Andrew Crookston
Engineering leader and builder | Lean operator | AI · Platform strategy · Legacy modernisation · Twenty years shipping
Stockholm, Sweden · Swedish & English (both native)
[email protected] ·
andrewcrookston.com ·
LinkedIn ·
GitHub
Summary
Engineering leader and builder. Lean operator with twenty years of hands-on technical depth and strategic thinking — co-founded a profitable B2C startup, shipped features to 50M+ users at Spotify, and now lead engineering at a Swedish healthtech preparing for IPO. I turn technology decisions into measurable business outcomes: a consultant-to-FTE restructuring saving 5–7M SEK annually, infrastructure refactoring delivering 1M+ SEK/year. Strong on legacy modernisation, AI adoption, and platform consolidation. Active builder and writer at andrewcrookston.com.
Work Experience
Doktor.se
- Emerged as sole technical leader across multiple leadership transitions, consolidating all technical direction under one vision
- Unified previously disconnected teams into a “One Engineering Org” model with autonomous squads and advisory forums
- Driving AI-powered health assistant services (triage, anamnesis) navigating EU MDR, AI Act, and GDPR compliance
- Leading multi-platform consolidation (Doktor.se, Maja.no, Doktor24.se, Kollarna.se) including build vs buy decisions, while maintaining regulatory compliance, patient care quality and service efficiency
- Spotted cost imbalance in 80/20 consultant-to-FTE ratio, managed vendor transitions and drove ratio to 30/70 — saving 5–7M SEK annually
- Identified over-engineered infrastructure platform, hired DevOps talent and drove refactoring — delivering 1M+ SEK/year in savings and growing
- Initiated DevOps culture transformation with layered ownership model giving product teams infrastructure responsibility
- Preparing technical infrastructure, documentation, and investor-ready reporting for IPO due diligence
Lifesum — Tech Lead / Engineering Manager
Led and mentored iOS team of 5. Drove key technical projects and partnered with Apple and product team on roadmap.
Kry — Senior iOS Consultant (via Digitalent)
Improved internal UI/UX framework and CI/CD processes for patient-facing iOS app.
Spotify — Senior Lead iOS Consultant (via Digitalent)
Built Car Mode, Spotify’s mobile experience for car connectivity, reaching 50M+ users. Completed proof-of-concept and set foundation for converting the entire Spotify app to a car-friendly experience.
Digitalent — Mobile Business Area Lead
Led Digitalent’s mobile practice — mentoring, teaching, and recruiting.
Instacart — Senior iOS Engineer
Delivered high-impact projects: earnings redesign, drive-in pickup, on-demand scheduling. Rearchitectured app for testability and developer experience. Redesigned parts of hiring process, conducted hundreds of technical interviews.
Throwdown Labs Inc. — Co-founder & CTO
Built two fitness iOS apps from scratch including backend. Keelo was profitable within year one, featured on App Store front page. Throwdown required advanced video editing/rendering and algorithmic matching.
Muzy Inc. — Software Engineer, Product & Growth
Built Muzy (reached #8 in App Store Photo category) and Hello (custom SMS/MMS for early Android). Spotted early mobile traffic trends, pushed company toward mobile-first strategy. Invented and executed 50+ A/B tests and growth optimizations.
Blogg Esse AB — Development Manager (CTO)
Took over a failing iOS project, rescued it, delivered successfully. Brought platform to profitability for the first time. Sweden’s 7th most visited website — 1M accounts, 3M uniques, 44M page views/week.
Earlier Roles
Freelance - CA Systems (2005–2012) · Systems Developer Consultant - Athega AB (2010–2011) · System Architect / Lead Developer - Newsline Group (2007–2010) · System Developer - The PAR Group (2006–2007) · Web Developer - Bisnode AB (2005–2006) · System Developer - Affärsdata AB (2003–2004)
Projects
Pilot — Governed AI execution platform for regulated enterprises. Spec-driven SDLC pipeline with multi-agent review and full audit trail. Built for Europe's NIS2/DORA/GDPR reality. Open source community edition launching first half of 2026.
Enginr — Engineering management platform translating GitHub activity into actionable insights. Quality Radar, Ship & Impact Log, automated daily digests. Born from managing 25+ engineers. Launching 2026.
Ord — Minimal WYSIWYG markdown editor. Live prototype. Open source (MIT). ordeditor.com
Writing — Publishing on agentic coding, SaaS disruption, and AI ethics in content creation. andrewcrookston.com
Skills
Leadership
Org design & scaling · Technology strategy · AI product development in regulated environments (EU MDR, AI Act, GDPR) · Executive communication · Stakeholder management · Budget management & cost optimization · Technical hiring & recruiting · Change management · Performance management · Mentoring & coaching · Risk management · Capacity planning
Technical
Full-stack architecture · AI/ML integration & agentic coding · Cloud infrastructure · Platform migration & system consolidation · DevOps, CI/CD & observability · Security & compliance (GDPR, NIS2) · Data engineering & analytics · API design · Mobile development (iOS, Android) · Data-driven decision making · Open source · Product & UX sensibility
Languages & Frameworks
Swift, Kotlin, Ruby, Python, TypeScript · iOS (SwiftUI, UIKit), Rails, Node.js, React · SQL, HTML, CSS
Tools
Claude Code, OpenAI / Chat GPT, Cursor AI · AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Grafana · PostgreSQL, Redis, Elasticsearch · Git, Figma · Linear, Jira, Notion
Education
Submarine Fleet Radio Operator · Swedish Navy (2003–2005) — Highest-tier conscription. Classified communications, submarine fleet. Security clearance. Leadership training.
National Technology Program · Cybergymnasiet (2001–2003) — C++, Java, systems administration.
EPiServer Developer Cert (2007) · C# .NET (2007) · Java (2005)