Kevin D.

Three-Time CTO with Deep Experience in Artificial Intelligence, Data Engineering, and Greenfield Development

I've served as CTO for three companies ranging in size from 1-60 engineers. As a CTO, I co-founded Metric Collective, and I assisted in a major successful capital raise for Helium 10 and OrderMetrics (both subsidiaries of Pacvue, fka Assembly). Since then, I've been heavily involved in greenfield development of Generative AI and Machine Learning products across a handful of verticals. Let's talk about your AI and Data Engineering projects!

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Work

Amazon Sales Estimation Model
As part of Pacvue's data team, I implemented a novel Sales Estimation Model, crucial for Amazon sellers, significantly enhancing its accuracy and capabilities. Initially tasked with transitioning a proof-of-concept model into production, I identified and rectified flaws in data collection and model evaluation. Leveraging XGBoost, I developed an alternative model delivering results competitive with…
Amazon Review Analyzer
At Pacvue's AI Labs, I spearheaded research into cutting-edge AI technologies, particularly Generative AI, and I created a pioneering Aspect-Based Sentiment Analysis tool using Python and OpenAI's GPT- 4 LLM, capable of extracting structured data from millions of Amazon reviews without manual tagging. This tool, surpassing traditional NLP methods, was able to perform open-domain unconstrained aspe…
Snowflake Data Lake
I led the implementation of the Snowflake Data Lake at Helium 10, consolidating disparate application databases into a unified data lake for enhanced analytics. Using Python, I developed a YAML-based system to ingest data from multiple engines, ensuring freshness every 15 minutes via Snowflake and AWS S3. I also implemented Git-based change management and collaborated on DBT setup for efficient data modeling and transformation. This system processes over 10 TB of data daily.
OrderMetrics
I was personally responsible for the ground-up re-implementation of OrderMetrics, after it was acquired by Assembly. The core was a Python-based engine for collecting data from several heterogeneous ecommerce data sources capable of multiplexing over 10k/sec rate-limit-aware API requests. Additionally, I developed a library of over 100 globalized financial accounting metrics, and worked with a team of 6 frontend engineers to develop the application, supported by a GraphQL Backend in Node. OrderMetrics as a brand was shut down, but the technology was integrated into other Assembly products.
DeepSleep Stories
As a personal project, I developed an end-to-end proof-of-concept automated pipeline for the generation and narration of bedtime stories, designed to be distributed as a free nightly podcast, as well as a premium app. As a related exercise, I developed a collaborative AI writing tool and used it to write an 18,000 Novella in the Young Adult category. Samples available upon request.
AddressReport
I built a web application (previously: Rentenna) to crawl rental listings in New York City, and display them with an associated “Rentenna Score” that assessed the listing for a variety of factors. We later renamed the application AddressReport and focused on building a full report of rich data collected from several private and public sources. This company was acquired by OnBoard Informatics.
Union Square Linens
After acquiring an online retailer of wedding linens, I developed an e-commerce backend and taxonomy for millions of product combinations. As part of this, I also developed a machine vision technology that allowed the automatic projection of fabric colors and textures onto in-context photographs of wedding linens to dramatically reduce the cost of producing high-quality photographs.
FranchiseHelp
I inherited a Wordpress website, and performed a full re-write to turn it into a successful modern web application. I then served as the sole engineer for the product, eventually hiring and managing two engineers. This included a web application frontend, a content-management system, and a lead-mangement system complete with call-center operations.

Experience

Pacvue
Principal Engineer, AI Labs
Jul 2022 - Present
Pacvue (formerly Assembly) is a technology holding company that runs a portfolio of web applications that help e-commerce sellers sell on online marketplaces such as Amazon and Walmart. As the Principal Engineer for the AI Labs team, I worked as an individual contributor and a technical leader for several different products within the company, focusing on Data Engineering, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.
- Implemented an LLM-based Review Analyzer project capable of analyzing millions of Amazon Reviews with AI.
- Implemented and productionized a novel sales estimation model to estimate sales for billions of products on Amazon on a daily basis with best-in-class accuracy.
- Developed and championed a ML-Ops program for data scientists and data engineers to effectively collaborate on products and services.
- Implemented a Snowflake data lake to process over 10TB of data daily across several applications and data sources.
OrderMetrics
Chief Technical Officer
Aug 2020 - Feb 2022
After being acquired by Assembly, the CTO of OrderMetrics had left the company to pursue a PhD, and I was placed with the company to perform a full re-build of the application from the ground-up. OrderMetrics was a financial analytics application that gathered ecommerce data from external sources such as Shopify, Amazon, Etsy, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Google Analytics, and others, and allowed used to analyze their data in one place.
- Built Reflector: a distributed API data acquisition engine capable of multiplexing 10k rate-limit-aware requests/second.
- Worked with CPA to develop a library of over 100 financial analytic metrics for ecommerce businesses.
- Oversaw a team of 8 software engineers to develop a React data visualization frontend.
Helium 10
Interim Chief Technical Officer
Apr 2020 - May 2021
I performed Technical Due Diligence for the acquisition of Helium 10 by Assembly, and after the acquisition, I served as Interim CTO while I assisted in the executive search for the company's current CTO. During that time, I oversaw the engineering team as it grew from 20 to 60 engineers.
- Grew engineering team from 20 to 60 engineers across 4 countries.
- Implemented a devops organization with mature best-practices in continuous deployment.
- Developed an agile project management program and established standards across the organization.
- Assisted in due diligence for a major capital raise by a Private Equity investeor.
Metric Collective
Chief Technical Officer
Feb 2012 - Apr 2021
At Metric, I was the first engineering hire and served as CTO until it was acquired by a new operator, at which point I served as Advisor. Metric is a Portfolio Holding Company operating several independent and inter-related properties, and I grew the engineering team to a peak size of 6 engineers. I worked closely with the rest of the executive team on product and technology strategy, and executed the implementation of all major technology systems.
- Built AddressReport from scratch, which was acquired by Onboard Informatics.
- Performed a ground-up rewrite of FranchiseHelp, as an early adopter of Kubernetes.
- Assisted in the acquisition of YC-backed Boostable and integrated with our own competing product.
- Developed Raven / Orchestra, an email and SMS automation system that sent millions of messages daily, and rehabilitated a critically damaged email sender reputation.
- Developed a machine vision model for reducing the cost of combinatoric photography shoots for Union Square Linens, a wedding linens retailer we operated.
Cornell University
Bachelors of Science, Computer Science
Aug 2007 - Jun 2011
- External Specialization in Psychology
- Research in Artificial Intelligence