~ $ whoami

Mustafa Alhelawe.

> Software Engineer // full-stack, from Scala pipelines to React UIs.

> Hobbyist Unity Developer // gameplay systems, multiplayer, ML-Agents.

> Tinkerer & Lifelong Learner // RL agents, finance tools, side-quests at 2am.

Currently at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, working across the stack on a trade-confirmation platform that processes millions of daily institutional transactions. On the side, I prototype AI-driven finance tools and reinforcement-learning agents.

$ view projectstry the terminal →

About

01.Aboutcat about.md

Software engineer based in New Jersey. I work full-stack at Bank of America Merrill Lynch on a trade-confirmation platform that moves millions of daily institutional transactions.

Off-hours I'm usually building something. Right now that's Splits, a Plaid-backed app that auto-splits shared bills with roommates and partners. The waitlist is open at splitshq.com.

I'm also a hobbyist Unity dev. My current project is Echobound, a multiplayer extraction roguelike with a voice-controlled AI companion, and I run PPO experiments in a custom ML-Agents environment on the side.

Rutgers ECE '22. I'm into distributed systems, gameplay programming, taking things apart to see how they work, and shipping side projects until 2am.

// education
Rutgers University–New Brunswick
B.S. Electrical and Computer Engineering · Class of 2022

~/skills/
  • ▸ Languages
    ScalaJavaScriptTypeScriptPythonC#JavaKotlinSwiftC/C++Bash
  • ▸ Backend
    REST APIsDistributed SystemsMicroservicesJSONCI/CDKtorKMPRealtimeRLS/auth
  • ▸ Frontend
    ReactNode.jsNext.jsTailwind CSS
  • ▸ Mobile
    Android (Jetpack Compose)iOS (SwiftUI)Kotlin Multiplatform
  • ▸ Database
    PostgreSQLSupabaseSQL
  • ▸ AI / ML
    PyTorchScikit-learnReinforcement LearningLLMs
  • ▸ Tools
    GitCursorClaudeUnityCypressGradleJenkinsLinuxSplunkPlaidSentryDocker

Experience

02.Experiencegit log --oneline

A snapshot of where I've worked and what the day-to-day actually looked like. full résumé →

  1. Software Engineer @ Bank of America Merrill Lynch

    Jan 2023 – Present · Jersey City, NJ

    I work full-stack on the trade-confirmation platform, the system that takes institutional orders and gets them matched, booked, and confirmed without anyone losing money. The backend is Scala services and ingestion pipelines, the operations UI is JavaScript/React, and rollouts have to land on a distributed cluster with zero downtime. Most weeks are a mix of building new flows, getting ops out of release-cycle jail, and chasing down whatever is misbehaving in production.

    scope
    1M+ daily txns10+ trade flows15+ prod servers300+ client configs
    stack
    ScalaJavaScriptReactAMPSJenkinsSplunk

  2. Cybersecurity Analyst Intern @ Capri Holdings Limited

    Jun 2022 – Aug 2022 · East Rutherford, NJ

    A summer in corporate security. I sat with the SOC and triaged real Level 2/3 alerts. Some were routine, and some were a machine quietly phoning home to an IP nobody should be talking to. I also ran vendor risk reviews, which mostly taught me how much of security comes down to reading other companies' policies very carefully.

    scope
    L2/L3 alert triagevendor risk reviewsIOC review
    stack
    LogRhythm SIEMCrowdStrikeSplunk-style workflows

Projects

03.Projectsls ~/projects

Waitlist · splitshq.com

Splits

Your half of rent, settled before you ask.

Link your bank, mark the bills you share, and Splits tracks who owes who as transactions land. You settle up in Venmo or Cash App, so Splits never touches your money. Web is on a waitlist; iOS and Android apps are in active development.

  • Bank-linked
  • Auto-detect recurring
  • iOS & Android in progress
Join waitlist
Next.js 14TypeScriptSupabasePostgreSQL+3

Echobound

Multiplayer Extraction Roguelike

Dec 2025 – Present

Multiplayer extraction roguelike in Unity 6. You play alongside an AI pet you can talk to through your mic. Speech gets transcribed and routed through an LLM that figures out what you actually meant.

  • Voice-driven companion pipeline: press-to-talk → whisper.unity transcription → LLM intent resolution → networked ability dispatch.
  • FishNet authoritative networking keeps the companion's behavior in sync for every player on the server, no client desync.
  • Steamworks-backed lobbies and identity; HDRP visuals in Unity 6 for moody, high-contrast extraction runs.
Unity 6C#FishNetSteamworkswhisper.unity+2

Finance App

Personal finance & AI spending insights

Feb 2026 – Present

Full-stack personal finance app with bank linking and natural-language spending insights. This is the sandbox where the ideas behind Splits started.

Next.jsTypeScriptSupabasePostgreSQLPlaid

AI Simulation Platform

Reinforcement learning in Unity

Jan 2025 – Present

Custom Unity ML-Agents environment for training autonomous agents with PPO + Python training pipelines.

  • Built a modular Unity ML-Agents environment with configurable reward systems and state observations.
  • Tuned PPO hyperparameters across experiments to improve learning stability.
  • Production-style C# integrated cleanly with Python training pipelines.
UnityC#PythonML-AgentsPPO+1
04.Terminal// try it, it actually works

Below is a real interactive shell with 20 commands. Type help to start, use ↑/↓ to recall history, and Tab to autocomplete.

try:

Contact

05.Contactecho $REACH_OUT

// currently open to interesting conversations

Let's build something.

New role, side project, or a half-formed idea that sounds fun: my inbox is the fastest way to reach me.

mustafa.alhelawe@gmail.com