Bearing Out

Principal Solution Architect, Platform, AI & Cloud Leader

Columbus, OH | Email Me

Executive profile

Enterprise solution architect and technical leader with 17+ years delivering cloud, integration, and AI solutions on Azure and Microsoft 365 across insurance, logistics, energy, retirement, healthcare, steel, food manufacturing, and government. I build platforms, patterns, and people: I create reusable enterprise capabilities, governance that empowers rather than blocks, and engineers who grow into leaders. My work spans serverless automation, API-first integration, agentic and AI-native engineering, secure-by-default cloud, DevOps, and developer enablement. I translate technical complexity into business outcomes, ROI, and risk mitigation that executives can act on, which is the core of a Field CTO.

Core focus areas

  • AI & agentic engineering: Azure Document Intelligence, OpenAI Codex enablement, agents.md standards, Responsible AI guardrails, GPT-assisted code review
  • DevOps & platform engineering: Azure DevOps, CI/CD, IaC (Bicep/ARM), the “Project Factory” deployment pattern, golden paths, self-service onboarding
  • Architecture & governance: ARB and CoE founder, 20+ ADRs, reference architectures, event-driven design, secure-by-default (Private Endpoints, RBAC, Managed Identity, Key Vault)
  • Integrations & cloud: API-first strategy, Azure Logic Apps (Standard), APIM, SAP OData and RFC/BAPI, Azure Functions, Service Bus, OAuth/Okta identity
  • Coaching & technical leadership: mentored seven engineers to independent delivery, founded TypeScript and DevOps/Bicep enablement programs, executive and vendor alignment

Experience

Marzetti

September 2024 to Present
Principal Solution Architect: Platform, Integration & AI

Enterprise architecture and infrastructure: architect, delivery lead, and coach across a custom development portfolio.

  • Delivered the company’s first cloud-native, serverless API application: end-to-end accounts payable automation using M365 mailbox ingestion, Azure AI Document Intelligence OCR, Logic Apps (Standard), and SAP API posting, reaching roughly 75 to 90 percent straight-through automation and deployments of about 20 minutes through CI/CD.
  • Architected the real-time enterprise integration framework for a product lifecycle management program, aligning the PLM platform, SAP S/4HANA, and Azure middleware on a REST-first, RFC/BAPI-wrapped model that became a governing standard across programs.
  • Established the first secure-by-default CD/CD pipeline for production environment as a repeatable hardening pattern for replication across workloads.
  • Championed agentic, AI-native engineering: introduced OpenAI Codex on a governed repository with an Azure DevOps backstop, standardized agents.md repository context, and set “human-first, AI-uplift” code review norms so a small team can safely own a larger delivery surface.
  • Designed a data-syndication platform with a secretless identity model built on managed identities and Key Vault-brokered partner keys; established the company’s first custom UI/UX framework for an agent-built React UI.
  • Worked in the Architecture Review Board and Center of Excellence from scratch; authored 20+ ADRs, integration standards, and the ARB “Partners, not Prosecutors” manifesto to build durable architectural memory with psychological safety.
  • Led cloud platform improvements across Storage, Key Vault, Logic Apps, Synapse, and ADF; a two-year advocacy for Private Endpoints, RBAC, and Managed Identity became the production networking pattern, including private-network build agents.
  • Designed the “Project Factory” platform pattern: an infrastructure and application factory for repeatable, auditable Azure deployments (IaC, private endpoints, managed identity, SHA-256 release integrity, a full Git-tag audit trail).
  • Mentored seven engineers to independent delivery, proven when a mentee ran the platform solo through a two-week absence with zero escalations; founded and personally teach the TypeScript Fundamentals and DevOps/Bicep enablement courses.
  • Turned a production incident into a blameless architectural retrospective that produced governance and corrective-action standards; engaged Gartner on API Management and API-lifecycle strategy.

Insight, 2023 to 2024

Power Platform & Dataverse Architect / Technical Pre-Sales Architect

Delivery architecture plus technical pre-sales across strategic and partner accounts.

  • Built a responsive, offline-capable Canvas application with Power Automate and Dataverse, SharePoint file storage, Git Flow source control, and Azure DevOps YAML pipelines (Dev, Test, QA, Prod) for a US State Department of Agriculture Bill of Lading product.
  • Migrated a large project-management and monetary-allocation Canvas app from SharePoint to a streamlined Dataverse model with Data Flows, ALM, and training for a wealth-management organization.
  • Scoped, estimated, and pitched solutions, including SOWs, ROM decks, and rapid POCs, helping sell well over $3M of new and continued business: the bridge between delivery and the client conversation that a Field CTO owns.

Insight, February 2019 to July 2023

.NET Principal Engineer & Conversational AI Developer

  • Delivered Azure Functions and Dynamics 365 integrations for a Cleveland data-center management organization.
  • Built a Microsoft Bot Framework voice assistant (LUIS/CLU, QnA Maker, Bing Maps, App Insights, CI/CD) for a large Detroit energy company.
  • Performed Logic App and Azure Function architectural assessments for a healthcare appointment-reminder system.

Nationwide Insurance, September 2017 to February 2019

System Architect: M365, SharePoint & Enterprise Search

  • Owned M365 features and SharePoint from a 3-year architectural and budgeting roadmap: early platform-as-a-product thinking at enterprise scale.
  • Delivered a two-year, under-budget plan to migrate the intranet from Java/Grails on-premises to a modern React and headless CMS pattern; planned the move from SharePoint 2013 on-premises to SharePoint Online and the shift to Coveo enterprise search.

Cardinal Solutions & Glazer’s Family of Companies, 2008 to 2017

SharePoint / .NET / JavaScript Developer

  • Delivered workflow automation, branding, web parts, event receivers, and managed metadata across multiple clients, with a BDC/BCS specialty and farm migrations.
  • Automated complex DB2 to MySQL pricing extraction and led Lotus Notes to SharePoint migrations.

Certifications & development

  • Completed: AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals and AI-900 Azure AI Fundamentals (Microsoft, December 2025).
  • In progress / roadmap: PL-200 Power Platform; AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert; AZ-400 DevOps Engineer Expert; AI-200 and AI-103 AI Engineer; AB-731 Responsible AI.
  • Thought leadership: 460+ LinkedIn posts and 7 published articles on people-centered architecture, platform engineering, and AI integration.

Public speaking

  • Career Development Talks for internal community groups (Insight)
  • Columbus Web Group 2017
  • SharePoint Saturday Columbus, Ohio 2017 (Workflows)
  • Buckeye SPUG Columbus, Ohio 2016 (Workflows)
  • Dog Food Conference Columbus, Ohio 2016 (BCS Catalog Framework & SQL Integration)
  • Nationwide Internal Innovation Conference 2018
  • Code && Beer Community Interview re adapting to the Pandemic
  • Code && Beer Bot Framework 2020
  • Code && Beer Azure Functions 2019
  • Stir Trek

Skills & technologies

  • Cloud & integration: Azure (Logic Apps Standard, Functions, APIM, Service Bus, ADF, Synapse, Storage, Key Vault), Microsoft 365, SAP OData and RFC/BAPI, REST/JSON, OAuth/Okta identity, Private Endpoints, Managed Identity, RBAC.
  • AI & data: Azure AI Document Intelligence, OpenAI Codex, agentic development patterns, Responsible AI guardrails, Cognitive Services, Bot Framework, Cosmos DB, SQL.
  • DevOps & engineering: Azure DevOps, CI/CD, IaC (Bicep/ARM), Git Flow, .NET, TypeScript/JavaScript, PowerShell, MermaidJS architecture-as-code.
  • Platform & leadership: Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps, Dataverse), ADRs and ARB governance, CoE, mentoring and curriculum design, executive and vendor communication, pre-sales and solution estimation.

Education

  • The Ohio State University, B.A., 2008