Will Thayer, MBA | Enterprise Architect: Data, Machine Learning & AI Agents

Turn Enterprise Data into Information.

25+ years building web, eCommerce, analytics, data platforms, and machine learning solutions. Focusing next on AI Agents for Quantum development.

Short Version

What I do, and why it matters.

I've delivered enterprise applications that cut cost through automation and grew revenue, with measurable returns of 2X or more. My core strength is data: pipelines, warehouses, lakes, analytics, and machine learning. I'm a pragmatic architect who prioritizes simplicity, explains options clearly to executives, and builds roadmaps while limiting risk.
Next up: applying that data foundation to AI Agents.

Where I Deliver

Data first. Everything else supports it.

Focus 01

Data Engineering & Analytics

Pipelines: API and ETL pipelines that feed analytics and customer-facing products.
Warehouses & lakes: From DoD BI warehouses to Azure Data Lake and Synapse.
NoSQL & polyglot data: Couchbase, Postgres, Oracle, Spark, Hive.

Focus 02

Machine Learning & Predictive Analytics

Applied ML / optimization: Led route optimization for AmerisourceBergen, improving logistics efficiency.
Recommendations: Data pipelines for analytics and product suggestions to customers at Capital One.
Formally trained: MIT Professional Education ML, Cloudera Spark ML/MLlib.

Focus 03

AI Agents (Certified & Building)

Claude Certified Architect (Foundations): Anthropic, 2026.
AI Agents on Databricks: Certified, 2026.
MCP & Claude API: Completed Anthropic's Model Context Protocol and API courses.

Focus 04

Architecture, Leadership & Teaching

Enterprise architecture: Roadmaps that modernize legacy systems with best-fit solutions.
Executive advisor: White papers and decision documents that win buy-in.
Professor & mentor: Former MIS professor, trainer, and speaker.

From Data to Agents

Agents are only as good as the data supporting them. Context is King.

Proven

1. Data Foundation

Clean, governed, scalable data: pipelines, warehouses, lakes, and NoSQL, delivered for Capital One, Amex, AmerisourceBergen, and the DoD.

Proven

2. Analytics & ML

Predictive and optimization work in production, plus customer-suggestion data products and executive dashboards.

3. AI Agents

Certified on Claude, MCP, and Databricks agents, and hands-on in training. Ready to apply it to a real product.

Track Record

2024 – 2026

Director, Software Engineering

PwC (Acquisition: Kunai) · Denver, CO · Client: Capital One

Built a cloud-native data pipeline for Capital One Velocity Black powering analytics and customer product suggestions.
Delivered scalable API and ETL pipelines and executive dashboards for core business metrics.
Set a multi-year data and technology roadmap that cut platform complexity and licensing cost.

2020 – 2023

Distinguished Engineer / Director, Enterprise Solutions Architecture

Capital One Financial Corp. · Richmond, VA

Drove real-time streaming data strategy, including reconciliation and remediation for customer engagement systems.
Defined the target architecture for the $2.2B Transactions & Financial Ledger domain.
Created the Distinguished Engineer Mentorship & Growth Program, upskilling 100+ senior engineers.
Advised senior executives with white papers and decision documents.

2002 – Present

President

CarveTek Inc. · Evergreen, CO

Authored Badass Developer and Iterative Technologist, including a section on AI and vibe-coding risks.
Built and trademarked GoFetch™, owning the full product lifecycle.
Spoke as an official Couchbase Ambassador and Colorado Technology Association presenter.
Consulted on full-stack, e-commerce, and architecture, including Sun Microsystems' MySun Internet Portal.

2007 – 2020

Principal Consultant Architect Technologist

Inspired Intellect (Acquisition: Avalon) · McKinney, TX

Led client programs across enterprise architecture, data engineering (NoSQL, Big Data, Cloud), and web content management.

AmerisourceBergen

Led an ML / optimization project (IBM Cplex route optimization) for shipping container placement, improving logistics efficiency.
Architected the Azure Data Lake and Synapse platform for Enterprise Analytics.

American Express

Led data modernization for 20 dev teams, moving critical code from IBM DB2 to Couchbase NoSQL.
Trained teams with Java samples and 7 migration-planning sessions.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

$148M in 4 months: one-click giving with PayPal, Apple Pay, and Android Pay drove a 38% donation increase.
Migrated 125K content pieces to Adobe AEM.

University of Michigan

Built automated failover for 200K+ content assets; co-authored a trademarked whitepaper the University bought republication rights to.

2001 – 2007

Tech Lead / Program Manager, Reporting Metrics & Statistics

General Dynamics · Colorado Springs, CO

Designed a DoD business intelligence platform on a denormalized data warehouse covering finance, budgets, contracts, and HR.
Served thousands of reports and dashboards at 5K logins and 85K views per month.

1998 – 2003

Adjunct Professor

The University of Denver · Denver, CO

Taught graduate and undergraduate MIS, SDLC, and database design.
Published advanced EDI (ebXML) research, recognized nationally in ebXML by Alan Kotok & David R.R. Webber.
Hosted technology ethics discussions with Michael Dertouzos (MIT Media Lab) and Bill Joy (Sun Microsystems).

Toolbox

Data Engineering

PythonScalaGoLangSpark CouchbasePostgresOracleMSSQL HiveImpalaHadoop / HDFSSAP Data Intelligence

Analytics, ML & AI

Predictive AnalyticsMachine LearningSpark ML / MLlib Claude / Anthropic APIModel Context ProtocolDatabricks AI Agents TableauPowerBIActuate

Architecture & Platforms

Enterprise ArchitectureMulti-Tenant SaaSPlatform Engineering JavaAdobe AEMOpenText WEM

Cloud

AWSAzureGCP DatabricksCloud-Native Migration

Turn Enterprise Data into Information.

William Thayer, MBA