AI Operations · Program & Product Ownership

I take support AI from vendor scorecard to production.

Thirteen years in support operations. Certified Scrum Product Owner and Scrum Master. I own the full lifecycle of a conversational AI platform: discovery, migration, delivery, and the daily product operations that verify the bot gives customers correct answers.

Case study

Etsy: owning a live support AI migration end to end

As Chatbot Technical Lead (contract via Braintrust), I ran the support AI program from discovery through delivery to post-launch operations for one of the largest e-commerce marketplaces. The destination platform is Sierra, the AI agent company founded by Bret Taylor. The bot kept answering customers the whole time.

STEP 01 — DISCOVERY

Select 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. Presented the recommendation to stakeholders and completed contracting.

STEP 02 — SCOPE

Define the migration backlog

Audited the outgoing platform's intents, flows, and integrations, then split the findings into day-one requirements the new platform had to replicate and items worth rebuilding better. That audit became the migration backlog.

STEP 03 — DELIVERY

Ship connectors and the knowledge base

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

STEP 04 — PRODUCT OPERATIONS

Verify, correct, and cut volume

Own the post-launch loop: review what the AI tells customers, flag wrong answers, and fix the root cause in the knowledge base. 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

Thirteen years of support operations

Customer support, support operations, and technical support. I've worked all three, so I know what a platform has to do for agents before it can do anything for customers.

ETSY · CURRENT

Chatbot Technical Lead (contract via Braintrust)

Own the support AI program end to end: vendor selection, migration, connector delivery, knowledge base curation, and production response QA. Expanded automations have cut ticket volume roughly 18%.

FLUENT

Customer Care Operations Lead

Coordinated operations for an 11-person care team on Fluent's CRM. 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. 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

  • Program & product ownership — Etsy support AI, discovery through production
  • 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

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: Certified Scrum Master · Certified Scrum Product Owner · Certified Agile Leader · Atlassian Agile Project Management Professional · Zendesk Administrator · Zendesk Guide Specialist

Off the clock

The rest of the picture

Nine animals share my house: four cats (Ursula, Picard, Origin, and The Kitten), two snakes, two geckos, 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 AI operations, program, or product work?

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