DAVID SMERESKI
AI/ML engineer who builds and operates GenAI systems end-to-end — from embeddings and retrieval to Python/FastAPI services on Docker and CI/CD. Currently QA Automation Test Engineer at The Weather Company, where production-scale test, evaluation, and telemetry discipline carries straight into measuring and hardening AI systems. Fourteen years across engineering and operations, from NOC monitoring at internet scale to shipping full products solo.
CAPABILITIES
GENAI / ML
- LLM orchestration + multi-provider routing
- Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Embeddings + hybrid vector search (HNSW, sqlite-vec)
- Structured outputs (JSON-schema) + validation
- Prompt-injection guardrails + Responsible-AI patterns
- Evaluation, telemetry + feedback loops
- PyTorch, LoRA fine-tuning, diffusion pipelines
- Local LLMs (Ollama) + Anthropic API
BACKEND / DATA
- Python / FastAPI services
- Node.js, REST APIs with server-side validation
- Postgres + Prisma, SQL, schema design, migrations
- Supabase, Upstash Redis (rate limiting)
- Audit logging, CSRF, NextAuth (JWT sessions)
QA / EVALUATION
- Test + evaluation discipline applied to AI systems
- Selenium Grid (cross-browser, parallel)
- Jenkins (PR gates, regressions, post-deploy smoke)
- Report Portal (flake detection, trend analysis)
- Playwright end-to-end
INFRA / OPS
- Docker, CI/CD
- CUDA multi-GPU routing
- Vercel, self-hosted Linux (shell / SSH)
- Incident response + on-call
ALSO BUILD
- Next.js 16, React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind 4
- Kotlin Multiplatform + Compose (Android / desktop)
- Accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA)
LANGUAGES
- Python
- TypeScript
- JavaScript
- Kotlin
- Java
- SQL
- C#
- C++
- PHP
EXPERIENCE
01
2025 → PRESENT
Atlanta, GA
AI/ML & Full-Stack Engineer
Independent
Designs, ships, and operates production software end-to-end, with a focus on applied GenAI. Built and runs a self-hosted GenAI platform and the web, mobile, and AI tooling around it, deployed on Vercel, Supabase, and on-prem GPU infrastructure.
- Built a from-scratch GenAI platform — 80k+ lines of Python exposing 140+ FastAPI endpoints: multi-provider LLM orchestration with provider abstraction (local Ollama models and the Anthropic API), reusable prompt and workflow templates, and JSON-schema structured-output validation reused across every downstream tool.
- Engineered a Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipeline over a ~930-document knowledge base (1,290 embedded chunks): ingestion, chunking, embeddings, hybrid sqlite-vec vector plus FTS5 full-text retrieval, and citation-grounded answers.
- Implemented Responsible-AI guardrails — prompt-injection defense, PII handling, access controls, and audit logging (23k+ audited events across 55 projects and 200+ orchestrated tasks) — plus evaluation and telemetry loops (adversarial verification, accuracy and regression checks) that keep outputs grounded and measurable.
- Exposed it all behind Docker and CI/CD with a real-time dashboard for model usage, CUDA multi-GPU routing across dual RTX 5060 Ti cards, and system health.
- Also ships full products end-to-end: FreedomGuards.space, an eighteen-surface Next.js 16 and Postgres platform with auth, rate-limited public APIs, and audit logging; and Jazzy Matchy 8s, a Kotlin Multiplatform game with 12k+ lines of shared logic.
02
Feb 2024 → PRESENT
Remote
QA Automation Test Engineer
The Weather Company
Owns automated end-to-end test coverage for weather.com and Wunderground.com at production scale. Runs a Selenium Grid for parallel cross-browser execution plus the CI, reporting, and alerting around it — the same test-and-measure discipline that carries into evaluating AI systems.
- Owns the test suites that gate every weather.com and Wunderground.com release.
- Operates a Selenium Grid for parallel cross-browser, cross-platform execution.
- Runs Jenkins pipelines for scheduled regressions, PR gates, and post-deploy smoke.
- Pipes results to Report Portal for dashboards, flake detection, and release-over-release trend analysis.
- Wires Slack into the pipeline for live build status, failure routing, and on-call notifications.
- Partners with product and engineering to close coverage gaps before they ship to production traffic.
03
Sept 2022 → FEB 2024
Remote
QA Automation Test Engineer (Mobile)
The Weather Company
Owned automated test coverage for The Weather Channel mobile apps on Android and iOS. Same Jenkins, Report Portal, and Slack toolchain as the current web role, applied to mobile.
- Built and maintained automated test suites for the TWC Android and iOS apps.
- Ran tests across OS versions and device profiles to catch platform regressions before release.
- Integrated mobile runs into Jenkins, with Report Portal dashboards and Slack-routed failure alerts.
- Triaged flaky tests with mobile engineering and tightened coverage where releases kept slipping.
04
Feb 2017 → SEPT 2022
Atlanta, GA
Senior NOC Technician
The Weather Company (IBM)
Returned to the network operations center as the senior technician on shift, carrying weather.com monitoring through The Weather Company's transition under IBM. Owned escalation, trained the bench, and pushed monitoring toward automation.
- Owned shift escalation — first call on outages and the decision to wake engineering, driving outage comms to internal stakeholders.
- Trained and mentored junior NOC technicians on the monitoring stack, triage, and incident handling.
- Wrote scripts to automate repetitive monitoring and alerting, cutting manual checks and tightening time-to-detect.
- Carried the established monitoring stack (Zabbix, Nagios, SevOne, Keynote, Catchpoint) through the platform's move into IBM.
05
Sept 2015 → OCT 2016
Remote
Remote Technician
Savant CTS
Tier 1 phone support and onsite-install prep for a managed services provider serving SMB clients.
- Delivered phone-based desktop support over Labtech and ScreenConnect across a multi-client SMB book.
- Managed tickets and time tracking in ConnectWise, hitting SLA on the majority of cases.
- Prepped and validated hardware for onsite technician installs.
06
May 2015 → SEPT 2015
Atlanta, GA
Google Administrator
The Weather Channel — TOC
Company-wide administrator for Google Apps for Work at The Weather Channel. Owned reporting, user-issue resolution, and stakeholder communication.
- Administered Google Apps across every internal user at The Weather Channel.
- Authored custom reports that fed weekly management briefings.
- Resolved Google issues end-to-end, from inbox-level support to permission and policy changes.
07
June 2012 → SEPT 2015
Atlanta, GA
Technician
The Weather Channel — TOC
NOC technician for one of the most-trafficked weather properties on the internet. Monitored systems, networks, databases, and public-facing site availability around the clock.
- Monitored systems, networks, and databases with Zabbix, Nagios, and SevOne.
- Tracked site and CDN availability with Keynote and Catchpoint.
- Drove outage comms to internal stakeholders and key customers including Google, Yahoo, and Apple.
- Covered Tier 1 desktop help-desk on rotation.
EDUCATION
Chattahoochee Tech
Coursework: HTML, CSS, PHP, Internet Security, Program Design and Development, C#, SQL, Accounting.
Southern Poly Tech
Coursework: Java.
Georgia Highlands College
Coursework: Java, Microsoft Office Suite, Business Basics.
Harrison High School
Graduated 2007. Programming coursework: C++, Java, Pascal.
Continuing self-directed study
Ongoing: production Next.js, React 19, Kotlin Multiplatform, AI agent orchestration, applied diffusion models, Linux operations.