San Francisco
Orion Parrott
Independent advisor and engineer. I build and secure AI-native systems for work that can’t afford to break.
Founder of OpenFPGA. Principal of Carbide, a San Francisco engineering studio. Advisor to AI ventures in regulated industries. Electrical engineering and an MBA, applied to building things that ship.
How I work with clients
01
Advisory retainer
Monthly engagement as your fractional principal or technical advisor. Standing time, considered judgment, accountable presence.
$15–25k / month
02
Day-rate strategy
A day with the principal: board meetings, build-or-buy calls, technical strategy sessions, architecture review.
$5,000 / day
03
Technical due diligence
Independent assessment for boards and investors before a round, an acquisition, or a launch.
$30–50k, fixed
Selected work
OpenFPGA
Founder. Building specialized inference silicon for the AI generation, on programmable hardware.
Carbide Studio
Principal. The studio behind AI-native vertical apps built and hardened to production rigor. carbide.studio
Biotech AI platform
Engineering advisor. Senior security and launch-readiness audit for a venture-backed clinical-operations AI platform: 78-finding threat model, critical isolation flaw closed, deploys made atomic.
Hardware & firmware
Embedded systems, reverse-engineered hardware protocols, native mobile applications. ESP32 to Apple Watch to MCP. The range a body-shop cannot fake.