Open to AI Content Engineering / Technical Writing / Customer Education roles

Scott Certain

AI Content Engineer

AI Content Engineer who designs and operates content production systems and writes clearly about technical material.

Applaud TechnologiesGenesis10 / Dev10 Talent DevelopmentSpeedwayThe Coffing CorporationTotal Quality Logistics (TQL)United States Military

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Experience

Each role includes queryable AI context — the real story behind the bullet points.

Independent / Personal Projects

Sole architect, builder, and operator

Jan 2026 – Present

→GhostRyter — AI content production system (lead project). Designed and built a solo Dark Factory–pattern content production system in Claude Code: 17 agents across 4 pipelines driven by a single 523-line Production Spec, with an architecturally-separate five-dimension evaluation framework that never sees the spec or agent configs. Full cascade produces ~70 draft pieces and ~24 final-folder pieces (anchor article + atomic essays + short-form posts + carousels + threads + video scripts) per editorial topic in ~30 minutes runtime; final-folder content is human-edited before publishing.
→GhostRyter — Supporting infrastructure. SQLite research-references DB with URL health tracking, LanceDB vector store for semantic search, DevContainer + Docker isolation, Git-commit-per-pipeline with non-blocking failure logging.
→PickedUp + Buckeye Property Group — Voice AI portfolio (secondary evidence). Built three distinct Retell AI agent designs across two LLM providers (Claude 4.6 Sonnet, gpt-4.1-mini) for two fictitious-company demonstration domains: real-estate front-desk reception (a single-prompt + tools agent and a 39-node Conversation Flow with 9 explicit guardrail nodes for Fair Housing Act compliance and out-of-scope refusals) and after-hours emergency maintenance triage (three-tier urgency classification). Twilio telephony; n8n on Railway for post-call orchestration. Demonstrates that the AI-system-architecture skill transfers beyond content.
→PickedUp — Companion web application. Next.js 14 / TypeScript / Tailwind site at pickedup.live with a three-stage Landing → Demo → Debrief flow, browser-based real-time voice calls via retell-client-js-sdk, Kit (ConvertKit) lead capture and event firing, libsql/Turso persistence, Netlify deployment, and HMAC-SHA256 signature verification on the Retell post-call webhook with 5-minute timestamp window enforcement.

Applaud Technologies, LLC

AI Content Engineer / Curriculum Developer

Oct 2023 – Jan 2026

→Designed and authored a 12-module Generative AI for Software Developers curriculum (~580 artifacts) for a nationally known coding bootcamp — first as Part 2 of an inherited co-authored course (late 2024), then as a full course rewrite (early 2025) the client commissioned after preferring this work's voice and architecture over the original co-author's. Coverage: prompt engineering, RAG (LanceDB, FAISS, Chroma, Qdrant), LangChain/LangGraph multi-agent systems, LoRA fine-tuning of Falcon 7B and Gemma 3 4B in Google Colab with Ollama deployment, and LLMOps. Built and verified working reference systems for each coding activity, including a Gemma 3 + Ollama + FAISS sentiment analysis platform and an HR-assistant capstone with fine-tuned LLM, RAG, and LangGraph orchestration.
→Authored CS1000/CS2000 Python Data Structures & Algorithms curriculum (~250 artifacts) using a self-built 11-prompt production pipeline against the Claude Sonnet API, with quantified style specifications (Flesch-Kincaid grade targets, sentence length, passive-voice ratio, jargon density), per-task hyperparameter tuning, and anti-pattern enforcement (forbidden-phrase substitution, Rapport Rule against false first-person experience claims).
→Designed, taught, and recovered a mis-scoped 8-week data engineering bootcamp (SQL Server through Azure Databricks ETL) for a placement firm's cohort of 8 students. After the client's assessment of student capability proved inaccurate and underestimated in week 1, restructured the course on the fly using AI-augmented authorship against the Claude Sonnet API, producing lesson content 1–2 days ahead of live delivery for eight straight weeks. Learned Pandas, Azure, and Databricks during the engagement. Four of eight students placed; the four placed were still performing well at the 3-month follow-up.
→Authored a financial services regulatory primer using the same AI-augmented production methodology, on a compressed cycle (~2.5 weeks), including a first-time AI video production pipeline I built and learned during the engagement.
→Architected LLM-integrated web application enabling non-technical users to leverage AI for course content generation. Developed all curricula using AI-assisted workflows built in Anthropic Workbench, iteratively refining prompt sets and lesson materials.
→Modernized legacy application to .NET Core Web API, Entity Framework Core, Angular, and NgRx for a large Ohio-based food service client (parallel software-engineering track alongside the curriculum work).

Genesis10 / Dev10 Talent Development

Full-Stack Java Instructor (developer education at scale)

May 2021 – Jul 2023

→Instructed, coached, and mentored 100+ trainees in Java programming, SQL, and React framework across five 12-week cohorts — early developer education at scale that became the foundation of my AI Content Engineering practice.
→Trained 20 Data Engineer Associates in advanced SQL concepts including Temporary Tables, Common Table Expressions, Views, and Stored Procedures.
→Conducted 700+ JavaScript code reviews in support of Dev10 recruiting team, maintaining consistent quality standards — a sustained reps-at-scale exercise in clear written technical communication.

Speedway, LLC

Programmer Analyst / Application Support Analyst

Apr 2018 – May 2021

→Administered Azure DevOps and Octopus Deploy instances for team's in-house software applications, managing build and release pipelines.
→Conducted code reviews for 3 contract developers and managed deployment of 10 custom ASP.NET/SQL applications supporting supply chain management system upgrade.
→Migrated 14 .NET/SQL applications from Marathon Petroleum's network to Speedway's infrastructure across development, testing, and production environments.
→Developed SSIS integrations and SSRS reports enhancing Marketing Department's inventory forecasting capabilities.
→Built SQL Server automations for 3rd-party data transmission and SSO integration for price comparison application used by stores.
→Served as Incident Manager for 10 major incidents/system outages, providing timely communication between troubleshooting teams and management.

The Coffing Corporation

Software Developer

Nov 2017 – Apr 2018

→Maintained and updated WSDL interface for Oracle Primavera Project Management Suite connecting US Air Force IT Systems Portfolio Management to DoD systems.

Total Quality Logistics (TQL)

Software Developer

May 2016 – Nov 2017

→Developed and maintained WinForms/C#/SQL Server desktop logistics management application used by 4,000 brokers to manage 1,000,000+ freight loads annually.
→Implemented real-time market rate search and display feature enabling accurate rate quotes, resulting in significant revenue increase.
→Worked in 6-week Agile sprints with dedicated BA, QA, and UI/UX team members.
→Eliminated 75% of existing technical debt during holiday code-freeze, freeing senior team members for higher-priority work.

US Military

Private to Sergeant First Class

May 1985 – Feb 2016

→- US Army Reserve: Multi-Channel Electronic Communications
→- US Marine Corps: Signals Intelligence Linguist and Analyst
→- US Air Force Reserve: Medical Services - Completed medic training and EMT certification (distinguished graduate) at Shepard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas. Completed clinicals in multiple departments, including ER, Post-Operative Ward, Labor & Delivery, Phlebotomy, Vaccinations, and Gastroenterology at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. Worked as a State Certified Nurses Aid (STNA) at a Long-Term Acute Care hospital.
→- US Army: Field Artillery - Experienced in creating training material and conducting certification testing (academic, hands-on in the field, hands-on with advanced simulators) for 120 personnel.

What I'm good at — and what I'm not

Skills, ranked honestly. The gaps column is the one most candidates won't show you.

✓

Strong

Deep experience. Hire me for these.

AI-augmented content production with Claude Code
Content production system architecture
Technical writing at scale (AI-augmented)
Quantified voice and style specification
Prompt engineering / Anthropic Workbench
Customer / developer education at scale
Honest scope calibration
RAG reference systems
LangChain / LangGraph multi-agent orchestration
Voice AI agent design (Retell AI)
LoRA fine-tuning (small open-source models)
Multi-provider LLM selection
Anthropic API (Claude Sonnet, Claude 4.6)

○

Moderate

I can contribute. Not the expert.

SQL Server
C# / .NET / ASP.NET Core
Entity Framework Core
Angular / NgRx
React / Next.js 14
Python
Java / Spring Boot
JavaScript / TypeScript
Docker / DevContainers
Git / GitHub
Pandas
Azure / Azure Databricks
Azure DevOps
Octopus Deploy
Twilio / n8n / telephony orchestration
libsql/Turso
Military leadership / mentorship

✗

Gaps

Don't hire me for these.

Senior IC classical programming
ML engineering / MLOps
Large-scale production engineering
Mobile development
Frontend design / UX
Consumer product / growth
Compliance practice (regulatory practitioner)

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