Grand Rapids, MI — RemoteOpen to new challenges
Cloud & AI platform architect · Founding operator · Maker
Nearly two decades in infrastructure — most of it architecting cloud and AI platforms for Fortune 500 companies. I like the hard parts: messy migrations, strict compliance regimes, constraints other people design around. Off the clock I run a couple of small companies and make things in the workshop — printers, circuit boards, tools nobody sells yet.
Google Cloud Certified — Professional Cloud Architect · HIPAA / HiTrust / NIST / SOC 2 · DoD Top-Secret (former)
Also running: Dreamland Media · FreeTheTitty
Track record
These are the rooms I've been in — what I actually did there, not the marketable version. Early Kubernetes and Terraform practitioner: I was running CoreOS Tectonic and Calico at Ford in 2017, when container orchestration was still a bet.
Principal Cloud Architect
2026 — now
One of two GCP architects in the entire organization, responsible for the whole stack — roughly $700k a month at the time of writing. When Spectrum merged with Cox to become the largest provider in the world, their GCP environments became mine too. Still landing zones and platform delivery on Google's Cloud Foundation Fabric and FAST, still carried from design through operational handoff.
Staff Cloud Architect
2024 — 2025
I built their AI training infrastructure, designed the AI solutions, and — for a hackathon — built a talking teddy bear with GenAI inside. Championed the platforms to investors with full buy-in from leadership. Along the way: cut cloud OpEx 42% (about $396k a year) by right-sizing GPU compute and rebuilding ETL, and shipped the HIPAA-compliant backend for production AI agents on Vertex AI and LangChain, with a GKE orchestration layer for MLOps underneath.
Director, GCP Cloud Practice
2023 — 2024
Worked directly with Fortune 100 stakeholders — their conferences, occasionally their penthouse bars — building advanced IaC on GCP for very-high-security FinOps and AI environments. A competitive platform evaluation turned into a $40M engagement I owned end to end: architecture review, cost modeling, team build, production in six months, Day 2. GenAI landing zones and production RAG for Mattel, Angels Baseball (MLB), and a $3B+ fintech.
Head of GCP Cloud Practice
2020 — 2023
Owned product and technical vision for a multi-cloud landing-zone SaaS that enforced NIST, SOC 2, and HIPAA as code across GCP, Azure, and AWS. Drove the company to Google Cloud Premier Partner status. Built and led the global engineering organization, and delivered hybrid GCP landing-zone automation for Cisco.
Director of DevOps
2018 — 2020
I didn't just run DevOps for 60+ concurrent enterprise client engagements — I built the department that made the company acquirable. Standardized delivery on modular Terraform and Kubernetes; the audit-ready infrastructure processes survived Kin+Carta's acquisition due diligence.
Solutions Architect — Private Cloud
2018
Built the Terraform infrastructure that deployed fleets of private cloud for other teams and business units across Apple — unblocking 40+ engineers onto GPU compute for AI/ML. Etcd management, automated restores, Prometheus and Grafana at scale; cluster-scale findings contributed upstream to CNCF.
Next Gen Solutions Engineer
2017 — 2018
Worked with the original architects at CoreOS and Tigera on the earliest networking iterations of Kubernetes eBPF — and eventually Istio. Designed the container networking and security policy models for Ford's global Kubernetes platform on CoreOS Tectonic, with BGP routing on Calico: concept to a 120-node production deployment, provisioning down from days to minutes.
Founding & operating
Architecture is one instrument; ownership is another. The pattern started early — first consulting work in 2008, field engineering with a DoD Top-Secret clearance through 2015 — and it never stopped.
Photography, videography, and live-event production in Grand Rapids — portraits, brand shoots, aerial work, and full event coverage. A crew for moments worth keeping.
Visit dreamland.llcAn artistic boudoir photography studio with its own platform — booking, client galleries, and age-gated access. Built the whole thing front to back: brand, product, and infrastructure.
Visit freethetitty.comRan all technology for a $20M/yr manufacturer and its 16-store retail arm. Moved the business to GCP at 70% lower cost, built a mail platform at 98% lower, and implemented Odoo ERP with FDA batch/lot traceability end to end.
Michigan · sister companiesDeep in Google Cloud, fluent across the stack — from BGP policy to board-level cost models.
Google Cloud Certified
Professional Cloud Architect (recertifying 2026)
Davenport University
Computer Science — systems & networks engineering, 2011
NYU-Polytechnic Institute
Computer Science, 2010–2011
Making
The through-line across all of it is making: if something doesn't exist, design it; if it exists but fails people, rebuild it.
3D printing and microelectronics — designing parts, flashing firmware, wiring boards into tools, fixtures, and gadgets nobody sells. Half the infrastructure habits I bring to enterprise platforms were rehearsed on a solder mat first.
Prototyping in health spaces — mental-health tools among them — where HIPAA-grade thinking meets consumer software. Clinical data pipelines by day at Lore; the same discipline applied to products people use at 2 a.m.
Connect
Always open to new challenges in AI, cloud, and enterprise leadership — the strategy and the hands-on delivery.
A platform problem, a cost curve that won't bend, an AI build that needs a steady hand. Fifteen minutes is usually enough to tell if I can help.
Principal and staff platform roles, hands-on. I don't do drive-by decks — whatever I take on, I stay through Day 2.