Mechanical engineer by trade. AI developer by obsession.

I didn't set out to become a software developer. I set out to be a damn good mechanical engineer.

For 5+ years, I've been deep in CAD—designing mechanical assemblies, detailing production drawings, and running FEA simulations where the difference between a good design and a failed one lives in thousandths of an inch. The kind of work where GD&T callouts matter and every tolerance has a reason.

I learned to be precise. To follow engineering standards religiously. To document everything because the shop floor, the manufacturer, and the end user all depend on it.

That discipline never leaves you.

But I also noticed something frustrating: engineers—myself included—spent huge chunks of our time on repetitive work. Re-running the same calculations with slightly different inputs. Digging through 500-page standards documents for one specific clause. Formatting reports that looked exactly like last month's reports.

Work that required expertise but not creativity.

I thought: There has to be a better way.

So I started small. Python scripts to automate my own CAD workflows and calculations. Macros that generated drawing templates and BOMs in minutes instead of hours. Nothing fancy—just tools that solved my problems.

But those scripts became web applications. Those applications led me to React, then Next.js, then full-stack development. And when large language models emerged, I saw immediately what they could do for engineering workflows.

I wasn't just learning to code. I was building a new skill set on top of my engineering foundation.

Today I run Leadership Legacy LLC—a consulting and development company focused on AI-powered solutions, web applications, and engineering automation. I help businesses leverage AI to streamline operations, build custom tools, and turn complex workflows into scalable systems.

I'm also building EngineerCAD—a suite of AI-assisted tools for CAD, design, and engineering workflows. Think intelligent design validation, automated drawing generation, AI-powered BOM management, and FEA recommendations—all integrated into the tools engineers already use. AI that doesn't replace engineers; it makes them dangerous.

That's the future I'm building.

The goal isn't automation for its own sake. It's giving engineers back their time for what actually matters: solving hard problems, innovating, building things that work.

I've sat at the desk doing tedious work when I could have been designing. I don't want other engineers to spend their careers that way.