Norman Paulsen - AI & Technology Executive

Norman Paulsen

Vice President of Software Engineering | AI & Technology Executive

Transformational AI and technology leader with 20+ years of experience driving enterprise-wide adoption of machine learning, generative AI, and digital platforms. Proven track record delivering measurable business impact, from cutting AI costs 85% to scaling eCommerce sales 400%, while leading high-performing cross-functional teams. Expert at building and deploying LLMs, RAG systems, and AI-driven automation that improve revenue, efficiency, and compliance.

LinkedIn Westminster, CO
20+ Years Experience
85% AI Cost Reduction
400% Sales Growth
16x Delivery Speed

Core Competencies

Artificial Intelligence

Deep expertise in LLMs, RAG systems, and Agentic AI. Building and deploying production AI systems that deliver measurable business outcomes.

Machine Learning Deployment

End-to-end ML pipeline development, from data ingestion to production deployment. Scaling AI systems to handle enterprise workloads.

Data Engineering & ETL

Architecting robust data pipelines, data lakes, and analytics platforms. Transforming raw data into actionable insights.

IT Strategy & Cloud Architecture

Strategic planning for enterprise technology transformations. Expert in AWS (Bedrock, S3, RDS, EC2), IaaS, and hybrid cloud solutions.

eCommerce AI Enablement

Leveraging AI to transform digital commerce experiences. Personalization, automation, and conversion optimization at scale.

AI Governance & Compliance

Establishing frameworks for responsible AI. Expert in SOC 2, PCI, and SOX compliance with AI-enabled monitoring and automation.

KPI Development & A/B Testing

Data-driven decision making through rigorous experimentation. Building high-velocity testing programs that accelerate learning and ROI.

Leadership of Cross-Functional Teams

Building and leading diverse, high-performing teams. Track record of driving organizational transformation and talent development.

Professional Experience

Vice President of Software Engineering

Accion Group

Denver, CO

2025 - Present
  • Leading AI-driven rewrite of a 15-year legacy platform, delivering faster UX/UI iterations with real-time collaborative coding tools and reducing development cycle times by 55%
  • Drove adoption of AI-assisted development practices across engineering, increasing team velocity by >1500% while maintaining quality through automated testing
  • Single-handedly established company-wide SOC 2 compliance program, cutting audit prep time by 82% through automation and robust AI-enabled monitoring
  • Manage hybrid infrastructure across AWS (Bedrock, S3, RDS, EC2) and IaaS (Vercel), achieving 99.99% uptime with cost optimization initiatives

Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer

Bespoke

Denver, CO

2024 - 2025
  • Built and led AI organization developing a financial platform powered by Agentic AI, delivering real-time insights and automation that differentiated the product in a competitive market
  • Designed and deployed proprietary RAG system using AWS S3, RDS, and Bedrock, improving query precision and compliance in handling sensitive data
  • Created LLM regression testing framework to ensure consistency across model and API updates, reducing response error rates by 35%
  • Scaled AI pipelines for proprietary data ingestion (ETL, RDS, S3), increasing usable data volume for models by 300% while improving retrieval speed
  • Oversaw AWS infrastructure with security-first approach, implementing firewalls and VPNs that reduced incident response times by 50%

Chief Information Officer

Lolli & Pops

Denver, CO

2022 - 2025
  • Directed $1.7M IT budget and digital transformation across ERP, CRM, BI, Inventory, and eCommerce systems, cutting wasteful spend by $500K annually
  • Executed a multiyear overhaul of IT operations, improving reliability of all store and corporate systems while decreasing downtime by 70%
  • Built a new business intelligence platform (ETL, datalake, data cubes, dashboards) reducing BI costs by $30K annually and improving analytics turnaround by 65%
  • Integrated AI-enabled eCommerce personalization and automation, lifting online order automation rate from 5% to 45%

Sr. Director, eCommerce Technology & Search

Altice USA

St. Louis, MO

2017 - 2022
  • Managed $50M budget and 16-member team across SEO, SEM, web, and eCommerce technology, making digital channels the #1 sales driver pre-COVID
  • Launched integrated SEO/SEM organization during COVID, boosting digital sales 14% YoY while lowering cost-per-sale
  • Led high-velocity paid search testing program (8-12 A/B tests every 2 weeks), improving ROI by 100%+ and shortening cycle time for campaign deployment by 35%

Lead Developer, eCommerce

Altice USA

St. Louis, MO

2013 - 2017
  • Directed a 15-person team (onshore + offshore) to launch an industry-leading eCommerce platform, growing sales from 0 to #1 channel within 5 years
  • Automated CRM, order flows, and billing integration, achieving 99.99% uptime and improving order accuracy by 25%

Chief Operating Officer

OrderCounter.com

Pensacola, FL

2011 - 2013
  • Managed daily operations across IT, support, call centers, inventory, and installs, leading a 7-person team
  • Implemented new SaaS features and IT architecture (PHP, MySQL), driving customer adoption and shortening product delivery cycles by 30%

Key AI & Tech Achievements

Published AI Research

"Context Is What You Need: The Maximum Effective Context Window for Real World Limits of LLMs" - Contributing to the advancement of AI understanding and best practices.

85% AWS Cost Reduction

Dramatically cut AWS infrastructure costs while simultaneously improving monitoring capabilities and system stability.

400% Sales Growth

Increased acquired brand's sales 400% day-over-day by migrating to an in-house eCommerce platform with superior capabilities.

10x Developer Productivity

Improved developer productivity 10x via custom AI-assisted CRM tools and automated development workflows.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Deployment

Deployed Microsoft 365 Copilot enterprise-wide, establishing governance and adoption framework for responsible AI use.

AI-Powered Inventory System

Designed AI-powered just-in-time inventory system with projected 10x ROI, revolutionizing supply chain efficiency.

Notable Projects

AI Research Publication

Academic Research

Published groundbreaking research on "Context Is What You Need: The Maximum Effective Context Window for Real World Limits of LLMs" - advancing the understanding of practical LLM deployment constraints.

LLMs Research Context Windows

Agentic AI Financial Platform

Bespoke

Built enterprise financial platform powered by Agentic AI with proprietary RAG system, delivering real-time insights and automated compliance handling.

Agentic AI RAG AWS Bedrock FinTech

Legacy Platform AI Modernization

Accion Group

Leading AI-driven rewrite of 15-year legacy platform with real-time collaborative coding tools, achieving 55% reduction in development cycle times.

AI Development Platform Migration DevOps

Enterprise BI Platform

Lolli & Pops

Architected complete business intelligence platform with ETL pipelines, data lake, and interactive dashboards, improving analytics turnaround by 65%.

ETL Data Lake Analytics Dashboards

eCommerce Platform Launch

Altice USA

Built industry-leading eCommerce platform from the ground up, growing it from zero to the #1 sales channel within 5 years with 99.99% uptime.

eCommerce CRM API Architecture

SOC 2 Compliance Automation

Accion Group

Established company-wide SOC 2 compliance program with AI-enabled monitoring, reducing audit prep time by 82% through automation.

SOC 2 Compliance Automation Security

Education

Bachelor of Science in Data Analytics

Webster University

St. Louis, MO