Top Talent like Al are on Pangea

Pangea, a YC company, connects companies with fractional talent. Fractional hiring allows companies to move faster and work with more specialized talent, while giving talent more flexibility and independence. If you are talent open to fractional work, apply here. If you’re a company looking for high-quality fractional talent, learn more here.

Al Rifat

Full-stack Engineer
Backend Engineer
Frontend Developer
New York, NY, US
Node.js
HTML/CSS
MERN
Express.js
Web Development
Next.js
React
TypeScript
Javascript
Available for hire fromNegotiable
Contracts
Aspiring Software Engineer | Applied Mathematics & Computing | Co-Founder at Meridius Labs | ML pipelines, real-time transcription, and cloud deployments
Senior at University at Buffalo majoring in Applied Math. Proficient in JavaScript, Python, and Go, with hands-on software engineering experience in performance optimization, data visualization, and cloud deployments. Co-founded Meridius Labs and led development of a cross-platform ML-powered portrait app; experienced with OpenAI Whisper, GKE, and Terraform. Seeking a Software Engineer role to solve complex problems in a collaborative team.

Projects

Photelic

iOS and Android application that lets user convert their selfies into professional studio photos. It has an entire custom ML pipeline using a fine-tuned FLUX model, and has inference failure retry and payment processing system with retries. Built in React Native with tRPC, FastAPI backend for the server/model inference. See More

Work History

O

Software Engineer Intern

OptumJun 2025 - Aug 2025 • 3 mosDeveloped real-time patient–clinician transcription system using OpenAI Whisper and Google MedGemma LLM; live transcriptions streamed via Server-Sent Events; Built an Angular-based UI for structured medical documentation forms, integrated with a Python/FastAPI backend for transcription processing and AI-driven data extraction; Deployed on Google Kubernetes Engine, supporting hundreds of clinical users; Reduced documentation time by ~79% and saved an estimated $130,000 annually; Implemented Azure AD Single Sign-On for Grafana via Terraform for secure, passwordless access.
M

Co-Founder

Meridius LabsLaunched a cross-platform mobile app (iOS & Android) that transforms user selfies into studio-quality portraits using a custom fine-tuned FLUX-1 model; Optimized an end-to-end training pipeline by fine-tuning diffusion model using LoRA technique, resolving challenges in facial fidelity, and pose consistency— achieving a 95% structural accuracy.
O

Software Engineer Intern

Optum Inc. – UnitedHealth GroupJun 2024 - Aug 2024 • 3 mosImplemented Grafana dashboard uniting data from Apache Kafka CCC, SolarWinds DPA, and Elastic APM, saving $115,000 annually and enhancing data visualization; Reduced server downtime by 5 minutes by customizing alerts and threshold metrics to monitor system performance and application health using Elastic APM, SolarWinds, and Zabbix. Streamlined internal access and enhanced security by implementing Azure AD Single Sign-On for Grafana via Terraform, eliminating reliance on Delinea password management.
U

Software Engineer Intern

UnitedHealth GroupAug 2023 - Dec 2023 • 5 mosDeveloped a Salesforce-based feedback infrastructure using Apex (Java), React.js, and MySQL to support stakeholders managing ~1,000,000 member inquiries daily; Deployed to Google Cloud Kubernetes, reducing operational costs by 15%; Wrote 50 Jira user stories to define feature requirements.
U

Software Engineer Intern

UnitedHealth GroupJun 2023 - Aug 2023 • 3 mos
S

Software Engineer Intern

Seidenberg Creative Labs – Pace UniversityJun 2022 - Jan 2023 • 8 mosDeveloped a full-stack employee management system using Express.js, MongoDB, and Amazon S3, enhancing efficiency in managing members and applications; Researched performance issues and proposed automation tools and frameworks, reducing application load time by 25% and improving team collaboration processes.

Education

U

University at Buffalo

Bachelor of Arts - BA, Computing and Applied Mathematics2023 - 2026

How Pangea Works

Effortlessly discover top talent

We've distilled the candidate search from endless hours down to just a few minutes. Using Pangea's AI-powered search tools, you can find top fractional talent able to take on your next project. Our system looks at your company's niche and your needs to find the perfect match faster than any traditional hiring platform.

Start working with talent today

The top talent on Pangea is ready to get started with you right now. You can message or hire a candidate right from their profile page and start assigning work as soon as they respond. And the best part? Pangea's fractional contract structure lets you start small and ramp up as your needs change, keeping your costs manageable and your team's capabliities flexible.

Track work and invoices in one place

Assign tasks, track progress, and complete invoices all on Pangea. We've combined every part of the hiring process into one platform to eliminate the miscommunication that's unavoidable on other freelance platforms. We even send out 1099s to your contractors at the end of the year!

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call
Aspiring Software Engineer | Applied Mathematics & Computing | Co-Founder at Meridius Labs | ML pipelines, real-time transcription, and cloud deployments
Senior at University at Buffalo majoring in Applied Math. Proficient in JavaScript, Python, and Go, with hands-on software engineering experience in performance optimization, data visualization, and cloud deployments. Co-founded Meridius Labs and led development of a cross-platform ML-powered portrait app; experienced with OpenAI Whisper, GKE, and Terraform. Seeking a Software Engineer role to solve complex problems in a collaborative team.

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call

Top Talent like Al are on Pangea

Pangea, a YC company, connects companies with fractional talent. Fractional hiring allows companies to move faster and work with more specialized talent, while giving talent more flexibility and independence. If you are talent open to fractional work, apply here. If you’re a company looking for high-quality fractional talent, learn more here.

Al Rifat

Full-stack Engineer
Backend Engineer
Frontend Developer
New York, NY, US
Node.js
HTML/CSS
MERN
Express.js
Web Development
Next.js
React
TypeScript
Javascript
Available for hire fromNegotiable
Contracts

Projects

Photelic

iOS and Android application that lets user convert their selfies into professional studio photos. It has an entire custom ML pipeline using a fine-tuned FLUX model, and has inference failure retry and payment processing system with retries. Built in React Native with tRPC, FastAPI backend for the server/model inference.

Work History

O

Software Engineer Intern

OptumJun 2025 - Aug 2025 • 3 mosDeveloped real-time patient–clinician transcription system using OpenAI Whisper and Google MedGemma LLM; live transcriptions streamed via Server-Sent Events; Built an Angular-based UI for structured medical documentation forms, integrated with a Python/FastAPI backend for transcription processing and AI-driven data extraction; Deployed on Google Kubernetes Engine, supporting hundreds of clinical users; Reduced documentation time by ~79% and saved an estimated $130,000 annually; Implemented Azure AD Single Sign-On for Grafana via Terraform for secure, passwordless access.
M

Co-Founder

Meridius LabsLaunched a cross-platform mobile app (iOS & Android) that transforms user selfies into studio-quality portraits using a custom fine-tuned FLUX-1 model; Optimized an end-to-end training pipeline by fine-tuning diffusion model using LoRA technique, resolving challenges in facial fidelity, and pose consistency— achieving a 95% structural accuracy.
O

Software Engineer Intern

Optum Inc. – UnitedHealth GroupJun 2024 - Aug 2024 • 3 mosImplemented Grafana dashboard uniting data from Apache Kafka CCC, SolarWinds DPA, and Elastic APM, saving $115,000 annually and enhancing data visualization; Reduced server downtime by 5 minutes by customizing alerts and threshold metrics to monitor system performance and application health using Elastic APM, SolarWinds, and Zabbix. Streamlined internal access and enhanced security by implementing Azure AD Single Sign-On for Grafana via Terraform, eliminating reliance on Delinea password management.
U

Software Engineer Intern

UnitedHealth GroupAug 2023 - Dec 2023 • 5 mosDeveloped a Salesforce-based feedback infrastructure using Apex (Java), React.js, and MySQL to support stakeholders managing ~1,000,000 member inquiries daily; Deployed to Google Cloud Kubernetes, reducing operational costs by 15%; Wrote 50 Jira user stories to define feature requirements.
U

Software Engineer Intern

UnitedHealth GroupJun 2023 - Aug 2023 • 3 mos
S

Software Engineer Intern

Seidenberg Creative Labs – Pace UniversityJun 2022 - Jan 2023 • 8 mosDeveloped a full-stack employee management system using Express.js, MongoDB, and Amazon S3, enhancing efficiency in managing members and applications; Researched performance issues and proposed automation tools and frameworks, reducing application load time by 25% and improving team collaboration processes.

Education

U

University at Buffalo

Bachelor of Arts - BA, Computing and Applied Mathematics2023 - 2026

How Pangea Works

Effortlessly discover top talent

We've distilled the candidate search from endless hours down to just a few minutes. Using Pangea's AI-powered search tools, you can find top fractional talent able to take on your next project. Our system looks at your company's niche and your needs to find the perfect match faster than any traditional hiring platform.

Start working with talent today

The top talent on Pangea is ready to get started with you right now. You can message or hire a candidate right from their profile page and start assigning work as soon as they respond. And the best part? Pangea's fractional contract structure lets you start small and ramp up as your needs change, keeping your costs manageable and your team's capabliities flexible.

Track work and invoices in one place

Assign tasks, track progress, and complete invoices all on Pangea. We've combined every part of the hiring process into one platform to eliminate the miscommunication that's unavoidable on other freelance platforms. We even send out 1099s to your contractors at the end of the year!

Talk with a Talent Expert

Members of our team are available to help you speed through the hiring process.
Available Now
Book a Call
Pangea empowers fractional work across the world for marketing and design roles.