I'm a delivery and product-focused engineering leader with 13+ years of experience building and scaling technology teams in fintech, payments, and SaaS. I partner with startups, scale-ups, and government organizations as a fractional CTO and technical advisor, helping them transform engineering operations, optimize payment infrastructures, and accelerate product delivery.
Core Expertise:
Currently serving as Engineering Manager at Primer, I lead the Acceptance Experience Team managing Mobile and Web guilds across iOS, Android, and Web SDKs for a cutting-edge payment orchestration platform. My work spans cross-functional team reorganization, engineering-wide initiatives including incident response programs and mentorship frameworks, and the complete Checkout SDK rearchitecture with a component-based approach across all platforms. This role builds on deep payment systems expertise developed through previous positions at ThePayment.Works, where I architected high-availability payment testing software using Elixir/Erlang, and at SumUp, where I built the Dublin engineering team from inception and rolled out 6 countries in 3 months.
My leadership experience spans startups to scale-ups, including serving as CTO at BonsaiX (building fully automated deployment pipelines and cloud architecture), Engineering Manager at Phorest (leading Ecommerce for 10,000+ salons globally while introducing KanBan methodology that reduced cycle time by 40%), and Acting CTO at Popdeem (driving B2C to B2B transformation). As Engineering Director at TheProduct.Works, I founded and led a software consultancy serving fintech, healthtech, and financial services clients, managing end-to-end relationships from discovery through delivery. Additional experience includes Senior DevOps at CleverCards, where I achieved a 50% AWS cost reduction through infrastructure optimization.
Beyond engineering leadership, I'm an active international speaker at conferences including CodeMesh, ElixirConf EU, CUFP, and Big Data conferences, delivering workshops on Erlang/OTP and Elixir. I'm committed to community building, having organized the Erlang & Elixir meetup in Dublin and coached at Rails Girls events. My technical breadth spans Ruby, Erlang, Elixir, React, React Native, and modern cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure), with deep expertise in mobile applications, payments, high-availability systems, and scalability.
I help engineering teams and technology leaders solve critical challenges:
€210 per hour
Perfect for targeted problem-solving and quick consultations.
Best For: One-off consultations and tactical advice
€6,400 per month
Deep engagement as part of your leadership team.
Best For: Startups and scale-ups during growth phases or funding rounds
€1,600 per day
Ongoing strategic guidance with consistent availability.
Best For: Companies needing consistent CTO-level guidance
Availability: All sessions scheduled with 48-hour notice (emergency availability subject to current commitments)
Location: Remote-first with optional in-person sessions in Hungary/EU (travel expenses separate)
Billing: Monthly invoicing via Hungarian VAT invoice, payment within 14 days
Commitment:
Cancellation: 2-week notice for Cappuccino and French Press packages
Ready to accelerate your engineering organization or tackle a critical technical challenge?
Schedule a free 30-minute consultation to discuss your needs.
Email: mate.marjai@gmail.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/matemarjai
GitHub: github.com/marjaimate
Based in Budapest, Hungary | Available for EU and international engagements