Director of Software Engineering & AI Leadership with 20+ years of experience across the public and private sectors — from writing the first line of code to leading the AI adoption and modernization agenda at an international enterprise.
I'm a highly qualified software professional with 20+ years of experience in the software engineering field, working across both the public and private sectors — from state government agencies to insurance companies to international enterprises.
My path has been a natural progression: developer → lead developer → software operations manager → director. Each step added a layer of perspective without removing the ones beneath it. I still read the code, still debate the architecture, and still believe that great software is a craft worth protecting at every level of the org.
Today I'm equally focused on AI leadership as I am on engineering leadership. As a member of the organization's AI Center of Excellence, I help define enterprise AI strategy, governance frameworks, and adoption standards across the business. On my own teams, AI isn't an experiment — Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Microsoft Copilot are standard tools built into how we design, build, review, and ship software every day.
I hold a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Florida State University and have spent two decades+ working across the full technology spectrum — from custom application development and enterprise platform migrations to cloud architecture, data engineering, AI tooling, and the organizational systems that make engineering teams deliver at their best.
Inherited a legacy software engineering shop — fragmented systems, manual processes, and an on-premise footprint that had outgrown itself — and led a full-scale transformation into a modern, cloud-native engineering organization. This wasn't an incremental upgrade. It was a simultaneous rebuild of people, process, tooling, and architecture across an international enterprise, while keeping the business running throughout.
Led a team of 20+ developers while simultaneously owning the architecture and delivery of complex, multi-state government software platforms. This role demanded equal parts people leadership, technical depth, and process discipline — managing delivery velocity and code quality across a large team while personally contributing to the architectural decisions that shaped the product.
Active member of the organization's AI Center of Excellence — helping define the enterprise-wide AI strategy, evaluate emerging tools and platforms, set adoption standards, and ensure AI initiatives are deployed responsibly across the business. The CoE serves as the governing body for how AI is used, governed, and scaled across the entire organization.
Operationalized daily AI tool use across all engineering teams — Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Microsoft Copilot. Established team norms, responsible use guidelines, and practical playbooks for AI-assisted code generation, debugging, architecture design, and documentation. Measurably increased engineering throughput and code quality without adding headcount.
Expanded AI beyond developer tooling into enterprise-grade integrations using Model Context Protocol (MCP) — connecting AI assistants directly to internal systems to enable context-aware automation across engineering workflows, documentation, and operational data. Designing the architecture for AI that knows your business, not just your prompts.
Designed and enforced organizational AI security frameworks covering data classification, prompt injection risks, model access controls, and responsible use policies. Established governance standards that ensure AI adoption doesn't outpace the organization's ability to secure and audit it — including policies now used enterprise-wide across all business units.
Led the global migration from legacy ERP systems to Dynamics 365 F&O across international business units. Responsible for data model harmonization, phased regional cutover, and integration with custom .NET solutions and Azure data pipelines — replacing fragmented on-premise financial and operations platforms with a unified cloud-based ERP backbone.
Led migration of legacy CRM systems to Dynamics 365 CE across global regions. Managed integration with Power Platform, custom .NET solutions, and Azure services — consolidating fragmented customer data and sales processes into a single governed platform for the enterprise.
Experience working with Salesforce as an enterprise CRM platform — evaluating integration points, data migration strategies, and cross-platform interoperability within complex multi-system environments.
Leveraged ServiceNow for IT service management and enterprise workflow automation — including incident management, change control, and IT governance processes at scale across a global organization.
Worked with Sage ERP systems as part of broader legacy modernization initiatives — assessing existing implementations, planning migration paths, and managing the transition to more modern cloud-based ERP platforms.
Experience with HubSpot as a marketing and CRM platform — including evaluation, integration strategy, and connecting HubSpot data flows into broader enterprise data pipelines and reporting layers.
Early and active adopter of AI tooling across the full engineering lifecycle. Established team norms for responsible daily use of AI — from code generation and debugging to architecture design, documentation, and code review acceleration.
Two decades+ building production software on the Microsoft .NET platform — from early .NET Framework and Web Forms through to modern .NET Core, Razor Pages, and Blazor. Full-stack fluency spanning server-side C# architecture to component-driven frontend development with Vue, React, and Angular. Comfortable across the entire delivery chain: API design, data access, UI, and the DevOps tooling that ships it all.
15+ years designing, optimizing, and managing relational databases at enterprise scale — from complex SQL Server schemas and stored procedures to full Entity Framework migrations and cloud-native Azure data solutions. Experience spans traditional on-premise RDBMS platforms (Oracle, DB2) through to modern NoSQL (MongoDB, Azure Cosmos DB) and analytical workloads via Azure Synapse and Microsoft Fabric. Equally comfortable writing a query, reviewing a schema design, or making the call on when a relational model isn't the right tool for the job.
8+ years architecting and operating on Microsoft Azure — from the first application migrations off on-premise infrastructure to building fully cloud-native platforms with microservices, serverless functions, caching layers, and event-driven messaging. Experience spans the full Azure stack: compute, storage, networking, identity, DevOps, and analytics. Redis Caching, Azure Functions, Service Bus, AI Search, and App Services are daily tools, not occasional experiments.
Introduced and scaled Agile and Scrum delivery frameworks across multiple engineering organizations from scratch. Deep hands-on experience with Azure DevOps and Jira as full delivery platforms — not just ticket trackers, but systems for sprint planning, velocity measurement, capacity forecasting, and executive reporting. Built end-to-end CI/CD pipelines that took teams from manual deployments to automated, gated, auditable paths to production.
Built engineering departments from zero — writing job descriptions, running every interview, making every hire, and owning onboarding from day one. Led teams of 20+ across multiple organizations and multiple levels, from entry-level developers through to senior architects. Comfortable in the boardroom and in the code review. Experienced operating at the IT steering committee level, setting organizational policy, managing department budgets, and reporting directly to executive leadership on delivery health and strategic priorities.
Led global migrations from multiple legacy ERP and CRM systems to Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O and CE across international business units — harmonizing data models, standardizing workflows, and decommissioning fragmented on-premise platforms. Experience integrating Dynamics 365 with custom .NET applications, Power Platform automation, and Azure data pipelines. Broader enterprise platform experience spans Salesforce, ServiceNow, Sage ERP, and HubSpot across evaluation, integration, and migration engagements.
Championed and operationalized daily AI tool use across all engineering teams — Claude, ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Microsoft Copilot. Established team norms, responsible use guidelines, and practical playbooks for AI-assisted code generation, debugging, architecture design, and documentation. Measurably increased engineering throughput and code quality without adding headcount.
Expanded the AI program beyond developer tooling into enterprise-grade AI solutions — including Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations that connect AI assistants directly to internal systems, enabling context-aware automation across engineering workflows, documentation, and operational data. Designed and enforced AI security frameworks covering data classification, prompt injection risks, model access controls, and responsible use governance to ensure AI adoption didn't outpace the organization's ability to secure it.
Led the introduction and full adoption of Agile and Scrum across AVI SPL and Brandt Information Services — two organizations where engineering had been operating reactively, with no structured delivery framework, unpredictable timelines, and little visibility into what the team was actually working on.
At each org, the implementation started with understanding how teams were actually working before introducing any new process. Established sprint planning, standups, reviews, and retrospectives with real purpose behind each one. Defined team roles, introduced backlog prioritization discipline, and set up velocity tracking that gave leadership meaningful delivery forecasting for the first time. At AVI SPL this was built on Azure DevOps; at Brandt, Jira. Tooling chosen to fit the org, not the other way around. Within months at each company, teams went from unpredictable to consistent — and engineering became a function the business could plan around.
Designed and deployed a comprehensive IT intake and work management system at AVI SPL, replacing a fragmented, email-driven request process that had no visibility, no accountability, and no way to measure the scope of demand hitting the engineering organization. Built on Azure DevOps, the system gave the enterprise a single front door for all IT requests — from small enhancements to large multi-team initiatives. Every request was captured, categorized, prioritized, and tracked through its full lifecycle. Level of effort estimates, resource assignments, and delivery timelines were tied directly to work items, giving leadership real data to make prioritization decisions and budget allocations. The result was a fully auditable, self-service intake process that quantified engineering demand for the first time — making capacity planning, project forecasting, and executive reporting grounded in actual numbers rather than gut feel.
Led multiple large-scale .NET modernization initiatives across AVI SPL and Brandt Information Services — migrating aging .NET Framework and ASP.NET Web Forms applications to modern .NET Core, Razor Pages, and Blazor. Each engagement involved more than a technology swap: legacy SQL stored procedures replaced with Entity Framework Core, on-premise infrastructure moved to Azure-hosted services, and tightly coupled monolithic codebases refactored into maintainable, testable architectures.
At AVI SPL, this included re-platforming customer-facing and internal enterprise applications to cloud-native solutions. At Brandt, a multi-year effort modernized the core platform powering state government licensing systems.
Both programs delivered measurable improvements in developer velocity, deployment frequency, and long-term maintainability — and gave each organization a foundation that could actually support the pace of future delivery.
When I joined AVI SPL, there was no software engineering department — just an unstructured group of developers with no process, tooling, or organizational identity. I built it entirely from scratch, in parallel with helping shape a broader newly formed IT organization alongside IT leadership who owned infrastructure, support, and operations.
Built out six distinct teams — Database Administration, Data Engineering, Power BI Reporting, Custom Code Development, Power Platform, and US Sage ERP — hiring across FTE and contract roles. Wrote every job description, conducted every interview, made every offer, and personally onboarded each hire. Established code review standards, sprint ceremonies, agile delivery practices, and a formal IT intake process that gave the business full visibility into engineering capacity and delivery. Delivery time cut in half within the first year.
Led the end-to-end modernization of AVI SPL's custom application portfolio — re-architecting a legacy on-premise estate to a fully cloud-native footprint on Microsoft Azure. Every application was evaluated and rebuilt to take proper advantage of the platform, not just moved to a new host.
Core workloads moved to Azure App Services on .NET Core and Blazor, with Redis Caching reducing latency, Azure Service Bus decoupling distributed services, and Azure Functions handling background processing and integrations. Azure AI Search replaced slow SQL-based search with relevance-ranked indexed queries, and an enterprise data warehouse on Azure Synapse and Power BI replaced manual reporting with self-service analytics. End-to-end CI/CD pipelines in Azure DevOps automated the full build, test, and deployment workflow from commit to production.
Led the migration of multiple legacy ERP and CRM platforms across global regions to Microsoft Dynamics 365 — coordinating across international business units to harmonize data models, decommission fragmented on-premise systems, and deliver a unified, cloud-based operational platform for the enterprise.
Beyond the technical migration, this was a global standardization initiative. Different regions had developed their own processes, workarounds, and ways of working around the limitations of their legacy systems. The Dynamics 365 rollout was the forcing function to consolidate those inconsistencies — establishing common workflows, standardized data structures, and shared operational processes that gave the entire organization a single, consistent way of working regardless of geography. The result was a measurable reduction in process overhead, faster cross-regional reporting, and an enterprise that could finally operate as one coherent system rather than a collection of disconnected regional implementations.
What started as a two-state solution grew into a nationally deployed, configurable multi-tenant platform serving millions of license holders across many states. The model proved itself early — a single codebase with state-specific configuration layers handled the variation in business rules, fee structures, and licensing categories without forking for every new state. What previously required building from scratch became a structured onboarding process, supporting hunting, fishing, and vessel permitting for state government agencies across the country.
State data compliance and individual state laws were foundational constraints throughout — data residency requirements, open records laws, and state-specific audit trails all had to be satisfied within a single shared architecture without compromising any state's compliance posture.
Built a production-grade electronic poll book at Scytl in .NET C# and XAML — deployed in live elections, one of the most security-sensitive and compliance-critical domains in software. Hardware-agnostic and offline-first, the application ran on desktop and tablet in connected or fully disconnected environments without data loss or process interruption.
Synchronized with Microsoft Dynamics VRM via RESTful web services and SignalR, with conflict resolution logic and transaction logging maintaining a verifiable audit trail across all simultaneous poll book instances. Security was foundational — encrypted data at rest and in transit, role-based access controls, tamper-evident voter check-in logging, and strict chain-of-custody protocols required by government compliance standards.
While at Wise Outlook and Brandt Information Services, helped develop one of the earliest mobile web-based ordering systems — built in partnership with Papa John's Pizza. This was early-era iPhone, when the App Store was in its infancy and web-based applications were the faster, more practical path to putting a real experience in users' hands on Apple's new device.
The application was among the first web apps that Apple featured on their website as a showcase of what the iPhone's browser could do — a remarkable recognition at a time when mobile web development had no established patterns, no frameworks, and no playbook to follow. It required building from first principles on an entirely new platform, optimizing for a screen size and interaction model that the industry was still figuring out.
It was an early signal of something that would define the next two decades of software: the web wasn't just for desktops, and the engineers who understood that early had a significant head start.
Built a debris tracking and management system for Ashbritt Environmental in direct response to Hurricane Katrina — one of the most destructive natural disasters in U.S. history. There was no planning phase and no normal development process. The system was needed immediately to support active cleanup operations, and the team stepped in under emergency conditions to deliver it.
The system tracked, weighed, and managed debris across the disaster zone — coordinating cleanup crews, documenting removal volumes for government reporting, and managing contractor accountability across a large-scale multi-site operation. Accurate tracking was tied directly to FEMA reimbursement and state contract compliance, making reliability non-negotiable. Building mission-critical software under real emergency pressure was a formative experience in what it means to ship software that actually matters.
"The best engineering leaders I've known never stopped being engineers. The title changed. The curiosity didn't." — Linus Torvalds — Stephen Frouge
The teams that win with AI aren't the ones that use it most — they're the ones that use it intentionally. My job is to make sure we adopt AI in a way that raises the floor for everyone, not just the few who figure it out on their own.
Directors who can't read code make bad tradeoffs. I stay close to the work — not to micromanage, but to ask better questions and protect the craft at every layer of the org.
Ambiguity kills momentum. My job is to ensure every engineer knows why their work matters, what done looks like, and who decides what — before the sprint starts.
Daily standups, 1:1s, code reviews, retros — none of these are overhead. They're the rituals that signal what you value and build the team's confidence over time.
If you're looking for a senior engineering leader, want a direct perspective on AI adoption, cloud transformation, or enterprise platform strategy, or have an opportunity worth exploring — reach out. The right conversations are always worth having.