-in consent, neuroinclusive design as a binding engineering standard).

Remote Fractional Technical Co-Founder (Contract) at Stealth Legaltech Startup

February 1, 2026 - Present

Shaped product architecture and technical strategy for an access-to-justice platform. Designed and wrote four access-to-justice algorithms, three supported by provisional patent applications.

Chief Operating Officer at StayRele (formerly ReleHelp)

February 1, 2026 - April 30, 2026

Led the development team through MVP build and translated launch strategy into engineering priorities while holding delivery to schedule. Directed rebrand from ReleHelp to StayRe (migration across product/legal/marketing surfaces). Designed privacy-aligned revenue model streams with unit economics and margin analysis. Created Creator Studio program (creator suite roadmap and business readiness). Designed values-based onboarding architecture routing users into Creator and Member tracks via one automated backend formula. Authored team working agreements and ran a structured, judgment-free MVP feedback loop to convert company-wide input into prioritized launch requirements.

GTM + Full-Stack Engineer (Contract) at StayRele (relaunch project; trust-first social platform)

November 1, 2025 - January 1, 2026

Architected full-stack feature sets in TypeScript and React Native (Expo) and built backend infrastructure and notification logic to automate user engagement. Supported GTM and launch planning through engineering execution aligned to MVP goals.

Chief Operating Officer at Open-Source Agentic AI Education Startup

February 1, 2025 - October 31, 2025

Aligned AI product strategy with leadership goals and drove revenue growth through optimized resource allocation while streamlining delivery across cross-functional engineering teams.

Full-Stack Developer (Freelance / Contract) at LYKAS

July 1, 2024 - January 31, 2026

Built Vue.js onboarding flows that hardened security during high-volume customer intake and translated between finance and engineering to keep requirements anchored to business outcomes.

Tech Associate / Full-Stack Developer at Liberty Mutual

July 1, 2022 - January 31, 2024

Connected an analyst coverage management application to BlackRock’s Aladdin platform, improving data processing speeds by 35%. Served as the sole corporate SBU technology role in Legal Strategic Services, driving legaltech innovation across the function.