Dalton Orvis
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Work Experience
Director of Agentic Systems
IdeaRoom, Inc.
Boise, ID (Remote)
Mar 2026 - Present
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Lead IdeaRoom's company-wide transformation into an agentic-first organization as a member of the Executive Leadership Team reporting to the CEO, setting strategy across client-facing Platform AI and internal Operational AI.
- Architected and shipped a platform operations agent now fully adopted by 50+ internal users as a daily driver, delivering a 35x reduction in hours per Tier 1/2 CX ticket and ~97% cost savings vs. equivalent human-wage hours on the same work.
- Own end-to-end accountability for the agentic infrastructure — architecture, engineering, deployment, observability, and cost — including direct ownership of LLM token spend and unit economics.
- Partner with Product to define Platform AI features (natural language configuration, smart recommendations) for IdeaRoom's 300+ manufacturer and dealer customers, while driving Operational AI initiatives across CX, Engineering, and Data Science.
- Building an agentic-first product-to-engineering framework designed to compress idea-to-production cycles and codify how a small, lean team ships agentic systems at executive velocity.
- Operate at the frontier of LLM and agentic systems research, integrating new patterns, models, and tooling into production on a near-daily cadence and pivoting team direction when emerging capabilities unlock better paths.
Key Skills:
AI Strategy & Implementation Consultant
Independent (IdeaRoom engagement)
United States (Remote)
Jan 2026 - Mar 2026
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Architected an autonomous AI agent system processing support tickets end-to-end: ingesting unstructured manufacturer PDFs, extracting structured data via LLM pipelines, and writing validated results to a version-controlled database for human review and publication.
- Built a PDF-to-structured-data extraction pipeline using Python/PyMuPDF that parses color chart documents into validated, schema-compliant records, replacing a ~1 hour manual process with a ~10–15 minute AI-assisted workflow.
- Designed a hybrid deterministic-agentic architecture using LangGraph for state machine orchestration with bounded LLM reasoning, Zod/Pydantic structured output contracts, and layered validation ensuring data integrity across 580+ customer datasets.
- Implemented observability and tracing with Langfuse (OpenTelemetry-based), capturing every LLM call, tool invocation, and decision point for debugging, cost attribution, and quality evaluation.
- Delivered the first production ticket through the full AI-assisted pipeline (Intercom intake → PDF extraction → data entry → customer preview → approval → publication) and produced a 4-phase technical roadmap covering architecture, evaluation framework, progressive autonomy, and composable skill extensibility.
- Engagement converted into a full-time Director of Agentic Systems role on the Executive Leadership Team.
Key Skills:
Software Engineer
ReliaQuest
Salt Lake City, UT (Hybrid)
Sep 2025 - Mar 2026
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Built and maintained full-stack features across a TypeScript/React frontend and Java/Python backend infrastructure, with GraphQL as the primary data layer.
- Integrated AI-powered code reviews into the CI/CD pipeline, improving review consistency and catching issues earlier in the development cycle.
- Led a weekly AI training session upskilling senior and mid-level engineers on AI-driven workflows, tooling, and best practices.
- Developed internal developer tools early in tenure to improve team quality of life, accelerating onboarding and day-to-day workflows.
- Built AI agent systems integrated into production workflows, leveraging LLMs for automated analysis and decision support.
Key Skills:
Software Development Engineer in Test II
Verisk Analytics
Lehi, UT (Hybrid)
Feb 2023 - Sep 2025
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Co-architected a department-wide full-stack application (Next.js/React/TypeScript + ASP.NET/MongoDB) automating QA tasks, saving 30+ minutes daily per user across 20+ team members.
- Created contract testing architecture supporting both GraphQL and REST APIs — first of its kind in the flagship Xactimate Online product.
- Architected a C#/.NET API client library (NuGet package) that transformed the department from UI-first to API-first testing.
- Led the QA department's AI tool evaluation initiative, authoring research and proof-of-concept implementations that guided executive decision-making on tool adoption.
- Designed a microservices integration testing framework as the solo QA engineer on the backend team, enabling automated validation of distributed systems.
- Promoted to QA Team Lead for the Vanguard backend services team within the first year, recognized for performing at a senior level.
Key Skills:
Full Stack Software Engineer (Independent & Contract)
Freelance Development
Salt Lake City, UT (Remote)
Jan 2020 - Present
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Delivered 5+ production applications across e-commerce, SaaS, and enterprise sectors with scalable architecture and rapid delivery.
- Built NutriSimple, a production PWA with a Vue.js frontend and Python/FastAPI backend, achieving organic user growth; delivered Django-based backends for additional client projects.
- Architected multi-tenant SaaS platforms, payment integrations (Stripe/PayPal), and real-time WebSocket features.
- Developed AI applications including a RAG system with Pinecone vector database and a GPT-4-integrated platform.
- Advise small business engineering and product teams on getting up to speed with LLMs and agentic systems — discovery, scoping, and hands-on implementation.
Key Skills:
Full Stack Software Engineer (Contract)
Nine Design + Web
Salt Lake City, UT (Remote)
Jan 2023 - Jan 2024
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Built an enterprise social platform with a Laravel/PHP backend; added Redis queues that cut response times by 65% and supported 5x concurrency.
- Implemented multi-tenant architecture using Laravel Sanctum, isolating data via database-level separation for 20+ enterprise clients.
- Owned the full stack: RESTful API design, Eloquent ORM schemas, and Vue.js frontend components.
- Shipped core MVP features on a tight timeline, getting the product to market early enough for the client to validate demand.
Key Skills:
Full Stack Web Developer
Maiden Voyage Software
Ogden, UT
Sep 2022 - Jan 2023
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Built a Laravel/PHP CRM processing 10K+ daily interactions; revamped authentication with role guards to eliminate access vulnerabilities.
- Fixed N+1 queries and implemented background jobs, achieving 3x faster page loads and an 80% reduction in database load.
- Greenfielded a client CRM including database design, API architecture, and Vue.js frontend; the schema enabled 5x user growth.
Key Skills:
Research Associate and Automation Specialist
Scintillant Bioscience
Murray, UT
Jan 2020 - Jan 2023
Key Responsibilities & Achievements:
- Automated data workflows using Python/Pandas, reducing 30+ minute manual processes to sub-second execution.
- Built custom cellular image analysis templates for data extraction.
- Executed long-term laboratory experiments using live-cell assay workflows and developed assays based on clients' drug discovery needs.
Key Skills:
Technical Skills
AI & Agentic Systems
Languages
Frontend
Backend
Data & Cloud
Architecture & Practice
Education
B.S. Computer Science
Weber State University | Ogden, UT
January 2023
Web Development
Game Development
GPA: 4.0 | With Honors
B.S. Biology & Philosophy
Utah Valley University | Orem, UT
May 2018
Honors Program Graduate
GPA: 3.5
Key Achievements
Production Agent at Scale
IdeaRoom's platform operations agent — architected, shipped, and now a daily driver for 50+ internal users — delivers 35x throughput and ~97% cost savings on Tier 1/2 customer support work
Executive Leadership
Member of IdeaRoom's Executive Leadership Team reporting to the CEO; define company-wide agentic strategy across Platform AI (300+ customers) and internal Operational AI
Consulting to Director
Delivered a 2-month IdeaRoom consulting engagement — LangGraph agentic pipeline, Pydantic/Zod contracts, Langfuse observability — that converted into the Director of Agentic Systems role
Team Enablement
Led weekly AI upskilling sessions for senior and mid-level engineers at ReliaQuest; led Verisk's QA-org AI tool evaluation that guided executive tool adoption decisions
Architecture Impact
Built the C#/.NET NuGet API client library at Verisk that flipped the QA department from UI-first to API-first testing; co-architected a dept-wide automation app saving 30+ min/day per user across 20+ engineers
Full-Stack Delivery
Shipped production Laravel SaaS platforms, React/Next.js apps, Python/FastAPI backends, and PWAs (NutriSimple) achieving organic user growth
Philosophy
Start with the problem, not the technology.
I practice compound engineering: building tools that create tools, designing systems that multiply team productivity. This philosophy led me to architect foundational libraries at Verisk and create frameworks adopted across multiple teams.
AI is a force multiplier, but only when applied thoughtfully. I've seen initiatives fail because teams chased novelty over value. The best AI strategies come from engineers who ship production code, understand the failure modes, and know when not to reach for AI.
Every line of code I write serves a human need. The goal isn't to replace solid engineering with AI tricks; it's to amplify our ability to solve real problems while building systems that are maintainable, observable, and trustworthy.