Rick Smith

Strategic technology executive with over two decades of experience architecting secure, resilient enterprise systems, driving agentic AI transformations, and expanding production AI capabilities. Serves as Director of AI Engineering and AI Security Leader, specializing in multi-agent orchestration, agentic loop engineering, and threat-hardened architecture that safeguards against prompt injection, model vulnerabilities, supply chain threats, and compliance risk. Proven history of leading engineering managers, advancing senior technical talent, defining operational metrics, and aligning corporate strategy with executive leadership.

Successfully managed multi-site organizations of 50+ staff, owned $15M+ operating budgets, and generated $5M+ annual ROI alongside 90%+ cycle acceleration and 50% productivity gains.

Head of Engineering & Technology & AI Delivery Consultant - Prolistify, LLC - Baton Rouge, LA

(2025-06)

Serves as Head of Engineering and Technology & AI Delivery Consultant across client organizations, designing, governing, and scaling AI workflows, Power BI dashboards, SharePoint portals, payment integrations, and cloud platforms from discovery to production.

• Architected and scaled an agentic AI engineering platform using multi-agent loop orchestrations and automated SDLC workflows, empowering a 10-person team to outperform significantly larger organizations.
• Designed robust AI runtime safety and security controls to mitigate prompt injection, data leakage, and supply chain vulnerabilities across enterprise client environments.
• Automated billing and operational workflows, cutting cycle times by 50%+ and improving revenue realization by 15%.
• Operationalized the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) and supply chain security controls, integrating human-in-the-loop validation, secure coding standards, and continuous auditability for production agent workflows.
• Converted complex, document-heavy operational processes into precise technical specifications for seamless engineering execution.
• Implemented KPIs tracking speed, quality, automation coverage, and resource utilization to guide AI operating decisions.

Director of Engineering - Carenet Health - San Antonio, TX

(2020-01 - 2025-06)

Owned platform engineering, shared services, enterprise integrations, customer-engagement workflows, and product-engineering delivery while ensuring strict HIPAA compliance and healthcare data security for an organization serving millions.

• Directed multi-team engineering organizations scaling from 12 to 50+ engineers, directly managing engineering managers and technical leads to drive a 35% increase in velocity and deliver continuous quality improvements.
• Partnered across cross-functional executive teams to align platform investments with business goals, building Power BI dashboards and SharePoint portals for real-time visibility into operational KPIs, census, labor, and financial performance.
• Engineered secure AI decision-support workflows yielding $5M+ in annual ROI, incorporating human oversight, verified data boundaries, and defense-in-depth security mechanisms.
• Established production MLOps and AI runtime security controls, ensuring strict HIPAA/PHI compliance, continuous model threat monitoring, evaluation pipelines, and full traceability for sensitive enterprise workflows.

Director of Engineering - CoreLogic - Irvine, CA

(2018-08 - 2020-01)

Led platform engineering and multi-product modernization across cloud-based SaaS services.

• Decomposed monolithic systems into API-driven, event-driven microservices on AWS and Azure, increasing throughput by 70%.
• Defined integration patterns, migration roadmaps, and architecture decision artifacts to modernize systems while minimizing operational risk.
• Standardized CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions, IaC, and automated testing to improve deployment reliability and team consistency.

Sr. Manager, Technology Engineering - Unum Group - Baton Rouge, LA

(2014-12 - 2018-08)

Led engineering for high-volume claims, billing, eligibility, and financial-processing systems, maintaining rigorous HIPAA compliance, privacy standards, and regulatory controls at a Fortune 500 insurer.

• Managed systems processing 5M+ monthly claims and payments with 100% HIPAA and regulatory audit accuracy in high-consequence healthcare environments.
• Rebuilt the core claims engine for real-time processing, reducing transaction time by 85% and cutting the batch-processing window from 13 hours to 7 minutes.
• Delivered EDI integrations with automated reconciliation, monitoring, and error handling.
• Acted as a Champion for Change by transitioning delivery teams to a product operating model with robust engineering leadership and governance, improving high-availability production metrics and incident response.

Lead Software Engineer - Anthelio Healthcare Solutions - Dallas, TX

(2004-02 - 2014-12)

Hands-on engineering leader for enterprise platforms in compliance-heavy, high-reliability healthcare environments.

• Engineered secure integrations and APIs connecting operational, financial, and administrative systems in compliance-heavy healthcare environments.
• Developed backend services and SQL Server/MySQL databases to ensure robust production operations and system stability.
• Introduced monitoring and incident-response practices that improved visibility and reliability for production applications and integrations.

Master of Science - Information Systems - Tulane University

Bachelor of Science - Computer Science - Southern University