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Architect Development

Building an architecture practice of up to fourteen, on a weekly rhythm and a design review gate, and moving engineers into senior and lead roles.

Left to right is time. Each row is one of the 7 disciplines this one worked alongside, ordered so kindred disciplines sit next to each other rather than alphabetically — a landscape only means anything if neighboring rows belong together. Height is the work running in that domain in that year, weighted by what failure would have cost — life-safety ×3, a statutory obligation ×2.2, the estate itself ×1.5, an evaluation ×1. Every project declares which of those it was, so each ridge traces to an entry you can open and disagree with. Only the work that used this technology is counted, so what shows here is the company it kept rather than the record around it. Height and color are on the record-wide scale rather than this page’s own, so a modest estate draws a modest landscape and any two of these pages can be read against each other.

Built and led an architecture practice of up to fourteen at NRI North America: sixteen architects and contract architects came through it across two years, ten to twelve running at any one time, including four CCIEs and four CCNPs with Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet specializations, embedded across concurrent engagements. A weekly practice rhythm ran unbroken for nineteen months, with per-engineer certification plans and a vendor enablement track behind it.

Set technical direction, raised design quality through a working review practice, and moved engineers into senior and lead roles. Architecture communities of practice and architect development are the part of the job that outlasts any individual design.

Applied in

  • Enterprise Architecture Practice Build2024–2026An architecture practice of up to fourteen, built and run to a design review gate and a weekly rhythm — so engagements were delivered against one design language rather than individual preference.
  • Client Architecture Portfolio2024–202688 numbered engagements across two years, twenty-plus live at any moment, across healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and the public sector — the inverse of nineteen years inside one estate, and a different problem.
  • Vendor and Partner Program2024–2026Seven technology and service partners brought in across two years for capability the practice did not have or could not scale, with a formal manufacturer specialization track behind it.
  • FLGISA Cost Model Program2012–2021Taking the City of Jacksonville's IT cost modeling, chargeback and allocation approach to peer jurisdictions across multiple conference years.
  • Student Capstone Security Engagement and College Partnerships2009–2014A student team given scoped authorization to penetration test the live city estate — and a written response to their findings, taken to a second revision, rather than a thank-you note.

Career

See also