About
I solve the kind of problems that don't fit neatly into a single job description.
I'm Alex van Rossum. For seven years, I was the technical lead at a digital agency — which meant owning everything from cloud infrastructure and Kubernetes orchestration to Salesforce architecture, AI-driven automation, and client-facing technical strategy. Not because I set out to do all of those things, but because they needed doing and I was the one in the room.
That pattern has defined my career. A system breaks, nobody knows where to start, and I figure it out — diagnose the root cause, architect the fix, build the tooling, and make sure the team can maintain it after I'm done. Usually under deadline, usually while learning the platform at the same time.
What I Do
Systems architecture, AI integration, and technical strategy.
I untangle complex systems.
When a production Kubernetes cluster lost its control plane with 260 live deployments and TLS certificates expiring in three weeks, I designed the architecture, built the automation tooling, and executed the migration solo — zero downtime, under three months.
Read the case study →I build AI into real workflows.
Not chatbots for marketing pages — operational systems. I designed an AI agent that manages my sprint workflow: it holds the state of every active task, generates operations for me to review and execute, translates between technical and client-facing language, and maintains context across sessions. It cut daily project management time from three hours to under one.
Read the case study →I learn fast and build what's needed.
Kubernetes, Salesforce, AWS EKS, Lambda@Edge — I taught myself each of these under deadline and delivered production results. Not demo projects. Production systems serving real clients with real money on the line.
How I Think
Systems thinking. Pragmatism. Deliberate constraints.
Systems thinking
When I look at a problem, I don't see the immediate symptom — I see how the pieces connect, where the real failure point is, and what the architecture needs to look like so this problem doesn't come back.
Pragmatism over perfection
I'd rather ship something that works than design something perfect. The best architecture is the one that accounts for the constraints you actually have — not the ones you wish you had.
Deliberate AI constraints
AI agents should be designed with deliberate constraints. The systems I build keep humans in the loop not because the technology can't do more, but because operational safety requires it. Trust is earned incrementally.
Directness
I'd rather hear "this won't work, here's why" than "great idea!" followed by silence. I extend the same honesty to the people I work with.
This site is intentionally over-engineered for speed, because latency kills curiosity.
Currently
Operating as a fractional CTO for organizations that need technical leadership without the full-time hire. Currently accepting 1–2 engagements per quarter, bandwidth permitting. Based in north metro Atlanta — on-site discovery, remote execution.
Previously
Seven years leading technical operations at a digital agency — infrastructure, architecture, Salesforce, AI integration, security, and operations. Before that: my own consulting practice, enterprise infrastructure for a national nonprofit, and the U.S. Army Reserve (Operation Enduring Freedom / Operation Iraqi Freedom).
The thread through all of it: someone hands me a mess, I build a system, and it works.
What I Take On
Work where the thinking is the job.
Architecture, integration strategy, figuring out what to build and why. Strategic, idea-driven problems across systems — not maintaining a single stack.
I'm especially focused on organizations that take AI integration seriously as operational infrastructure, not just as an experiment. The companies that will win the next five years are the ones figuring out how to put AI into their actual workflows right now. I've been doing that for years. Now I do it for clients.
The Personal Stuff
Based in metro Atlanta. Army veteran. Married. I have strong opinions about fountain pens and weak opinions about most other things people argue about on the internet. I use AI tools every day — not because they're trendy, but because they make me better at what I do.
I'm also pursuing my degree at 43, which tells you something about whether I think learning has an expiration date.
Tell me what you're dealing with.
No pitch deck. No 30-minute discovery call just to qualify you. Tell me the situation, and I'll tell you whether I can help.