GEORGE LARSON
Email: george.g.larson@pm.me
Phone: 412-945-0101
Location: Pittsburgh, PA

SUMMARY
Director of Technology and long-time builder with a career across software engineering, infrastructure, and manufacturing. I lead calm, pragmatic teams that deliver Linux and cloud systems, DevOps automation, and resilient ecommerce platforms while decades of Zen practice keep the room steady under pressure. I stay close to the keyboard, understand the whiteboard, and use AI with an eye toward privacy and measurable outcomes.

KEY METRICS (2025)
- 36 public assets scanned continuously via HostedScan + OWASP ZAP with 33 findings closed in the past 60 days and zero critical/high issues in backlog.
- 36 active GitLab projects (11 users, 2 groups), 2,204 merge requests, 739 CI pipelines (avg 565 successes / 58 fails) and 16 managed SSH keys.
- Mattermost workspace with 7 teams, 40 channels, ~1.0M lifetime posts, 313 calls, and alert channels wired to uptime, upgrade, helpdesk, GitLab, and web-critical events.
- Zammad helpdesk processed 1,487 tickets YTD (~150–206/month in Jun–Aug) with ≥97% close rate, 68% resolved inside 24 hours (56% inside 8 hours), zero reopen events.
- Uptime Kuma monitors 31 services (GitLab, Helpdesk, Shopify APIs, FTP, chat, docs, etc.) as part of 24×7 observability feeding Mattermost.

CURRENT FOCUS
- Building and operating manufacturing and ecommerce platforms with 99 percent uptime targets.
- Coaching teams through lean, testable delivery practices that keep production stable.
- Scaling an AI-assisted knowledge stack and security programs that keep data, people, and compliance boundaries protected.

CORE STRENGTHS
DevOps and Infrastructure Automation
- CI and CD design, infrastructure as code, container orchestration, and repeatable releases on self-hosted runners.
- Observability, incident response, high-availability design (replication, backups, CDN), and pragmatic SLO tracking for hybrid environments.

Technology Leadership and Strategy
- Strategic roadmaps that connect executive goals to team-level delivery.
- Calm stewardship for blended internal, offshore, and vendor teams.

Software Development and Engineering
- Full stack delivery across Python, PHP, Perl, C++, SQL, and TypeScript.
- Code review, automated testing, and performance tuning for legacy and greenfield systems.

Security and Privacy
- Network hardening, IAM, HostedScan/ZAP/Nikto assessment loops, and zero-trust rollouts.
- Privacy-preserving AI workflows, regulated-data guardrails, and tabletop response drills.

AI, Data, and OCR
- Workflow design using open and commercial models, RAG pipelines, and model selection.
- OCR digitization for historical archives with validation and quality control.

OPEN SOURCE PROJECTS
Deep Research Privacy Edition, Creator and Maintainer (2024 to Present)
- Created a privacy-focused research tool combining Venice.ai's uncensored language models with Brave Search capabilities.
- Implemented robust privacy features ensuring user data protection and local processing.
- Developed clean, maintainable TypeScript codebase with comprehensive documentation.
- Integrated multiple AI models and search providers with intelligent rate limiting and error recovery.

Interactive Resume (georgelarson.me/resume.html), Builder (2024 to Present)
- Shipped a static, terminal-themed resume with AI-assisted lens summaries running on Cloudflare Pages.
- Serves the canonical resume.txt for printing and diffing while keeping inference tokens server-side for privacy.
- Highlights saved lenses and quick prompts so visitors can explore leadership, manufacturing, or privacy angles in seconds.

SELECTED WORK HISTORY
Director of Technology, FM Expressions (2018 to Present)
- Lead technology strategy for a mid-size manufacturing company serving ecommerce channels.
- Improved database performance by 93 percent while driving critical systems to 99 percent uptime; cut MySQL slow-query volume by 96 percent to accelerate incident response.
- Built an AI-assisted knowledge stack (Wiki.js, Gitea, Qdrant, ETL pipelines) that captures production logs, transcripts, and operator notes so teams can search, surface, and act on institutional knowledge in real time.
- Resolved conflicting manufacturing documentation, created a style guide and glossary, and instituted monthly and quarterly review cycles to keep safety and operations guidance consistent.
- Reduced a 1.03 GB legacy software repository (4,656 binary artifacts) to a clean, LFS-ready codebase, eliminating clone failures and enabling sustainable development practices.
- Hardened hybrid infrastructure with Authentik SSO, HashiCorp Vault, automated TLS renewal, firewall hardening (iptables, UFW, CrowdSec, fail2ban), DMARC/SPF/DKIM enforcement, HostedScan/OWASP ZAP sweeps across 36 public assets, and Red Sift OnDMARC (p=reject, 1.5M emails/month at 99.48% compliance) to keep critical/high findings at zero and close 33 issues in the past 60 days.
- Run GitLab (36 projects, 11 users, 739 CI pipelines) and Mattermost (7 teams, 40 channels, ~1M posts) as the collaboration core tied into Redmine (22 cross-functional projects), Zammad (~200 tickets/month with 68% closed inside 24 hours), and Uptime Kuma (31 monitors feeding alert channels).
- Maintained high-availability platforms: dual MySQL replicas, VMware ESXi with Datto backups, Active Directory, Cisco Meraki switching, SonicWall/pfSense firewalls, and a staged CDN migration from self-hosted edges to Contabo and Cloudflare.
- Built the Mashy internal dashboard plus tooling such as Psono vault, PrivateBin, phpMyAdmin/Adminer, DBeaver, knowledge mining utilities, and status pages so teams access credentials, data stores, and observability in one click.
- Driving adoption metrics for the knowledge stack (semantic search, embeddings, saved lessons) to quantify time-to-answer gains for production and customer operations.
- Captured Meteor print-head PCAPs and tuned Nikto, Metasploit, and custom fuzz rigs to secure industrial protocols while migrating remote access from VPN to zero-trust policies.
- Implemented Agile delivery, ticketing, and analytics to align product, operations, and finance on throughput, defect, and margin targets.

Senior Software Engineer and Manager, Universal SmartComp (2009 to 2016)
- Helped scale the company from a 50 person startup to a national leader in medical billing.
- Designed EDI frameworks, ACH processing, ERP integrations, and a medical payer portal.
- Led internal and offshore teams across development and Linux infrastructure.
- Acted as security response lead and Linux SME; migrated project management to Redmine with custom plugins.
- Built OCR bill entry validation that reduced errors and sped turnaround.

Software Engineer and Team Manager, Sony Electronics (2004 to 2009)
- Directed software development, logistics, and technical operations for the Pittsburgh Customer Satisfaction Center.
- Designed and ran the TiVo firmware upgrade station for the United States market.
- Built hardware testing suites for CD drives, set-top boxes, PCBs, televisions, cameras, and MP3 players.
- Created an AS/400 parts ordering interface that saved millions in operational spend.
- Managed more than 50 combined technical and non-technical staff.
- Developed a VT-52 terminal emulation system used for inventory management.

Maintenance and Automation Technician, T. Marzetti Company (2000 to 2004)
- Led second shift maintenance for robotics, conveyors, and packaging machinery.
- Programmed PLCs and tuned sensors, actuators, and industrial controls on the production line.

Earlier Career Highlights (1990s to 2000s)
- Software developer and webmaster for non-profit organizations.
- Engineer for The Sounding Board, a psychotherapeutic BBS in Columbus, Ohio; built custom C++ modules for Major BBS and kept one of the first internet-connected BBS systems alive.
- Contract developer for Daifuku USA working on material handling support systems.
- Two-time Business Professionals of America chapter president; regional competitor in extemporaneous speech.

VOLUNTEER WORK
- Systems administrator for a volunteer Linux community, digital radio station, and open shell environment.
- Long-term support for animal shelters, including events, outreach, and facilities work.
- OCR and digitization project contributor for historical legal documents.

TECHNICAL SKILLS
Languages: Python, Perl, PHP, C++, SQL, TypeScript
Web and Data: MySQL, PostgreSQL, WordPress, Redmine, Gitea, Wiki.js
Infrastructure: Linux, Apache, Nginx, Caddy, IIS, Kubernetes, VMware ESXi, Datto backups, Cisco Meraki, SonicWall, pfSense, CrowdSec, Let's Encrypt/ACME, Cloudflare CDN
Cloud: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Proxmox
Security and Identity: Authentik, HashiCorp Vault, Psono, CrowdSec, HostedScan, OWASP ZAP, Nikto, Metasploit, SSL/TLS, iptables, UFW, fail2ban, DMARC/SPF/DKIM, DefectDojo, OpenVAS, zero-trust network design
Collaboration: Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Redmine, Zammad, GitLab, Mattermost, CryptPad
Mail Systems: iRedMail, Postfix, Dovecot
Commerce: Shopify, custom ecommerce platforms, payment integrations
AI and ML: Venice.ai integration, Model Context Protocol, applied research workflows, RAG design, model governance, privacy safeguards
Vector Search: Qdrant, semantic embedding pipelines, AI-assisted knowledge bases
Monitoring & Dashboards: Uptime Kuma, HostedScan, Red Sift OnDMARC, Dashy internal portal