Nicholas Smith
VA
Summary
AI Solutions Architect and Data & Analytics professional with 5+ years of experience helping public sector and enterprise organizations modernize operations through cloud, data, and AI-enabled solutions. Skilled in leading discovery workshops, translating complex mission and business needs into secure, scalable solution designs, and driving adoption through value-focused delivery. Strong technical foundation in Python, SQL, machine learning, and advanced analytics with hands-on experience delivering solutions on Azure, AWS, and Microsoft Power Platform.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Data & Analytics Solution Architect
CACI International
06.2025 - Current
- Led customer-facing discovery to clarify mission needs, success metrics, and compliance constraints; translated into solution requirements and delivery plans.
- Designed secure cloud-based architectures for analytics and AI-enabled applications aligned with governance and audit expectations.
- Delivered a cloud-based PPE lifecycle management solution enabling centralized tracking, improved compliance, and executive-ready reporting.
- Automated operational workflows using Power Automate and Power Platform, reducing manual effort by up to 40% and documenting ROI for leadership.
- Built and maintained automated data pipelines using Python and SQL to support reliable reporting and repeatable analytics delivery.
- Led enablement (onboarding, office hours, quick-reference guides), increasing adoption and sustaining long-term usage.
AI Solutions Engineer (Analytics, Automation & Enablement)
Lockheed Martin
02.2022 - 05.2025
- Partnered with stakeholders to identify AI and analytics opportunities supporting operational modernization; translated needs into prioritized solution backlogs.
- Built NLP prototypes (sentiment analysis, topic modeling, keyword extraction, summarization) to convert unstructured feedback into actionable insights for leaders.
- Designed and facilitated an NLP learning hackathon using public State of Oregon DEQ comment datasets; taught sentiment analysis, summarization, topic modeling, and keyword extraction, and demonstrated use cases such as executive summaries and information extraction.
- Developed interactive dashboards and reporting to monitor trends, performance, and process health; delivered executive-ready briefings to drive decisions.
- Implemented repeatable data preparation workflows in Python and SQL to improve reliability and speed of analytics delivery.
- Supported governance-aligned deployment planning by documenting assumptions, data handling, and validation approaches to increase stakeholder confidence.
Senior Business Intelligence Analyst
BAE Systems
01.2021 - 01.2022
- Developed compliance-focused analytics improving regulatory alignment by 15%.
- Delivered reporting and inventory analytics improving margin visibility and forecasting accuracy by 25%.
- Built dashboards supporting risk management and operational planning.
Business Planning & Analytics Analyst
Newport News Shipbuilding
01.2017 - 01.2021
- Delivered operational analytics supporting program planning and performance tracking.
- Analyzed scheduling data using SAP and Cognos to support enterprise reporting.
- Developed collaboration tools improving cross-team transparency.
Education
M.S. - Applied Data Science
Syracuse University
B.S. - Business Management
Norfolk State University
Skills
- AI & Data Architecture
- AI solution design; analytics platform architecture
- GenAI/NLP concepts (prompting, embeddings, summarization)
- Data pipelines and data quality fundamentals
- Metrics and instrumentation for adoption and outcomes
- Cloud & Tools
- AWS (cloud services, IAM basics)
- Python, SQL
- Power BI, Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse
- Version control and delivery workflows (Git/Agile)
- Transformation & Delivery
- Solution discovery and requirements decomposition
- Stakeholder workshops and executive communication
- Agile delivery (epics, stories, acceptance criteria)
- Change management, training, and enablement
Certification
- AWS Solutions Architect Associate
- AIGP (AI Governance Professional)
- PMI-CPMAI
Timeline
Data & Analytics Solution Architect
CACI International
06.2025 - Current
AI Solutions Engineer (Analytics, Automation & Enablement)
Lockheed Martin
02.2022 - 05.2025
Senior Business Intelligence Analyst
BAE Systems
01.2021 - 01.2022
Business Planning & Analytics Analyst
Newport News Shipbuilding
01.2017 - 01.2021
B.S. - Business Management
Norfolk State University
M.S. - Applied Data Science
Syracuse University