Skip to main content

Advisory & Architecture

Distinguished AI
Architecture & Advisory

Retained advisory and architecture engagements for organizations where failure is not an option. Founder & CEO of Skytells, Inc. Two decades of building the systems the world depends on.

Trusted by organizations at

SkytellsCiscoAppleGoogleAWSAzureKaspersky
Hazem Ali — Distinguished AI & ML Architect, CEO of Skytells

20+

Years Building at Scale

100M+

Users on Systems I Architected

100+

Global Stages & Keynotes

3

Protocols Used by Billions

“The moment your AI system can act, decide, and execute, you're no longer building software — you're delegating authority. That demands an architect's discipline, not a developer's speed.”

— Hazem Ali · Distinguished AI & ML Engineer / Architect · CEO, Skytells, Inc.

Leadership & Vision

Leading from the Front

Not a consultant who observes from the outside. A founder, CEO, and distinguished architect who has built and led organizations, shipped products used by hundreds of millions, and advised at the highest levels of government and enterprise.

Founder & CEO — Skytells, Inc.

Since 2012

Building and leading Skytells — a company at the frontier of AI infrastructure, cloud computing, and enterprise-grade software engineering. Driving product vision, technology strategy, and global expansion across industries and continents. Featured on AWS Startups.

Cross-Enterprise & Government Advisory

Ongoing

Advising enterprises, governments, and defense organizations on AI strategy, digital transformation, and technology roadmaps at the highest levels of decision-making. From startup engineering squads to national-scale initiatives — bridging technology and policy.

Global Stage & Thought Leadership

100+ Events

TEDx speaker. Proven track record of high-scale impact across Fortune platforms and government infrastructure. Invited under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the UAE Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, to speak at the Sharjah International Conference on Linguistic Intelligence (SICLI) — organized by the American University of Sharjah (AUS) and the Emirates Scholar Center for Research and Studies. Founded CognitionX — recognized internationally for "Engineering Without Borders." The perspective that comes from these stages shapes every engagement.

Trusted by Engineers at Industry Leaders

Microsoft
NASA
AWS
Bloomberg
Forbes
TEDx
Wired
HSBC

Distinction

What Sets This Apart

Not a consulting firm. Not a freelance contractor. A distinguished engineer and founder who architects the systems he designs — and leads the organizations that build them.

Architect, Not Advisor

I don't deliver recommendations and walk away. I design the system, validate the architecture, and build alongside your team through production.

Founder-Operator Perspective

As CEO of Skytells, Inc., I understand the tension between engineering excellence and business urgency. Every architecture decision accounts for both.

Protocol-Level Contributions

Contributor to Apple CoreML, Cisco SRTP (RFC 3711), PayPal SDK — technologies embedded in platforms used by hundreds of millions.

Security as Foundation

Zero-trust is not a feature request. It's the first line of the architecture document. AI systems that can act must be governed from day one.

Global Leadership Experience

Spoken alongside prime ministers and world leaders. Led national-scale government AI initiatives. Cross-continental pattern recognition.

Selective Engagement Model

Limited availability by design. Every engagement receives the full depth of attention — not a fraction of a distributed team's bandwidth.

Engagements

Areas of Engagement

Deep, focused architecture and advisory engagements — each scoped around the challenges that define whether a system succeeds or fails in production.

AI Strategy & Executive Advisory

Board-level and C-suite advisory on AI transformation. Technology vision, competitive positioning, and organizational readiness — grounded in two decades of building, not observing.

Deliverables

  • Executive AI readiness assessment
  • Technology vision & competitive analysis
  • Strategic roadmap with governance milestones
  • Board-ready briefing materials
  • Ongoing executive advisory retainer
Inquire

Deep-Core System Architecture

Production-grade architecture for systems that cannot fail. Designed from first principles — the same rigor applied to Apple CoreML, Cisco SRTP, and enterprise infrastructure at national scale.

Deliverables

  • End-to-end architecture blueprint
  • Infrastructure & cloud topology design
  • Data pipeline & model serving architecture
  • Resilience, failover & disaster recovery
  • Architecture decision records (ADRs)
Inquire

AI Security & Zero-Trust Governance

Architecture for AI systems operating in regulated, high-stakes environments. Zero-trust by design. Compliance as a structural guarantee, not a checkbox.

Deliverables

  • Threat model & attack surface mapping
  • Zero-trust agent architecture design
  • Regulatory compliance framework (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR)
  • AI governance & policy architecture
  • Penetration testing & audit coordination
Inquire

LLM Infrastructure & Agentic Systems

Production deployment of large language models and autonomous agent systems. Hidden memory architectures, multi-agent orchestration, and the control planes most teams never think to build.

Deliverables

  • LLM infrastructure & serving design
  • Agent architecture with tool governance
  • Memory hierarchy & context engineering
  • Guardrails, safety layers & kill switches
  • Observability, tracing & cost controls
Inquire

Performance Engineering & Optimization

Kernel-level performance engineering for AI workloads. The kind of optimization that turns a $2M compute bill into $400K — without sacrificing latency or reliability.

Deliverables

  • GPU/TPU workload profiling & audit
  • Inference pipeline optimization
  • Model compression, quantization & distillation
  • Cost modeling & infrastructure right-sizing
  • Performance regression testing framework
Inquire

Engineering Leadership & Organization Design

Building world-class AI engineering organizations. From founding-team hiring to scaling to 100+ engineers. Culture, process, and technical excellence — the things that compound.

Deliverables

  • Organizational topology & team design
  • Distinguished/Staff/Principal career ladders
  • Technical hiring frameworks & bar-raising
  • Engineering culture & operating principles
  • Leadership development & succession planning
Inquire

Process

How Engagements Begin

A structured, transparent process. Not every inquiry becomes an engagement — mutual fit, organizational readiness, and problem significance all matter.

01

Inquiry

Submit a confidential inquiry through the contact form. Describe your organization, the challenge, and the stakes. Not every engagement is accepted — fit matters on both sides.

02

Discovery

A deep, structured discovery session to understand your technical landscape, organizational constraints, and objectives. No prescriptions until the problem is fully understood.

03

Architecture & Execution

Tailored architecture, strategy, and hands-on implementation. I design the system and I build alongside your team. Every decision documented, every trade-off explicit.

04

Elevation & Continuity

Knowledge transfer, team upskilling, and long-term advisory. The goal is not dependency — it's ensuring your organization can sustain and evolve the systems independently.

Availability

Selective Engagements

I maintain a deliberately limited client roster to ensure every engagement receives the depth and attention it demands. This is not a service — it's a partnership reserved for organizations where the architecture decisions carry real consequences.

Current availability is limited. Lead times vary based on engagement scope and complexity.

Industries

Sectors of Operation

Deep domain expertise across industries where AI systems must be robust, secure, and — above all — correct.

Healthcare & Life Sciences
Financial Services & Fintech
Government & Public Sector
Defense & National Security
Telecommunications
Critical Infrastructure
Enterprise Software
Research Institutions

“Every phone call you make, every video conference you join, every secure transaction at your bank — my engineering fingerprint is there. As a contributor to the SRTP protocol, I helped shape the protocol's core complexity that silently protects billions of real-time communications every single day .”

— Contributor to Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) · RFC 3711 · libsrtp#727 [1]

FAQs

Questions About Engagements

Common questions about the engagement model, availability, and what to expect when working together.

Submit an InquiryLearn More About Me
Organizations building mission-critical AI systems where the cost of failure is measured in lives, trust, or national security — not just revenue. Enterprises, governments, defense contractors, and research institutions operating at the highest level of technical and strategic complexity.
Yes. Availability is limited by design — I take on a small number of engagements to maintain the depth and quality each one demands. Current lead times vary. Submit an inquiry and my team will respond with availability and next steps.
It depends on the nature and scope of the engagement, but on average the lead time is 1–2 months. High-complexity or retained engagements may require longer. Once an inquiry is submitted, my team will provide a realistic timeline based on current capacity.
It depends on a number of factors — including the urgency of the problem, the nature of the organization, the scope of the engagement, and current commitments. In certain cases, timelines can be adjusted. This is evaluated on a case-by-case basis during the inquiry process. That said, healthcare and life sciences engagements are given priority — I believe that protecting human health is not a business decision, it's a moral one. If what you're building can save lives or reduce suffering, that changes the calculus entirely.
It begins with a confidential inquiry through the contact form. If there's a mutual fit, we proceed to a structured discovery session. From there, I deliver a tailored architecture and strategy, followed by hands-on execution and long-term advisory. Engagements range from focused architecture sprints to retained advisory partnerships.
I'm a hands-on architect — I design systems and I build them. Whether it's reviewing your team's critical code paths, designing infrastructure at the kernel level, or solving the problems your senior engineers escalated — I operate across the full depth of the stack. This isn't advisory from a distance. When the architecture demands it, I'm in the codebase.
Consulting firms send teams of junior analysts who leave after the slide deck. I bring 20+ years of personal production experience — contributions to Apple CoreML, Cisco SRTP, PayPal SDK — and I stay through execution. The systems I design are the systems I'd build for my own company.
Engagements are scoped based on complexity, duration, and organizational requirements. I offer architecture sprint engagements, monthly retained advisory, and comprehensive partnership models. Pricing reflects the depth and exclusivity of the engagement. Submit an inquiry for a confidential discussion. That said, I want to be honest about something that matters deeply to me. For critical healthcare systems — the kind that protect human life — I offer my consulting pro bono. There is no invoice and no negotiation for that. Let me put it very clear. A human life is not something you can weigh against time, and time is not something that should ever feel like a transaction when lives are on the other side of it. If I'm being truthful, the greatest return on everything I've spent two decades building isn't a contract or a milestone — it's knowing that somewhere, something I helped design might give someone a chance they wouldn't have had otherwise. We all get older. We all eventually find ourselves hoping that the world built something good enough to take care of the people we love — our parents, our children, the people who made us who we are. And maybe even us. I want to be part of building that world. So if what you're working on can help someone's mother get a better diagnosis, or help a child receive care that wasn't possible before — I don't need to think about pricing. That's not where my mind goes. That's not business to me. That's the most human thing I can do with what I know.
Every engagement is treated as confidential by default. I work with defense organizations, governments, and enterprises where discretion is non-negotiable. Mutual NDAs are executed before any substantive discussion begins. Technical details, organizational context, and strategic plans shared during discovery or execution are never disclosed, referenced, or used outside the engagement — under any circumstances.
Both. Most engagements are conducted remotely with structured, high-bandwidth sessions — architecture reviews, deep dives, and async collaboration. For engagements that require physical presence — on-site architecture workshops, executive briefings, or sensitive environments that mandate in-person work — I travel to the organization. The format is determined during discovery based on the nature of the engagement and organizational requirements.
You do. Architecture documents, technical blueprints, code contributions, decision records — all work product created during the engagement belongs to your organization. Full ownership transfers upon delivery. I retain no rights, no licenses, and no claims over the intellectual property produced for your engagement.
The architecture doesn't end when I leave — that's the point. Every engagement includes knowledge transfer and documentation designed to ensure your team can sustain and evolve the systems independently. For organizations that want continuity, I offer retained advisory partnerships — a standing relationship for ongoing architecture guidance, periodic reviews, and strategic consultation as your systems scale.
There is no rigid minimum, but there is a threshold of seriousness. Engagements range from focused 2–3 week architecture sprints to multi-month retained advisory partnerships. The scope is determined during discovery based on the complexity of the problem, organizational readiness, and the depth of work required. I don't take on engagements where the scope doesn't justify the depth — that would be a disservice to both sides.

The Future Is
Architectured, Not Awaited

Connect
Logos and names reflect prior employment, contributions, speaking invitations, hosting venues, or media mentions — they do not imply endorsement. Microsoft MVP is an award and does not imply employment or endorsement by Microsoft. Metrics are aggregated estimates across platforms and contributions; references available where public.
1 “Secure transaction at your bank” is rhetorical; SRTP's role here refers to securing real-time voice/video media streams.
See Corrections & Disclosure.