J O S E P H
AI Business Operations Specialist
MY STORY

Most people see AI as a way to replace human effort. I see it as a way to amplify human flourishing. As the Program Manager for the AI Lab at Biola University, I don't just automate processes; I build the environments where people and technology solve high-stakes problems together. I operate at the intersection of High-Level Design (HLD) and Human Agency, ensuring that every system I deploy makes the person using it look better, enjoy their work, and deliver higher-quality results.

I believe the best way to bridge the gap between technical potential and business reality is through immediate evidence. When stakeholders are hesitant about AI adoption, I don't give them a slide deck; I give them an MVP. By showing results right away, I help stakeholders visualize the trade-offs of their time and feel empowered to invest in the core business. For example, by teaching non-technical teams the basics of AI and data protection, I've successfully transitioned departments from manual, 300-hour processes to balanced, human-in-the-loop systems.

My philosophy is centered on unblocking the person to increase organizational velocity. I've realized that most operational bottlenecks are actually misalignments in vision rather than technical failures. I solve this by working simultaneously from a top-down and bottoms-up perspective to ensure everyone lands in the same place. This involves rooting every initiative in the company's core mission while deeply understanding what individual team members care about. By finding the middle ground where personal growth intersects with the project's success, I connect the right people to the right resources and create a flat hierarchy of high-agency individuals who can execute with little to no oversight.

I am always looking to learn from others who are navigating the complexities of people and systems. Whether you are actively building a team or just want to make a new friend, I'm always open to a conversation. My goal is to stay connected with those who view growth as a mission, and I'm happy to be a resource for anyone looking to help their people and their business reach their fullest potential.

EXPERIENCE
Co-Founder
AI Lab at Biola University
Feb 2024 - Current | La Mirada, CA
Skills: FullStack, Python, MLOps, AI/ML, Cross-functional Leadership, Policy Compliance
  • Orchestrated Cross-Departmental Compliance: Navigated the legal, IT, and HR hurdles of a 100-year-old institution to establish the university's first framework for AI integration, ensuring all administrative and academic deployments met strict security and policy standards.
  • Developed Technical Automation Workflows: Built and deployed custom serverless agents for non-technical users using Python and the Gemini API to solve operational bottlenecks, replacing hours of common FAQ and communication tasks with automated systems.
  • Mentored student teams to victory in a $250,000 global AI hackathon, leveraging that success to secure strategic corporate partnerships and collaborating with Marketing to rebrand the university as a premier hub for emerging tech innovation.
  • Facilitated High-Leverage Talent Development: Coached 100+ faculty, students, and conferences on "human-in-the-loop" methodologies, focusing on practical AI literacy that prioritizes individual agency and real-world career readiness.
MLOps Engineer
Stealth Startup
July 2025 - Current | Phoenix, AZ
Skills: Python, ETL Pipelines, Data Engineering, LLM Agents, Regex, Stakeholder Communication
  • Data Engineering & ETL: Architected a custom Python-based ETL pipeline to ingest and synthesize 16M+ messages from disparate, sparse datasets; implemented complex regex-driven normalization and data-bridging logic to transform unstructured conversational data into a unified, queryable format.
  • ML Implementation & Strategy: Developed an LLM-based agent to analyze thousands of customer interactions, identifying key semantic patterns and performance bottlenecks that served as the primary "North Star" for the startup's data-driven operational strategy.
  • Stakeholder Impact & Communication: Translated deep-dive data analysis into actionable sales intelligence, uncovering a single conversation metric responsible for 90% of revenue; collaborated with stakeholders to retrain the sales team, resulting in a 120% increase in conversion rate and enhanced lead qualification.
DevOps Product Dev Intern
Samaritan's Purse
May 2024 - Aug 2024 | Boone, NC
Skills: C# .NET, Docker, Jenkins CI/CD, Kubernetes, OpenLens, Agile Scrum
  • Developed and deployed a canary monitoring system across 17 databases in three data centers using MVC C# .NET, Docker, and Jenkins CI/CD that resulted in a 20% increase in overall uptime.
  • Enhanced DevOps capabilities, streamlining deployments and boosting system reliability through cluster management, load balancing, CI/CD, and monitoring with OpenLens that allows future developers to test dependencies and fallbacks.
  • Practiced Agile Scrum methodology, learned by reading PRs from Senior Engineers.