Curriculum vitae
Steve O'Brien
Engineer Founder CEO & CTO
I've spent two decades building real-world software and AI systems. I combine hands-on engineering with the experience of building products for founders, running a technology company through acquisition, and helping larger organisations solve technical problems.
Profile
Technology leadership grounded in building
My experience comes from more than two decades of engineering and building technology for other people’s businesses. At Newicon, that was our business: founders and established organisations paid us to turn their ideas and difficult technical problems into working products.
I worked as founder, CEO, and CTO, running a small company while helping clients across healthcare, finance, and aerospace. That gave me practical experience of commercial decisions, client relationships, delivery, and the work involved in preparing a technology business for acquisition.
I remain deeply technical: I design systems, write software, and work from the underlying engineering principles. My AI work includes a due diligence tool for searching large documents, finding useful evidence, and exploring legal questions. I bring that engineering experience to advising CEOs and founders on technology, AI, and product investment.
Core capabilities
Where I create the most value
Engineering and technical leadership
Hands-on software engineering, system design, and rapid prototyping, backed by experience leading teams and delivering products for founders and larger organisations.
AI systems and strategy
Building AI applications with the OpenAI, Anthropic, and OpenRouter APIs, including document search, evidence discovery, and question answering. Connecting technical possibilities to useful business applications.
Product and platform engineering
Turning founders’ ideas into working technology across healthcare, finance, and aerospace, with experience spanning SaaS, connected devices, computer vision, and application frameworks.
Company leadership and advisory
Practical experience running a small technology company through acquisition and supporting larger businesses. Helping leaders weigh technology investment, delivery risk, and commercial priorities.
Technical depth
Grounded in fundamentals
Frameworks come and go; the fundamentals do not. I work from first principles across system design, data modelling, APIs, security, real-time communication, testing, deployment, and failure modes.
I have designed and built capable application frameworks from scratch, including systems that powered regulated financial services products such as the Hartley pension portal.
Preferred stacks today
- TypeScript
- Vue 3
- Node.js
- Fastify
- Laravel
- PHP
Frontend and real-time
- React
- Next.js
- Web Components
- WebSockets
- SSR
- Pinia
Backend and data
- PostgreSQL
- MariaDB / MySQL
- REST APIs
- Background workers
- Authentication
- Stripe
AI APIs, systems, and testing
- OpenAI API
- Anthropic API
- OpenRouter API
- LLM applications
- Agent systems
- Embeddings
- Vector search
- Knowledge graphs
- Vitest
- Playwright
Experience
Selected career
Independent
Engineer, Fractional CTO & AI Product Builder
Helping organisations make sound technology decisions and turn AI opportunities into useful, well-engineered products.
- Designing and building AI applications using the OpenAI, Anthropic, and OpenRouter APIs, alongside developer workflows and collaborative product experiences.
- Advising founders and leadership teams on product direction, architecture, delivery, and AI adoption.
- Researching intelligence across artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and cognitive systems.
Newicon Ltd
Founder, CEO & CTO
Founded and ran a Bristol technology company whose core business was designing and building products for founders and established organisations, combining hands-on engineering with CEO and CTO responsibilities through to acquisition.
- Built technology for founders across many products and businesses, turning ideas into software, connected systems, and working products.
- Led technology direction, product strategy, solution architecture, client partnerships, and complex project delivery.
- Grew Newicon to £1.5m turnover alongside a £0.5m digital marketing business that became Flex Digital.
- Delivered work across healthcare, financial services, and aerospace, supporting founders and larger organisations. Disclosed clients included Airbus, Thales, UWE, and Palladium.
- Guided Newicon into its 2025 acquisition by Linebreak and continued as CTO through January 2026.
Airbus UK, Filton
Systems Engineer (Modelling & Simulation)
Responsible for developing the modelling and simulation platforms used by the Airbus landing gear team.
- Designed and built the AutoTR desktop application and its code interpreter, enabling test engineers to write automated tests for landing gear systems.
- AutoTR supported repeatable testing from fully simulated “-1” environments with no physical hardware through to hardware-in-the-loop test rigs, and received an Airbus international Award for Excellence.
- Built LGTest, an internal PHP and MySQL web application that provided global configuration control and immediate access to landing-gear test results in the formats teams required.
- LGTest replaced a labour-intensive process in which test data was manually compiled, burned to DVDs, and posted to colleagues around the world.
Airbus UK, Filton
Technical Apprentice
Completed Airbus’s four-year Technical Apprenticeship before progressing into a full Systems Engineer position.
- Named Airbus Apprentice of the Year three years in succession.
- Studied Aeronautical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, CAD, and computing.
- Completed an HND in Aeronautical Engineering alongside practical engineering training.
Selected work
Evidence of impact
Applied AI · Due diligence
AI for document search and legal questions
Designed and built an AI tool to support due diligence: searching large documents, identifying useful evidence, and helping users understand and answer legal questions about the material.
Framework engineering · Financial services
Application frameworks from first principles
Designed and built capable application frameworks from scratch that powered complex, regulated financial services products, including the Hartley pension portal, with full-stack architecture, real-time WebSocket communication, data systems, authentication, and operational infrastructure.
Company building
Newicon: from startup to acquisition
Founded and led a design-led technology company for 18 years, combining commercial leadership with hands-on technical direction before its acquisition in 2025.
Health technology
EarSwitch in-ear monitoring platform
Newicon led software development across two phases of an in-ear health-monitoring system that secured £1.2m in investment and was selected for the UK Innovative Devices Access Pathway.
Computer vision · Aviation maintenance
Airbus Oleo measurement app
Led the development of an early iPhone computer-vision application that used the camera, OpenCV edge detection, and object recognition to measure a landing-gear Oleo shock absorber and give engineers an immediate pass/fail result.
Read the case studyRecognition & public voice
Sharing experience
- Airbus Apprentice of the Year, three consecutive years
- Airbus international Award for Excellence, awarded for AutoTR
- Insider South West 42 under 42, 2022 cohort
- Bristol Technology Festival speaker, including a 2022 talk on the future of IoT
- Podcast guest on technology, leadership, innovation, and company building
Work together
Need experienced technical leadership?
I’m open to fractional CTO, technical advisory, AI strategy, and selected product-building engagements.