From Intelligence Officer to AI Builder
I served as a U.S. Marine Corps Ground Intelligence Officer from 2008-2017. The Marine Corps taught me that leadership isn't about knowing everything—it's about setting clear intent and empowering your team to execute.
After the Marines, I joined Amazon. Over 8.5 years, I progressed from Operations Manager to Principal Product Manager—learning how to build at scale alongside some of the world's best engineers, data scientists, and product leaders.
Amazon: 8.5 Years of Scale
2017 - Present
Operations → Last Mile → Fleet Marketing → AI/ML. I learned to ship products serving hundreds of millions of customers—not as an engineer, but as a product leader.
- AVN Detection System: 333x cost reduction, 100% accuracy
- Fleet ID Systems: $149M program, $28.6M annual fraud prevention
- Fleet Marketing: $700M channel across 70 regions
- GenAI Strategy: 30-40% productivity gains
Personal AI Journey: 3+ Years
Started 2022 — Nights, weekends, early mornings
In 2022, I started learning AI on my own time—completely separate from Amazon work. My vacation rental business (Oak Creek Retreat) sparked it: I needed to automate operations.
- ELEMNT.ai: Multi-agent content platform for thought leaders — Shipping 2025
- SedonaOps.AI: Vacation rental operations automation — In Development
- Oak Creek Retreat: First AI-built product for vacation rental business — Launched
December 2024: The Paths Crossed
After 2+ years of personal AI learning, I started applying those skills at Amazon. By May 2025, I was in a Principal PM role focused on AI/ML. By July, I'd built the AVN Detection System—333x cost reduction, 100% accuracy.
The thesis proven:
Domain expertise + AI tools + discipline = production capability
The Learning Journey
Transparent about the process, including the failures
December 2022
First ChatGPT experiment
Oak Creek Retreat sparked it—needed to automate vacation rental ops
2023
Deep AI exploration
Nights, weekends, early mornings—all personal time
January 2025
AWS GenAI Practitioner Certification
Took 2 attempts—the failure taught me what I didn't know
2024
Claude Desktop → WindSurf → Claude Code
Each tool unlocked new capabilities
December 2024
AI skills merge into Amazon work
2+ years personal learning → enterprise application
May 2025
Principal PM role at Amazon
New role with AI/ML focus
July 2025
AVN Detection System
333x cost reduction, 100% accuracy. Built with skills learned on personal time.
Present
3+ years deliberate practice
Still learning. What am I missing?
Speaking & Thought Leadership
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The Non-Technical Builder Path
Domain expertise + AI tools + discipline = production capability
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Commander's Intent for AI
Military doctrine applied to AI agent orchestration
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AI Adoption That Actually Works
Building foundational skills without engineering dependence
Amazon Career Progression
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2025 - Present
Principal Product Manager, AI/ML
Amazon Last Mile
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2019 - 2025
Sr. Product Manager, Fleet Marketing
Amazon Last Mile
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2018 - 2019
Regional Fleet Manager
Amazon Last Mile
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2017 - 2018
Operations Manager
Amazon Fulfillment
2008 - 2017
Ground Intelligence Officer (0203)
U.S. Marine Corps
Core Values & Philosophy
AI is a leadership challenge
The hardest part of AI adoption isn't building models—it's aligning stakeholders, defining success metrics, and ensuring AI serves real business needs.
Creativity beats credentials
I've seen creative PMs without CS degrees outperform PhD data scientists when it comes to shipping AI products customers love.
Accessibility isn't optional
If AI remains accessible only to technical elites, we'll miss the diverse perspectives needed to build AI that serves everyone.
Impact over algorithms
A simple AI solution that solves a real problem beats a sophisticated model that solves no problem at all.
Questions? Disagreements?
I'm always learning. If something here resonates—or doesn't—I'd like to hear about it.