--- name: "Gün Karagöz" tagline: "Curiosity monger, builder of things, breaker of limits. Part product thinker, part data whisperer. I turn ideas into action — faster than most people can draft a to-do list." location: "Reston, VA" linkedin: "linkedin.com/in/gunkaragoz" website: "gnkz.net" --- ## Summary Forward-deployed engineer with 15+ years in enterprise technical delivery, including 8 years embedded with Fortune 500 telecom accounts building solutions inside customer production environments. Translates ambiguous, high-value business problems into scoped technical solutions with explicit success criteria, builds against the customer’s real infrastructure constraints, and owns delivery through production. ## Experience ### Product Delivery Lead — Forward-Deployed Solutions & Enablement | P.I. Works | Dec 2018 – Present | Reston, VA - Embedded full-time inside Tier-1 telecom operator environments as technical lead, deploying solutions directly in the client’s production environment within their infrastructure - Ran technical discovery with enterprise stakeholders to reframe ambiguous operational problems into scoped, buildable solutions, then delivered 100+ implementations of an AI-driven analytics and automation platform across national-scale infrastructure - Built automation scripts, data pipelines, and working prototypes to prove feasibility against live client data before formal scoping — work engineering then productized, creating 50+ account expansion opportunities - Built the client-facing analytics layer: hundreds of BI dashboards and scheduled notifications over high-volume live operations, improving user engagement by 35% - Built and ran the client enablement program: 30 hours of live training plus a 50-hour video portal serving 500+ technical end users, reducing weekly follow-up meetings by 60% - Delivered executive-level technical presentations translating performance data into client business decisions ### Founder | Colaptes | Jul 2023 – Present | Reston, VA | https://colaptes.com - Build, ship, operate, and sell a live analytics SaaS with paying customers – sole ownership of architecture, data pipeline, deployment, monitoring, and incident response - Integrated the Amazon Selling Partner API into an interactive analytics product that turns raw marketplace data into operational decisions for sellers - In progress: LLM-powered insight layer – natural-language questions over customer commerce data, with every answer grounded in a displayed query rather than generated prose - Building the evaluation harness alongside it: golden question set, accuracy scored against known-correct answers, refusal behavior, and latency and cost tracked per call ### Co-Founder, CTO | AI Project Academy | May 2025 – Feb 2026 | Reston, VA - Education Center — Boutique educational incubator dedicated to empowering children aged 8–12 to address real-world challenges using artificial intelligence. Project-based learning experiences that integrate AI tools with ethical innovation and critical thinking. ### Co-Founder | Pavotail | Jun 2020 – Present | Reston, VA | https://pavotail.com - E-Commerce — Developing and maintaining the eCommerce website on WooCommerce, etsy and conducting online marketing activities. ### Product Manager | P.I. Works | Jan 2015 – Dec 2018 | Istanbul, Turkey Global Mobile Network Automation Solution Provider — Led product development through customer insights and market analysis, fostering cross-functional collaboration for the successful launch and optimization of innovative products, driving global business growth. - Collaborated with engineering, network services, technical support, pre-sales, and marketing to enhance product strategy and quality, ultimately elevating the overall customer experience. - Directed product development, creating user story maps and detailed requirements, including algorithm flow diagrams and prototypes. Aligned features with business goals, ensuring a seamless user experience leading to 20% reduction in customer support tickets. - Utilized analytics and BI-driven processes to analyze extensive datasets, refining product features and streamlining operational processes. Achieved a commendable 22% efficiency increase and a faster time-to-market. - Effectively managed the full product lifecycle of a new product in collaboration with a third-party vendor, achieving notable cost efficiency with a launch that was 1.5 months ahead of schedule. - Developed and delivered over 100 presentations and user manuals, conducted 50+ demo sessions, and established a Moodle training platform for 300+ internal and external staff, resulting in a timesaving of 40 man-hours per quarter. ### Product Owner | P.I. Works | Nov 2013 – Jan 2015 | Istanbul, Turkey Leading Mobile Network Automation Solution Provider — Executed Agile product ownership and led user acceptance testing for mobile network automation products, ensuring alignment with customer needs and product goals. - Managed and re-prioritized a substantial backlog of 500+ product items, enhancing over 100 product requirement documents and mockups to better align with customer needs, leading to a 19% reduction in time-to-market. - Led UAT strategies and test automation tool development, resulting in a 28% reduction in post-launch defects and a 16% increase in test coverage. - Advocated for a team culture of innovation and continuous learning, ensuring competitiveness in the rapidly evolving telecom technology landscape. ### Access Network Optimization Engineer | Turkcell | Feb 2013 – Nov 2013 | Istanbul, Turkey Leading Mobile Network Operator in Türkiye — Performed RF engineering tasks encompassing design, planning, maintenance, optimization, and troubleshooting. - Monitored network quality through analysis of performance KPIs, introducing automation scripts and BI dashboards for troubleshooting and optimization, resulting in improved departmental efficiency and product performance. ### Research and Teaching Assistant | Ozyegin University | Feb 2011 – Jul 2012 | Istanbul, Turkey Speech Processing Laboratory — Conducted coding lab sessions while actively engaging in research. - Developed text-to-speech and speech-to-text software using open-source libraries, customized for call centers and created a pronunciation analysis app for EFL students using automatic speech recognition. ## Education ### MSc. Electrical and Electronics Engineering | Ozyegin University | 2010–2015 | Istanbul, Turkey | https://ozyegin.edu.tr/en Thesis: Reproducing Field Failures based on Semi-Formal Failure Scenario Descriptions ### BSc. Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering | Izmir Institute of Technology | 2005–2010 | Izmir, Turkey | https://en.iyte.edu.tr Thesis: Wii-Remote Controlled Real-Time Synthesizer ## Certifications ### Data Science, Machine Learning and AI with Python | HarvardX | Jan 2026 | https://courses.edx.org/certificates/eb78bf8524d84972a8e9eb91700ebf71 ### Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals | Microsoft | May 2025 | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/users/gnkaragz-5382/credentials/cf519bd67383c848 ### ClickHouse Developer Course | ClickHouse | Aug 2024 | https://www.credly.com/badges/7c8db91f-7521-4997-b124-443d50f2204b ### Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate | Coursera | Nov 2023 | https://www.credly.com/badges/ae413c48-b692-46ae-a8e2-bb407db27d1f/public_url ## Skills **Data Analysis & Visualization** — Strong analytical skills, proficiency with various business intelligence products. Tools: MS Excel, Google Spreadsheets, Power BI, Tableau, Big Query, Apache Superset, SQL, Python, R, Oracle/PostgreSQL/ClickHouse **Product Management** — Leadership, Project Management, Competitive Research, Roadmap Strategy, UX Design, Mockups & Prototyping, User Research & Testing. Tools: Linear, Jira, Confluence, Moqups, Figma, Snagit **Coding & No-Code Tools** — Developing MVP, Managing QA. Tools: VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Antigravity, Notion, Coda, Bubble.io, Airtable, Framer. Vibe-coding: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Lovable, bolt **Automation & Process Design** — Building Scalable and Collaborative Processes. Tools: n8n, Zapier, Make (Integromat), PowerAutomate ## Projects ### Active **ManyMano** - A simple way for groups to organize sign-ups and find times that work for everyone. | https://manymano.com **FlowScript** — Text-based offline flowchart diagramming tool, built with Claude Code. | https://fs.gnkz.net/ **Cloudflare R2 Explorer** — Self-hosted object storage browser, built with Codex. **Aldrin PTA** - Aldrin Elementary School PTA Website | https://aldrinpta.org ### Parked **EdTechFolio** — Portfolio organizer for ISTE Certification, built as a web app. | https://edtechfolio.com/ **RaisinKids** — Activity directory for kids, built as a web app. **User.Agency** — No-code SaaS project built with Bubble (2022). **Children's Illustrated Book Curation** — Boutique GoodReads alternative (2021). **Virtual Try-on App** — Apparel virtual try-on experience (2020). ## Hobbies Vibecoding · Playing PS games · 3D printing & design · Learning Spanish (¡Viva Duolingo!)