Mickel Tech / AI SDLC, Platforms & Technical Expertise

I design AI systems that actually work.

Most AI projects stop at a clever demo. I bridge hands-on engineering, venture-building and value creation to design AI software development lifecycles (AI SDLC), platforms and agents that actually ship, are measurable, and hold up when decisions get expensive.

• AI SDLC & delivery: de-risk release cycles by replacing cultural debt and non-AI-native agile theatre with AI woven through plan–build–test–run and everything—infra, prompts, evals and policies—treated as code.
• AI platforms & agents: unified context, clean data and evals baked into the stack so systems actually ship, don't stall as pilots and show measurable uplift in revenue, efficiency and risk.
• Strategic advisory & fractional CTO: board-level partner for AI roadmaps, lanes, teams and vendor posture when you need someone to own the change, not just write a slide deck.
• Independent expert (ITDR Switzerland): formal Technical Expert for AI/software disputes, due diligence and other high-stakes decisions with real financial or legal exposure.

Gordon Mickel · AI SDLC & Platform Architect

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AI SDLC & PLATFORM PROGRAMS ACROSS PE PORTFOLIO COMPANIES ACROSS EUROPE 20+ YEARS SHIPPING SOFTWARE & PLATFORMS AI PROGRAM LEAD FOR SWITZERLAND'S LEADING CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (CIS) LEGALTECH CLM PLATFORM FOUNDED, FUNDED & TAKEN TO ACQUISITION STAGE LISTED TECHNICAL EXPERT (ITDR) FOR COMPLEX ICT & AI DISPUTES CLINICAL LLM PLATFORM LIVE IN SWISS HOSPITALS OPENAI RED-TEAMING NETWORK ALUMNUS ON MODEL SAFETY & ABUSE RESILIENCE AI & TECHNOLOGY DUE DILIGENCE, MATURITY & READINESS REVIEWS FOR INVESTORS 500+ ENGINEERS ENABLED ON AI CODING TOOLS & AI-NATIVE SDLC PATTERNS HEALTHCARE, LEGAL, FINANCIAL & PUBLIC-SECTOR AI SYSTEMS DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND SCRUTINY AI SDLC & PLATFORM PROGRAMS ACROSS PE PORTFOLIO COMPANIES ACROSS EUROPE 20+ YEARS SHIPPING SOFTWARE & PLATFORMS AI PROGRAM LEAD FOR SWITZERLAND'S LEADING CLINICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (CIS) LEGALTECH CLM PLATFORM FOUNDED, FUNDED & TAKEN TO ACQUISITION STAGE LISTED TECHNICAL EXPERT (ITDR) FOR COMPLEX ICT & AI DISPUTES CLINICAL LLM PLATFORM LIVE IN SWISS HOSPITALS OPENAI RED-TEAMING NETWORK ALUMNUS ON MODEL SAFETY & ABUSE RESILIENCE AI & TECHNOLOGY DUE DILIGENCE, MATURITY & READINESS REVIEWS FOR INVESTORS 500+ ENGINEERS ENABLED ON AI CODING TOOLS & AI-NATIVE SDLC PATTERNS HEALTHCARE, LEGAL, FINANCIAL & PUBLIC-SECTOR AI SYSTEMS DESIGNED TO WITHSTAND SCRUTINY

WHAT I BUILD

Four ways I create value. Pick the one that hurts most right now.

AI SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE & DELIVERY

I redesign your software development lifecycle using AI at every stage—from planning through build, test and release—so delivery becomes a continuous, low-risk flow of AI changes instead of a handful of big bets per quarter.

Engagement: 15–30 day AI SDLC lane — design, run and hand over one lane end-to-end.

Move from "one release a month" to many safe releases per day by shortening feedback loops and letting AI handle the mechanical work across plan–build–test–run.
Use focused lanes (typically 2–4 people) to prove the pattern, with clear ownership, automated checks and practiced rollback, then roll it out across more teams.
Treat infra, configs, prompts, evals, guardrails and skills as code with full traceability and telemetry, so you can see what changed, why, and what it did to your KPIs.

AI PLATFORMS & AGENTIC SYSTEMS

Most "AI platforms" are just thin wrappers around a single model. I design real platforms and agents: unified context, clean data, evals, observability and safety so agents actually ship, don't stall as pilots, and map to real revenue, efficiency or risk outcomes.

Engagement: 30–45 day platform blueprint + one production-grade agent on your stack.

Platform blueprints that combine context engineering, data pipelines, retrieval/RAG patterns, eval harnesses and observability into an everything-as-code stack.
Concrete agents for your business: operations co-pilots, RFQ/RFP and quoting assistants, knowledge-base copilots, service-desk automation, document-review agents and voice bots—built on your platform, not as throwaway demos.
Skills, tools, prompts, workflows and guardrails as versioned code with gold-set evals and telemetry so you can see which agents earn their keep and which should be retired.

STRATEGIC ADVISORY & FRACTIONAL CTO

For boards, CEOs, CTOs and PE investors who need a senior technical counterpart for AI and core software decisions. I join for a limited number of days per month to own the hard conversations about architecture, SDLC, teams and vendors until the internal organisation is ready.

Engagement: 1–3 days per month as fractional CTO / AI program lead, aligned with board and release cadences.

Board- and C-level sparring on AI and technology roadmaps: where to place bets, where to say no, and how to turn experiments into an operating capability.
Architecture and SDLC oversight: review lanes, platforms and major projects, define non-negotiable guardrails, and give clear go/no-go calls on big releases or rewrites.
Org design and incentives: shape FDE-style squads, flow-focused rituals and metrics (DORA, NRR, cycle time) so teams are rewarded for outcomes, not ticket volume.
Vendor and stack posture: build vs buy vs partner, residency and compliance constraints, and negotiations that keep you flexible instead of locked-in to the first glossy demo.

TECHNICAL EXPERT & DUE DILIGENCE

Listed Technical Expert at ITDR (Swiss IT Dispute Resolution Center), providing independent analysis when software and AI systems become legal or financial questions instead of purely technical ones.

Engagement: written expert opinion / Gutachten with defined questions, evidence review and a live brief-back.

Expert work for disputes and arbitration: forensic code and system analysis in copyright/Open Source cases, comparison of implementations against contracts and specs, and clear written opinions that withstand cross-examination.
Independent assessment of large IT projects: define and review quality gates, KPIs and acceptance criteria, and give a yes/no view on whether delivered systems meet contractual and technical obligations.
AI & technology due diligence for investors and boards: AI maturity and readiness assessments, architecture and SDLC reviews, team and vendor risk analysis, and simple language recommendations you can act on.

SYSTEM MAP

Head of AI & Engineering Lead

CLINICAL AI PLATFORM (KISIM)

Founder & CEO

DOCIQ LEGAL AI (CLM)

Operating Principal & Technical Advisor

PORTFOLIO AI & ADVISORY

ITDR-Listed Expert

TECHNICAL EXPERT & PROJECT ASSESSMENT

SDLC, Platform & Ops Architect

AI SDLC & OPERATIONAL AGENTS

SYSTEM_LOG // LATEST ENTRIES

Recent signals from the field

Short, technical dispatches on AI SDLC, platforms and agents from real work rather than theory.

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02 Dec 2025• LOG ENTRY

The Merchants of Complexity: Why AI Finally Delivers What Agile Promised

Why modern AI delivery patterns finally unlock what agile promised — and how to structure teams to ship safely.

# ai sdlc# delivery# agile# complexity

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22 Apr 2025• LOG ENTRY

The Imperative of Smarter Clinical Information Systems

How AI agents and openEHR can lift healthcare out of its purgatory by structuring every input and embedding it into durable clinical knowledge.

# healthtech# agents# openehr# clinical ai

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08 May 2023• LOG ENTRY

Unlimited Chatbot Context & History in Under 100 Lines with LangChain + Node.js

Store everything, retrieve only what matters: long-context chat in ~100 lines with LangChain and Node.

# langchain# node# rag# chatbots

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WHY PEOPLE TRUST ME WITH HARD PROBLEMS

Production AI in regulated domains: clinical AI for Swiss hospitals (KISIM) and an AI-native CLM platform used by enterprises and law firms.
Operating Principal (AI & Tech) at GrowthFactors / BU Bregal Unternehmerkapital, running AI SDLC and platform programmes across mid-market B2B companies across Europe.
ITDR-listed Technical Expert for ICT and AI systems: independent expert reports for disputes, arbitration and large-project acceptance.
AI SDLC and agentic delivery patterns designed to scale across 500+ engineers, with everything-as-code and eval-driven gating.
Hands-on architecture and advisory across healthcare, legal, finance, DeFi and public sector – used to navigating regulation and internal politics, not just code.
OpenAI red-teaming network alumnus on model safety and abuse resilience.

// NOTE: MOST WORK IS CONFIDENTIAL. REFERENCES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.

CHRONOLOGY

NOW

OPERATING PRINCIPAL, AI & TECH — GROWTHFACTORS (BU BREGAL UNTERNEHMERKAPITAL)

Value-creation mandate for AI and technology across mid-market B2B portfolio companies across Europe: AI SDLC lanes, platforms, agents and vendor posture.

PARALLEL

OWNER & PRINCIPAL ADVISOR — MICKEL TECH

Independent AI & tech advisor to C-suites and investors on AI strategy, architecture, disputes and large IT decisions.

BEFORE

HEAD OF AI & ENGINEERING LEAD — CISTEC AG

Secured the C-suite mandate and led KISIM Clinical AI: clinical LLM platform, PII masking and evaluation pipelines for Switzerland's leading CIS.

EARLIER

FOUNDER, CEO & LEAD DEVELOPER — CONTRACT VAULT / DOCIQ

Founded and built an AI-powered contract lifecycle management platform, raised seed funding and landed major enterprises such as Swisscom.

LONGER ARC

SENIOR ENGINEERING & CTO ROLES — VARIOUS

20+ years shipping systems across hosting, e-commerce, banking, insurance, IoT, defence and public sector before specialising in AI platforms.

FIELD RECORDING

"People trust me with high-stakes AI problems because I turn messy ideas into precise decisions and agentic systems that don't die as pilots— they work in production and stand up to regulators."

— Gordon Mickel · Mickel Tech

AUDIO: RECORDING...