Zhaoqi Li
AI engineer & product builder
( San Francisco )
I build AI products end to end, and build ( ladders ) for the people coming up behind me.
( Hello )
I'm a founding AI engineer and de facto PM at ( LlamaIndex ), where I build document-processing AI infrastructure for Fortune 500 companies and high-growth startups. My work spans forward-deployed engineering, product engineering, and product management.
Before that: solutions engineering at Enigma and Sisu, and consulting at Deloitte. Outside work I love karaoke, ( Go ), the Chinese strategy board game, the piano, and trying creative ideas with the latest AI tools.
You are now entering ( Work ) section
( 02 )Work
Where I've worked, what I owned, and what came of it.
Customer-facing founding engineer at an AI-infrastructure startup, later owning product and self-serve growth.
- Led technical delivery for enterprise customers from proof of concept to production, including a multi-year Fortune-10 healthcare deployment.
Solutions Engineer
Enigma Technologies · San Francisco
Technical lead on product evaluations for a data startup, and the person who brought LLMs into the product.
- Led 48 technical evaluations with account executives and helped close 22 new customers.
- Built and launched EnigmaGPT, then rolled out LLM agents across customer success, sales, and product.
- Developed a semantic lead-generation product that became a top company priority.
Solutions Architect
Sisu Data · San Francisco
Delivered analytics solutions for enterprise clients across financial services, e-commerce, and gaming.
- Landed the company's first successful enterprise account.
- Won the People's Choice Award at the company hackathon for a solo-built external sharing feature.
Business Technology Analyst → Consultant
Deloitte Consulting · Chicago & San Francisco
Technology consulting for healthcare, pharma, and financial-services clients.
- Designed the technical architecture and data model for a core forecasting process at a global pharma company.
- Led the product workstream for a Future of Health incubation; first place in Startup Deloitte, 2020.
( Education )
B.S. Computer Science & Economics
University of Wisconsin–Madison
2015 — 2019 · Phi Beta Kappa
( Speaking & judging )
- 2026
Judge, LLM x Law Hackathon
Stanford CodeX, Stanford Law School
- 2025
Building LLM Data Pipelines with LlamaIndex and Elasticsearch
ElasticON San Francisco, lightning talk
- 2025
Judge, Web Agent Build Day
AGI House
- 2025
Judge, AI Agents Hackathon
Carnegie Mellon University
You are now entering ( Projects ) section
( 03 )Projects
Things I've built, from open-source tools to the communities I founded.
- ( 01 )2025
AutoRFP
Open source
An open-source platform that automates RFP responses with LLM agents, publicly launched under the LlamaIndex organization.
- LlamaIndex
- Agents
- TypeScript
- ( 02 )2022 —
Lara
Co-founder
A generative-AI social platform: as Lara gets to know you, she introduces people with ( shared interests ) who might want to meet. In private beta with documented user research.
- Generative AI
- Social
- User research
- ( 03 )2023
EnigmaGPT
Intrapreneurship
An LLM agent over Enigma's 30M-plus-record small-business dataset, built solo as both PM and full-stack engineer with the CEO. Cut go-to-market query time by about 90%.
- LLM
- Full stack
- Data
- ( 04 )2018 —
Xunxiang 寻向
Community
A selective national mentorship program for Chinese students: 100-plus mentees from 40-plus colleges, 50-plus industry mentors, and 50-plus published career interviews.
- Mentorship
- Founder
- ( 05 )2017
Badger Mentorship
Community
The first mentorship program for Chinese international students at UW–Madison. Around 100 applications and 50-plus mentor–mentee pairs in year one, plus six career workshops.
- Mentorship
- Founder
- ( 06 )2016 — 2019
我的留学生活
Writing
A blog on studying abroad, with 80 original articles and 7,000-plus followers, followed by a self-funded ( ten-city ) speaking tour across China for students and parents.
- Writing
- Speaking
You are now entering ( Life ) section
( 04 )Life
Photographs, a few pieces of music, and the cities in between.
( Photographs )
Hoofers sailboats, Memorial Union · Madison, 2018 
Sunset from the Terrace pier, Lake Mendota · Madison, 2018 
Fireworks over Navy Pier · Chicago, 2018 
Capitol Square on market morning · Madison, 2018 
Mallards at the lake's edge · Madison, 2018 
Centennial Wheel, Navy Pier · Chicago, 2018 
Street magician on the Square · Madison, 2018 
Sunflowers, six dollars a bunch · Madison, 2018 
Gull against a storm sky · Chicago, 2018 
Dahlias at the farmers' market · Madison, 2018 
Observation hive at the honey stall · Madison, 2018 
Cheese curds · Madison, 2018
( Music )
Untitled No. 1
01 · 2026 · 3:12Piano sketch, recorded at home one quiet Sunday.
Tunnel Light
02 · 2025 · 4:40Ambient piece. Made for the nights before big decisions.
Relay
03 · 2024 · 1:58A short guitar loop that never became a full song, and doesn't need to.
( Recordings coming soon )
( Places )
- — 2013Luoyang · Henan, ChinaWhere I'm from.
- 2013 — 2015Yangzhou · Jiangsu, ChinaHigh school.
- 2015 — 2019Madison · WisconsinCollege, and the first things I built.
- 2019 — 2021Chicago · IllinoisFirst job.
- 2021 —San Francisco · CaliforniaHome now.
Also passed through
Beijing·Shanghai·Hangzhou·Chengdu·Xi'an·Minneapolis·New York·Seattle·Los Angeles·Tokyo·Berlin·Lisbon
You are now entering ( Contact ) section
( 05 )Contact
Enable generations of young people to find their brightest futures.
Say hello
zhaoqili74@gmail.com