Résumé

Sam Osterfeld

📍 New York, NY

Contact

Professional Summary

I am a full-stack engineer with a humanities background who transitioned into tech to build impactful solutions to real-world problems. I've built production-scale applications with 5000+ hours of intensive development experience. I am currently the founder of Malan Chat, a full-immersion language learning platform for 63 languages.

Technical Skills

Languages & Frameworks

Tools & Platforms

Core Competencies

Full stack development, AI integration, UI/UX design, responsive design, Agile workflows

Languages

English (native), Russian (native), Arabic (advanced), Hebrew (advanced), French (advanced), German (advanced), Spanish (working knowledge)

Fractal AI Accelerator

Jun 2025 – Aug 2025

Overview

Intensive 70-hour/week program (840+ hours total) building production applications with modern full-stack technologies and AI integration.

Fractal AI Accelerator → • View curriculum →

"Sam started Fractal with two months of coding experience, easily the least technical person in the cohort. During week 4, Sam began building Malan, which was genuinely the best project ever shipped by anybody in the program. From zero to a working language learning app for 57 languages. That progression shouldn't be possible, but here we are. Sam approaches problems like someone who's been doing this for years." - Andrew Rose, Founder of Fractal

Projects

Malan Chat ↗

TypeScript, Next.js, Tailwind, SQL, OpenAI API, Vercel

Architected and deployed production-scale language learning platform (350K+ lines of code) serving 500+ active users across 63 languages. Processed 7,500+ AI-powered conversations with sub-second latency through Opus audio optimization. Built 50GB PostgreSQL database with optimized vocabulary storage and implemented FSRS spaced repetition algorithm for retention. Reduced API costs through prompt optimization while maintaining conversation quality.

Internship Experience

SupplyCo AI

Jul 2025

SupplyCo is a B2B SaaS which connects the manufacturers of heavy machinery with customers. I built self-service onboarding, optimized dashboard performance 10x, and made platform mobile-responsive.

Eliminated founder bottleneck by implementing self-service onboarding flow, directly enabling revenue growth (previously required manual account creation for each customer).
Reduced dashboard load times by 10x (from 30 to 3 seconds) through PostgreSQL index optimization, fixing critical performance bug.
Transformed desktop-only platform into mobile-responsive application, capturing previously inaccessible web traffic.
Built automated email drip campaigns with cron jobs for lead nurturing, replacing manual follow-ups.

Shrinked.ai

Aug 2025

Shrinked.ai is an AI context management platform that prevents LLM hallucinations through context management. I am developing data enrichment systems.

Refining the data enrichment system for the context management platform, allowing for the ingestion of many different kinds of data for the purposes of creating an AI platform free of hallucinations.
Creating a chess data ingestion system as a proof of concept for the context management platform, allowing users to query the database for higher-level chess analysis and reports derived therefrom.

Professional Experience

Founder – Malan ChatSep 2025 – Present

Planned, designed, and built the platform from the ground up, translating the product vision into a complete production application.
Own all product and technical decisions across system architecture, UX/UI design, frontend, backend, infrastructure, and ongoing development.

Teacher – NYCDOEDec 2022 – May 2025

Taught social studies and science to classes of 30 students while completing 200+ hours of self-directed software development (EloquentJS, Full Stack Open curriculum).
Integrated digital tools and online platforms to facilitate interactive lessons, developing technical skills that directly informed later software development.

Intake Assistant – Crocus Home CareAug 2020 – Dec 2022

Reduced data entry errors by 15% through process digitization and workflow optimization, directly improving client onboarding efficiency.
Coordinated cross-functional teams across 3 departments to ensure data accuracy and compliance, managing client satisfaction for 200 clients.

Research Assistant – Brooklyn Institute for Social ResearchOct 2018 – Apr 2020

Managed multi-year research project analyzing primary source datasets in Arabic and English; synthesized findings into actionable insights for publication.
Proofread and optimized content for clarity and accuracy.

Arabic Language Teaching Assistant – Columbia UniversityAug 2017 – May 2019

Provided personalized feedback and instruction to 60+ students studying Arabic, developing systematic approaches to language instruction.
Graded and evaluated daily homework assignments, maintaining consistent quality standards across multiple proficiency levels.

Volunteer Content & Social Media Manager – Are You Syrious?Mar 2016 – Jun 2019

Scaled Facebook audience from zero to 40,000+ followers organically through content strategy and community engagement.
Led cross-border volunteer team, providing training and quality control for digital publications, reducing revision cycles by 30%.
Secured $20,000+ in grant funding through proposal writing and editing, directly supporting on-the-ground humanitarian operations in Croatia.

Education

Columbia University, New York

M.A., Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies

CUNY Baccalaureate, New York

B.A., Middle Eastern Studies & Jewish Studies