Jesse leads the Applied AI Practice at Rosetree, focusing on enterprise AI enablement, development, and implementation. Prior to this role, he served as a Principal Technical Architect and team lead, with deep hands-on experience building systems, integrations, and developer tooling.
How did you get started with engineering?
Badly, and for very little money. In high school I built static websites for local businesses (one of them an art museum) with FTP as the only deployment method. My first real engineering job was automating back-office processes in VB and .NET, followed by e-commerce and PHP work. Then I stumbled into Salesforce.
What's your favorite thing about building solutions with AI?
The quality of the output when the context is right. I've spent my career caring about craftsmanship and readable code, so I went in expecting to be disappointed by what these systems produced. I wasn't. We've started building closed-loop systems that take an idea from concept through proof of technology, proof of concept, and into a working MVP in a day or less.
It's not magic, though - it's an amplifier. If you can't tell good output from bad, AI will confidently amplify the bad. That's why the enablement work we do focuses on judgment.
What energizes you at work?
Collaboration and growth. I get the most out of building something alongside a sharp team and watching people level up in the process.
Name a work achievement you are proud of.
Helping build out our Applied AI practice from the ground up.
Who or what inspires you?
My grandmother. She's the most selfless person I know.
What’s one thing you recently learned or are learning now?
Getting more acquainted with open-source and open-weight models.
What three words would your friends use to describe you?
Reliable, relaxed, ridiculous.
What's something you love about where you live?
Access to wide open spaces, mountains, and rivers. Montana makes it easy to unplug.
What could we find you doing outside of work?
Catching some live music or playing cards.
What trend do you hope makes a comeback?
LAN parties!
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Mr. Jones by Counting Crows.
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