San Diego, California, United States
I bridge the gap between complex enterprise data and modern AI capabilities. For over two decades, I have architected systems that organize the world’s most complex infrastructure data. My focus is now on evolving traditional Knowledge Management into AI-ready ecosystems—moving from static repositories to dynamic, semantic discovery engines. I am a Distinguished Architect who remains deeply hands-on. I don’t just draw diagrams; I build the pipelines, define the ontologies, code the prototypes, build and train the teams, then scale it up to production and support operation. What I'm Building Now: I am creating an AI-native knowledge system. The vision is to move beyond retrieval (RAG) to collaborative knowledge creation—where AI agents and humans work together in structured conversations to extract entities, establish verifiable relationships, and maintain a living, versioned knowledge graph. The core belief is that for AI to be trustworthy, it must be built upon a foundation of managed context, lineage, and human-AI collaboration. My value proposition to AI/KM Startups: • Deep Knowledge Engineering: Decades of experience designing ontologies, semantic SOAs, and graph-like relationships for highly regulated industries (Nuclear, Rail, Road). • Scalability & Security: proven track record of implementing Zero-Trust security and Multi-tenant SaaS architectures that scale without breaking the bank. • Agility: I specialize in building "big systems with small teams," utilizing modern patterns to maximize developer throughput. • AI Infrastructure: Architected enterprise-grade Lakehouses (Medallion architecture) and Global Search solutions utilizing AI embeddings, Vector Search (OpenSearch), and RAG patterns. Core Tech Stack: • AI/Data: Vector Embeddings and Inverted Index Search, Lakehouse, Knowledge Graphs. • Architecture: Kubernetes, Microservices, Event-Driven, Actor Models, Multi-tenancy, GitOps • Domain: Enterprise Knowledge Management, Digital Twins, Asset Lifecycle.
Building a next-generation platform where knowledge is dynamic, contextual, and AI-native. We're moving beyond static documents and simple search to systems where entities, relationships, and their evolution are first-class citizens. • Core Innovation: Applying Git-like versioning and lineage to all data types, and treating relationships as managed entities—creating a fully traceable, evolvable knowledge fabric. • AI-Augmented Workflow: Designing systems where AI agents and humans collaborate in chat-like research sessions to extract structured knowledge from unstructured text and co-create intelligent records. • User Experience Revolution: Unifying discovery through a semantic query language and multiple interactive views (graph, timeline, map) that adapt to the meaning of the data. • Open Architecture: A cloud-agnostic, horizontally scalable platform built to integrate with any AI model and storage layer, giving organizations full control over their data and intelligence.
• Architected a cloud-agnostic enterprise data Lakehouse using a Medallion architecture, establishing scalable pipelines to transform raw data into curated, analytics-ready "gold" datasets—the foundational data products for business intelligence and machine learning. • Designed and led the "Global Search" initiative, creating a unified knowledge retrieval platform that aggregated and federated content from disparate sources, incorporating AI embeddings and spatial search to enable semantic and contextual discovery. • Architected a vendor-neutral data platform with pluggable engines (DuckDB, PySpark) and file formats (Parquet), decoupling data storage from processing to enable flexible consumption by different analytical and AI workloads. • Pioneered the adoption of the Actor Pattern (Microsoft Orleans) for cloud-scale, stateful services, demonstrating its utility for real-time, bi-directional applications (e.g., prototype AI chat). • Drove a zero-trust security architecture (NIST 800-207) and comprehensive threat modeling for multi-tenant SaaS platforms. • Established GitOps and deployment automation patterns compatible with all major CI/CD pipelines, achieving consistent, reliable deployments across Kubernetes environments (AKS, Rancher). • Leadership: Founded and led the company-wide "Operating Cloud Service" workgroup, establishing production-ready practices and bridging development/operations for scalable AI/ML services.
• Drove the strategic evolution of a large product suite (AssetWise) toward a cloud-native, microservices architecture, defining the technical vision and roadmap for modernization. • Designed and evangelized the core set of cloud-agnostic microservices and common components for cross-cutting concerns (auth, jobs, notifications, logging), establishing the shared platform that enabled product teams to build faster and more consistently. • Championed Kubernetes and Docker as the standard hosting model, establishing foundational patterns that became company-wide practice. • Architected critical knowledge-centric systems: an advanced workflow engine (with branching, merging, nesting), a program management system, and a state-machine module for modeling complex business rules and entity lifecycles. • Led ontology development for Bentley's Base Infrastructure Schemas, defining the core semantic data model that structures information across the company's digital twin ecosystem. • Leadership: Led a division of 70+ engineers, improving team engagement scores by 18 points within a year through clear technical vision and mentorship.
• Designed a semantic Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) with service registry and discovery, improving the findability, reusability, and interoperability of knowledge-as-a-service capabilities. • Architected systems central to knowledge work and process management: a Long-life Locking system for collaborative editing, a Transmittal System for formal information exchange, and a state machine framework for custom life-cycles. • Created a Model-Driven Design pattern with code generators, dramatically reducing errors and increasing developer productivity when working with complex domain models. • Developed a synchronization subsystem (based on MS Sync Framework) and standard methodologies for integrating external systems, solving key problems in bidirectional knowledge sync and data consistency. • Leadership: Set up and staffed a new Bentley development office, creating a hub for innovation and mentoring its initial team of developers.
• Designed the core data architecture for the eB Knowledge Management Platform, including: a formal ontology to standardize semantics, a hierarchical multi-tenant model ("Scopes") for complex supply chains, and a generic relationship model to capture interconnected knowledge. • Architected a comprehensive, queryable security and audit subsystem (RBAC) for enterprise compliance, ensuring traceability of all interactions within the knowledge base. • Built foundational KM capabilities: an Enterprise Information Publishing system, a Survey and Trending system for feedback analysis, and a compliant FilePlan management system (MoReq, DoD). • Designed a proprietary business query language [eQL], allowing users to intuitively traverse and interrogate the interconnected knowledge graph. • Leadership: Served as the technical lead for the core product platform, directing architectural decisions and guiding development teams to align with the long-term knowledge graph vision.
• Designed and built a comprehensive Product Data Management (PDM) system (EMS 2000) that integrated Document, Materials, Physical Items, and Configuration Management into a single source of truth. • Architected a knowledge management system utilizing early web standards (XML, XSL, SOAP) for content separation and interoperability. • Managed complex integrations with third-party knowledge systems (Livelink, Maximo, Altris EB). • Developed core systems for Failure Reporting (FRACAS), Work Order Management, and Material Management, gaining deep experience in modeling industrial and asset-intensive domains. • Leadership (Spescom): As Development Manager, led the team building and supporting the commercial EMS 2000 suite, managing the full development lifecycle and third-party integrations.