RESUME

AI Operations & Technical Operations Leader

AI Operations & Technical Operations Leader

Operational Intelligence | Incident Management | Governed AI Systems

Operational Intelligence | Incident Management | Governed AI Systems

AI operations and technical operations leader with 18+ years in high-availability network operations, incident command, real-time telemetry, service restoration, and executive communications. Applies frontline operational discipline to governed AI systems through RAG, MCP, evaluation, tool governance, observability, and bounded response design.

AI operations and technical operations leader with 18+ years in high-availability network operations, incident command, real-time telemetry, service restoration, and executive communications. Applies frontline operational discipline to governed AI systems through RAG, MCP, evaluation, tool governance, observability, and bounded response design.

pauldallen.systems

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CORE EXPERTISE

Operations discipline applied to AI systems.

Operations discipline applied to AI systems.

Applied AI & Governance

RAG
MCP
Prompt / Context Design
LLM Evaluation
Retrieval Evaluation
Grounded Generation
Tool Governance
Fail-Closed Behavior

Platforms & Observability

Python
Linux / WSL2
Docker
Qdrant
Ollama
Gemma
EmbeddingGemma
InfluxDB
Grafana

Integration & Operations

REST APIs
JSON
YAML
Git / GitHub
Asterisk / SIP / VoIP
Incident Management
Root-Cause Analysis
Telemetry
Runbooks / SOPs
Vendor & Utility Coordination

SELECTED AI & OPERATIONAL SYSTEMS WORK

Zora - Context-Aware Operational Intelligence System

Zora - Context-Aware Operational Intelligence System

Independent Technical Project | May 2026 - Present

• Designed and built a governed operational-intelligence system that assembles contextual evidence before producing bounded responses.
• Built and validated a RAG pipeline using Qdrant, EmbeddingGemma, Gemma through Ollama, Python, Docker, and Linux / WSL2.
• Implemented MCP-governed tool interfaces with explicit permission boundaries and separated public/private capability paths.
• Validated grounded retrieval, unknown-answer refusal, and insufficient-evidence behavior without fabricated sources.
• Integrated operational observability with InfluxDB and Grafana and extended system access through REST and Asterisk / SIP / VoIP.

• Designed and built a governed operational-intelligence system that assembles contextual evidence before producing bounded responses.
• Built and validated a RAG pipeline using Qdrant, EmbeddingGemma, Gemma through Ollama, Python, Docker, and Linux / WSL2.
• Implemented MCP-governed tool interfaces with explicit permission boundaries and separated public/private capability paths.
• Validated grounded retrieval, unknown-answer refusal, and insufficient-evidence behavior without fabricated sources.
• Integrated operational observability with InfluxDB and Grafana and extended system access through REST and Asterisk / SIP / VoIP.

98%

Top-1 Retrieval Accuracy

100%

Hit@3

99%

MRR

16 / 16

Final RAG Acceptance

234

Indexed Knowledge Points

View Zora Case Study →

Review Engineering Evidence →

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Technical operations leadership at scale.

Technical operations leadership at scale.

CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS - REGIONAL OPERATIONS CENTER

Regional Operations Center (ROC) Lead

Regional Operations Center (ROC) Lead

Irwindale, CA | Sep 2016 - Dec 2024

• Directed real-time surveillance, incident response, and service restoration across Southern California, Arizona, and Hawaii in a 24/7 ROC, coordinating field teams, engineering, vendors, utilities, and senior leadership.
• Led wildfire and Public Safety Power Shutoff response as primary technical liaison with SCE, SDG&E, and local utilities; coordinated response and executive updates, helping maintain uninterrupted service during managed events and 100% required customer-notification compliance with no fines.
• Trained and mentored ROC staff, improving technical decision-making and reducing fiber-damage outage resolution from approximately 10 hours to less than 5 hours.
• Led root-cause analysis and corrective-action efforts for persistent network issues, contributing to a 10-15% year-over-year reduction in recurring incidents.
• Analyzed real-time network telemetry and service-delivery trends, contributing to a 21% reduction in outages through earlier identification and proactive impairment response.
• Produced executive outage bulletins, restoration timelines, and public-safety updates; contributed to annual ROC playbook and SOP reviews.
• Supported system-wide battery-backup upgrades aligned with California 72-hour runtime requirements, strengthening resilience during prolonged commercial-power outages.

• Directed real-time surveillance, incident response, and service restoration across Southern California, Arizona, and Hawaii in a 24/7 ROC, coordinating field teams, engineering, vendors, utilities, and senior leadership.
• Led wildfire and Public Safety Power Shutoff response as primary technical liaison with SCE, SDG&E, and local utilities; coordinated response and executive updates, helping maintain uninterrupted service during managed events and 100% required customer-notification compliance with no fines.
• Trained and mentored ROC staff, improving technical decision-making and reducing fiber-damage outage resolution from approximately 10 hours to less than 5 hours.
• Led root-cause analysis and corrective-action efforts for persistent network issues, contributing to a 10-15% year-over-year reduction in recurring incidents.
• Analyzed real-time network telemetry and service-delivery trends, contributing to a 21% reduction in outages through earlier identification and proactive impairment response.
• Produced executive outage bulletins, restoration timelines, and public-safety updates; contributed to annual ROC playbook and SOP reviews.
• Supported system-wide battery-backup upgrades aligned with California 72-hour runtime requirements, strengthening resilience during prolonged commercial-power outages.

EARLIER TECHNICAL EXPERIENCE

TIME WARNER CABLE / CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS

Advanced Technical Support Technician

Advanced Technical Support Technician

2006 - 2016

• Provided Tier 3 escalation support across DOCSIS video, internet, and voice services and guided field-technician troubleshooting.
• Identified systemic service issues and collaborated with network operations and engineering teams on reliability improvements.
• Contributed to a 26% reduction in repeat technician trouble calls and reduced average on-site resolution time from 90 to 55 minutes.
• Guided junior and frontline technicians through complex diagnosis and resolution.

• Provided Tier 3 escalation support across DOCSIS video, internet, and voice services and guided field-technician troubleshooting.
• Identified systemic service issues and collaborated with network operations and engineering teams on reliability improvements.
• Contributed to a 26% reduction in repeat technician trouble calls and reduced average on-site resolution time from 90 to 55 minutes.
• Guided junior and frontline technicians through complex diagnosis and resolution.

CERTIFICATIONS

AI and technical leadership development.

AI and technical leadership development.

Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900)

Introduction to Model Context Protocol - Anthropic

Managing Machine Learning Projects - Duke University

Human Factors in AI - Duke University

AI for Business Leaders - University of Maryland

AI for Strategic Leadership - AI CERTs

AI Python for Beginners - DeepLearning.AI

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

DeepLearning.AI / Coursera

AI for Everyone
Generative AI for Everyone

Duke University / Coursera

Machine Learning Foundations for Product Managers

NCTI

Regional Operations Center III
ROC II
ROC Fundamentals
Operations Center Technical Support 1 & 2
Return Path Operations

Looking for operational leadership that understands AI from both sides?

Looking for operational leadership that understands AI from both sides?

Paul brings incident leadership and technical-operations discipline to governed AI systems and decision support - connecting real operational needs with practical, bounded technology.

Paul brings incident leadership and technical-operations discipline to governed AI systems and decision support - connecting real operational needs with practical, bounded technology.

Contact Paul

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