Martin Karlsson

Principal solutions architect · Technical manager · EU based

Bridging business goals and technology, from strategy to production.

Leading teams from business goal to production, while designing the architecture and writing the code: a shared picture of the business, the people and the technology, a clear direction everyone understands, and a launch that succeeds, whatever the technology.

Martin Karlsson

About

From business goal to production launch.

14 years of leading teams, products and platforms from early R&D to large-scale production used by thousands of customers, across cloud architecture, data platforms and applied AI, always with a focus on real business impact. The full chain, from connected machines to the data platform and the AI on top. Educated at Chalmers University of Technology (bachelor's degree in mechatronics engineering) and Mid Sweden University (master's degree in quality management and leadership).

Freelance, for established enterprises and fast-moving startups alike: setting the strategy, designing the architecture and writing code with the team, giving everyone a shared understanding of the goal, until it runs in production and the organisation is ready for real AI adoption.

Core strengths

  • Seeing the whole picture and giving the team a clear technical direction, aligned with C-level, product, R&D and engineering
  • Leading teams from idea to a successful production launch as both the architect and a hands-on developer, whatever the technology
  • Deep technical strength in platform engineering: Kubernetes platforms from managed EKS to self-hosted clusters, run with GitOps and infrastructure as code
  • Open-source and self-hosted stacks for identity, observability, data and AI, including EU-sovereign setups
  • AWS cloud architecture: serverless, EKS and distributed systems, plus hybrid, on-premise and edge
  • Applied AI platforms: agents, RAG and self-hosted models with Claude, Bedrock, vLLM and Ollama
  • Data engineering and knowledge graphs with Neo4j, dGraph and ArangoDB
  • Hands-on development in Python, Rust and TypeScript

Industries

  • Industrial technology
  • Manufacturing
  • Agriculture
  • Retail
  • Telecom
  • Automotive
  • Medtech
  • Nanotech
  • Oil and gas
  • Mining
  • Steel

Work

Focus areas

  • Kubernetes platforms and GitOps

    Production Kubernetes from managed EKS to self-hosted k3s and RKE2 on Proxmox and bare metal, run with GitOps and infrastructure as code: Argo CD, Flux, Helm, Terraform and CDK, with secrets in Vault and ingress through Traefik and APISIX.

  • Open-source platform services

    Self-hosted building blocks instead of lock-in: Keycloak and Zitadel for identity, APISIX as API gateway, Garage for object storage, Trino, ClickHouse and Superset for analytics, Backstage as the developer portal.

  • Observability and operations

    Metrics, logs and traces with Prometheus, Thanos, Grafana, Loki and OpenTelemetry. Alerting and on-call that the team can actually run, and cost visibility per team and workload.

  • AI platforms

    Enterprise-grade AI platforms that teams across the organisation build on: agents on Bedrock AgentCore or self-hosted models on vLLM and Ollama, MCP tool gateways, RAG, and evaluation and tracing with Langfuse. Security, governance and cost control built in: owners, access rights, test gates and budgets.

  • Cloud architecture

    AWS specialist across serverless, EKS, IAM and networking, with Azure and GCP in multi-cloud and hybrid setups. Cloud-agnostic designs when portability or EU sovereignty matters, including moves to own infrastructure.

  • Data platforms and knowledge graphs

    Pipelines with Databricks, Airflow and Kafka, catalogue and lineage with OpenMetadata, fast processing with Polars and DuckDB, and enterprise and asset data modelled as graphs in Neo4j as the knowledge layer for analytics and AI.

Kubernetes and platform
EKS, k3s, RKE2, Helm, Argo CD, Flux, Vault, Traefik, APISIX
Infrastructure as code
Terraform, AWS CDK, Ansible
Observability
Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, OpenTelemetry
Identity and developer platform
Keycloak, Zitadel, Auth0, Backstage
Cloud
AWS, Azure, GCP
Data
Databricks, Neo4j, ArangoDB, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, Trino, Airflow, Kafka, Garage, Polars, DuckDB
AI
Claude, Bedrock AgentCore, MCP, Langfuse, vLLM, Ollama
Languages
Python, Rust, TypeScript, SQL

Experience

Career

  1. Sep 2023 – present · 3 yrs 2 mos

    EU based · Remote

    Principal solutions architect and technical manager · Platforms, cloud, data and applied AI

    Freelance

    Working with leadership on digital and AI-driven transformation, and leading the teams that make it real. The work runs from early discovery with C-level stakeholders to the architecture and code with engineering and R&D teams, through to launch and day-to-day operation of live services.

    Typical responsibilities

    • Working with leadership on digital and AI-driven transformation: vision, roadmap, business value and the organisation needed to deliver it.
    • Helping build new digital organisations: platform teams, ways of working, and governance for data and AI.
    • Leading platform strategy and architecture across cloud, hybrid, on-premise and edge environments.
    • Leading cross-functional engineering teams through delivery and launch, as the architect and a hands-on developer.
    • Designing AI platforms and agents, and modelling enterprise data for analytics and AI, often as a knowledge graph.

    Recent work

    • Led the architecture and build of a company-wide AI agent platform for a large enterprise, together with the governance model for leadership: named owners, decision rights and criticality levels. Teams across the business use it to build and run their own agents.
    • Built the platform foundations for the same company: GitOps deployment, API gateway, identity as code, observability, data pipelines and a data catalogue with lineage.
    • Lead architect for a connected-product platform, from roadmap to architecture: a knowledge graph, event-driven data sync and AI.
    • Product and platform lead for a digital twin platform for industrial assets that connects the systems a company already runs into one model per asset, running fully on EU-sovereign infrastructure with an access layer for developers and AI agents.
    • Designed and wrote that platform’s graph database from scratch in Rust: sharded and schema-enforced, with full version history and built-in vector search, released as open source.
    • Led the refactor of an IoT monitoring product through to production releases, including a major database migration.
    • Built a plain-language analytics agent for a startup, from proof of concept to a production rebuild that answers several times faster.
    • Digital transformation
    • AI transformation
    • Technical leadership
    • Solution architecture
    • Platform engineering
    • AI platforms
    • Kubernetes
    • AWS
  2. Jan 2016 – Sep 2023 · 7 yrs 9 mos

    Stockholm, Sweden · Hybrid

    Senior technical management consultant · Cloud, data and digital platforms

    swaut.io · Self-employed

    Helping organisations modernise their digital services and technical platforms, working closely with C-level leaders, product teams, engineering and R&D. The role combined solution architecture, technical management and hands-on development, from early discovery and proofs of concept to deployment and ongoing operations.

    Highlights

    • Advised executives on digital transformation, cloud adoption, AI opportunities and long-term platform direction.
    • Helped organisations improve ways of working, team structure and alignment between business and engineering.
    • Led architecture and technical strategy for cloud, hybrid and on-premise platforms.
    • Designed, prototyped and implemented scalable data and analytics systems with engineering teams.
    • Developed cloud-native and on-premise solutions for IoT, predictive maintenance and real-time data flows.
    • Built complete SaaS platforms: backend, data pipelines, infrastructure and mobile clients.
    • Delivered technical assessments, roadmaps and architecture proposals to business and technical leadership.
    • Digital transformation
    • Solution architecture
    • Technical leadership
    • AWS
    • Cloud-native development
    • Edge computing
  3. Nov 2018 – Apr 2019 · 6 mos

    Stockholm, Sweden

    R&D project manager · Telecom

    Polarium · Full-time

    Led cross-functional R&D projects for lithium battery systems in a fast-paced telecom environment.

    Responsibilities

    • Managed delivery from concept to release, including planning, technical coordination and risk management.
    • Worked across hardware, embedded software, mechanical design and IT systems.
    • Supported rapid product development and global deployment.
    • R&D leadership
    • Cross-functional collaboration
    • Hardware and software integration
    • Project management
    • Telecom systems
  4. Aug 2017 – Nov 2018 · 1 yr 4 mos

    Stockholm, Sweden

    R&D project manager · Automotive

    Scania Group · Full-time

    Managed the development of R&D test vehicles used for validation before market release.

    Responsibilities

    • Coordinated engineering, workshop teams and external suppliers.
    • Worked with requirements, risk assessments, scheduling and process improvements.
    • Acted as a bridge between R&D and operations, improving communication and cross-team efficiency.
    • Automotive R&D
    • Requirements management
    • Risk analysis
    • Supplier coordination
    • Stakeholder communication
  5. Feb 2016 – Aug 2017 · 1 yr 7 mos

    Gothenburg, Sweden

    Field service engineer · Nanotech

    Thermo Fisher Scientific · Full-time

    Installed, calibrated and supported transmission and scanning electron microscopes for research and industrial customers.

    Responsibilities

    • Ensured high precision and system reliability on advanced instrumentation.
    • Trained customers in operating the instruments.
    • Electron microscopy
    • Precision calibration
    • Technical support
    • Customer training
    • Field engineering
  6. Feb 2015 – Jan 2016 · 1 yr

    Worldwide

    Installation engineer · Medtech

    Elekta · Full-time

    Installed and aligned Leksell Gamma Knife systems for neurosurgical treatment centres worldwide.

    Responsibilities

    • Responsible for achieving micrometre accuracy in the stereotactic positioning system.
    • Trained clinical teams on the system.
    • Medical device installation
    • Surgical systems
    • High-precision alignment
    • Global field work
    • Customer training
  7. Aug 2012 – Sep 2014 · 2 yrs 2 mos

    Trondheim, Norway · Gothenburg, Sweden

    Automation engineer · Oil and gas

    Reinertsen AS · Full-time

    Designed field instrumentation and control logic for automation systems on offshore platforms.

    Responsibilities

    • Collaborated with multidisciplinary engineering teams.
    • Ensured safe and reliable operation in demanding offshore environments.
    • Automation engineering
    • Control systems
    • Field instrumentation
    • Offshore engineering
    • Industrial systems

Education

  • 2013 – 2015

    Mid Sweden University

    Master of Science, Quality management and leadership

    Organisational development, leadership and process improvement: leading cross-functional projects, improving technical and operational workflows, and building customer-oriented, scalable organisations.

  • 2009 – 2012

    Chalmers University of Technology

    Bachelor of Science, Mechatronics, robotics and automation engineering

    A broad engineering programme across mechanics, electronics, embedded systems and computer science, focused on intelligent systems where software and hardware interact.

Licences and certifications

  • Product Management: An Introduction

    IBM

    Sep 2024

  • CS109x: Introduction to Data Science with Python

    Harvard Online

    Oct 2023

  • AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

    Amazon Web Services

    Aug 2022

  • Neo4j Fundamentals

    Neo4j

    Jul 2022

  • Cypher Fundamentals

    Neo4j

    Jul 2022

  • ArangoDB Certified Professional

    Arango

    Jul 2022

  • Architecting on AWS

    Informator

    Oct 2019

  • PRINCE2 Foundation and Practitioner

    Arkatay

    Jun 2018

  • Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

    Scrum Alliance

    Jan 2018

Let's talk

For architecture, AI platform or technical leadership work, send me an email or connect on LinkedIn. EU based, working remotely across Europe.