All systems operational Birmingham— CurrentlyIT Ops · PPG Quality
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AI & Cloud Architect — Birmingham, AL · Remote-ready

Lauren McGuire.
Cloud, architected. AI, applied. Outcomes, delivered.

AI & Cloud Architect — I design the cloud data platforms, AI-powered applications, and automated pipelines teams run on, and I’ve run the production side too. PMP-certified, with a decade across data, delivery, and infrastructure: from moving a bank’s data estate to Talend Cloud with zero disruption to shipping a live LLM-powered app on serverless.

“Architect the cloud. Apply the AI. Run what you build. Most people pick one — I do all three.”

Let’s talk → See the work
0+Years in data, cloud & delivery
0Disruption to live banking during a cloud migration
−0%Manual reporting time via automated pipelines
0Certifications, incl. PMP & Google
Drag to spin · Click to re-form the sculpture
01

The short version

About

Most people design the platform, build the AI, or run the systems. I do all three.

As a cloud architect, I led a bank’s enterprise data migration from on-prem SQL Server to Talend Cloud — assessment and mapping, target environment design, phased cutover, workflow automation, and validation under financial-industry security standards — and delivered a React and Node.js platform deployed to the cloud. As an AI builder, I designed and shipped Dream Browser, a live LLM-powered web app running on serverless infrastructure. And as an IT operations administrator, I keep production systems provisioned, monitored, and running — so I architect for the people who have to operate what gets built.

Underneath it all is a decade of data and delivery: the SQL and Python pipelines, ETL/ELT workflows, and dashboards that turn raw data into decisions, plus PMP-certified leadership of Agile and hybrid teams up to nine, with budgets to $1M. That’s how a cloud migration lands with zero disruption and teams lose 40% less time to manual reporting — architecture that ships, not slideware.

Where it overlaps

All three, one architect.

Architects hand off to builders, and builders hand off to ops. The overlap is where reliable systems come from — one person who designs it, ships it, and keeps it running.

02

Architecture in practice

Case studies
01

Enterprise Cloud Data Migration to Talend Cloud

Renasant Bank — Financial Services
Role Project Manager / Software Engineer Method Agile Team 5–9 Timeline Oct 2022 – Apr 2023

Architected and led the move of the bank’s data estate — customer data, transaction records, and compliance reporting — from on-prem SQL Server to Talend Cloud. Ran data assessment and mapping, target environment design, phased migration, workflow automation, and validation under financial-industry security standards, coordinating engineers, analysts, vendors, and compliance stakeholders with zero disruption to live banking operations.

Outcome: faster data processing, hardened security and compliance posture, and a cloud platform that unlocked advanced analytics and reporting for senior leadership.
Cloud MigrationTalend CloudETL / ELTSQL ServerSecurity & Compliance
02

Dream Browser

Personal Build — LLM-Powered Web App · Live
Role Designer & Developer Stack JavaScript · OpenAI API (LLM) Hosting Vercel Serverless Status Live demo

A search engine for a world that never was. Dream Browser looks and feels like a familiar search page — live suggestions, top stories, knowledge panels, “people also ask” — except every result is imagined on the spot by AI. Click any result and it dreams up the entire website behind it, on demand.

Outcome: a working product shipped end to end — concept, UX, front-end build, AI API integration, and serverless deployment. Go search something impossible.
Visit live ↗LLM IntegrationOpenAI APIServerless ArchitectureJavaScriptUX Design
03

Cloud-Deployed Investment Portfolio Platform

BULL Investment Corp. — Financial Services
Role Project Manager Method Agile Team 5–9 Timeline Mar 2016 – Mar 2017

Delivered a web-based platform for rental-property investors covering property and tenant management, financial tracking and reporting, maintenance requests, document storage, and portfolio analytics — built on React and Node.js with cloud deployment, payment-gateway and map integrations, and security best practices, across a 12-month phased Agile plan.

Outcome: a scalable, launch-ready product giving investors and property managers one place to track performance and maximize returns.
Cloud (AWS/Azure)ReactNode.jsAPI IntegrationsProduct Delivery
04

Inventory Automation & API Integration

Graceful Print Company — E-commerce
Role Project Manager Method Agile Team 1–4 Timeline Dec 2021 – Dec 2022

Integrated Shopify with Printful to fully automate inventory for an online storefront — real-time stock synchronization, automated order routing to print-on-demand fulfillment, product catalog sync, staff training, and sales & fulfillment analytics inside Shopify.

Outcome: manual inventory errors eliminated, order processing time cut, and on-time fulfillment improved — a storefront that runs itself.
ShopifyPrintfulAutomationAPI IntegrationQA & Testing
05

Asana Adoption & Implementation

Suddenly Structures — Operations / IT
Role Project Manager / Developer Method Hybrid Team 5–9 Timeline Apr 2023 – Oct 2023

Owned the end-to-end rollout of Asana as the company’s central project management platform: needs analysis, workspace configuration and customization, data migration from legacy systems, employee training and workshops, and integration with the existing tool stack — iterating on real user feedback through phased releases.

Outcome: a single source of truth for every project — measurably better tracking accuracy, resource allocation, and cross-department communication.
AsanaChange ManagementTraining & EnablementProcess DesignReporting & KPIs
03

Where I’ve been

Experience
Aug 2026 — PresentBirmingham, AL

IT Operations Support Administrator

PPG Quality
  • Administer core IT operations — user provisioning, access management, system monitoring, and endpoint support — keeping quality and operations teams running without interruption.
  • Own incident and request queues end to end: triage, root-cause, resolve, and document — converting recurring issues into permanent fixes, SOPs, and knowledge-base articles.
  • Bring the analyst’s toolkit to IT ops: tracking ticket volume, resolution time, and system uptime, and reporting the trends so leadership sees where downtime actually comes from.
Apr 2025 — Aug 2026Hoover, AL

Project Manager / Data Analytics Lead

The Inspiration Company
  • Built automated KPI dashboards in Tableau and Power BI, reducing inventory shrinkage by 15% and giving leadership real-time operational risk data.
  • Standardized recurring reporting pipelines with SQL and Python (pandas), cutting manual data prep by 40%.
  • Defined SOPs and performance metrics across merchandising, staffing, and inventory — a unified data governance framework.
Oct 2022 — Apr 2023Birmingham, AL

Software Engineer / Project Manager, Data Services

Renasant Bank
  • Designed and deployed SQL- and Python-driven executive dashboards in MicroStrategy for strategic forecasting and operational reporting.
  • Led the enterprise migration of data workflows to Talend Cloud, coordinating engineers, analysts, vendors, and compliance.
  • Standardized enterprise reporting through a company-wide Asana rollout, increasing delivery velocity by 40%.
Dec 2020 — Jan 2022Des Moines, IA

Senior Media Planner

Strategic America
  • Used market research and exploratory data analysis to guide multi-channel media planning and budget allocation, improving campaign ROI.
  • Turned audience segmentation and competitive intelligence into recommendations steering multi-million-dollar budgets.
Apr 2019 — Dec 2020Birmingham, AL

Marketing Analytics / Media Buying Analyst

Martin Retail Group
  • Owned performance reporting, A/B testing analysis, and cost-efficiency modeling across multi-million-dollar campaign budgets.
Dec 2011 — Jun 2015Birmingham, AL

Media Analyst

A is for Advertising
  • Delivered data analysis, media planning, and financial auditing for complex client portfolios — earning three promotions for analytical rigor and reliability.
04

The toolkit

Skills
( 01 )

Cloud & Infrastructure

Cloud Architecture & Migration · Talend Cloud · AWS / Azure Deployment · Serverless (Vercel) · Microsoft 365 · Google Workspace · Access & Endpoint Management

( 02 )

AI & Application Engineering

OpenAI API · LLM-Powered Apps · Python · JavaScript · React · Node.js · Flask · Git

( 03 )

Data Engineering

ETL/ELT Workflows · SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL) · Pipeline Automation · Data Cleaning & Wrangling · Data Governance

( 04 )

Analytics & ML

pandas · NumPy · scikit-learn · Regression · Classification · Clustering · Forecasting · A/B Testing

( 05 )

BI & Visualization

Tableau · Power BI · MicroStrategy · Google Data Studio · KPI Dashboards · Data Storytelling

( 06 )

Delivery & Operations

PMP · Agile / Scrum · Hybrid Delivery · Asana · Jira · Incident Management · SOP & Runbook Design · Stakeholder & Vendor Coordination

05

Proof on paper

Credentials

Certifications

  • P
    Project Management Professional (PMP)Project Management Institute
  • G
    Google Advanced Data AnalyticsProfessional Certificate
  • G
    Google Data AnalyticsProfessional Certificate
  • G
    Google Project ManagementProfessional Certificate
  • I
    IBM Certified Software EngineerIBM

Education

  • M
    MBA, IT ManagementWestern Governors University — anticipated June 2027
  • B
    B.S., Information Technology ManagementWestern Governors University
  • S
    Software Engineering ProgramCoding Temple — Python, SQL, JavaScript, React, Flask
06

Field notes

Writing
Project ManagementSep 2026

Jira Caps You at 200 Statuses Per Workflow. It Still Lets You Store 30 Million Work Items.

Why Atlassian’s new configuration limits matter more than raw item counts — and what the enforcement mechanics mean for the admins who own the workflows.

Read on Medium ↗
InfrastructureSep 2026

CERN Priced Its Red Hat Upgrade at CHF 5.4 Million. The Line Item Was a Compiler Flag.

How a single microarchitecture baseline pushed CERN’s accelerator control systems from RHEL to Debian — a case study in what OS upgrades really cost.

Read on Medium ↗
AI & MathematicsSep 2026

OpenAI Ran 10,000 Agents at Navier-Stokes for 88 Hours. The Lean File Says “Forcing.”

A close read of what OpenAI’s headline proof actually proved — the forced equations, the Lean formalization, and the credit fight underneath it.

Read on Medium ↗
PythonSep 2026

Python 3.15 Ships Lazy Imports on October 1. You Can’t Put One in a Try Block.

PEP 810’s lazy imports promise faster startup — with a syntax restriction that lands exactly where data teams handle optional dependencies.

Read on Medium ↗
Data SecuritySep 2026

Apache Parquet Rated Its KMS Bug Moderate. CISA Scored It 8.1.

Inside CVE-2026-73334: file metadata that can name its own KMS endpoint, and the severity gap between Apache’s rating and CISA’s 8.1 score.

Read on Medium ↗
Data GovernanceSep 2026

Revolut Notified 680 Customers After One Fake Government Email.

One spoofed government address, 680 exposed customers — why domain authentication alone is no longer authorization for sensitive disclosures.

Read on Medium ↗
All posts on Medium →