$whoami
brian-best · principal software developer · kitchener, ontario
$cat ./about.md

~/about/

# agentic engineering - building the system that builds the system
Brian Best
./brianabout.jpeg

I’m a Principal Software Developer at Axonify with 12+ years of full-stack engineering behind me and the last 3+ spent architecting production AI systems. These days I co-lead an in-house agentic AI “code factory” — LLM-powered agents that implement, test, and review changes against our production codebase — and drive LLM capabilities into the customer-facing platform: RAG and retrieval pipelines, secure MCP tool-calling, and conversational interfaces that hold up inside enterprise compliance boundaries.

My path here was not the usual one: radio broadcasting, then web development, then co-founding a startup (raised CAD $75k, Propel ICT accelerator), then six years at Axonify growing from developer to principal. The through-line is communication — years of live, unscripted radio turn out to be excellent training for explaining complex systems to anyone.

My working philosophy: production ai requires enterprise compliance, not just cool demos. focus on reliability, observability, and real business outcomes. I build the kind of software that holds up when the demo ends.

$git log ./career
2026 — presentcurrent
01
Principal Software Developer — Axonify
Co-leads an internal agentic AI "code factory" and drives LLM-powered capabilities into the customer-facing Axonify platform, owning technical strategy for AI-driven automation across the product.
2022 — 2026
02
Senior Software Developer — Axonify
Promoted to technical lead. Built the foundational retrieval and context-gathering infrastructure that now powers the platform's LLM agent capabilities, and stood up the first generation of AI-assisted support tooling.
2020 — 2022
03
Software Developer → Intermediate Software Developer — Axonify
Shipped customer-facing features across the Axonify learning platform on Google Cloud Platform, growing into systems-level ownership and earning successive promotions.
2017 — 2020
04
Frontend Developer — Combinaut
Built marketing platforms and customer-facing web frontends for a US hospital client in a regulated healthcare environment.
2016 — 2017
05
Software Engineer — Ubique Networks
Led a web development team building an Angular + Node.js application backed by Express and WebSockets.
2014 — 2016
06
Co-Founder & CTO — Phased.io
Co-founded an early-stage venture, raised a CAD $75k angel round, and was selected for Propel ICT's Build accelerator. Built the product on a MEAN stack with Firebase real-time data plus iOS/Android, and managed a remote team.
$ls ./skills --group-by=confidence
## strong17
✓MCP (Model Context Protocol)ai/llm
✓LLMOpsai/llm
✓LLM Engineeringai/llm
✓Agentic AIai/llm
✓RAGai/llm
✓Vector Searchai/llm
✓Conversational AIai/llm
✓JavaScript/TypeScriptlanguages
✓Javalanguages
✓SQLdatabases
✓Node.jsbackend
✓Reactfrontend
✓Google Cloud Platformcloud
✓Docker & Docker Composecloud & infra
✓System Designarchitecture
✓Technical Leadershipsoft skills
✓Communicationsoft skills
## moderate7
~Pythonlanguages
~Vue.jsfrontend
~Angularfrontend
~Linux (Arch, Ubuntu)cloud & infra
~AWScloud
~MongoDBdatabases
~GraphQLapi
## gaps3
–Mobile Developmentfrontend
–Low-level Systemsengineering
–Data Engineeringdata
$ gaps listed on purpose — honesty beats keyword-stuffing
#cat ./background.txt
›
Former radio broadcaster and Director of Production at INDI101
Developed exceptional live communication skills, content creation abilities, and comfort with public speaking
›
Student Union Chairman representing 14,000 students with $3.1M budget
Leadership experience at scale, budget management, stakeholder communication, and governance
›
Co-founded Phased.io, raised $75k angel round, completed Propel ICT accelerator
Entrepreneurial mindset, fundraising experience, startup operations, and product thinking
›
Non-traditional path: Radio -> Web Dev -> Senior Dev -> AI/LLM Specialist
Demonstrates adaptability, continuous learning, and ability to reinvent and grow
education
Ontario College Graduate Certificate, Interactive Multimedia
Sheridan College · 2012-2013 · graduate with honors · valedictorian
UIT Startup Immersion
Cape Breton University · 2014-2015
Ontario College Diploma, Radio Broadcasting
Mohawk College · 2008-2010
awards
Graduate With Honors
Sheridan College
Valedictorian
Sheridan College
SSUI Values Award
Sheridan Student Union
Sheridan Student Union Chairman
Governance of a $3.1M budget and a 14,000-student constituency
Brian’s AI
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