Conversational AI · Platform Administration

I run the AI your customers actually talk to.

Thirteen years in support operations. I administer conversational AI platforms in production: migrations, connectors, knowledge bases, and the daily work of verifying that the bot tells customers the truth.

Case study

Etsy: migrating a live support bot to Sierra

As Chatbot Technical Lead (contract via Braintrust), I took the support AI platform from vendor selection through migration to daily production ownership, for a support operation serving one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces. The bot kept answering customers the whole time.

STEP 01 — SELECT

Pick the platform with evidence

Ran a three-month vendor evaluation: seven vendors assessed, three hands-on POCs scored on a weighted rubric covering Zendesk integration, API and metadata handling, and KB-only language performance. Recommended the winner and completed contracting.

STEP 02 — SCOPE

Map what the old platform actually did

Audited the outgoing platform's intents, flows, and integrations to define what Sierra had to replicate on day one and what could be rebuilt better.

STEP 03 — BUILD

Connectors and knowledge base

Built connectors into the surrounding support stack and curated the knowledge base Sierra draws from, so answers come from maintained sources instead of stale articles.

STEP 04 — RUN

Verify, correct, and cut volume

Own the ongoing review loop: check what the AI tells customers, flag wrong answers, and fix the root cause. Expanded automations and bot-only workflows have cut ticket volume roughly 18%.

Try the job

Spot the bad bot answer

This is the core of AI response QA. A marketplace customer asked about returning a custom order, and the bot replied below. One sentence is wrong. Click the one you'd flag.

CUSTOMER: "Can I return a custom order I bought from a shop?"

Experience

Platforms owned, teams managed

Customer support, support operations, and technical support. I've worked all three, so I know how to support agents so they can support customers.

ETSY · CURRENT

Chatbot Technical Lead (contract via Braintrust)

Administer the Sierra-based support AI platform. Led vendor selection and the platform migration, build connectors, curate the knowledge base, and verify AI responses in production. Expanded automations have cut ticket volume roughly 18%.

FLUENT

Customer Care Operations Lead — 11 direct reports

Managed an 11-person team on Fluent's CRM and agent operations. Cut average handle time and time-to-resolution roughly 20% through Zendesk macros, better intake quality, and targeted training.

OUTLIER

Conversational AI Guardrails — large social media platform

Project work on guardrails for a large social media platform's conversational AI: evaluating model behavior against policy and flagging responses that cross the line.

CALENDLY

Zendesk Administrator, Support Operations

Led a full Zendesk rebuild: workflows, automations, SLAs, macros, and reporting. Self-service and deflection rose roughly 18%, and KPI dashboards gave Support leadership faster answers.

THE HOME DEPOT

Zendesk Guide Specialist — Supplier Hub

Owned Supplier Hub knowledge base operations in Zendesk Guide: information architecture, content standards, and closing content gaps with the Supplier Collaboration team.

EARLIER · 2013–2020

Support roles at Concentrix, Mailchimp, and Sage

Frontline customer support, support operations, and T1/T2 technical support, including Apple's support line on Concentrix's contract and support team management. The foundation for everything above: how support actually works when volume is real.

GRADY · 2011–2013

Paramedic, Grady Health System, Atlanta

Emergency medical response before the technology career: rapid assessment, triage, and time-critical decisions under real pressure.

ERG LEADERSHIP

Pride ERGs across four companies

Helped found the Sage Pride ERG and helped lead Calendly's. As a member of the Mailchimp and Etsy Pride ERGs, organized and led volunteer efforts.

Skills

Rated honestly

Verifying AI answers for a living makes you allergic to inflated claims. Here's exactly where I stand.

Hands-on ownership

  • Sierra platform administration — current, in production
  • Zendesk — full instance ownership; Administrator and Guide Specialist certified
  • Knowledge base architecture & curation
  • AI response QA and correction loops
  • Python — hands-on scripting
  • People management — including an 11-person team at Fluent

Working familiarity

  • SQL / MySQL — queries, not database administration
  • Power BI — running and adapting existing reports
  • Salesforce — user-level, not admin
  • ServiceNow — ticket submission and fulfillment

Certifications: Zendesk Administrator (2026) · Zendesk Guide Specialist (2022) · Atlassian Agile Project Management Professional · Scrum Product Owner Certified (SPOC) · Scrum Master Certified (SMC)

Off the clock

The rest of the picture

Seven animals share my house: four cats (Ursula, Picard, Origin, and The Kitten), a snake, a gecko, and a lizard. I make things by hand, from spinning my own yarn for knitting and weaving all the way up to blowing glass. I'll happily debate any era of Star Trek, and I maintain that Star Wars is fantasy, not science fiction.

Finn McClain, seated at a desk in a gray blazer and glasses.

Contact

Hiring for an AI platform role, or need one fixed?

I'm available for full-time and contract work, remote or onsite in metro Atlanta. I've worked remote since 2017, so distributed teams are my default operating mode. Open to contract engagements in AI platform migration, knowledge base curation, and Zendesk administration.

Email me
Download resume (PDF) LinkedIn Atlanta, GA mcclaintech2011@gmail.com