Want to build AI applications, develop intelligent agents, or use coding agents effectively in real software projects? I help software developers turn their existing programming skills into practical AI engineering expertise.

I’m an ex-Microsoft software engineer, Microsoft MVP, technical book author, and founder of Orion AI Engineering. My background combines building software systems with teaching developers how to understand and apply complex technologies.

My mentoring focuses on two complementary areas:

Building AI applications and agents

Learn to integrate language models into applications, build retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, and develop agents that use tools, APIs, and business data. We can work through document ingestion, chunking, vector search, Model Context Protocol (MCP), and multi-agent workflows, including deciding when simpler approaches are sufficient.

You’ll also learn how to evaluate quality, investigate failures, manage cost and latency, and prepare your application for deployment.

Developing software with coding agents

Learn to use tools such as Codex and Claude Code throughout the software development process: understanding unfamiliar codebases, planning changes, implementing features, debugging complex problems, and reviewing code.

We’ll cover how to provide useful context, write effective repository instructions and reusable skills, divide work into manageable tasks, and verify results through tests and code review. The goal is to make you faster while keeping you in control of architecture, correctness, and maintainability.

How we’ll work together

We’ll start with your experience and a concrete goal, then build a learning plan around practical work. Bring an existing project or develop a portfolio application with my guidance. Sessions can include hands-on implementation, architecture discussions, debugging, and detailed feedback on your code.

I work with developers using C#/.NET and Python, and can help you choose tools and frameworks that fit your project.

This mentorship is particularly suited to developers who already know how to code and want to move into AI engineering, build an AI product, or become more effective at agentic software development.

Tell me what you want to build or improve, your current stack, and where you’re getting stuck.