Building a Data Platform on a Startup Budget
A production data platform serving 3 domains, 12 pipelines, and 25 dashboards was built using open-source tools for $487 per month total infrastructure cost.
Adam Mosley
I build systems that turn complexity into clarity — then document the thinking behind them.
Product-oriented leader with 8+ years developing, launching, and scaling digital platforms across the full product lifecycle. I've modernized enterprise systems, automated data workflows, managed portfolios of 1,000+ annual programs, and supported $1M+ in revenue through data-informed strategy. Currently building AI-powered tools and writing about systems, philosophy, and the human experience of building things.
8+
Years in Operations & Data
$1M+
Revenue Supported
30+
Products Launched
15K
Records Recovered & Rebuilt
9,000
Manual Steps Eliminated / Cycle
1,000+
Annual Programs Managed
Core Competencies
Product Development & Lifecycle
Directed development, enhancement, and launch of 30+ digital offerings. Defined product scope, delivery models, pricing, and go-to-market strategy. Built modular learning content and micro-credential pathways from concept through market delivery.
Product lifecycle, Requirements definition, Pricing strategy, Market analysis, Go-to-market planning
Platform Integration & Digital Transformation
Led enterprise platform implementations coordinating functional and technical requirements across IT, vendors, and engineering stakeholders. Integrated enrollment, communication, and credentialing workflows across 5+ systems. Designed automated badge and credential logic.
Canvas LMS, Modern Campus, Salesforce, Cirrus SSO, Apporto, Mailchimp, Power Automate
Data Operations & Analytics
Recovered and rebuilt a 15,000-record SQL database, restoring historical integrity and improving lead conversion. Designed automated data workflows and centralized datasets supporting enrollment, revenue, marketing, and executive reporting. Built dashboards for forecasting and performance tracking.
SQL, Advanced Excel, Power BI, ETL workflows, Data validation, Revenue modeling, Reporting automation
AI Engineering & Automation
Designed multi-agent orchestration systems and local LLM infrastructure. Built automation pipelines replacing hours of manual work with single CLI commands. Developed job application assistants, content publishing workflows, and SEC filing data pipelines processing 36,791 records.
Python, CrewAI, LangChain, FastAPI, Docker, LM Studio, Playwright, MCP
Program Management & Operations
Oversaw delivery of 1,000+ annual programs ensuring scalable operations and consistent quality. Built multi-system scheduling and payroll automation eliminating 9,000 manual interactions per cycle. Coordinated 15+ instructors and managed cross-functional execution across marketing, enrollment, and platform teams.
Jira, Confluence, SharePoint, Process automation, Vendor management, Stakeholder coordination
Financial Analysis & Revenue Strategy
Performed financial analysis, revenue modeling, and multi-year forecasting supporting $1M+ in gross revenue. Designed comprehensive pricing proposals and employer-sponsored training frameworks. Analyzed enrollment funnels to identify conversion gaps and optimize marketing spend.
Revenue modeling, Pricing strategy, Forecasting, Funnel analysis, IRS §127 frameworks
Experience
2025 – Present
Senior Assistant Director
Directing product development and launch of 30+ workforce offerings. Leading enterprise platform implementations across 5+ systems. Performing financial analysis and revenue modeling supporting $1M+ in gross revenue. Managing facility relocation and hybrid learning environment buildout.
2024 – Present
Co-Founder & Consultant
Launched consulting practice focused on small business operations and marketing systems. Established Jira-based project workflows, developed social media strategy, and built vendor outreach and communication systems for client engagements.
2022 – 2025
Senior Program Manager
Oversaw delivery of 1,000+ annual non-credit programs. Recovered and rebuilt a 15,000-record learner database. Built Canvas-based product components and micro-credential pathways. Streamlined instructor onboarding, payroll, and scheduling workflows across 15+ instructors. Scaled operations from 4 staff to 20+.
2018 – 2022
Program Coordinator / Business Support Specialist
Supported registration, logistics, and customer service for 1,000+ annual training sessions. Built a multi-system scheduling and payroll automation tool eliminating 9,000 manual data interactions per cycle. Improved communication workflows supporting 20,000+ annual student interactions.
2017 – 2018
Financial Advisor
Financial analysis, client reporting, regulatory documentation, and compliance.
Prior
Research Assistant / QA Tester
Data validation, QA testing protocols, technical documentation, and test script development in engineering environments.
Selected Case Studies
Teaching SQL to Non-Technical Stakeholders: Lessons From Workforce Training
SQL training for 35 non-technical stakeholders achieved 71% query independence in 8 weeks, reducing ad-hoc data requests from 23 to 9 per week.
The Cost of Dirty Data Is Real and Quantifiable
A data quality project quantified dirty data costs at $2.4 million annually across labor waste, decision delays, and direct errors reaching clients. Clean data is a measurable business expense.
Recent Essays
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4 min Data
The Ground Truth Problem: When Your Labels Are Wrong
A review of labeling accuracy in 5 production ML datasets found error rates from 4% to 17%. When labels are wrong, models faithfully reproduce human mistakes at scale.
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6 min Data
Via Negativa in Data Architecture: Remove More, Build Less
Applying via negativa reduced a 34-component data platform to 19, cutting failure points 41% and recovery time from 47 to 12 minutes.
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4 min AI Systems
When an Agent Lies: AI Hallucination as Ethical Engineering Problem
In a medical information agent, 4.2% of responses contained fabricated information. At 8,000 daily queries, that is 336 potentially harmful outputs per day. Hallucination in high-stakes contexts is an ethical failure.
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5 min Process
Change Management Is Debugging Your Org OS
Debugging methodology recovered a stalled ERP migration in 11 weeks. Resistance was not irrational. It was accurate feedback about flawed design.
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5 min Philosophy
The Banality of Algorithmic Harm: Arendt Applied to Engineering
The most dangerous algorithmic harms come not from malicious actors but from competent professionals making reasonable decisions within systems whose cumulative effects no one examines.
Education
B.A. Psychology
University of Missouri-St. Louis · Expected 2026
Coursework in psychology, philosophy of science, and statistics. Pursuing Clinical Psychology PhD specializing in existential psychology.
Certificates
Excel Power User · SharePoint Collaboration Specialist · Power Automate Efficiency · Access Database Management
Research Interests
- Existential psychology and meaning-making through systems work
- Philosophy of technology, AI ethics, and automation
- Cognitive offloading and human-AI collaboration
- Religious anti-realism and Christian universalism
- Knowledge architecture and personal productivity systems
- Stoic practice applied to knowledge work and leadership
Technical Skills
PythonSQLFastAPIDocker
CrewAILangChainPlaywrightLM Studio
Advanced ExcelPower BIPower AutomateSharePoint
Salesforce CRMCanvas LMSModern Campus
JiraConfluenceGitWordPress
ReportLabPandasPostgreSQL
From the Notebook
🌱 Seedling
Temporality of Code: Heidegger’s Being-Toward-Death in Software
Heidegger argued that authentic existence requires confronting finitude. The average codebase lives 7.3 years. Code that acknowledges its mortality documents its assumptions and plans for succession.
🌱 Seedling
Wittgenstein’s Language Games and Requirements Ambiguity
Wittgenstein argued that meaning is use in a language game. Software requirements are collisions of at least three language games. 56% of defects trace to requirements misunderstanding.
🌱 Seedling
Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence and the Sprint Cycle
Nietzsche's eternal recurrence is a decision filter. Applied to agile sprints, it reveals that most rituals would fail the test of being worth repeating forever.
🌱 Seedling
The Hidden Bias in Your Feature Engineering
A review of 4 production models found 3 contained encoding choices that systematically disadvantaged demographic groups. Feature engineering is where bias enters models.