Mark Holton

Experience

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  Nora Foundry

  AI & Data Pipeline Architect

  Nov 2025 - Present

  Nora Foundry is an independent architecture practice focused on AI workflows, data pipelines, and distributed systems. I work with teams moving from prototype to production - helping stabilize systems, reduce complexity, and make them reliable to operate at scale.

  • Led architecture reviews and stabilization efforts for AI workflows and data pipeline systems moving from prototype to production
  • Identified root causes of system instability across orchestration, state management, and data flow
  • Designed event-driven and streaming architectures (Kafka, async systems) for production-scale workloads
  • Improved reliability through better failure handling, observability, and workflow design
  • Delivered clear architectural direction and stabilization roadmaps for teams under real production pressure
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  ShiftUp

  Lead Sr. Software Architect

  Apr 2025 - Oct 2025

  ShiftUp is an AI-driven intelligence platform focused on building data pipelines and workflow systems that connect external signals, structured data, and customer systems to drive decision-making.

  • Built the stakeholder intelligence pipeline from scratch - ingestion, workflow orchestration, external data (SERP/APIs), and LLM-based analysis
  • Designed systems to ingest, process, and operationalize large-scale data for real-time sales intelligence
  • Implemented multi-stage data workflows (search → extract → synthesize) producing structured, actionable outputs
  • Defined system boundaries, data flow patterns, and architecture for scalability, reliability, and future extension
  • Featured as Lead Architect in ShiftUp announcement, recognized for designing event-driven data pipelines powering AI systems at Salesforce (See announcement: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/shiftup-assembles-world-class-technical-110000845.html)
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  Salesforce

  Architect / Principal Engineer

  Jul 2014 - Apr 2025

  Architect of event-driven systems, data platforms, and production-scale distributed software. At Salesforce, I spent over a decade designing and building fault-tolerant data pipelines and event-driven infrastructure powering Einstein Bots and other production systems. My work focused on systems where reliability, scale, and long-term architectural decisions matter - including pipelines processing billions of events per month in live production environments.

  • Architected and built a Kafka-based event pipeline processing 10+ Billion events/month, supporting real-time chatbot workflows
  • Designed and implemented fault-tolerant consumers (circuit breakers, bulkheads, retry queues, exponential backoff) for production reliability
  • Built real-time analytics pipelines using Kafka Streams for chatbot performance and behavioral insights
  • Early member of the Einstein Chatbots team, helping take the platform from 0 → large-scale production adoption
  • Designed and implemented backend services (Java, Spring Boot) and integrations across Salesforce APIs (REST, Bulk, Apex, Flow)
  • Contributed to team growth through hiring, mentoring, and establishing engineering practices
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  Desk.com

  Lead Member of Technical Staff

  Jun 2014 - Jul 2018

  Desk.com was a customer support platform serving fast-growing businesses, where I led analytics and data engineering bridging the core application and real-time analytics systems.

  • Built a real-time customer service analytics pipeline using Kinesis and distributed consumers to process high-volume event data
  • Designed and implemented streaming data workflows to transform and aggregate support interactions into actionable insights
  • Developed backend systems supporting large-scale request handling (360k+ requests/min), improving system throughput and reliability
  • Built integration layers between application services and Elasticsearch for efficient query and data access patterns
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  LiquidPlanner

  Senior Software Engineer

  Jan 2011 - Jul 2014

  LiquidPlanner (now Tempo.io) was a project management platform where I joined as the 5th engineering hire, building core product features and backend systems from early-stage through growth.

  • Early engineering team member (5th hire), owning full-stack feature development from design through production
  • Built end-to-end product features across frontend, backend, and data layers in a growing SaaS platform
  • Designed and implemented PostgreSQL full-text search across core data models, enabling fast, scalable querying across application entities
  • Open-sourced an “InfiniScroll” jQuery plugin (50+ GitHub stars), used to support scalable front-end data loading patterns
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  AT&T

  Principal - Technology Security

  May 2007 - Feb 2011

  Built internal security and identity systems for AT&T’s Chief Security Office, supporting large-scale enterprise operations.

  • Led a team of 5 engineers (database and web developers) building internal security and identity systems
  • Designed and delivered identity and access management applications used by hundreds of thousands of AT&T employees
  • Built web applications supporting enterprise-scale security workflows across authentication, authorization, and access control
  • Owned system design and delivery across backend, database, and application layers in a high-trust environment
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  Peak Systems (now UpTop)

  Web Application Developer

  Jul 2006 - Jun 2007

  Peak Systems (later rebranded as UpTop) was a web and mobile development firm building consumer and enterprise applications, recognized for high-quality product and UX work.

  • Built full-stack, n-tier web applications across database, backend, and frontend layers using ColdFusion and relational databases
  • Delivered solutions for enterprise telecom (Qwest/CenturyLink) and startup clients (Skillshow)
  • Contributed to production web and internal systems in a client-services environment with multiple concurrent projects
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  Boeing

  Web Application Developer

  Dec 2004 - Aug 2006

  Built internal systems supporting operational workflows for the 787 program, improving efficiency and reducing processing time at global scale.

  • Transformed a 7-stage paper-based onboarding workflow into a software-driven system for the 787 program
  • Reduced processing time for global onboarding applications from 30+ days to under 5 days
  • Built internal web applications supporting distributed teams and operational workflows across multiple regions
  • Developed full-stack solutions across backend, database, and user interface layers
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  MicroVision®

  Senior Research Engineer

  Dec 2000 - Dec 2005

  Early-stage R&D role focused on near-to-eye display systems, building software and automation infrastructure for image quality analysis and internal research workflows.

  • Sole software engineer working with a small R&D team (including PhDs) to build an automated image quality lab
  • Designed end-to-end systems spanning hardware interaction, data collection, processing, and reporting
  • Built web-based tools to distribute and visualize test results across internal teams
  • Co-inventor on 2 patents related to image processing and display systems