state of california · enterprise software & applied ai
Engineering with AI and open-weight models, in production.
I lead the Application Development Unit at the California State Controller's Office, and I'm a former Sitecore Lead Developer and Cloud Architect at Caltrans. I build with AI-assisted tooling and self-hosted open-weight models day to day. Azure and Sitecore certified, based in Sacramento, CA.
about
A decade-plus of state IT, from Sitecore architecture to engineering leadership
I lead the Application Development Unit at the California State Controller's Office, overseeing a .NET engineering team responsible for enterprise applications used across state government.
Before that, I spent years as a Sitecore Lead Developer and Application/Cloud Architect at Caltrans, where I was part of the first Caltrans team to obtain an Azure subscription from CDT — pioneering the department's move into Microsoft Azure. I hold a Sitecore 9.3+ Experience Solution Developer certification and Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900), and I've led Sitecore upgrades, SOLR search architecture redesigns, and department-wide development standards across multiple state agencies, including DGS, GO-Biz, and Caltrans.
I got my start studying Management Information Systems at California State University, Sacramento. Early mentorship — including as a mentee in the State of CA Mentorship Program under a CIO — shaped how I lead today, which is part of why I now mentor emerging IT professionals myself. I care about clear architecture, dependable delivery, and building teams that can move fast without breaking trust — especially in the public sector, where the software has to work for everyone.
Three department recognitions
Individual Contributor Award for Innovation and Risk Taking (2023), the Superior Accomplishment Award for delivering the Caltrans Career Compass LMS platform and Sitecore upgrade (2024), and a group Innovation Award for driving Azure cloud adoption (2025).
ai & local models
Hands-on with AI and open-weight models
AI is part of my day-to-day engineering, not a side interest. I work across Cursor, Claude Code, and Gemini for real development — this very site was built with AI-assisted coding — and I run a dual-GPU setup for self-hosted open-weight models. My focus is agentic workflows and pushing on where open-weight models are genuinely competitive for coding and automation, from model selection and routing down to local runtimes and quantization.
CDT AI Assistant Input Session
Invited by the California Department of Technology (CDT) to help shape requirements for a state AI assistant — sharing what practitioners actually need from AI tooling in government workflows.
Vulnerable Roadway User Safety
Contributor on a Caltrans generative-AI initiative focused on improving safety outcomes for vulnerable roadway users.
Traffic Mobility Insights
Contributor on a Caltrans generative-AI project surfacing insights from traffic and mobility data.
experience
Career log
B.S. Business, Management Information Systems — CSU Sacramento
Graduated after serving as President of the Management Information Systems Association.
Information Technology Associate — Information Security Office
Entered state service in the Information Security Office, beginning a career in public-sector IT.
Systems Software Specialist I — Office of Systems Integration
Supported the Statewide Automated Reconciliation (SARS) web application, ran SQL reporting for EBT state and county staff, and built a C# ASP.NET test tool for the EBT test environment.
Staff Programmer Analyst — Dept. of General Services
Administered SharePoint 2013 and DotNetNuke, upgraded to the Evoq Content platform, and rewrote legacy applications with .NET, Entity Framework, and Telerik Kendo UI.
Senior Programmer Analyst — Governor's Office of Business & Economic Development
Supported the $330M California Film & Television Tax Credit program, led .NET development for the California Film Commission, and redesigned the CFC/IBank sites in WordPress on AWS.
ITS I, Lead Sitecore Developer — Dept. of General Services
Led Sitecore 9.0.1 across 48 active project solutions, built custom SOLR search and Helix-pattern components, supported ADA accessibility efforts, and used Azure DevOps for code management.
ITS II, Lead Sitecore Developer — Caltrans
Led Sitecore 9.1.0 across 26 active project solutions and 5 public-facing multisite properties, managing a team of developers and vendors using the Helix pattern and GitHub Enterprise.
Acting IT Manager, Web & Mobile Teams
Short-term acting role leading the Mobile/Web Applications & Web Support Units, aligning IT strategy across teams.
Individual Contributor Award for Innovation and Risk Taking
Recognized by Caltrans for driving creative, forward-thinking solutions in application development.
Superior Accomplishment Award, Caltrans
Department-wide recognition for delivering the public-facing Caltrans Career Compass LMS platform and the Sitecore upgrade.
ITS III, Application & Cloud Architect — Caltrans
Part of the first Caltrans team to obtain an Azure subscription from CDT. Established department-wide development standards, a reusable .NET starter template, and Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline templates adopted across multiple teams.
Innovation Award (Group), Caltrans
Department-wide group award recognizing the team's work driving Azure cloud adoption across the organization.
Application Development Unit Supervisor — CA State Controller's Office
Transitioned into a supervisor role leading a .NET engineering team responsible for enterprise applications that support state government operations.
certifications & skills
Certified across the Microsoft stack
Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
Core Azure cloud concepts, services, and governance.
Sitecore 9.3+ Experience Solution Developer
Certified on the Sitecore Experience Platform for enterprise content management.
Application Development Unit Supervisor
Leading a .NET team through delivery, standards, mentoring, and cloud modernization.
contact
Let's talk
Open to conversations about engineering leadership, cloud and Sitecore modernization, or applied AI in the enterprise.