Replace documentation-only repo with working code: - Stripe integration: webhook handler (8 event types), billing API (customers, checkout, payments, subscriptions, invoices) - Express API server with health endpoint, structured logging - E2E tests (Playwright): health, webhook signature verification, billing API validation - Unit tests: webhook event handler coverage for all event types - Pi deployment: deploy.sh (rsync + systemd), NGINX load balancer across Pi cluster, Docker support - CI/CD: test workflow, Pi deploy workflow, updated auto-deploy and self-healing to run real tests before deploying - Move resume docs to docs/ to separate code from documentation https://claude.ai/code/session_01Mf5Pg82fV6BTRS9GnpV7nr
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ALEXA LOUISE AMUNDSON
AI Orchestration Engineer • Enterprise Product Leader • Revenue-Driving Technologist
📍 Location: Lakeville, MN (Open to Remote/Hybrid) 📧 Email: amundsonalexa@gmail.com | blackroad.systems@gmail.com 📞 Phone: (507) 828-0842 🔗 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexaamundson 💻 GitHub: @blackboxprogramming (15 organizations, 66+ repositories) 🌐 Portfolio: lucidia.earth | blackroadinc.us 🚀 Live Platform: app.blackroad.io
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Rare Tri-Dimensional Leader: Technical Architect + Enterprise Sales Closer + Financial Professional
I architect and build production AI systems (466K+ LOC, 145 autonomous agents), then successfully sell them to enterprise customers ($26.8M closed). FINRA-licensed (Series 7/63/65) with deep regulatory compliance expertise. Founder of BlackRoad OS, a cognitive AI operating system orchestrating 23 microservices across multi-cloud infrastructure.
The Differentiator: Most engineers can't sell. Most salespeople can't build. I do both at enterprise scale.
Core Strength: Translating complex AI/ML architectures into revenue-generating products while navigating regulated, high-compliance environments. I speak fluent C-suite (ROI, TCO, revenue impact) and fluent engineering (Kubernetes, Terraform, distributed systems).
WHAT I BRING TO YOUR ORGANIZATION
Technical Mastery
✅ AI/ML Production Systems: 76 autonomous agents, 69 enterprise bots, multi-modal LLM orchestration ✅ Enterprise Architecture: 23 microservices, 2,119 API endpoints, SOX-compliant infrastructure ✅ Cloud/DevOps Expertise: 89 Terraform modules, 17 K8s configs, 437 CI/CD workflows, 99.9% uptime ✅ Full-Stack Development: Next.js, React, Python, Go, TypeScript — production code shipped daily
Commercial Excellence
✅ Proven Sales Record: $26.8M closed in 11 months, 92% quota attainment, +38% territory growth ✅ Enterprise Presentations: Keynote speaker to 24,000-advisor network, LPL Due Diligence presenter ✅ Pipeline Management: Built $40M+ pipeline, 15% close rate (2.5x team average) ✅ CRM Mastery: Salesforce automation expert, eliminated 3,000 data errors to zero
Strategic Leadership
✅ Product Vision: Defined roadmap for AI orchestration platform serving enterprise customers ✅ Cross-Functional: Bridge technical teams and business stakeholders seamlessly ✅ Compliance Expert: Series 7/63/65 licensed, SOX audit experience, zero compliance findings ✅ Thought Leadership: Conference speaker, award-winning process innovator
IMPACT METRICS DASHBOARD
| Category | Metric | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue Generated | $26.8M sales closed | 92% quota, +38% YoY growth |
| Technical Scale | 466,408 LOC managed | 28,538 files, 297 modules |
| AI Automation | 145 agents deployed | 70% reduction in manual work |
| Infrastructure | 23 microservices | 2,119 API endpoints, 99.9% uptime |
| Cost Optimization | 40% cloud spend reduction | Intelligent auto-scaling + multi-cloud |
| Data Quality | 3,000 → 0 CRM errors | 100% data accuracy achieved |
| Productivity | 15 hrs/week saved | Team-wide automation gains |
| Compliance | Zero audit findings | SOX compliance, PS-SHA∞ verification |
| Code Commits | 5,937 verified commits | Atomic changes, immutable audit trail |
| Conversion Rates | 15% close rate | 2.5x team average |
PLATFORM METRICS — BLACKROAD OS (2025 VERIFIED AUDIT)
Code & Architecture Scale
Total Lines of Code: 466,408
Total Files: 28,538
Total Modules: 297
Total Commits: 5,937
Microservices: 23
Applications: 22
API Route Domains: 79
Total API Endpoints: 2,119
AI & Automation
Autonomous Agents: 76
Enterprise Bots: 69
Total Automations: 145
CI/CD Workflows: 437
Self-Healing Systems: 12
Infrastructure & DevOps
Terraform Modules: 89
Production K8s Configs: 17
Docker Containers: 89
Cloudflare Zones: 16
Production Deployments: 8
Railway Projects: 12
Uptime SLA: 99.9%
Data & Compliance
Data Connectors: 5
Daily Record Processing: 100,000+
Compliance Engines: 3
Zero Audit Findings: 100%
PS-SHA∞ Hash Verifications: 5,937+
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
BLACKROAD OS, INC. — Founder & Chief Architect
Remote • May 2025 – Present
Building a production-grade enterprise cognitive AI operating system. Full ownership of product strategy, technical architecture, infrastructure operations, and go-to-market positioning across 66+ repositories spanning 15 GitHub organizations.
🤖 AI/ML & COGNITIVE ORCHESTRATION (45 Modules)
Lucidia AI Engine — Multi-Modal Autonomous Intelligence Platform
What I Built:
- Architected production AI orchestration system managing 76 autonomous agents and 69 enterprise bots
- Designed agent framework supporting parallel execution, state persistence, cross-agent communication
- Built real-time LLM streaming infrastructure (Claude, GPT) with WebSocket architecture
- Created domain-specific reasoning engines for GitHub automation, workflow optimization, code generation
Technical Implementation:
- Agent Architecture: Event-driven system with pub/sub messaging, Redis state management, PostgreSQL persistence
- LLM Integration: Production-grade Claude/GPT APIs with retry logic, rate limiting, cost optimization
- Workflow Engine: DAG-based orchestration supporting conditional branching, error handling, rollback
- Monitoring: Real-time agent health dashboards, performance metrics, cost tracking per operation
Business Impact:
- ✅ Automated 145 previously manual workflows → 70% reduction in operational overhead
- ✅ Reduced human intervention time from 40 hrs/week to 12 hrs/week (70% time savings)
- ✅ Achieved 94% agent success rate on complex multi-step tasks
- ✅ Enabled 24/7 autonomous operations with self-healing capabilities
Key Innovations:
- 🔬 Self-Healing Agents: Automatic error detection, root cause analysis, remediation attempts
- 🔬 Cross-Agent Collaboration: Agents delegate sub-tasks to specialist agents autonomously
- 🔬 Learning System: Agents improve performance over time through outcome tracking
- 🔬 Cost Optimization: Intelligent model selection (GPT-4 vs 3.5) based on task complexity
🏗️ ENTERPRISE API INFRASTRUCTURE (79 Domains, 2,119 Endpoints)
Built Comprehensive API Layer for Enterprise SaaS Operations
Finance & Accounting APIs (18 Domains, 287 Endpoints):
- Treasury Management: Cash flow forecasting, AP/AR automation, payment processing
- Revenue Recognition: ASC 606 compliant revenue calculation, deferred revenue tracking
- Billing & Invoicing: Subscription billing, usage metering, invoice generation, payment reconciliation
- Financial Reporting: Real-time P&L, balance sheet, cash flow statements with drill-down capability
CRM & Sales APIs (22 Domains, 534 Endpoints):
- CPQ Engine (Configure-Price-Quote): Product configurator, dynamic pricing rules, quote generation
- Partner Portal: Multi-tenant partner management, commission tracking, co-selling workflows
- Lead Management: Lead scoring, routing, nurture campaigns, conversion tracking
- Opportunity Pipeline: Stage management, forecasting, win/loss analysis, competitive intelligence
HR & Workforce APIs (15 Domains, 412 Endpoints):
- Workforce Management (WFM): Time tracking, scheduling, PTO management, shift planning
- Learning Management (LMS): Course catalog, enrollment, progress tracking, certification management
- Performance Management: Goal setting, 360 reviews, performance improvement plans
- Talent Acquisition: ATS integration, candidate pipeline, interview scheduling, offer management
IT Operations APIs (24 Domains, 886 Endpoints):
- CMDB (Configuration Management Database): Asset discovery, dependency mapping, change tracking
- Incident Management: Ticket creation, SLA tracking, escalation workflows, root cause analysis
- Monitoring & Observability: Metrics collection, alerting, dashboards, log aggregation
- Infrastructure Automation: Provisioning, configuration management, compliance scanning
Technical Architecture:
- ✅ RESTful design with OpenAPI 3.0 specifications for all 2,119 endpoints
- ✅ Authentication: OAuth 2.0, JWT tokens, API key management, role-based access control
- ✅ Rate Limiting: Redis-backed token bucket algorithm, per-tenant quotas
- ✅ Versioning: Semantic versioning (v1, v2), backward compatibility guarantees
- ✅ Error Handling: Standardized error codes, detailed error messages, retry guidance
- ✅ Documentation: Auto-generated API docs, Postman collections, integration guides
Performance & Reliability:
- 📊 Average response time: <100ms (p95), <250ms (p99)
- 📊 API uptime: 99.95% over 8-month period
- 📊 Request volume: 12M+ requests/month across all endpoints
- 📊 Zero security incidents, zero data breaches
Business Value:
- 💰 Enabled $2M+ ARR potential through complete API product offering
- 💰 Reduced integration time for enterprise customers from 90 days to 14 days
- 💰 API-first architecture supports multi-channel distribution (web, mobile, partner integrations)
☁️ INFRASTRUCTURE-AS-CODE & DEVOPS (40 Modules)
Built Production-Grade Multi-Cloud Infrastructure with Zero-Touch Automation
Cloud Orchestration & Terraform:
- Architected 89 Terraform modules managing Cloudflare, Railway, DigitalOcean infrastructure
- Modular design: VPC networking, compute resources, databases, storage, CDN, DNS
- State management: Remote state in Cloudflare KV, state locking, encrypted secrets
- Multi-environment: Production, staging, demo with environment-specific configurations
Kubernetes Production Operations:
- Deployed 17 production Kubernetes configurations across 23 microservices
- Auto-scaling: Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) based on CPU/memory/custom metrics
- Health checks: Liveness probes, readiness probes, startup probes for zero-downtime deploys
- Resource management: CPU/memory limits, QoS classes, pod disruption budgets
- Secrets: Sealed secrets, external secrets operator, automatic rotation
CI/CD Pipeline Architecture:
- Built 437-workflow automation system across GitHub Actions, Railway auto-deploy
- 369 CI workflows: Automated testing, linting, security scanning, build, deploy
- 68 CD workflows: Canary deployments, blue/green deploys, automatic rollback
- Self-healing: Failed deploy detection → automatic rollback → alert → root cause analysis
- Pipeline metrics: Average deploy time 4.2 minutes, 98.7% success rate
Multi-Cloud Strategy & Portability:
- Cloudflare: 16 zones, 8 Pages deployments, Workers, KV, D1, DNS, CDN (primary)
- Railway: 12 microservices with PostgreSQL, Redis, auto-scaling (application tier)
- DigitalOcean: VPS for specialized workloads, backup infrastructure (secondary)
- Edge: 3-node Raspberry Pi cluster for edge inference (IoT/ML workloads)
- Vendor-neutral architecture: Can migrate between providers in <48 hours
Cost Optimization Results:
- 📉 40% cloud spend reduction through intelligent resource allocation
- 📉 Auto-scaling policies: Scale down during off-peak (nights/weekends) → 60% cost savings
- 📉 Reserved capacity: Committed use discounts for predictable baseline load
- 📉 Edge caching: Cloudflare CDN reduced origin requests by 85%
- 📉 Spot instances: Railway spot pricing for non-critical workloads → 50% savings
Reliability Achievements:
- ⚡ 99.9% uptime maintained across all production services (8-month period)
- ⚡ Zero-downtime deployments: Blue/green strategy, <1 second traffic cutover
- ⚡ MTTR (Mean Time To Recovery): 6.4 minutes average incident resolution
- ⚡ Disaster recovery: Automated backups, 15-minute RPO, 1-hour RTO
Infrastructure Monitoring:
- Real-time dashboards: Service health, resource utilization, cost tracking
- Alerting: PagerDuty integration, escalation policies, on-call rotation
- Log aggregation: Centralized logging, full-text search, retention policies
- Metrics: Prometheus + Grafana stack, custom business metrics
🔒 DATA & COMPLIANCE INFRASTRUCTURE (20 Modules)
Built Enterprise-Grade Data Platform with SOX Compliance
High-Throughput Data Connectors:
- Developed 5 production data connectors for enterprise integrations
- Snowflake Connector: Bi-directional sync, incremental updates, 100K+ records/day
- GitHub Connector: Repository data, commits, PRs, issues, actions, security alerts
- Linear Connector: Project management, issue tracking, sprint data, time tracking
- Salesforce Connector: CRM data sync, lead/opportunity/account synchronization
- Stripe Connector: Payment data, subscription events, revenue metrics
Technical Architecture:
- Event-driven architecture with Kafka/Redis Streams for real-time data flow
- Change Data Capture (CDC) for incremental updates, reducing data transfer by 95%
- Schema evolution: Backward/forward compatible schemas, version management
- Error handling: Dead letter queues, retry logic, data validation, reconciliation
SOX Compliance Engine (Go-Based):
- Built custom compliance rule engine processing 50,000+ rules/day
- Automated controls testing: Segregation of duties, access reviews, change management
- Real-time violation detection with automatic alerting and remediation workflows
- Audit-ready reporting: Executive dashboards, control effectiveness metrics, trend analysis
PS-SHA∞ Cryptographic Verification System:
- Implemented blockchain-inspired infinite cascade hashing for immutable audit trails
- Every infrastructure change → cryptographic hash → chained to previous state
- Tamper detection: Any unauthorized change breaks hash chain → immediate alert
- Genesis hash established → 5,937+ verified state transitions
- Zero audit findings across all compliance reviews
Data Governance & Privacy:
- Automated PII detection using ML models (NER + custom classifiers)
- Data lineage tracking: Source → transformations → destination with full provenance
- Retention policies: Automated data lifecycle management, GDPR compliance
- Encryption: At-rest (AES-256), in-transit (TLS 1.3), field-level encryption for sensitive data
Compliance Achievements:
- ✅ Zero audit findings in SOX compliance reviews (2 cycles completed)
- ✅ 100% controls testing automation (previously 40% manual)
- ✅ GDPR-ready: Data subject access requests automated (<48 hour fulfillment)
- ✅ Audit trail: Complete immutable record of all data access and modifications
Business Impact:
- 💼 Reduced compliance overhead from 120 hrs/month to 30 hrs/month (75% reduction)
- 💼 Enabled enterprise sales: SOX compliance requirement satisfied for Fortune 500 prospects
- 💼 Risk mitigation: Proactive violation detection prevented 47 potential compliance issues
- 💼 Audit efficiency: External auditors reduced fieldwork time by 60%
🌐 HARDWARE & EDGE AI (15 Modules)
Built Distributed Edge Computing Fleet for AI Inference
Edge Compute Infrastructure:
- Orchestrated 3-node Raspberry Pi cluster (lucidia, blackroad-pi, alternate) + Jetson devices
- Kubernetes edge deployment: K3s cluster with edge-optimized configurations
- Geographic distribution: Home network cluster for local-first AI processing
- Hardware specs: 12GB total RAM, 256GB storage, ARM64 architecture
IoT Integration & Communication:
- Built MQTT-based messaging layer for device-to-device and device-to-cloud communication
- Protocol support: MQTT, WebSockets, HTTP/2 for different latency/reliability needs
- Message broker: Mosquitto with TLS encryption, authentication, ACL management
- Device management: Automatic discovery, health monitoring, remote configuration
Pi-Cortex Stack (Custom Edge Runtime):
- Developed edge-optimized AI inference runtime in Python + Rust
- Model optimization: Quantization (INT8), pruning, knowledge distillation for edge deployment
- Inference pipeline: Pre-processing → model execution → post-processing → result caching
- Hardware acceleration: GPU acceleration on Jetson, CPU optimization on Raspberry Pi
Holographic Scene Control:
- Real-time holographic projection control via MQTT commands
- 3D scene rendering pipeline with dynamic lighting and object manipulation
- Low-latency control: <50ms from command to visual update
- Multi-device coordination: Synchronized displays across multiple projection surfaces
Performance Achievements:
- ⚡ <50ms latency for edge AI model inference (95th percentile)
- ⚡ 60% cost reduction vs cloud inference (savings on API calls)
- ⚡ 24/7 availability with automatic failover between edge nodes
- ⚡ Processed 1.2M+ inference requests locally in 6-month period
Edge AI Models Deployed:
- Computer Vision: Object detection, face recognition, OCR (optimized YOLOv5, MobileNet)
- NLP: Sentiment analysis, text classification (DistilBERT, quantized models)
- Audio: Speech recognition, voice commands (Whisper-tiny, lightweight models)
- Anomaly Detection: Time-series analysis, predictive maintenance
Business Value:
- 💰 $12,000/year savings on cloud inference costs (eliminated 80% of cloud API calls)
- 💰 Privacy compliance: Sensitive data processing at edge (HIPAA/GDPR friendly)
- 💰 Offline capability: AI features work without internet connectivity
- 💰 Reduced latency: 10x faster response time vs cloud round-trip
🔬 QUANTUM & RESEARCH (20 Modules)
Advanced Research Computing & Quantum Circuit Simulation
Quantum Computing Integration:
- Integrated Qiskit and TorchQuantum frameworks for quantum algorithm development
- IBM Quantum hardware access: Ran experiments on real quantum processors (ibmq_manila, ibmq_quito)
- Circuit simulation: Developed quantum circuit simulators for algorithm prototyping
- Quantum algorithms implemented: Grover's search, Shor's factorization, VQE, QAOA
Research Projects:
1. Distributed Collatz Conjecture Verifier
- Built distributed system testing Collatz conjecture for large integers
- Verification range: Tested 10^18 to 10^20 (trillions of numbers)
- Architecture: Master-worker pattern, work queue, result aggregation
- Performance: 1M+ verifications/second across distributed cluster
- Result: No counterexamples found (contributes to mathematical knowledge base)
2. C-Based Linear Algebra Library
- Developed high-performance linear math library in C for scientific computing
- Operations: Matrix multiplication, decomposition (LU, QR, SVD), eigenvalue computation
- Optimizations: SIMD vectorization (AVX2), cache-friendly algorithms, parallel execution
- Benchmarks: 3-5x faster than naive implementations, competitive with BLAS
3. Scientific Computing Tools
- Numerical methods: ODE/PDE solvers, finite element analysis, Monte Carlo simulation
- Visualization: Real-time plotting libraries for scientific data analysis
- HPC integration: MPI support for multi-node computation
Technical Impact:
- 📚 Published algorithms now used in 3 external research projects
- 📚 Linear algebra library: 500+ GitHub stars, adopted by university research lab
- 📚 Quantum simulation: Contributed findings to open quantum computing community
- 📚 Educational value: Tools used in teaching computational mathematics
Research Collaboration:
- Active contributor to Qiskit open-source community (12 merged PRs)
- Collaboration with academic researchers on quantum algorithm optimization
- Technical advisor for 2 graduate student research projects
💼 TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP & OPERATIONS
Repository & Code Management:
- Managed 66+ repositories across 15 GitHub organizations
- Organizational structure: blackboxprogramming (primary), BlackRoad-Inc, specialized orgs
- Code review culture: All changes peer-reviewed, automated quality gates
- Documentation: README, CONTRIBUTING, API docs for every repository
- Open source: 12 public repositories with MIT/Apache licenses
Version Control Excellence:
- 5,937 verified commits with PS-SHA∞ cryptographic signatures
- Atomic commits: Single logical change per commit, clear commit messages
- Branch strategy: Git Flow with protected main/develop branches
- CI integration: Automated testing on every commit, branch protection rules
- Code archaeology: Full history preservation, blame tracking, git bisect for debugging
Operational Documentation:
- TRUTH_SYSTEM.md: 47-page document defining hierarchical truth verification architecture
- INFRASTRUCTURE_INVENTORY.md: Complete inventory of all servers, services, credentials, configs
- CLOUDFLARE_INFRA.md: Multi-service Cloudflare management guide (Pages, Workers, KV, D1, DNS)
- ACCESS_AUDIT.md: Security and access control framework, credential rotation procedures
- RUNBOOKS: 23 operational runbooks for common incidents and maintenance tasks
Security & Access Management:
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) enforced across all critical systems
- API key rotation: Automated 90-day rotation for all service credentials
- OAuth flows: Implemented OAuth 2.0 for third-party integrations
- Principle of least privilege: Role-based access control (RBAC) across all systems
- Security scanning: Dependabot, Snyk, CodeQL for vulnerability detection
Monitoring & Incident Response:
- 24/7 monitoring: Uptime Robot, PagerDuty, custom health checks
- Incident response: <5 minute acknowledgment, <30 minute initial triage
- Post-mortem culture: Blameless post-mortems for all incidents, action item tracking
- MTTR: Mean Time To Recovery averaging 6.4 minutes
Technical Achievements Summary:
- 🏆 99.9% uptime across all production services (8-month track record)
- 🏆 Zero security breaches, zero data leaks, zero compliance violations
- 🏆 5,937+ verified commits with immutable audit trail
- 🏆 66+ repositories with comprehensive documentation and CI/CD
- 🏆 15 GitHub organizations managed with enterprise-grade security
SECURIAN FINANCIAL — Internal Annuity Wholesaler / Senior Sales Analyst
St. Paul, MN • Jul 2024 – Jun 2025
Competitive internal wholesaler role supporting 24,000-advisor distribution network. Drove $26.8M in annuity sales while pioneering CRM automation and financial engineering initiatives. Selected for high-visibility conference presentations and due diligence responsibilities.
💰 SALES PERFORMANCE & TERRITORY GROWTH
Revenue Achievement:
- Closed $26.8M in annuity sales across 11-month period (Jul 2024 - May 2025)
- 92% of annual quota attainment in first year (industry avg: 65% for Year 1)
- Average deal size: $180K (range: $25K - $2.5M)
- Product mix: 45% fixed indexed annuities, 35% variable annuities, 20% fixed annuities
Territory Expansion:
- Drove +38% year-over-year growth in assigned Midwest territory
- Expanded advisor relationships from 120 to 310 active producers (+158% growth)
- Penetrated 4 new IMOs (Independent Marketing Organizations) generating $4.2M new pipeline
- Cross-sell success: 35% of customers purchased additional products within 6 months
Conversion Metrics:
- 15% close rate on qualified opportunities (team average: 6%)
- 42% quote-to-application conversion (industry benchmark: 25%)
- 28% demo-to-proposal conversion through consultative selling
- Average sales cycle: 18 days (reduced from 45-day baseline)
Pipeline Management:
- Built and managed $40M+ pipeline across 850+ opportunities
- Pipeline velocity: $3.2M/month in new opportunities generated
- Weighted pipeline: $12.4M at 50%+ probability
- Win rate: 62% on competitive deals (vs 3-4 competitors)
Strategic Account Development:
- Identified 47 "whale" advisors managing $500M+ AUM
- Converted 12 strategic accounts → $8.9M in sales (33% of total)
- Built executive relationships with 8 RIA firms for enterprise distribution
🎤 STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
LPL Due Diligence Presenter:
- Selected as primary presenter for 24,000-advisor LPL Financial network
- Presented to due diligence committees evaluating Securian product lineup
- Delivered technical presentations on product features, underwriting, compliance
- Result: Securian products approved for LPL platform → $50M+ distribution opportunity
2024 Winter Sales Conference — Keynote Speaker:
- Delivered 2 keynote presentations to 450+ attendees (internal wholesalers, regional VPs)
- Topic 1: "Salesforce Automation: From 3,000 Errors to Zero" — Technical case study
- Topic 2: "KPI Optimization Through Data-Driven Sales" — Analytics framework
- Audience feedback score: 4.8/5.0 (highest rated session at conference)
- Post-conference: Consulted with 6 regional teams on implementing automation strategies
Process Innovation Leadership:
- Led cross-functional task force (Sales Ops, IT, Compliance) on CRM transformation
- Presented business case to SVP Sales: Projected $2.4M annual productivity gains
- Championed adoption of click-to-dial technology across 85-person sales organization
- Change management: Trained 45 wholesalers on new automation workflows
Industry Visibility:
- Quoted in internal "Wholesaler Excellence" newsletter (3 features)
- Mentored 4 junior wholesalers on consultative selling techniques
- Contributed to product development: Provided advisor feedback influencing 2 product enhancements
🔧 CRM AUTOMATION & DATA QUALITY
Salesforce Transformation Initiative:
Problem Statement:
- Salesforce contained 3,000+ data quality errors (duplicates, missing fields, invalid data)
- Manual data entry consuming 15 hours/week per wholesaler
- Pipeline reporting unreliable due to data inconsistency
- Lost opportunities due to delayed follow-up (no automated reminders)
Solution Architected:
- Click-to-dial automation: Integrated RingCentral with Salesforce for one-click calling
- Record cleanup workflows: Built automated deduplication and data validation rules
- Activity capture: Automatic call logging, email tracking, meeting notes sync
- Smart workflows: Automated task creation based on deal stage, reminders, escalations
Technical Implementation:
- Salesforce Flow Builder: 23 automated workflows, 47 validation rules
- Apex triggers: Custom code for complex business logic (e.g., territory assignment)
- API integrations: RingCentral API, Outlook API, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Data migration: Cleaned 15,000+ records, merged 890 duplicates, enriched 4,200+ incomplete records
Results Achieved:
- ✅ 3,000 errors → 0 errors (100% data quality improvement)
- ✅ 15 hrs/week → 3 hrs/week in manual data entry (80% time savings)
- ✅ 25% increase in rep productivity (more selling time, less admin)
- ✅ Pipeline forecast accuracy: 92% (up from 67%)
- ✅ Response time: <2 hours for inbound leads (down from 18 hours)
Adoption & Scalability:
- Trained 85 wholesalers on new automation workflows
- Created video tutorials, quick reference guides, FAQ documentation
- Led 12 "office hours" sessions for troubleshooting and optimization
- Expansion: Automation framework rolled out to 3 additional business units
Recognition:
- Featured in Securian's "Innovation Spotlight" internal case study
- SVP Sales commendation for "transformative impact on sales operations"
- Invited to present at Securian Technology Summit (200+ IT professionals)
📊 FINANCIAL ENGINEERING & ANALYTICS
Rate Calculator — Dynamic Pricing Model:
Business Challenge:
- Annuity pricing highly sensitive to interest rates, equity markets, inflation
- Manual rate updates (bi-weekly) were time-consuming and error-prone
- Advisors needed real-time competitive pricing for client proposals
- Delayed pricing updates cost estimated $1.2M annually in lost sales
Solution Built:
- Developed Excel-based automated pricing model with live data feeds
- Integrated data sources:
- Bond yields: 10-year Treasury via FRED API (Federal Reserve Economic Data)
- Inflation: CPI data via Bureau of Labor Statistics API
- Equity: S&P 500 returns via Yahoo Finance API
- Competitive rates: Web scraping of competitor rate sheets (12 competitors)
Model Features:
- Real-time pricing: Rates update automatically every 4 hours during market hours
- Scenario analysis: "What-if" modeling for rate changes, market volatility
- Competitive positioning: Side-by-side comparison with top 12 competitors
- Historical trends: 5-year rate history with predictive forecasting (ARIMA model)
- Advisor tools: One-click export to client proposal template
Technical Implementation:
- Excel + VBA: 2,400 lines of VBA code, Power Query for API integration
- Data validation: Automated error checking, outlier detection, data quality alerts
- Performance: Sub-second recalculation across 450+ product SKUs
- Distribution: Deployed to 85 wholesalers via SharePoint with auto-update
Business Impact:
- 💵 $2.8M additional revenue attributed to faster pricing (6-month period)
- 💵 2-day reduction in average quote turnaround time
- 💵 18% increase in quote volume (easier for advisors to generate quotes)
- 💵 Competitive win rate: +12% (better pricing intelligence)
Competitive Analysis Dashboard:
- Built automated dashboard tracking 12 competitor products across 8 key metrics
- Alert system: Email notifications when competitor changes rates (daily monitoring)
- Market intelligence: Identified competitor pricing patterns, seasonal trends
- Strategic value: Informed product management team on competitive positioning
Decision Support Tools:
- Created financial projection calculators used by 50+ advisors for client presentations
- Retirement income analysis: Monte Carlo simulation for portfolio sustainability
- Tax efficiency modeling: Comparing annuities vs alternatives (bonds, CDs, mutual funds)
- Advisor feedback: 4.7/5.0 average rating on tool usability and value
Analytics Leadership:
- Designed KPI dashboard for sales leadership (pipeline, conversion, quota attainment)
- Cohort analysis: Identified high-performing advisor profiles for targeted recruiting
- Predictive modeling: Built logistic regression model predicting close probability (78% accuracy)
- Data storytelling: Monthly analytics presentations to Regional VP team
AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL — Financial Advisor / Advisor in Training
Minneapolis, MN • Aug 2023 – May 2024
Accelerated through advisor training program, achieving #1 ranking on training team within 90 days. Combined systematic prospecting with workflow automation to deliver 400% pipeline growth potential. Earned prestigious Thought-Leadership Award for process innovation.
📈 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & PIPELINE GROWTH
Pipeline Expansion & Growth Strategy:
- Identified $14M pipeline gap in inherited client base through comprehensive portfolio analysis
- Developed multi-channel acquisition strategy: referrals (40%), cold calling (30%), networking (20%), digital (10%)
- Generated $18.6M new pipeline → 400% GDC (Gross Dealer Concession) growth potential
- Segmented prospects into 4 tiers based on AUM potential, engagement level, product fit
Asset Risk Mitigation:
- Conducted risk assessment across 120-client inherited book
- Identified $8.4M at-risk assets (clients approaching age milestones, life events, competitor pressure)
- Proactive outreach campaign: Personalized financial reviews, product recommendations, relationship deepening
- Reduced at-risk assets by 50% ($4.2M retained) through strategic intervention
- Client retention rate: 94% (company avg: 82% for new advisors)
Prospecting Performance:
- Completed 2,400+ outbound calls over 9-month period (avg: 267 calls/month)
- 10% appointment conversion rate (company avg: 5% for trainees)
- Call metrics: 45-minute avg call time, 72% contact rate, 3.2 touches to conversion
- Multi-channel approach: Phone + email + LinkedIn InMail for warm-up sequences
Sales Execution:
- #1 ranking on training team within first 90 days (cohort of 12 advisors)
- Closed $4.8M in new assets during training period
- Product mix: 40% managed accounts, 35% insurance, 25% annuities
- Cross-sell ratio: 2.4 products per client (company target: 1.8)
Strategic Prospecting Tactics:
- Built referral system: 28% of clients provided qualified referrals (3x company avg)
- Identified niche market: Healthcare professionals (doctors, dentists) → specialized financial planning
- Created educational seminars: "Financial Planning for Medical Professionals" (15 attendees/session)
- Result: 35% seminar-to-appointment conversion, 20% close rate on seminar leads
🏆 PROCESS AUTOMATION & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Sales Training Thought-Leadership Award:
- Earned prestigious company-wide award for workflow automation innovation
- Recognized for "exceptional contribution to sales training excellence and operational efficiency"
- 1 of 8 awards given annually across 12,000+ advisor organization
Call Note Automation System:
Problem Identified:
- Advisors spending 1-2 minutes per call manually typing CRM notes
- Inconsistent note quality leading to poor follow-up, compliance risk
- Lost productivity: 2,400 calls/year × 1.5 min = 60 hours/year wasted per advisor
Solution Developed:
- Created templated call note system with pre-filled fields, dropdown menus
- Integrated with Salesforce for automatic population of client data, call reason, next steps
- Voice-to-text functionality: Dictate notes directly into CRM during call
- Smart categorization: Automatic tagging of topics discussed (retirement, insurance, estate planning)
Results & Adoption:
- ⏱️ 1-2 minutes → 15 seconds per call (87% time savings)
- ⏱️ 40 hours/month saved across training team (12 advisors)
- ⏱️ Consistency: 100% of calls logged with complete notes (up from 65%)
- ⏱️ Compliance: Zero note-related compliance findings (down from 3-4/year)
Knowledge Transfer:
- Presented automation system at National Advisor Training Conference (450 attendees)
- Created training materials: Video tutorial, quick-start guide, FAQ document
- Trained 12 peer advisors on implementation, customization
- Adoption: System rolled out to 3 regional training programs (150+ advisors)
🤝 CLIENT RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
Portfolio Management:
- Managed 85+ client relationships with personalized financial planning approach
- Client demographics: 45% pre-retirees (age 55-65), 35% retirees (65+), 20% accumulation (35-54)
- Average portfolio size: $420K (range: $50K - $2.8M)
- Client meeting cadence: Quarterly reviews for top tier, semi-annual for others
Financial Planning Expertise:
- Comprehensive plans created: Retirement income, tax planning, estate planning, insurance analysis
- Software proficiency: Naviplan (financial planning), Morningstar (investment research), eMoney (client portal)
- Holistic approach: Coordinated with CPAs, estate attorneys, insurance specialists for integrated planning
Product Knowledge & Recommendations:
- Expert-level proficiency across all Ameriprise product lines:
- Annuities: Fixed, variable, indexed — matching products to risk tolerance and income needs
- Mutual Funds: Asset allocation, tax-efficient investing, rebalancing strategies
- Insurance: Life, disability, long-term care — needs analysis and product selection
- Estate Planning: Trusts, beneficiary planning, legacy planning
Client Satisfaction & Retention:
- Client satisfaction score: 92% (measured via quarterly surveys)
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): 68 (industry excellent: 50+)
- Referral rate: 28% of clients provided qualified referrals
- Zero client complaints, zero compliance issues
Compliance Excellence:
- 100% compliance record across all client interactions, transactions, documentation
- Suitability reviews: Every recommendation documented with needs analysis, product comparison
- Regulatory knowledge: Series 7, 66, insurance licenses — all maintained in good standing
- Compliance audits: 3 internal audits conducted, zero findings
Value-Added Services:
- Monthly market commentary emails to all clients (45% open rate)
- Quarterly educational webinars on financial planning topics (avg 25 attendees)
- Tax season support: Coordinated with CPAs on tax-efficient strategies
- Life event support: Proactive outreach during client life changes (retirement, inheritance, etc.)
EXP REALTY — Real Estate Agent (Pemberton Homes Team)
Remote • Aug 2022 – Aug 2023
Delivered high-performance real estate services on competitive team, leveraging negotiation expertise and systematic prospecting to achieve 10% conversion rate on cold outreach.
Negotiation & Deal Structuring:
- Structured competitive offers using escalation clauses to win bidding wars (72% success rate)
- Strategic use of appraisal contingencies to protect clients while remaining competitive
- Negotiated $847K total savings for buyer clients through skillful price reductions
- Dual agency experience: Represented both buyer and seller in 4 transactions
Lead Generation & Conversion:
- Maintained 10% conversion rate on 1,000+ cold calls to FSBO (For Sale By Owner) and expired listings
- Call strategy: Value proposition focused on market expertise, pricing strategy, marketing reach
- CRM discipline: All prospects tracked in KW Command, systematic follow-up sequences
- Multi-touch approach: Phone + email + direct mail for maximum engagement
Market Analysis & Pricing:
- Conducted 30+ Comparative Market Analyses (CMAs) for pricing strategy
- Market expertise: Minneapolis-St Paul metro, southern suburbs (Lakeville, Burnsville, Apple Valley)
- Pricing accuracy: 96% of listings sold within 5% of list price
- Market timing: Average days on market: 14 days (market avg: 28 days)
Client Acquisition & Pipeline:
- Built personal pipeline of 40+ qualified buyers and sellers through networking and referrals
- Sphere of influence marketing: Monthly newsletters, market updates, personal touches
- Referral rate: 35% of transactions came from referrals and repeat clients
- Client satisfaction: 4.9/5 average rating on Zillow, Google reviews
Transaction Management:
- Managed 18 transactions from contract to close (14 buyer-side, 4 listing-side)
- Total transaction volume: $4.2M over 12-month period
- Transaction coordination: Worked with lenders, title companies, inspectors, contractors
- Close rate: 94% (contracts to successful close)
Real Estate Skills:
- MLS proficiency: Advanced search, market reports, listing management
- Contract expertise: Purchase agreements, addendums, contingencies, disclosures
- Marketing: Professional photography, virtual tours, social media advertising
- Technology: DocuSign, Dotloop, KW Command CRM, Matterport virtual tours
ENTERPRISE HOLDINGS — Customer Experience Representative
Bloomington, MN • Jun 2019 – Aug 2019
Summer position demonstrating early sales excellence and customer service capabilities.
Upsell Performance:
- Achieved 63% upsell conversion rate on vehicle upgrades and add-ons (highest in region)
- Product mix: Premium vehicles (40%), insurance/CDW (30%), GPS/accessories (30%)
- Average upsell value: $38 per transaction (region avg: $22)
Sales Recognition:
- Three monthly sales awards in 3-month period (awarded to top 10% of representatives)
- Regional ranking: #4 out of 85 representatives in upsell performance (Q2 2019)
- Perfect attendance, zero customer complaints
Customer Satisfaction:
- Maintained 95%+ CSAT scores while driving revenue growth
- Balanced approach: Customer needs first, strategic upselling second
- Problem resolution: Handled 20+ challenging situations with positive outcomes
Process Improvement:
- Developed upsell scripts adopted by 20+ team members
- Script features: Benefits-focused language, objection handling, assumptive close
- Training contribution: Mentored 3 new hires on upsell techniques
TECHNICAL SKILLS & EXPERTISE
Programming Languages & Frameworks
Expert Level (Production Experience):
- Python: FastAPI, Django, Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, Pytest — 50K+ LOC
- TypeScript/JavaScript: Next.js 16, React 18, Node.js, Express — 80K+ LOC
- Go: Microservices, CLI tools, concurrency patterns — 15K+ LOC
- Bash: Infrastructure automation, deployment scripts, system administration — 10K+ LOC
- SQL: PostgreSQL, complex queries, query optimization, database design — Advanced
Proficient:
- C: Systems programming, linear algebra library, performance optimization
- Python Data Science: Jupyter, Matplotlib, Seaborn, statistical analysis
- GraphQL: Schema design, resolvers, Apollo Server
- HTML/CSS: Semantic HTML5, CSS Grid/Flexbox, responsive design
AI & Machine Learning
LLM & AI Orchestration:
- Claude API (Anthropic): Production integrations, streaming, function calling, prompt engineering
- OpenAI API (GPT-4/3.5): Chat completions, embeddings, fine-tuning
- LangChain: Agent frameworks, chains, memory systems, tool integration
- Anthropic SDK: Official Python/TypeScript SDKs, best practices
- Vector Databases: Pinecone, Chroma, pgvector for semantic search
ML Frameworks & Tools:
- TensorFlow/Keras: Neural network architectures, model training
- PyTorch: Deep learning, transfer learning, model optimization
- Scikit-learn: Classification, regression, clustering, pipelines
- Hugging Face: Transformers, model deployment, fine-tuning
- Model Optimization: Quantization (INT8), pruning, ONNX conversion
Quantum Computing:
- Qiskit: Quantum circuit design, algorithm implementation, IBM Quantum hardware
- TorchQuantum: Quantum machine learning, variational circuits
Frontend Development
Modern Web Stack:
- Next.js 16: App Router, Server Components, Server Actions, Streaming SSR
- React 18: Hooks, Context, Concurrent Features, Suspense, Error Boundaries
- Tailwind CSS 4: Utility-first design, custom themes, responsive layouts
- State Management: Zustand, Redux Toolkit, Jotai, React Query (TanStack)
- UI Libraries: shadcn/ui, Radix UI, Headless UI, Lucide Icons
Real-Time & Interactive:
- WebSockets: Real-time chat, live updates, bi-directional communication
- Streaming: Server-Sent Events (SSE), chunked transfer encoding
- Animation: Framer Motion, CSS animations, micro-interactions
Backend Development
API & Microservices:
- FastAPI: Async endpoints, Pydantic validation, OpenAPI docs, WebSocket support
- Node.js/Express: RESTful APIs, middleware, authentication, error handling
- API Design: RESTful principles, OpenAPI 3.0, versioning, rate limiting
- Authentication: JWT, OAuth 2.0, session management, RBAC
Databases & Data:
- PostgreSQL: Advanced queries, indexes, performance tuning, replication
- SQLite/D1: Embedded databases, Cloudflare D1 for edge data
- Redis: Caching, pub/sub, rate limiting, session storage
- Snowflake: Data warehousing, ETL, analytics queries
- Data Modeling: ERD design, normalization, denormalization strategies
DevOps & Infrastructure
Containerization & Orchestration:
- Docker: Dockerfile optimization, multi-stage builds, Docker Compose
- Kubernetes: Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, Secrets, HPA, Ingress
- K3s: Lightweight K8s for edge and development environments
Infrastructure as Code:
- Terraform: 89 production modules, state management, workspaces
- Cloudflare: Pages, Workers, KV, D1, DNS, CDN configuration
- Railway: PostgreSQL, Redis, auto-deployment, environment management
CI/CD & Automation:
- GitHub Actions: 437 workflows, matrix builds, caching, secrets management
- Git: Advanced workflows, rebasing, cherry-picking, bisect, submodules
- Automation: Bash scripting, Python automation, cron jobs, webhooks
Cloud Platforms & Services
Cloudflare (Expert):
- Pages: 8 production deployments, custom domains, redirects, headers
- Workers: Serverless functions, edge computing, KV integration
- KV: Key-value storage, 8 namespaces, TTL management
- D1: SQLite at edge, migrations, replication
- DNS: 16 zones, DNSSEC, load balancing, failover
- CDN: Cache rules, purge strategies, image optimization
Railway (Expert):
- 12+ production projects, PostgreSQL, Redis, auto-scaling
- Environment variables, health checks, custom domains
- Cost optimization, resource management
DigitalOcean:
- VPS management, firewall rules, backups, monitoring
- Load balancers, block storage, snapshots
AWS (Familiarity):
- EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, CloudFront, Route 53
Security & Compliance
Security Practices:
- PS-SHA∞: Custom cryptographic verification system for immutable audit trails
- Authentication: Multi-factor (MFA), OAuth 2.0, JWT, API keys
- Encryption: TLS 1.3, AES-256, field-level encryption, secrets management
- Vulnerability Scanning: Dependabot, Snyk, CodeQL, penetration testing
Compliance & Auditing:
- SOX Compliance: Controls testing automation, audit trail, segregation of duties
- GDPR: Data subject access requests, right to erasure, privacy by design
- Audit Logging: Comprehensive activity logs, tamper detection, retention policies
- Access Control: RBAC, principle of least privilege, credential rotation
Data & Analytics
Data Engineering:
- ETL Pipelines: Extract-Transform-Load for Snowflake, PostgreSQL
- Data Connectors: Custom connectors for GitHub, Linear, Salesforce, Stripe
- Change Data Capture (CDC): Real-time data sync, incremental updates
- Data Quality: Validation rules, deduplication, reconciliation
Analytics & BI:
- Excel: Advanced formulas, VBA (2,400 LOC), Power Query, pivot tables
- Data Visualization: Dashboards, KPI tracking, trend analysis
- Statistical Analysis: Regression, hypothesis testing, A/B testing
- Predictive Modeling: Logistic regression, time series forecasting (ARIMA)
Business & CRM Tools
Salesforce (Expert):
- Flow Builder, Apex triggers, validation rules, custom objects
- API integrations (REST/SOAP), data migration, deduplication
- Reporting: Custom reports, dashboards, forecasting
- Automation: Workflows, Process Builder, click-to-dial integration
Project Management:
- Linear: Issue tracking, sprint planning, roadmap management
- GitHub Projects: Kanban boards, automation, milestones
- Notion: Documentation, wikis, knowledge management
Communication:
- Slack: Workspace administration, bot integration, workflows
- Zoom: Webinars, screen sharing, recording, breakout rooms
Hardware & IoT
Edge Computing:
- Raspberry Pi: Cluster orchestration, K3s deployment, GPIO programming
- NVIDIA Jetson: AI inference, CUDA optimization, TensorRT
- MQTT: IoT messaging, pub/sub patterns, broker configuration (Mosquitto)
- IoT Protocols: HTTP/2, WebSockets, CoAP, MQTT
CASE STUDIES — MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS
🏗️ Case Study 1: Zero-to-Production AI Platform (BlackRoad OS)
Challenge: Build production-grade enterprise AI operating system from scratch with cognitive orchestration, multi-cloud infrastructure, SOX compliance, and self-healing capabilities.
Approach:
-
Architecture Design (Weeks 1-4):
- Designed microservices architecture with 23 services, clear boundaries
- Selected technology stack: Next.js, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kubernetes
- Created PS-SHA∞ verification system for immutable audit trails
-
Infrastructure Foundation (Weeks 5-12):
- Built 89 Terraform modules for multi-cloud orchestration
- Deployed 17 Kubernetes configurations with auto-scaling
- Established CI/CD pipeline with 437 automated workflows
-
AI Orchestration Layer (Weeks 13-24):
- Developed Lucidia AI Engine managing 76 autonomous agents
- Integrated Claude/GPT APIs with streaming, function calling
- Built agent framework with state management, error handling
-
Enterprise Features (Weeks 25-32):
- Created 2,119 API endpoints across 79 domains (Finance, CRM, HR, IT)
- Implemented SOX compliance engine with automated controls testing
- Built 5 data connectors for enterprise integrations (Snowflake, GitHub, Linear)
Results:
- ✅ 466,408 LOC production system deployed across 16 zones
- ✅ 99.9% uptime achieved from day one
- ✅ 40% cloud cost reduction through intelligent optimization
- ✅ Zero security incidents, zero compliance violations
- ✅ $2M+ ARR potential through complete API product offering
Key Lessons:
- Infrastructure-as-Code from day one prevents technical debt
- Automated testing (437 CI/CD workflows) enables rapid iteration
- PS-SHA∞ verification system provided confidence for aggressive deployment pace
💰 Case Study 2: $26.8M Sales Performance (Securian Financial)
Challenge: As first-year internal wholesaler, achieve quota in competitive annuity market while supporting 24,000-advisor distribution network and pioneering CRM automation.
Approach:
-
Territory Analysis (Month 1):
- Segmented 24,000 advisors into tiers based on AUM, product affinity, engagement
- Identified 120 high-potential advisors for focused cultivation
- Built $40M+ pipeline across 850 opportunities
-
Relationship Building (Months 2-6):
- Systematic outreach: 200+ advisor meetings, 400+ discovery calls
- Consultative selling: Needs analysis → product recommendation → proposal → close
- Strategic account development: 12 "whale" accounts → $8.9M sales (33% total)
-
CRM Transformation (Months 4-8):
- Identified Salesforce pain points: 3,000 data errors, 15 hrs/week manual entry
- Built automation: Click-to-dial, record cleanup, activity capture
- Result: 3,000 → 0 errors, 80% time savings, 25% productivity increase
-
Financial Engineering (Months 7-11):
- Developed Excel rate calculator with live market data feeds
- Enabled real-time competitive pricing, scenario analysis
- Result: $2.8M additional revenue, 2-day faster quote turnaround
Results:
- 💰 $26.8M total sales (92% quota in Year 1 vs 65% industry avg)
- 💰 +38% territory growth year-over-year
- 💰 15% close rate (2.5x team average)
- 💰 $40M+ pipeline built and managed
- 🎤 Selected as LPL Due Diligence presenter (24K advisor network)
- 🏆 Winter Sales Conference keynote speaker (450 attendees)
Key Lessons:
- Technology (CRM automation) + relationships = outsized results
- Financial engineering (rate calculator) provides competitive advantage
- Thought leadership (conference speaking) builds credibility and pipeline
🔧 Case Study 3: Salesforce Transformation (3,000 Errors to Zero)
Challenge: Salesforce CRM plagued by 3,000+ data quality errors, consuming 15 hrs/week per wholesaler in manual data entry, unreliable pipeline reporting, and delayed follow-up.
Approach:
-
Problem Diagnosis (Week 1):
- Audited Salesforce data: 890 duplicate records, 4,200 incomplete records, 2,000+ invalid fields
- Surveyed 45 wholesalers: Pain points, workflow inefficiencies, feature requests
- Calculated cost: 15 hrs/week × 85 people × $75/hr = $498K annual productivity loss
-
Solution Design (Weeks 2-3):
- Click-to-dial integration with RingCentral for one-click calling
- Automated record cleanup workflows using Salesforce Flow Builder
- Activity capture: Automatic call logging, email tracking, meeting sync
- Smart workflows: Task creation, reminders, escalations based on deal stage
-
Technical Implementation (Weeks 4-8):
- Built 23 Salesforce Flows, 47 validation rules, custom Apex triggers
- Integrated RingCentral API, Outlook API, LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- Migrated data: Cleaned 15,000 records, merged duplicates, enriched incomplete data
- Testing: UAT with 12-person pilot group, iteration based on feedback
-
Rollout & Training (Weeks 9-12):
- Created training materials: Video tutorials, quick-start guides, FAQ docs
- Led 12 training sessions for 85 wholesalers (live + recorded)
- Established support: Office hours, Slack channel, dedicated helpdesk
- Change management: Executive sponsorship, success metrics, celebration
Results:
- ✅ 3,000 errors → 0 errors (100% data quality improvement)
- ✅ 15 hrs/week → 3 hrs/week manual data entry (80% time savings = $398K/year saved)
- ✅ 25% productivity increase (more selling time vs admin time)
- ✅ Pipeline forecast accuracy: 92% (up from 67%)
- ✅ Response time: <2 hours for inbound leads (down from 18 hours)
- ✅ 100% adoption across 85-person sales organization
Recognition:
- 🏆 Featured in Securian "Innovation Spotlight" case study
- 🏆 SVP Sales commendation for "transformative impact"
- 🏆 Invited to present at Securian Technology Summit (200+ IT professionals)
Key Lessons:
- Data quality is foundation for sales effectiveness
- Automation frees sellers to focus on high-value activities (relationships, deals)
- Change management and training critical for adoption
- Quantify impact ($398K savings) to secure executive buy-in
🚀 Case Study 4: 40% Cloud Cost Reduction (Multi-Cloud Optimization)
Challenge: BlackRoad OS infrastructure costs growing rapidly with scale. Need to reduce cloud spend by 40% while maintaining 99.9% uptime and supporting growth.
Approach:
-
Cost Analysis (Week 1):
- Audited all cloud spending: Cloudflare ($1,200/mo), Railway ($3,800/mo), DigitalOcean ($600/mo)
- Identified waste: Over-provisioned resources, idle services, inefficient data transfer
- Baseline: $5,600/month total cloud spend
-
Optimization Strategy (Week 2):
- Auto-scaling policies: Scale down during off-peak (nights, weekends)
- Reserved capacity: Committed use discounts for predictable baseline load
- Edge caching: Cloudflare CDN to reduce origin requests
- Edge inference: Raspberry Pi cluster to eliminate 80% of cloud AI API calls
- Right-sizing: Match resource allocation to actual usage patterns
-
Implementation (Weeks 3-8):
- Auto-Scaling: Kubernetes HPA based on CPU/memory/custom metrics
- Weekday scaling: 3-12 replicas based on load
- Weekend scaling: 1-3 replicas (80% cost savings during low traffic)
- Edge Caching: Configured Cloudflare CDN cache rules
- Static assets: 30-day cache, 95% hit rate
- API responses: 5-minute cache for high-traffic endpoints
- Result: 85% reduction in origin requests
- Edge AI: Deployed inference models to Raspberry Pi cluster
- 80% of AI requests processed locally (no cloud API charges)
- Savings: $12,000/year on cloud inference costs
- Reserved Capacity: Railway reserved instances for baseline load
- 30% discount on guaranteed minimum capacity
- Database Optimization: Query optimization, connection pooling, read replicas
- 60% reduction in database compute costs
- Auto-Scaling: Kubernetes HPA based on CPU/memory/custom metrics
-
Monitoring & Iteration (Weeks 9-12):
- Cost dashboards: Real-time spend tracking, anomaly detection
- Performance monitoring: Ensure optimizations don't impact latency/reliability
- Continuous tuning: Adjust scaling policies based on traffic patterns
Results:
- 💰 $5,600/mo → $3,360/mo (40% reduction = $2,240/mo saved = $26,880/year)
- 💰 Edge AI: $12,000/year additional savings on inference costs
- 💰 Total annual savings: $38,880
- ⚡ 99.9% uptime maintained (no degradation in reliability)
- ⚡ Latency: <100ms p95 (no performance impact)
- ⚡ Scalability: Auto-scaling supports 10x traffic growth without manual intervention
Breakdown by Initiative:
- Auto-scaling: $1,120/mo saved (weeknight/weekend scale-down)
- Edge caching: $480/mo saved (reduced origin requests)
- Edge AI: $1,000/mo saved (local inference vs cloud APIs)
- Reserved capacity: $380/mo saved (committed use discounts)
- Database optimization: $280/mo saved (query efficiency)
Key Lessons:
- Auto-scaling provides immediate 20-30% savings with no downside
- Edge computing (CDN + local AI) dramatically reduces data transfer and API costs
- Reserved capacity makes sense for predictable baseline load
- Continuous monitoring catches cost anomalies before they escalate
PUBLICATIONS, SPEAKING & THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
Conference Presentations
2024 Securian Winter Sales Conference | St. Paul, MN | December 2024
- "From 3,000 Errors to Zero: A Salesforce Transformation Case Study"
- "Data-Driven Sales: KPI Optimization for Wholesalers"
- Keynote speaker to 450+ internal wholesalers and regional VPs
- Audience feedback: 4.8/5.0 (highest rated session at conference)
LPL Financial Due Diligence Presentation | Multiple Cities | 2024-2025
- "Securian Annuity Product Suite: Technical Deep Dive"
- Primary presenter to due diligence committees across 24,000-advisor network
- Result: Securian products approved for LPL platform → $50M+ distribution opportunity
Ameriprise National Advisor Training Conference | Minneapolis, MN | March 2024
- "Call Note Automation: Saving 40 Hours/Month Through Workflow Innovation"
- Presented workflow automation system earning Thought-Leadership Award
- Attended by 450+ financial advisors and training staff
Securian Technology Summit | St. Paul, MN | October 2024
- "CRM Automation for Sales Excellence"
- Invited presenter to 200+ IT professionals on Salesforce transformation
- Cross-functional audience: IT, Sales Ops, Compliance, Leadership
Awards & Recognition
🏆 Ameriprise Sales Training Thought-Leadership Award (2024)
- Company-wide recognition for workflow automation innovation
- 1 of 8 awards given annually across 12,000+ advisor organization
- Criteria: Exceptional contribution to sales training excellence and operational efficiency
🥇 3× Enterprise Holdings Top Sales Award (2019)
- Monthly recognition for top 10% upsell performance
- Regional ranking: #4 out of 85 representatives (Q2 2019)
- 63% upsell conversion rate (highest in region)
🎤 2024 Winter Sales Conference — Highest Rated Speaker (December 2024)
- 4.8/5.0 audience feedback score (highest rated session)
- 450+ attendee conference, 12 total speakers
📈 #1 Training Team Ranking — Ameriprise Financial (2024)
- Achieved #1 ranking on training team within first 90 days
- Cohort of 12 financial advisors in competitive training program
🗣️ National Speech & Debate — Minnesota State Finalist
- Competitive speaking circuit finalist at state level
- National tournament qualifier
Technical Writing & Documentation
BlackRoad OS Technical Documentation (2025)
- TRUTH_SYSTEM.md: 47-page architectural document defining PS-SHA∞ verification system
- INFRASTRUCTURE_INVENTORY.md: Comprehensive inventory of 66 repos, 15 orgs, all infrastructure
- CLOUDFLARE_INFRA.md: Multi-service Cloudflare management guide (Pages, Workers, KV, D1, DNS)
- ACCESS_AUDIT.md: Security and access control framework, credential rotation procedures
- 23 Operational Runbooks: Incident response procedures for common scenarios
Open Source Contributions (2024-2025)
- Qiskit: 12 merged pull requests to quantum computing framework
- GitHub Discussions: Active contributor providing technical guidance to community
- Stack Overflow: 47 answers, 890 reputation, focused on Python, Kubernetes, Terraform
Media & Features
Securian "Innovation Spotlight" Case Study (2024)
- Featured case study on Salesforce transformation initiative
- Distributed to 500+ sales and operations staff
- Highlighted as example of technology-driven sales excellence
Securian "Wholesaler Excellence" Newsletter (2024-2025)
- Quoted in 3 features on sales performance, automation, thought leadership
- Monthly internal newsletter distributed to 200+ wholesaling organization
Mentorship & Teaching
Ameriprise Financial — Peer Training (2023-2024)
- Trained 12 peer advisors on workflow automation and CRM efficiency
- Led office hours sessions for troubleshooting and optimization
- Created video tutorials, quick-start guides, FAQ documentation
Securian Financial — Knowledge Transfer (2024-2025)
- Led 12 "office hours" sessions for Salesforce automation adoption
- Consulted with 6 regional sales teams on implementing automation strategies
- Mentored 4 junior wholesalers on consultative selling techniques
University Guest Lectures (2024)
- Guest lecturer at University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management
- Topic: "AI Orchestration and the Future of Enterprise Software"
- Class: Technology Strategy and Innovation (MBA program)
STRATEGIC VALUE PROPOSITION
What Makes Me Unique?
The Rare Tri-Hybrid:
Most engineers can't sell. Most salespeople can't build. Almost nobody is FINRA-licensed with deep compliance expertise.
I do all three at enterprise scale.
What I Bring to Your Organization:
1. Technical Depth + Commercial Acumen
- I architect production systems (466K LOC, 23 microservices) AND close enterprise deals ($26.8M)
- I speak fluent C-suite (ROI, TCO, market positioning) AND fluent engineering (K8s, Terraform, distributed systems)
- I understand what customers will buy, then build it with technical excellence
2. Speed of Execution
- BlackRoad OS: Zero to production in 8 months (466K LOC, 99.9% uptime, zero incidents)
- Salesforce transformation: 3,000 errors to zero in 8 weeks
- Sales performance: #1 ranking in 90 days, $26.8M in 11 months
3. Compliance & Risk Management
- Series 7/63/65 FINRA licenses → understand regulated industries intimately
- SOX compliance expertise → zero audit findings across multiple cycles
- PS-SHA∞ verification system → immutable audit trails for enterprise confidence
4. Thought Leadership & Communication
- Conference keynote speaker (450+ attendees, 4.8/5.0 rating)
- Award-winning innovator (Thought-Leadership Award)
- Can present to technical teams AND executive boards with equal fluency
5. Systems Thinking + Business Impact
- Every technical decision evaluated against commercial impact
- Cost optimization: 40% cloud spend reduction while maintaining 99.9% uptime
- Revenue enablement: CRM automation → $398K/year productivity gains → more deals closed
Ideal Roles:
✅ VP of AI/ML Product — Lead product strategy for AI-powered enterprise software ✅ Head of Technical Sales / Solutions Engineering — Bridge engineering and revenue teams ✅ Chief Technology Officer (Growth-Stage) — Technical leadership for scaling startups ✅ Director of AI Orchestration — Build and scale cognitive AI systems ✅ Principal Solutions Architect — Design enterprise AI/ML solutions for customers ✅ Founder / Co-Founder (Technical) — Build AI-first products from zero to scale
What I'm Looking For:
Company Stage: Growth-stage startups (Series A-C) or innovative enterprises Industry: AI/ML, Enterprise SaaS, FinTech, RegTech, Developer Tools Role Type: Leadership position combining technical architecture and business impact Location: Remote-first or hybrid (Minneapolis-St Paul area) Culture: Fast-paced, high-autonomy, metrics-driven, customer-obsessed
EDUCATION
University of Minnesota – Twin Cities
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Strategic Communication Advertising & Public Relations
Relevant Coursework:
- Data Analytics & Consumer Insights
- Consumer Psychology & Behavioral Economics
- Strategic Planning & Campaign Development
- Digital Marketing & Social Media Strategy
- Marketing Research & Statistical Analysis
- Public Relations & Crisis Communication
Extracurricular:
- Speech & Debate Team (National qualifier, Minnesota State Finalist)
- Student Government Association
- Marketing Club (VP of Events)
PROFESSIONAL LICENSES & CERTIFICATIONS
FINRA Securities Licenses
✅ Securities Industry Essentials (SIE) — Foundational securities knowledge ✅ Series 7 — General Securities Representative (full broker-dealer license) ✅ Series 66 — Uniform Combined State Law (combines Series 63 + 65)
- Series 63: Uniform Securities Agent State Law
- Series 65: Uniform Investment Adviser Law
Insurance Licenses
✅ Life & Health Insurance License — Minnesota state license ✅ Annuities Certified — Variable and fixed annuity products
Real Estate License
📋 Real Estate License — Minnesota (currently inactive)
Technical Certifications (Self-Study)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect — In progress (anticipated Q2 2026)
- Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) — Studying (anticipated Q3 2026)
REFERENCES
Available upon request.
References include:
- Executive leadership (SVP Sales, Regional VPs)
- Technical collaborators (open source community, research partners)
- Clients and customers (advisors, enterprise buyers)
- Peers and direct reports (sales colleagues, technical team members)
CONTACT & LINKS
📧 Primary Email: amundsonalexa@gmail.com 📧 Company Email: blackroad.systems@gmail.com 📞 Phone: (507) 828-0842 📍 Location: Lakeville, MN (Open to remote/hybrid)
💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alexaamundson 💻 GitHub: @blackboxprogramming
- 15 organizations managed
- 66+ active repositories
- 5,937+ verified commits
🌐 Portfolio Sites:
- lucidia.earth — Marketing & documentation
- blackroadinc.us — Corporate presence
🚀 Live Products:
- app.blackroad.io — Enterprise SaaS platform
- demo.blackroad.io — Product demonstration
CLOSING STATEMENT
I build production AI systems that generate revenue.
Most engineers focus on technical elegance. Most salespeople focus on quota. I optimize for business impact — the intersection of technical excellence and commercial success.
My track record:
- Built 466K LOC production platform achieving 99.9% uptime from day one
- Closed $26.8M in enterprise sales while pioneering automation saving $398K/year
- Earned FINRA licenses and navigated SOX compliance with zero audit findings
- Spoke to audiences of 450+ on technical and commercial topics (4.8/5.0 rating)
What I'm looking for: An organization that values builders who can sell and sellers who can build. A role where technical depth meets commercial impact. A team that moves fast, measures everything, and obsesses over customer value.
What you get: Someone who can architect your AI platform, present it to your board, sell it to your customers, and ensure it complies with SOX/GDPR/industry regulations. All while shipping code daily and hitting revenue targets.
Let's build something extraordinary together.
Alexa Amundson amundsonalexa@gmail.com | (507) 828-0842
Resume last updated: December 22, 2025 Available for immediate start: January 2026 Open to: Full-time permanent, contract-to-hire (6+ month contracts) Location preference: Remote-first (open to quarterly travel for key meetings) Compensation expectations: Competitive base + equity (early-stage) OR performance bonus (growth-stage)
Specializations: AI Product Management • Enterprise SaaS Architecture • Revenue-Driving Engineering • Regulated Industry Expertise • Technical Sales Leadership • SOX Compliance • Multi-Cloud Infrastructure • Cognitive AI Orchestration