Available · Booking sprints + 1 retainer

    Portfolio · 2026

    ShahilMangroliya.

    I help founders ship AI-native MVPs and rescue stalled React Native builds — solo, or as fractional CTO. Previously Head of Engineering at Pointz, the safer-bike-mapping platform.

    NowMost recent: founding engineer at a stealth AI startup — shipped the MVP solo with Claude Code (Dec 2025 → Apr 2026). Pointz on retainer. Open for new work.

    Selected projectsStart a conversation
    Upwork

    01Years shipping

    5+

    since 2020

    02App downloads

    100K+

    MoodMe · iOS + Android

    03AWS cost cut

    65%

    while at Pointz

    04Hours on Upwork

    1,300+

    since 2023

    Daily stack
    React NativeTypeScriptNode.jsPythonSpring BootAWSPostgreSQLStripeRevenueCatMapboxFirebaseDockerNext.jsClaude Code

    01What I build

    Four shapes of
    engagement.

    Plain English: here are the four ways I work with founders and teams. If any of them sound like your situation, the contact section is below — I usually reply within four hours.

    4–6 week sprint · fixed scope

    Ship your AI-native MVP

    From Figma or napkin to a real product in users' hands — React Native + Node + LLM/agent layer, auth, payments, the works. Built the way I shipped my own AI-native MVP as founding engineer, not the way an agency ships yours.

    Shipped a stealth AI MVP solo with Claude Code (Dec 2025 → Apr 2026).

    Retainer · fractional CTO

    Sole engineer for one founder

    Own the product end-to-end — mobile, backend, infra, security, payments — while you raise, sell, hire. Same model I ran as Head of Engineering at Pointz, now offered to one founder at a time.

    At Pointz: 1 engineer, 3 roles, 65% AWS cost cut.

    4–8 weeks · take-over

    Rescue a stalled React Native build

    Inherit a half-finished React Native or Spring Boot codebase, stabilise it, and ship the next milestone in weeks — not quarters. No ramp-up tax.

    Took over Stormglass & MoodMe codebases cold and shipped.

    2-week audit · fixed price

    Pre-scale security & cloud audit

    PKCE, SSL pinning, encryption, nonce validation, AWS right-sizing, API hot paths. Done before you go viral or close a round — not after the first incident report.

    Same baseline protects every Pointz user today.

    How we'd work together

    Fixed-scope sprint, monthly retainer, or hourly via Upwork. US, EU & APAC overlap.

    Start a conversation

    02Work history

    Five years of shipping,
    owning, refactoring.

    From bug-fixing a 100K-download mood app to running the platform of a navigation startup — each chapter added a layer to how I build: safer mobile, cheaper cloud, tighter APIs.

    1. 01

      Stealth AI Startup

      AI-native consumer app · Claude Code + LLM stack

      Dec 2025 → Apr 2026Remote
      Founding EngineerAI-native MVPClaude CodeLLM workflows

      Founding Engineer

      Dec 2025 → Apr 2026
      • Shipped the MVP of an AI-native consumer app, using Claude Code + custom subagent workflows as the daily engineering driver.
      • Owned product, mobile, backend, LLM orchestration, and payments from zero — the full founding-engineer remit.
      • Exited April 2026 after MVP delivery; back available for sprint and retainer work.
    2. 02

      Pointz Mobility

      Safer-bike mapping · React Native + Spring Boot + AWS

      Aug 2022 → PresentRemote (USA)
      Head of Engineering (former)Maintenance retainerBackendMobileAWS

      Engineering Consultant — ad-hoc maintenance

      2025 — Present
      • On retainer for the platform I led as Head of Engineering: handling fixes, change requests, and stability work as they come up.
      • Stayed the trusted owner of the codebase — security, infra, payments, and mobile — without the daily-driver load.
      • Frees up the bulk of my time for sprint and retainer engagements.

      Head of Engineering

      Sep 2024 — 2025
      • Sole technical owner of the platform — backend, frontend, databases, security, infrastructure.
      • Built a security baseline of auth/session tokens, PKCE, SSL pinning, nonce validation, and at-rest/in-flight encryption.
      • Reduced AWS infrastructure costs by 65% through EC2/RDS right-sizing and resource management.
      • Improved backend performance, lowering API response times and tightening time-to-backend reliability.

      Full-Stack Developer

      Sep 2023 — Sep 2024
      • Took over the Java Spring Boot backend within one week of joining.
      • Architected payments — In-App Purchases via RevenueCat and Stripe for web — to migrate profit-share onto IAP.
      • Designed and shipped Pointz Plus subscription features end-to-end.
      • Built crowdsourcing primitives for hazards, shortcuts, and amenities — both client and server-side.

      Frontend Developer (Pointz: Safer bike mapping)

      Aug 2022 — Sep 2023
      • Re-architected the navigation system, materially improving TTS and re-routing behavior.
      • Integrated Firebase, CodePush, Facebook SDK, and other partner SDKs.
      • Upgraded the app to the latest React Native + native toolchains for current device support.
    3. 03

      Eglaf Technology

      Weather data + state management consult

      Jun 2022 → Oct 2022Remote (India)
      Sr React NativeAPI integration

      Sr React Native Developer

      Jun 2022 — Oct 2022
      • Took over the project to integrate APIs and design state management from scratch.
      • Integrated stormglass.io to deliver accurate weather data into the product surface.
    4. 04

      Artistry Solutions

      Mobile product team — three shipped apps

      Sep 2020 → Aug 2022Surat, India
      React NativeMobileIAPAnimations

      React Native Developer

      Sep 2020 — Aug 2022
      • MoodMe (Relationship Mood App) — wired Firebase messaging with deep links into the right pages, hardened device stability. The app crossed 100K+ downloads across iOS and Android.
      • Trace Bust — UI redesign with light/dark theme switching, modernized device support, and react-native-iap for in-app purchase.
      • Prank Caller — built a custom drawer animation at a steady 60 fps and shipped a prank-chat messaging surface.

    03The stack I reach for

    Pragmatic, secure,
    shippable.

    I optimise for tools that let one engineer carry a product end-to-end. Anything below has shipped in production — most of it under my ownership today.

    Frontend

    App + web surface

    01
    React NativeReactNext.jsReduxTypeScriptJavaScriptAndroid StudioXcodeRESTful APIs

    Backend & Data

    Services and persistence

    02
    Node.jsPythonSpring BootFirebasePostgreSQLMongoDBSQLTurbo

    AI Tooling

    How I move 2× faster

    03
    Claude CodeCursorClaude Code skills + subagentsWorkflow design

    Security

    Baseline for everything I ship

    04
    Auth / Session tokensPKCESSL PinningEncryptionNonce Validation

    Cloud & DevOps

    Cheap, observable, deployable

    05
    AWS (EC2, RDS, S3)Google CloudCI/CDDocker

    Integrations

    Payments & location

    06
    StripeRevenueCatRazorpayBraintreeIn-App PurchasesGoogle MapsMapboxGPSOSM

    Languages

    Spoken, not compiled

    07
    English — FluentHindi — FluentGujarati — Native

    04What clients say

    Verified by
    the people who hired me.

    Every quote below is pulled from a public, verified review on my Upwork profile — including a long-form note from the CTO of Pointz. Nothing here is marketing copy.

    Average rating

    5.0★

    Total earnings

    $20K+

    Hours logged

    1,311

    Active on Upwork

    Since '24

    View Upwork profile

    Verified review
    “Shahil is one of the most talented engineers and people I have met in my life. His determination, work ethic, and ingenuity are extremely rare. He is certainly a genius and we have increased our output for our mobile app by 10x solely because of his work. Most importantly, he is such a wonderful person… I cannot recommend him highly enough.”

    Trisha B.

    CTO of Pointz

    Long-term engagement

    Jul 2023

    Verified
    “He is not only extremely fast, but understands complexities of front-end, back-end and server management deeply. I highly recommend Shahil M. to anyone who needs any type of development done.”

    Upwork client

    React Native SWE position

    1,070 hours · $16,232 earned · Apr 2024 — Nov 2025

    Verified
    “Great work ethic. Fast to pick up our entire system. Well-versed in React Native / JS and GIS data handling.”

    Upwork client

    Opportunity with GIS

    240 hours · 'Professional' soft-skill tag · Feb — Apr 2024

    Read every review on Upwork

    05Education

    The paper trail.

    Trained as a computer engineer at GTU. Most of what I use day-to-day, though, I learned in production — debugging at 2 AM, refactoring legacy modules, and watching dashboards.

    Bachelor of Engineering

    Gujarat Technological University

    Computer Engineering — focus on systems, data structures, and software design. Capstone work in mobile + cloud-connected products.

    Conferred Feb 2023 · coursework Jul 2022Gujarat, India

    06Open a thread

    Let's build something
    worth shipping.

    I'm happiest as a single engineer owning a hard product end-to-end. If that sounds like what you're after — or you just want to talk shop — drop a line.

    Responding within 24h

    The fastest path is email.

    shahil.mangroliya@outlook.com
    Compose
    LinkedInUUpworkGitHub

    Based in

    Surat, Gujarat · India

    GMT+05:30. Comfortable working across US, EU, and APAC timezones.

    Available

    Good fits

    • Founders shipping an AI-native MVP in 4–6 weeks.
    • Fractional CTO retainer — one founder, full ownership.
    • Stalled React Native or backend codebases that need a rescue.
    • Pre-scale security & cloud audits — 2-week fixed scope.