Tiago São José Contact
3D printing production environment

Tiago São José

Engineering AI into real
business value.

Self-taught engineer · multi-venture founder · engineering leader.

Eindhoven, Netherlands Building Shapeways · Amify · Piqe · Airbolt.dev
  • 14+ Years shipping production code
  • 5 Ventures running today
  • B2C → B2B Shapeways platform transformation
  • AI Agents, K8s-native ops, founder-led B2B
Portrait of Tiago São José
Tiago, today

01 — How I got here

Started on the warehouse floor. Now I run engineering & ship ventures.

Hands at a keyboard
Self-taught from the warehouse floor · Eindhoven, 2012

In 2012 I moved from Portugal to the Netherlands and took a job on the Shapeways production floor — cleaning, post-processing, packing and shipping 3D-printed parts. No software background, no plan to switch careers.

To make the work faster, I started teaching myself to code. Within a year I was shipping production code every day, and I never looked back.

I loved the idea of building a piece of code that could make someone’s working life easier and better.

That arc carried me through Industrial Engineering, into the software group, and up every layer of the stack — junior dev to senior, staff engineer leading the AWS migration, engineering manager, and today Head of Engineering & co-owner of Shapeways. Alongside that I co-founded Lulu Systems back in 2017 and, since 2024, have been actively running Amify, Piqe and Airbolt — products that ship and serve real customers.

It’s why every engineer who joins my team spends their first week in production before writing a line of code. When you’ve packed the boxes, you build better software — and you decide better, too.

02 — Ventures

Founded, co-founded,
and still building.

Five ventures running today, one from 2017. Each one ships real product, not slide-decks — across additive manufacturing, AM adoption enablement, B2B go-to-market, and AI-code security.

Co-owner & Head of Engineering

Active

Shapeways

Digital & additive manufacturing platform

After 13 years inside, I co-own and lead engineering at Shapeways. Led the 2024 relaunch from a B2C single-model storefront to a full B2B quoting platform serving enterprise customers globally. ~40-service microservices estate on k3s, organised around customer experience, ops efficiency, and scalability.

shapeways.com

Co-founder & CTO

Active

Amify

Expertise, everywhere — the AM adoption platform

“ASML credits this methodology with moving them from isolated experiments to company-wide AM capability.”

As Co-founder & CTO, I’m building Amify — the adoption platform that scales additive manufacturing capability across enterprises. AM knowledge gets trapped in a handful of experts; Amify’s structured programs (AM Boost workshops, Mindset Incubator, Learning Ladder, Showcase Library, Supplier Spotlight) spread mindset and maturity across whole organisations. Born from ASML’s real challenges, with €5M+ in cost savings delivered to date.

Trusted by
  • ASML
  • Sidel
  • Pelagus 3D
  • Hexagon
  • toolcraft

amify.me

Founder

Active

Piqe

Done-for-you B2B lead generation

“Your next 1,000 customers already exist.” A managed lead-generation engine for B2B companies in the Netherlands — Piqe maps the market, scores the best prospects, writes outreach that sounds human, and runs the whole pipeline end to end. Clients just close.

getpiqe.com

Founder

Active

Airbolt.dev

Launch-ready security for AI-built code

As more software is generated by AI, more of it ships without a second look. Airbolt scans “vibe-coded” projects for the issues that matter before launch, so developers can ship with confidence. Built and launched on Product Hunt.

airbolt.dev

Also

  • SJM Investments B.V.

    Founder & Director

    Director and majority shareholder of my Dutch holding company — the vehicle for consulting and independent product development.

  • Freelance

    Independent

    Independent full-stack development and consulting engagements.

  • Lulu Systems

    Co-Founder & CTO · 2017–2018

    Co-founded an early-stage retail analytics startup aimed at democratising access to advanced in-store analytics — bringing technology previously reserved for large retailers to smaller operators. Led the technical build as CTO.

    lulusystems.io
Engineering team at work

03 — How I work

One engineering chair.
Several products to ship.

Tiago São José
Tiago São José · Eindhoven, 2026

“Every engineer who joins my team spends their first week in production before writing a line of code. When you've packed the boxes, you build better software — and you decide better, too.”

On leadership · 2026
Leadership
Empathy-driven · prod-first onboarding · monthly Lab Day
Products in flight
Shapeways platform · Amify · Piqe · Airbolt.dev
Bets I'm making
Autonomous AI agents · Kubernetes-native ops · founder-led B2B

04 — Career

14+ years building,
leading, and shipping.

A rare long arc inside one company — seven Shapeways roles spanning every layer of the stack — running in parallel with founder and CTO chairs across Lulu Systems, Amify, Piqe and Airbolt. Scroll to walk it.

  1. Founder track

    Jan 2026 → Present

    Founder

    Piqe · Eindhoven

    Built a managed lead-generation engine for B2B companies in the Netherlands — done-for-you market mapping, prospect scoring, outreach and pipeline.

    • “Your next 1,000 customers already exist.” Map the market, score the best prospects, write outreach that sounds human, run the whole pipeline end-to-end so clients just close.
    • Founder-led product, sales, and ops — shipping value to paying customers in the first months of launch.
    Current

  2. Founder track

    2025 → Present

    Founder

    Airbolt.dev · Eindhoven

    Built and launched a security scanner for AI-generated (“vibe-coded”) projects, so developers can ship to production with confidence.

    • Solo-built and launched on Product Hunt — full-stack product, marketing, and growth.
    • Targets the fastest-growing category in software: AI-built code shipping without a second look.
    Current

  3. Founder track

    Aug 2024 → Present

    Co-founder & CTO

    Amify · Eindhoven

    Co-founded Amify, the adoption platform that scales additive manufacturing capability across enterprises through structured training, workshops, and learning programs.

    • Programs span AM Boost (8-week hands-on workshop), Mindset Incubator, Learning Ladder, Showcase Library and Supplier Spotlight — turning trapped expert knowledge into company-wide capability.
    • Born from ASML’s real challenges; methodology has delivered over €5M in cost savings across clients to date.
    Current

  4. Chapter 04

    2024 → Present

    Head of Engineering & Co-owner

    Shapeways · Eindhoven

    Lead engineering and co-own Shapeways, a digital & additive manufacturing platform, following its 2024 relaunch.

    • Led the migration from a B2C platform — single-model upload and shopping cart — to a full-fledged B2B quoting system, opening up enterprise customers.
    • Lead engineering across a ~40-service microservices estate, organised around three pillars: customer experience, operational efficiency, and scalability.
    Current

  5. Chapter 05

    Jun 2023 → 2024

    Engineering Manager (Platform & IT)

    Shapeways · Eindhoven

    Led the Platform and IT departments — Cloud Platform Engineers, SREs and IT personnel.

    • Managed AWS multi-account environments, leveraging Terraform for IaC and EKS for core services, aligned with the AWS Well-Architected Framework.
    • Oversaw IT Asset Management and helpdesk operations, delivering efficient workflows and rapid issue resolution.

  6. Chapter 06

    Apr 2023 → Jun 2023

    Staff Engineer

    Shapeways · Eindhoven

    Championed a strategic two-year AWS migration from dual on-prem datacenters to cloud infrastructure.

    • Directed cross-functional teams and gave hands-on expertise containerizing PHP applications for Amazon EKS.
    • Established isolated development environments with EKS namespaces, boosting workflow efficiency and cutting operational cost.

  7. Chapter 07

    Apr 2021 → Apr 2023

    Senior Software Engineer

    Shapeways · Eindhoven

    Modernised the core platform and led its move to a service-oriented architecture.

    • Upgraded Shapeways’ core systems from PHP 5 to 7.2 and then 7.4, improving performance and security.
    • Led the re-architecture of a monolith into a service-oriented architecture, improving scalability and maintainability.

  8. Chapter 08

    Oct 2017 → Apr 2021

    Software Engineer

    Shapeways · Eindhoven

    Maintained Shapeways.com and the bespoke ERP system, shipping core e-commerce services.

    • Executed critical bug fixes and feature deployments, improving site functionality and UX.
    • Built key Python and PHP services — tax, shipping and checkout modules — to streamline e-commerce.

  9. Founder track

    2017 → 2018

    Co-Founder & CTO

    Lulu Systems · New York · remote

    Co-founded an early-stage retail analytics startup making advanced in-store analytics affordable for smaller operators.

    • Led the technical build as CTO during the company’s first year.
    • First founder experience — set the foundation for everything I’ve built since.

  10. Chapter 10

    Nov 2014 → Oct 2017

    (Senior) Industrial Engineer

    Shapeways · Eindhoven

    Drove process optimization and automation at the forefront of 3D printing technology.

    • Optimized labor-intensive pre- and post-printing procedures, improving efficiency and productivity.
    • Began collaborating with the software group, contributing development advancements alongside daily process improvements.

  11. Chapter 11

    Nov 2012 → Nov 2014

    3D Printing Engineer & Team Lead

    Shapeways · Eindhoven

    Started on the production floor at a leading 3D printing firm — where the move into code began.

    • Handled post-processing, cleaning, packing and shipping of printed parts; began self-teaching code to automate and improve the work.
    • Enhanced production-line efficiency through identification, analysis and scoping of improvement projects.

05 — Capabilities

The stack I lead —
and still ship code in.

Engineering leadership, cloud platform at scale, AI agents, additive-manufacturing domain expertise. Most leaders pick a lane; I work across all of them, which is what makes the venture portfolio possible.

01 Leadership & Management
Engineering Leadership Team Building Remote Team Management IT Infrastructure Agile / SCRUM
02 Languages & Frameworks
PHP Symfony Python JavaScript Vue.js Java
03 Cloud & Infrastructure
AWS Kubernetes (k3s, Talos) Terraform Docker Flux / Kustomize Hetzner S3 (Garage / MinIO)
04 Messaging & Observability
ActiveMQ Datadog
05 Platforms & Integrations
Shopify Apps Google Workspace (GAM) Zapier
06 AI & Agents
Autonomous agents CrewAI LangGraph LLM integration
07 Domain Expertise
Additive / digital manufacturing 3D printing CAD formats (JT / OpenJT)

06 — Background

The shorter list:
education, languages, press.

Education

  • Self-taught Software Engineer

    Learned on the job at Shapeways — from the production floor up to engineering leadership.

  • Architecture

    Around four years of study in Portugal before changing paths into technology.

Languages

  • Portuguese

    Native

  • English

    Fluent

  • Dutch

    Working comprehension

Elsewhere

Shapeways Team Spotlight: Tiago Sao Jose, Head of Engineering · Shapeways · YouTube · Sep 2025

07 — Contact

Let's talk engineering, manufacturing,
or building things.

Based in Eindhoven, Netherlands, reachable globally. Pick the channel that suits you.