I'm a freelancer who specializes in AI engineering and full-stack development, based in the Dallas area. I build and evaluate AI systems that actually ship. Right now I'm an AI Evaluation Engineer at Handshake AI, where I design benchmark tasks and automated verifiers for testing frontier models, and I co-founded Vela Vision, a healthtech startup where I lead a four-person team building a real-time computer vision pipeline with an embedded hardware HUD. That mix means I'm comfortable across the whole stack: model evaluation, computer vision, embedded systems, and React/Python web apps. What sets me apart is that I've done the rigorous side of AI, not just wiring up API calls. I've built pass@k evaluation harnesses, adversarial test suites, and offline RAG systems, so I understand how to make AI features reliable, not just demo-able. I move fast, own projects end to end from hardware to frontend, and care about building things that hold up in the real world. Sector experience: healthtech, AI/ML tooling and evaluation, fintech (fraud detection), and computer vision. Employment and project experience AI Evaluation Engineer Handshake AI June 2026 - Present Co-Founder & CPO Vela Vision LLC February 2026 - Present

Zayd Sayeed

I'm a freelancer who specializes in AI engineering and full-stack development, based in the Dallas area. I build and evaluate AI systems that actually ship. Right now I'm an AI Evaluation Engineer at Handshake AI, where I design benchmark tasks and automated verifiers for testing frontier models, and I co-founded Vela Vision, a healthtech startup where I lead a four-person team building a real-time computer vision pipeline with an embedded hardware HUD. That mix means I'm comfortable across the whole stack: model evaluation, computer vision, embedded systems, and React/Python web apps. What sets me apart is that I've done the rigorous side of AI, not just wiring up API calls. I've built pass@k evaluation harnesses, adversarial test suites, and offline RAG systems, so I understand how to make AI features reliable, not just demo-able. I move fast, own projects end to end from hardware to frontend, and care about building things that hold up in the real world. Sector experience: healthtech, AI/ML tooling and evaluation, fintech (fraud detection), and computer vision. Employment and project experience AI Evaluation Engineer Handshake AI June 2026 - Present Co-Founder & CPO Vela Vision LLC February 2026 - Present

Available to hire

I’m a freelancer who specializes in AI engineering and full-stack development, based in the Dallas area.

I build and evaluate AI systems that actually ship. Right now I’m an AI Evaluation Engineer at Handshake AI, where I design benchmark tasks and automated verifiers for testing frontier models, and I co-founded Vela Vision, a healthtech startup where I lead a four-person team building a real-time computer vision pipeline with an embedded hardware HUD. That mix means I’m comfortable across the whole stack: model evaluation, computer vision, embedded systems, and React/Python web apps.

What sets me apart is that I’ve done the rigorous side of AI, not just wiring up API calls. I’ve built pass@k evaluation harnesses, adversarial test suites, and offline RAG systems, so I understand how to make AI features reliable, not just demo-able. I move fast, own projects end to end from hardware to frontend, and care about building things that hold up in the real world.

Sector experience: healthtech, AI/ML tooling and evaluation, fintech (fraud detection), and computer vision.

Employment and project experience

AI Evaluation Engineer Handshake AI
June 2026 - Present

Co-Founder & CPO Vela Vision LLC
February 2026 - Present

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Language

English
Fluent

Work Experience

AI Evaluation Engineer at Handshake AI
June 1, 2026 - Present
Authored 50+ benchmark tasks evaluating frontier coding agents (e.g., GPT-5, Claude Opus, Terminus-2) in Terminal-Bench. Packaged Docker environments with oracle solutions and automated verifiers that score rollouts pass/fail. Engineered adversarial evaluation suites targeting model failure modes and calibrated task difficulty against measured pass@k rates. Promoted to R1 Reviewer within two weeks, auditing peer-submitted tasks for correctness, fairness, and reward-hacking exploits and aligning verdicts across a two-stage human evaluation pipeline.
Co-Founder & CPO at Vela Vision LLC
February 1, 2026 - Present
Co-founded a healthtech startup building a full-stack AI platform (ReactJS, Python) with a real-time computer vision pipeline using OpenCV, dlib, and MobileFaceNet for on-device facial recognition and identity classification. Developed an LLM-powered inference layer generating contextual identity cues on a micro-OLED via Bluetooth LE, optimized for sub-second edge deployment on ESP32-based embedded hardware. Led product development with a small founding team, coordinating clinical stakeholder outreach and managing a $15,000 R&D budget across agile sprint cycles.
AI Product Development Intern at Papaya-Glow
September 1, 2025 - December 1, 2025
Engineered an AI-driven skincare analysis pipeline using computer vision to detect acne, hyperpigmentation, dryness/oiliness, redness, and texture-based concerns from user facial scans. Built an NLP-powered ingredient scanner and collaborated on integrating chatbot APIs, AI microservices, and product-matching engines into a scalable MVP architecture. Developed core mobile app infrastructure in Flutter and React Native including authentication, routine tracking, daily condition logs, progress photo storage, and data models for long-term skin analytics and recommendations.

Education

Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at University of Texas at Dallas
January 11, 2030 - May 1, 2029
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at University of Texas at Dallas
January 1, 2025 - May 1, 2029

Qualifications

Add your qualifications or awards here.

Industry Experience

Healthcare, Software & Internet, Computers & Electronics, Financial Services