Michele Grimaldi
AI Engineer & Technical Audio Developer
AI Engineer & Technical Audio Developer with 4+ years of professional experience in game development and machine learning. Currently Independent AI Researcher at Atlas Research, with recent roles at Outlier AI and ChordBoard LLC. Specialized in Python, C++, JUCE, and Unreal Engine for AI-driven audio systems, cross-platform development, and spatial sound design. Published researcher with expertise in RLHF, neural architectures, and shipped game audio integration.
Experience
Full-stack Developer — CHORDBOARD LLC
Nov 2024 – Jan 2025 · Remote
- Enhanced UI components and resolved platform-specific backend issues to improve performance.
- Developed cross-platform functionality in C++/JUCE ensuring stability across systems.
- Implemented and debugged critical features for compatibility in diverse runtime environments.
Language Model Evaluator — Outlier AI (Freelance)
Dec 2024 – Aug 2025 · Remote
- Optimized AI models using RLHF; assessed and ranked LLM responses for quality and safety.
- Worked on prompt design and evaluation pipelines for production models.
AI/LLM Practice Language Expert — Mindtel (Freelance)
Jan 2025 – Mar 2025 · Remote
- Multi-turn conversation generation/annotation in Italian for LLM practice datasets.
- Quality assurance for linguistic accuracy and consistency on client projects.
Independent AI Researcher/Self-Employed — Atlas Research
Mar 2025 – Present · Remote
- Designing memory-augmented cognitive architectures (working/short/long-term) for AI & robotics.
- Experimental validation via NoVa, a hybrid agent with SmolAgents + LLMs.
Technical Sound Designer & Audio Programmer — Self-Employed
Jan 2021 – Present · Hybrid
- Sound design, music, and audio integration for indie titles (Itch.io/Steam, game jams, academic projects).
- Advanced spatial audio/DSP systems in Unreal/Unity; voluntary contributions to experimental tools.
- Cookie Cutter internship; contributions to Project Librarian and Cats Craving.
Education & Certifications
High School Diploma — IT Accounting (Visual Basic basics) (Sep 2015 - Jul 2018)
Foundational CS and programming concepts.
MasAcademy — Music & Sound Design for Cinema and Videogames (Bachelor-level) & Steinberg Certifications (Advanced) (Jan 2022 - Jan 2025)
Professional audio production encompassing film scoring, game audio development, and advanced sound design techniques. Specialized in cinematic and interactive composition using Cubase Pro 12, with extensive experience in game audio implementation via Wwise middleware and Unreal Engine audio systems.
Codecademy — Professional Certificate, Computer Science (86/100) (Jan 2024 - Jan 2025)
Algorithms, data structures, Python; applied projects.
Coursera — IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate (Jan 2025 - Enrolled)
ML/DL (Keras, PyTorch, TensorFlow), NLP & LLMs, CNN/RNN/Attention, RAG & Gradio, Capstone projects.
Coursera — Meta Back End Developer (Jan 2025 - Enrolled)
Django/Flask, APIs, databases, deployment and backend best practices.
Epicode — Master in Game Development (Upcoming Sep 2025)
Focus on gameplay, tools, Unity and audio integration.
Skills
Programming
Python, C++
Frameworks & Libraries
Django, Flask, JUCE, TensorFlow, Keras, PyTorch, SmolAgents, Stable-Baselines3
Web/Backend
PostgreSQL, SQLite, Docker, CI/CD (GitHub Actions)
AI & ML
NLP (NLTK, HF Transformers), LLMs, RL/RLHF, CNN/RNN/Transformers, RAG, Multi-modal
Audio & DSP
DSP, Spatial/3D Audio, Game Audio (Wwise, Unreal, Unity), Music composition/synthesis, DAWs (Ableton Live, Nuendo, RX)
Tools
Linux, Git/GitHub, Shell, Jupyter/Colab
