Corey Duffy.
Senior Software Engineer · Tech Lead
Over a decade writing software and building robust systems. Currently building AI products and digital solutions for enterprise clients, while keeping the robots honest.
About
Hey, I'm Corey, and I've worked as a software engineer from the moment I left school (over a decade ago now), initially working full-time while studying for my degree.
Since then, I've worked across a range of companies, startups and scale-ups on back-end services, front-ends, automated testing, DevOps, DevSecOps, AI/LLMs and everything in-between.
What initially attracted me to software development was the idea of being able to create and build whatever I could think of. What has kept me engaged with software development is the sense of honing a craft.
Across all of my interests, be it software engineering, running or strength-training, I love the sense of progression. I love the ability to learn, adapt and improve, and see those improvements over time.
In this space, there is always more to learn, there are always ways to grow.
Anything I write here is in pursuit of that improvement. It's my way of learning, re-learning or confirming what I already know.
I definitely don't have all the answers, but (hopefully, at least) I'm always improving, and hopefully there's something useful here for others too.
Writing
Notes on software engineering, AI, and building things.
- Basketball-Driven Development
A remedy for when the human in the loop is tired
- Pulling Out Weeds
Dead code, AI slop, and finally sorting out my garden.
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Model
On agentic memory, and the tricky business of forgetting.
Awards
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Investment in Innovation Award
Dec 2025Won by JJ Kavanagh & Sons for AskJJ, a 24/7 AI customer support platform. I ran the project as Tech Lead, architected it and led the development team that delivered it.
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Pharma Industry Awards 2026
Oct 2026Shortlisted with Meissner Filtration Products for a labour, materials and capacity forecasting platform delivered in 17 weeks, live across sites in Ireland and California. I was the Tech Lead on this project.
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Lean Business Ireland Awards
Ceremony 22 Oct 2026Shortlisted for the same platform as above with Meissner Filtration Products.
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AI Awards 2026
Ceremony 17 Nov 2026Recognises young people in the early stages of their careers doing excellent work in AI in enterprise settings. Shortlisted by AI Ireland out of 276 applicants.
Experience
Senior Software Engineer / Tech Lead
Brightbeam Apr 2025 – PresentSenior engineer and tech lead delivering production AI systems in regulated environments. Eleven client engagements so far across life sciences, medtech, semiconductor, transport, energy and State agencies, setting technical direction across several teams at once.
Production AI systems for clients in regulated industries
- AskJJ, award-winning AI assistant: Led a public-facing travel assistant for JJ Kavanagh from kick-off to live in 11 weeks. It handled 600+ passenger enquiries with no staff involvement and won the Investment in Innovation Award.
- Forecasting platform, shortlisted for three awards: Architected Meissner’s labour, materials and capacity forecasting, live in Ireland and California within 17 weeks. Planning now looks 26 weeks ahead across five departments, up from one week.
- Secure by design: Azure platforms for clients under external audit, with EU data residency, Entra ID single sign-on, site-scoped access and auditability built in from the start.
- Shared AI foundations: Reusable libraries for document ingestion, RAG, LLM utilities and validation, plus Brightbeam’s public Azure and Terraform standard. Every new engagement now starts from these.
- Edge AI and computer vision: Built a CCTV safety-event detection proof of concept on locally hosted models, for sites where footage can’t leave the premises.
- Leadership: Mentor engineers across concurrent projects, and speak on AI engineering internally and externally.
Product Engineer
Fluent Aug 2024 – Nov 2024AI Text-to-SQL product development
- Improved generated SQL accuracy by over 75% through metrics layer implementation
- Halved response time and significantly improved LLM output quality through prompt tuning
- Delivered new BI features improving customer retention
- Conducted customer interviews to establish product-market fit
Software Developer
m3ter Oct 2022 – Aug 2024Usage-based billing platform development
- Reduced console search time from over a minute to under a second via new search service
- Reduced ad-hoc bill calculation time from 30+ minutes to seconds
- Solved critical security issue with "support user" access system
- Addressed high-risk architectural issues ensuring stability under vast data loads
Software Engineer
Uleska Nov 2020 – Oct 2022Security tool automation platform
- Mentored developers in best practices, improving code quality and review culture
- Reduced incident response time from hours to minutes via observability initiative
- Pioneered "Toolkits" feature driving major increase in customer satisfaction
- Implemented self-service flow with Stripe payments improving product adoption
Graduate Software Engineer
Signifyd Sep 2019 – Nov 2020Fraud detection microservices
- Developed features enabling chargeback analysts to make cost-saving decisions in under a minute
- Reduced operating costs by £1000s via Elasticsearch cluster restructuring
Associate Software Engineer
Kainos Sep 2015 – Aug 2019WorkSmart SaaS automated testing system
- Led team meetings, sprint ceremonies, and product roadmap discussions
- Developed structured mentorship program for faster onboarding
- Primary contact during critical maintenance and feature releases
Skills
Languages & Frameworks
Python (Django), Java (Micronaut, Spring, Play), JavaScript (ReactJS), HTML, CSS, SQL
AI & Data
LLMs (OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, self-hosted), agentic architectures, RAG, vector databases, evaluation, prompt engineering, computer vision, OCR
Technologies
Azure, AWS, Terraform, CDK, Docker, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, ElasticSearch, Git, CI/CD, Bash/Shell