Career

Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems: AI Engineer

May 2023 - Present

After graduation, I joined the Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt University as a Generative AI Engineer. I've been working alongside globally-leading AI expert Jules White on Vanderbilt's Future of Learning and Generative AI initiative. My key contributions include:

  • Amplify Development: Led development as one of four engineers on Amplify, an open-source enterprise generative AI platform adopted by the entire Vanderbilt community and universities across the globe, scaling to tens of thousands of users with remarkably efficient cost management of $3 per user monthly average.
  • System Architecture: Designed and implemented critical Amplify features including memory systems, a novel RAG Fusion system, API integration, artifact generation, and comprehensive admin monitoring tools.
  • Leadership and Training: Provided technical leadership through workshops and training sessions for faculty and staff, including personal AI coaching for Vanderbilt's Chancellor Daniel Diermeier.
  • Research Funding: Lead multiple grant applications and research collaborations with internal and external partners, exploring applications of LLMs in specific domains and addressing key shortcomings of generative AI technologies.
  • Publications: Authored and co-authored multiple research papers on prompt engineering and the capabilities of LLMs in software development, including "Prompt Patterns for Structured Data Extraction from Unstructured Text" (2025) and "Advancing Generative AI in Software Development: Evaluating LLM-Generated Code Against Top Human Solutions" (2024).
  • Presentations: Presented Vanderbilt's generative AI initiatives at Notre Dame's 2024 AI Forum.

In this role, I continue to explore cutting-edge applications of generative AI across academic, research, and operational domains, implementing real-world solutions that demonstrate the practical value of these technologies.

Aimbridge Hospitality: IT Intern

May 2021 - August 2023

During my time at Aimbridge Hospitality, a leading third-party hotel management company, I led several impactful projects focusing on infrastructure optimization and automation:

  • License Optimization: Developed PowerShell scripts to identify and eliminate $138,000 worth of unnecessary annual Microsoft licenses.
  • Active Directory Redesign: Redesigned the Active Directory structure for 20,000 users across 1,500 hotel properties and restructured the assignment of $2,000,000 in annual Microsoft license bills using PowerShell scripts, consolidating ten Microsoft Active Directory Domains into two streamlined structures.
  • Communication System Automation: Leveraged SQL jobs to transform a manual email distribution list system with 450,000 employee records into an automated Dynamic Distribution Group system.
  • Department Automation: Created custom automation solutions for the legal, finance, and accounting departments, significantly reducing manual workload and improving operational efficiency.

My work at Aimbridge provided real-world experience in enterprise IT infrastructure management and business process automation, allowing me to develop practical skills while delivering substantial cost savings and operational improvements.

Summer 2021

During my first summer internship with Aimbridge, I developed a Dynamic Distribution Group system using PowerShell scripts alongside SQL jobs to automate internal communications. This system was crucial for ensuring that Aimbridge's tens of thousands of employees, including senior executives, received critical messages reliably.

The system eliminated communication issues and ensured timely internal communications while identifying and removing unnecessary Microsoft licenses, resulting in substantial cost savings.

Roy Mellinger, Global CISO and VP Security, Privacy, IT Risk and Compliance at Aimbridge Hospitality said:

"From day one, Max was part of the IT Team and was assigned important, mission critical projects to complete. These projects not only helped him learn and hone his technology skills, they also provided important value to Aimbridge, and resulted in $150,000 in savings."

Summer 2022

In my second summer at Aimbridge, I developed a system to automate the distribution of Microsoft Office 365 licenses to 1,500 hotel properties using PowerShell scripts and reorganization of Aimbridge's Active Directory.

This system eliminated billing errors and streamlined license management, ensuring that over $2 million in annual license fees were properly allocated and billed to the correct properties. By consolidating multiple Active Directory domains and implementing automated license management, we achieved significant improvements in operational efficiency and cost tracking.